October 11th, 2017 at 10:39 AM ^
not until a team like the Columbus Crew is valued at $2 billion and in the company of other "American" revenue generating sports like the NFL, NBA, or MLB. The best high school athletes in our country remain football players and then peck it down from there. It's simple economics. Div 1 full-rides go to football players,.. soccer simply allows you access to a top tier school and a possible 1/12th (fractional) scholarship if you're truly elite. World Class 11 man Team sports are not successfully built on that type of foundation. And few families are like the Pulisic's where both parents grew-up D1 soccer athletes and professional coaches. It's no surprise USA soccer remains a marginal competitior on the world stage, it's simply not valued in this country with any parity to the other sports that this country watches. In the meantime, let's celebrate it as a terrific tier 5 sport in this country.. somewhere after Hockey and soon to be positioned after Lacrosse.
October 11th, 2017 at 10:54 AM ^
Man, sorry. That's pretty much the attitude that has sunk this program.
They can absolutely be on par for WC success. It's about the system, about the development. There are PLENTY of kids who want to play soccer, but USA soccer is so laughably arrogant. Last night, they had the minset that they could show up and walk to the Cup. They currently have more depth and talent on this roster than they've ever had.
I love hockey. Soccer is WAY more popular in the country. NHL is a niche sport.
The resources are here. The talent is here. The structure is not.
October 11th, 2017 at 11:00 AM ^
Soccer is way more popular as a youth sport, and even as a college / HS sport, but the professional minor leagues of hockey seem to be so much more advanced / well-financed / geared toward player development than the professional minor leagues of soccer.
October 11th, 2017 at 11:05 AM ^
That's a system problem. Gulati has apparently made the federation milions upon millions. That money needs to go back into the feeder systems, pro/rel for MLS, etc...
Soccer players don't just suddenly lose the love for the game. They lose interest because the system is crap and doesn't reward youth and passion, it rewards old vets and complacency.
October 11th, 2017 at 10:56 AM ^
If the US wants to compete at the world level college soccer should not be an aspiration. The aspiration and goal for someone should be to play professional soccer when they are 18 - see Pulisic. Yeah Pulisic is the rare exception but that is what the goal should be. Maybe you aren't playing at a high club level at 18 but you are playing professionally and starting to work your way up the ladder.
October 11th, 2017 at 11:20 AM ^
This is as much about the rest of CONCACAF getting better as the US getting worse. You see that in CONCACAF's recent performances in international competitions.
The MLS has become a feeder for CONCACAF national teams in Central America. It's not a European league, but it gives these small nations a decent, practical place to develop many of their players.
It's not just Mexico and the USA any more.
The US has failed to realize this in World Cup qualifying. You can't just expect to win all your home matches and draw on the raod and sleepwalk into the WC. You have to anticpate home losses. You have to plan to hustle and win some away matches.
You have to qualify now, not just show up.
October 11th, 2017 at 11:28 AM ^
This is the easiest division in the world to qualify in.
If you can't beat T and T's B TEAM, who has lost like 900 in a row to QUALIFY for the World Cup, you have some serious issues.
This is about the USA, period.
October 11th, 2017 at 11:43 AM ^
Easy or not, it's harder than it was. Hard enough that you can't expect to just show up and count on home field advantage and draws on the road.
As soon as the US had lazy letdowns against countries like Costa Rico and Trinidad and Tobago , they got bit. They used to be able to get away with those kinds of matches. Not any more.
You are right, if you can't draw with Trindad and Tobago, you don't deserve to go. Problem is, you can't get that draw anymore just playing at 50% effort like you used to.
October 11th, 2017 at 12:11 PM ^
Mexico- #14
Costa Rica- #21
Panama- #60
Honduras- #74
T and T- #99
I know it's a nice idea, and it gets floated around a lot that CONCACAF is better, but it's just not true. This is by far, the easiest division in the world to qualify.
This is about the USA, nothing else.
Essentially, you have to finish above 74th best in the world to have a chance for qualification.
October 11th, 2017 at 12:36 PM ^
You're right that CONCACAF is terrible. But it is better than it was:
In '86 Canada was the 2nd best team. They didn't score a goal at the WC.
In '82 it was El Salvador. They got plastered 10-1 by the next-worst team in their WC group, but at least they scored.
Before that only one team qualified. In '78 it was Mexico; they lost all three group-stage games by a combined ten goals. In '74 it was Haiti; they lost all three by a combined twelve goals. In '70 it was El Salvador (Mexico was in as host) and they lost all three without scoring a goal.
October 11th, 2017 at 12:42 PM ^
How much it improves. It is still a minnow in the world. There's zero, zero excuse.
