Partially true of course, but I was replying to people saying that mainly having MLS guys is a main issue. You have to accept that the current US talent pool is terrible and it's not because of the MLS, but a severely lacking development system and organizational structure. You mention three players of advanced age, those guys wouldn't even be a factor if the youth system and development was done right. And the younger guys aren't staying in the MLS because of money, European clubs would pay a ton more if they were actually good enough to stay on a solid team.
what if we had military officers mate with south american women, take their babies and have them attend the Santos F.C academy from age 5- 17yrs old. Keep them in the premier, la liga, bundesliga until world cup qualifiers. Military officers grant the future footballers u.s citizenship. I don't see a better solution. I was surprised that the MLS ranks higher in attendance than le french ligue.
Those kids wouldn't want U.S. citizenship if they're great at football. They'd be free agents and go to soccer first countries. You see this: This is what hunger is. What not taking something like a WC quilification for granted Happy for Panama. At least they really wanted it.
**** no. But I'm worried that USSF is good with that. Maybe their strategy is to grow the popularity (and profits) of the MLS and hope that translates to the popularity of the sport here. It's a logic that is based around $$$ and not common sense so who knows.
you could argue chasing money now has now cost them money. i mean anything they've made up until this point has to be in jeopardy by missing out.
Lol right. If we won that game there would have been maybe 5-6 new posts. That's the state of U.S. Soccer. Laughing stock.
if I were a major corporate sponsor, I'd want to make sure a bulk of my investment went to the women's program right now.
In order for the U.S to ever be good at soccer we would have to get rid of the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL. Will never happen, and soccer will always be a basement dwelling sport here.
Dempsey and Bradley weren't struggling to make it in Europe. Like you said before, Jozy decided to take the MLS money instead of going to tough it out at a non top 5 Euro league like Eredivisie. Sometimes financial security is more important. I'm not sure if any other club side in Europe was prepared to offer him almost 5mill/year. 1mill maybe. Definitely less. Can you blame him for taking the money? Wouldn't you? Bradley had just had a few quality seasons in Serie A with Chievo and then Roma. He got married and had a newborn. Then was offered 6mill/year to play and live in Toronto. Not Kansas City or some other meh city. Toronto. I can't blame him for taking the money. Dempsey had played almost a decade in England. Had a daughter and had more youngins on the way. He got an offer from Seattle for 8mill. Sure he could have stuck it out in the Spurs rotation, fighting for starts. He could have moved to Holland or Belgium or France for a 1-2 million/year wage. Or move back to the US for 8 million and be closer to his parents and wifes parents as they raise their young kids. Not a difficult decision. You aren't talking about players in their early - mid 20s (except Jozy and I believe apart from the money, he was also about to become a parent) . Those three players went to Europe and had degrees of success at specific clubs in specific leagues. Money talks and so do wives, significant others, familiy situations etc. It'd be different if they were single lads in their early 20s and they passed up offers of 1mill/year to play with a Euro team to go sign for an MLS team for 1.5-2mill/year. They got substantial raises that not many would pass up.
Shiiiid, the US military personnel have been doing that in Germany and Japan/Korea for a while. It'd make sense for some more to be stationed in Brazil/Argentina/Chile/Colombia etc and make use of the lovely women down there to provide young talent for future US teams. I think they already have some in Peru and Colombia but yeah... maybe more.
Zlatan has never scored a goal in the World Cup yet he's one of the greatest to ever play. The window to star in a Cup is small. These guys missed out on great opportunity and some of them will never ever get it back.
Hell NO, the women's program??? No one else in the world watches that, it is a dead end....think of the WNBA. DD
That makes no sense. What do any of those leagues have to do with soccer performance? The "best athletes" argument is a bunch of bulls***, simply factually incorrect. Hockey barely exists outside of the regions close to NHL teams and northern states where there's ice. There are very few professional level soccer players who are 6'8" and above...so I'm not sure where the NBA fits in. Not to mention, soccer has a higher youth participation rate than most of the sports you mentioned. Football is beginning the process into a slow death. Participation rates are way down. In order for the US to be better on the international stage, we need change in the federation that puts more time, effort, and money into development programs and works better with the MLS and youth programs across the country. One of the problems is the shear size of the country. What might be successful in Florida isn't necessarily what will be successful in California. The college game needs to be abandoned. In Europe, if you're playing in college, your career is already over. Players who are good enough are wasting prime development years playing with and against inferior players and being coached by inferior coaches. More of an effort needs to be put into coaching programs. Pay for play isn't the only issue with money. Pay for coaching license is another big problem.
What needs to happen is that HIGH SCHOOL soccer is a focus and is better than CLUB soccer, when that happens, and then all colleges have MEN's soccer (Thanks for nothing Title 9), then we will get a lot better much faster. As long as we have pay to play as the main source of talent we are going to lose out on some amazing talent that just can't afford it. DD
Without looking at numbers, I would think soccer is already on par with Hockey. I live in a cold weather city and its way easier to find a soccer game on a tv than a hockey game, at home, at a bar, or even just people discussing it.
The best futball/soccer folks/infrastructure are and will be in Europe for the foreseeable future. You got to unload youngsters there and let them play in like the German Bundesliga (Bobby Wood, Pulisic) or EPL (Yedlin with Newcastle). But a lot more. Sure in the meantime improve the local structures and try to better the MLS.
WOW. I can't believe we lost to mother flippin' Honduras. Congratulations to Costa Rica and Honduras. F@#@(*$K YOU, Panamá. Because that wasn't a gol. KARMA will be a BIIIIIIIITCH.
