It absolutely means something. Does it guarantee success? Hell no, but it gives you a much larger talent pool to pick from. Wanna know why Gibraltar, Liechenstein, and Malta suck? DING DING DING!!!!!!!! BECAUSE THE COMBINED POPULATION OF THOSE COUNTRIES IS LESS THAN 1 MILLION PEOPLE!! It's not some lack of organizational discipline or administrative incompetence. Next time you want to criticize American soccer fans or just Americans "in general" just go ahead and STFU and leave your useless comments to yourself. No excuses for this. CONCACAF is not a difficult region. We **** the bed. Spoiler
Of course MLS is not the real problem. The development of the MLS is a chicken and the egg scenario though. Until the American public sees how good top-class soccer can be, they don't have much of a chance at becoming avid fans. Watching an MLS match after watching EPL, Bundesliga, CL matches is a real Eye-opener at how big the talent level divide is. Yes, American money has made somewhat of a difference. Bastian Schweinsteiger can go to Chicago, make some decent coin and even show these boys a thing or 12. Chinese money has had the same effect. Plenty of stars teetering on the brink of relevance and even some still in their primes are heading over there to take big paychecks. So money matters obviously first and foremost. Unfortunately, the situation seems bleak. We have millions of athletes from every different ethnic background in America, but to really succeed at the highest level, they would have needed to have been in a real soccer system for years and developed early, and most importantly, had seen the best teams and best players that made them want to be that in the first place. To a great number of the Americans, soccer is a game for elementary school kids. Some will still support the USMNT and USWNT out of sheer nationalist obligation, because that has been conditioned into our brains for generations, but I doubt many of them become converted to soccer fandom after watching an MLS match. Its a perspective problem and it has to change.
By scrubs I meant CURRENTLY. Dempsey of course has been a great American player, but he absolutely is not anymore. He was not even a guaranteed starter in Seattle this season. Bradley showed promise years ago but never got better, went back the US and fell into mediocrity, he doesn't even look like a viable starter anymore. Altidore has never been a player Imo. Those guys are not even considered elite MLS players, let alone cornerstones of a national team. Maybe there aren't clear cut younger player that would make it better, but I would give them a chance instead of trotting out the same old tired players. And not younger players but leaving Fabian Johnson and Geoff Cameron out of the contest was a dumb decision.
All I know is most of the players on the US can't even play on teams like Madrid or the top European club, so instead of trying to train they play in the medicore MLS. If u truly believe that MLS is great then sure keep wearing dem homer glasses
Could most of the players in Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica(w/the exception of Navas), Iceland, Egypt, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, etc. play for Madrid or other top European clubs? No? Right then.
The worst thing is that my youngest son and I were going to Russia for the WC - now we have to wait 5 years if the USA can pull it's head out of it's collective ass and get some players that play hard..... Lalas was SPOT FRICKEN ON! DD
How's that larger talent pool working out for China and India? Kid, word of advice. Just go to bed or be quiet, grow up and learn from the adults that realize and have been observing the incompetence within USSF and the coaching system in the US for more than a decade now. If you can't see that then keep whining about "population theory" and stay surprised everytime the US loses to a nation with under 300 million people
I feel bad for you and your son and that truly sucks. I truly believe that US Soccer will be so much better after this. This loss was unfortunately a necessary loss in many ways. If qualification had occurred, there would be little to no changes. No inquiries from press and fans that would lead to people like Gulati having to step down. (I think that will happen and it is truly needed).
No F-ing **** the USSF and coaching system is jacked up. NOBODY AT ALL IS SAYING IT ISN'T!!! You are an complete moron if you think talent pool size doesn't play A ROLE. It's absolutely ludicrous. But hey check this out and see if your acorn sized brain can comprehend what I'm about to say. There is more than one simple reason as to why this team failed. I'm not over here saying just bc the US has a population of 300 mil that it's a guarantee, but it certainly doesn't do anything to diminish our chances. With the amount of money and resources spent on USMNT we really should never even be close to missing out. ESPECIALLY IN CONCACAF!! Of course we can lose to smaller nations, but we shouldn't be consistently losing to **** ones. Here you are acting like T&T is some juggernaut... Kid, word of advice. Just stop acting like an arrogant prick that knows more than the rest of us. You don't and you are just embarassing yourself. Enjoy some f-ing toast.
Relax everybody. Stros going to ALCS, Texans got a stud franchise QB, Rockets season is among us. The world will go on and soccer will be an afterthought again soon after the World Cup.
Sorry, this is for the better. The USA needs to look at itself long and hard and fix this. The federation wouldn't have done anything if we limped into the World Cup, now they have to...or they better.
Like I said you dumbfvck, how is the talent pool helping China and India? I'll wait for your response. Who is acting like T&T are a juggernaut? Who the fvck said T&T are a juggernaut? Oh you're just making stuff up, carry on kiddo. You sound like the whiny, entitled US soccer fan that just started paying more attention recently. Wisen up, shut up and read what others on here are writing about this. You might learn something. Nobody gives a fvck about toast. Go to bed child.
PRECISELY! That's exactly what I'm saying. This crap happens to different nations every four years. How they get through it is huge. The USA will come out shining in four years imo. Team USA will be so much better after going through this. A lot of deadweight will be dropped, changes to USSF, MLS and College soccer will happen, I truly believe that. People forget, the USSF elections are next year. Sunil was pretty much guaranteed to be re-elected AGAIN! After this debacle, he will actually have to battle for his job and his opponents may actually have a chance at finally wrestling power away from the Econ professor.
I don't give a flying "fvck" about how it's helping China and India. Once again your pea sized brain let you down in reading comprehension. I never said we should be the best team ever just bc 300 mil, but if you think talent pool size is completely irrelevant then I have nothing else to say. Go ahead and pull the typical arrogant "I know it all I'm a real soccer fan" attitude. Yeah I'm a stupid "merican how could I possibly know anything bout that kickin the ball around sport? Clearly we disagree and I have no interest in engaging with you anymore. Enjoy some "fvck"ing toast
Can some good come out of the way we respond? Sure. But this is going to definitely hurt fan support and youth interest. I don't chalk that up as a win.
No, I agree, interest will drop... But, being mediocre AT BEST doesn't foster interest either. What would foster interest is developing young stars, that, more than ANYTHING would create more interest in the USA. Build a good team, the fans and interest will follow from that.
Still in disbelief these lazy knuckleheads didn't qualify playing the worst team in the group. What were the captains saying in the huddle? All you have to do is win... I would think they would want to crush the competition to leave no doubt. The majority of the team was just walking around even after the Gonzalez own goal.. It won't really set in until the hype around World Cup really gets going next year.. At least we can show our national pride during the Winter Olympics.. smh.
This was an institutional failure and more than just a 1 night result. Thus far, MLS has proven to be detrimental to the development the USMNT team and reliance on players from a 3rd tier league, along with the idiotic nepotism (looking at you Bradley), have set them back bigtime. While it helps lesser-developed countries by adding opportunity, the U.S. team should not be relying regularly on MLS players to reach the next level. It's a shame they put in a coach who's too stubborn to realize that and is insistent on bringing in the same overrated hacks instead of trying to develop younger or international talent. I know the middle of a WC qualifying campaign wasn't the time to experiment but nothing changed - from the entitled, lackadaisical attitudes to constantly calling up the same middling, ineffective talent. It would have been nice to see younger / more promising players who give a damn rather than this mess. It's a shame Pulisic will miss a World Cup because of it, especially in some of the prime years of his career.