October 11th, 2017 at 2:47 PM ^
this is all you need to see to realize soccer is laughably behind all other sports in the USA in terms of the talent playing the sport. There are plenty of developmental routes for our kids to take from age 3 forward to becoming outstanding players, via club and ODP. And I would imagine the players could evolve into more if the system had its Ajax's in the mix (soccer schools less the school). But such "systems" don't happen where the viewing and economic priority is NFL, NCAA football, basketball, baseball, hockey, etc... And, again, our very best athletes (as a common whole) do not grow-up watching Liverpool on Saturday mornings when they're busy playing fantasy football with buddies. Soccer is a fantastic sport, let's just enjoy it for what it is in the USA and enjoy World Cup for what it is.
October 11th, 2017 at 11:59 AM ^
I don't disagree with what you're saying AT ALL, except that I watched the Mexico game last week and I think T&T's B team is better than what they thought was their A team. It looks like they needed to do a bit of housecleaning as well.
October 11th, 2017 at 11:40 AM ^
Other than Costa Rica being respectable, this doesn't hold up. Honduras has been atrocious outside CONCACAF. Panama hasn't even played against a team outside the hemisphere for three years, and I'm not sure they've ever beaten one, and their record against CONMEBOL teams is a complete disaster.
CONCACAF stinks. We will see how Honduras fares against Australia next month - best guess is they get absolutely flattened.
October 11th, 2017 at 1:37 PM ^
Panama beat South Africa on penalties in the 2005 Gold Cup. I'm pretty sure that's their only win outside the hemisphere. Not even a friendly.
October 11th, 2017 at 12:23 PM ^
Netherlands are out for Russia too. Ouch.
October 11th, 2017 at 12:31 PM ^
Looks like we didn't pay enough to the right FIFA officials.
October 11th, 2017 at 12:53 PM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 7:11 PM ^
October 12th, 2017 at 9:37 AM ^
Except we have pay to play in virtually every sport in the US and it doesn't hold back Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, etc.
AAU basketball is pay to play. Hockey is pay to play, ice time is expensive. Baseball has expensive travel leagues. Heck pee wee football costs quite a bit too and plenty of low income kids play. Pay to play isn't the issue. The issue is kids aren't interested in soccer when they have 5 sports to choose from.
October 11th, 2017 at 1:25 PM ^
Import a bunch of internationals and give them citizenship. Let them go play in the best pro leagues (Spain, Italy, England, German), and bring them back for the national competitions.
October 11th, 2017 at 4:07 PM ^
Spanish basketball.
Two silvers and a bronze in the last three Olympics. A World Cup championship. Medals in the last six Euros with three of them gold. Domestic league is in great shape, 5 of the 16 teams in the EuroLeague are Spanish and they've had at least one team in the last four 13 years in a row. Interest in the sport has never been higher.
How do you think all of this would look if the Spanish federation had somehow kept the Gasols and Fernandez and Rubio in their domestic league instead of encouraging them to play in the NBA? Would Spanish basketball be better than it is? Would there be more interest in the sport there?
There's people talking about bringing Pulisic to MLS. This madness has to stop.
October 11th, 2017 at 7:07 PM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 4:27 PM ^
U.S. soccer's path to qualification was made so ridiculously easy that I always figured this was the closest thing they to just handing the U.S. a free ticket they could do without it being too blatant.
At least less hipsters will risk getting roughed up by Russian hooligans and the милиция.
October 11th, 2017 at 5:03 PM ^
Maybe they made it too easy. US didn't think they had to show up to qualify.
They didn't . . . and they got beat.
A little pressure might be a good thing.
They'll sure as shit have plenty of pressure the next time.
October 11th, 2017 at 9:49 PM ^
And people will be really really happy, talking about the Renaissance of US soccer, when they qualify 3rd in the hex.
I'm not hopeful that this is going to be fixed.
And maybe I should shut up. I'm a Germany fan; I don't care about this as much as most of you do. But I live here, I want soccer to matter here and I want it to be good.
October 11th, 2017 at 10:37 PM ^
Now this, I think, is part of our problem right here. Sorry, but yes. Name one other country where its soccer fans would say, I'm a (some other country) fan but yeah I hope the local team does good too. About the only one I can think of where that's even plausible is Canada. Can you bloody well imagine anyone in, say, France, going "well I'm a Brazil fan"?
October 11th, 2017 at 11:48 PM ^
Yes, if they were Brazilian.
Maybe it's a generational thing. For a lot of us who started watching soccer in the 60s and 70s, our international attachment is to our ethnicity. US soccer hardly existed and most Americans held the sport in utter contempt if they had ever thought about it at all; I had never met anyone that self-identified as a US fan until the late 80s at least. I still don't know any, in real life, and I'm obsessed by the sport and have a lot of soccer-watching friends.