USMNT - Turning Point?

No. The DA made the US men’s team even worse than it was before. The one thing that makes a country great at soccer is more people play it, more often, for a longer span of years. The DA took a very small group of mostly middling kiddie athletes (but super cute circus jugglers) to move forward, while relegating 99% of pre pubescent boys to second class training, competition, and training until completely running them out of the sport by age 13-14. Even with those chosen few mediocre athletes, it limited how much they can even have fun playing their sport. This is the worst possible way to create a great national team. So the US is now stuck with one itty bitty guy who can play a little at Chelsea so long as he’s surrounded by real athletes, plus mostly a bunch of crap that dumb Americans wistfully claim have “potential” because occasionally they get the privilege of carrying water for real players like Haaland and Ronaldo.

The new crop of players have never even won a real NT soccer game before. Not one. Speculating they can win the WC is crazy talk.
I agree. IThe same can be said for ECNL.
 
Try explaining to people why 4+ of our best u23 players are in Europe playing a friendly rather than in Mexico helping us qualify for the Olympics.
For the Olympics (soccer) the clubs can refuse to release the players (unlike senior FIFA competitions when they have to release them). So it may be that clubs said "no way" to releasing players to travel to Mexico to play. IDK but it seems more likely than not IMO.
 
No. The DA made the US men’s team even worse than it was before. The one thing that makes a country great at soccer is more people play it, more often, for a longer span of years. The DA took a very small group of mostly middling kiddie athletes (but super cute circus jugglers) to move forward, while relegating 99% of pre pubescent boys to second class training, competition, and training until completely running them out of the sport by age 13-14. Even with those chosen few mediocre athletes, it limited how much they can even have fun playing their sport. This is the worst possible way to create a great national team. So the US is now stuck with one itty bitty guy who can play a little at Chelsea so long as he’s surrounded by real athletes, plus mostly a bunch of crap that dumb Americans wistfully claim have “potential” because occasionally they get the privilege of carrying water for real players like Haaland and Ronaldo.

The new crop of players have never even won a real NT soccer game before. Not one. Speculating they can win the WC is crazy talk.
Anyone who makes the team at any of the examples in the article is doing it on merit. None of the professional European clubs are charities and none of them are picking US players for altruistic reasons. The professional teams could care less wrt the nationality of the players, aside from any national federation restrictions (on foreign) players or legal visa requirements.

The premise of the DA/MLS Next leagues makes sense and replicates what happens everywhere else. That should be the cream and the quantity is irrelevant if you don't isolate and develop the cream. It should also be constantly changing. I can see that in AZ where for some clubs, the "elite" teams change as different kids hit puberty, starting to level out at U16/17. Mind you, the v best will have been offered a real MLS academy prior (most likely).
 
For the Olympics (soccer) the clubs can refuse to release the players (unlike senior FIFA competitions when they have to release them). So it may be that clubs said "no way" to releasing players to travel to Mexico to play. IDK but it seems more likely than not IMO.
It really shouldn't matter. With the amount of soccer being played in the US and our population size, the fact we can't put together a team (even without those 4 players) to beat a tiny country like Honduras speaks volumes.
 
The professional teams could care less wrt the nationality of the players, aside from any national federation restrictions (on foreign) players or legal visa requirements.

I think this is a bit short-sighted. The US is essentially an untapped market for international soccer. Really the only one. There are some additional incentives for European teams to produce a US soccer star.
 
Well it was nice to see them do better vs Northern Ireland

Missing the third straight Olympics after Honduras loss not so much. Turing Point for that lets hope so.

No more excuses the other country's found a way and we didn't, plan and simple. The lack of leadership and stability on the US side continues on.
 
No. The DA made the US men’s team even worse than it was before. The one thing that makes a country great at soccer is more people play it, more often, for a longer span of years. The DA took a very small group of mostly middling kiddie athletes (but super cute circus jugglers) to move forward, while relegating 99% of pre pubescent boys to second class training, competition, and training until completely running them out of the sport by age 13-14. Even with those chosen few mediocre athletes, it limited how much they can even have fun playing their sport. This is the worst possible way to create a great national team. So the US is now stuck with one itty bitty guy who can play a little at Chelsea so long as he’s surrounded by real athletes, plus mostly a bunch of crap that dumb Americans wistfully claim have “potential” because occasionally they get the privilege of carrying water for real players like Haaland and Ronaldo.

The new crop of players have never even won a real NT soccer game before. Not one. Speculating they can win the WC is crazy talk.
EOTL coming on strong today. So far bro, best post today. Keep it to soccer and you might make a come back :)
 
I think this is a bit short-sighted. The US is essentially an untapped market for international soccer. Really the only one. There are some additional incentives for European teams to produce a US soccer star.
I don't agree. The big teams come and play in their pre-season. Their games are being broadcast. They have their faux affiliations at the youth soccer level. They don't need a "flagship" US player on their roster to tap the US market.

They do want access to US investors mind, which is happening in multiple leagues.

BTW, Asia is the market they all want to dominate - vastly more people and soccer is far more popular.
 
It really shouldn't matter. With the amount of soccer being played in the US and our population size, the fact we can't put together a team (even without those 4 players) to beat a tiny country like Honduras speaks volumes.
Agree to the general point, but the whole "big country should beat small country" is a silly argument/stance.

Belgium is the #1 ranked team in the world. Honduras has a similar population.

You can compare the investment, infrastructure, level of coaching, budget etc. and no way the US should lose ... but just the "we have more people" thing has no merit.
 
Agree to the general point, but the whole "big country should beat small country" is a silly argument/stance.

Belgium is the #1 ranked team in the world. Honduras has a similar population.

You can compare the investment, infrastructure, level of coaching, budget etc. and no way the US should lose ... but just the "we have more people" thing has no merit.

I seem to recall that the book Soccernomics correlated country success based on population, time playing the game and GDP. It’s an interesting read, lots of cool insights, like don’t sign a 29 year old striker coming off a successful World Cup campaign.
 
Anyone catch Real Madrid v. Chelsea? Pulisic is emerging as a true first tier player, if not on par (yet?) with the legends, certainly as good as other starters currently playing in the Champions.
 
Anyone catch Real Madrid v. Chelsea? Pulisic is emerging as a true first tier player, if not on par (yet?) with the legends, certainly as good as other starters currently playing in the Champions.
Honestly I was worried about Pulisic, Lampard did not seem to like him and when Tuchel took over I thought he was on the outs but now it seems he has played his way back into the good graces of the coach. How is it Werner gets every chance in the world and Pulisic plays a bad game and he is benched? If Pulisic can stay healthy the sky is the limit for him.
 
Anyone catch Real Madrid v. Chelsea? Pulisic is emerging as a true first tier player, if not on par (yet?) with the legends, certainly as good as other starters currently playing in the Champions.

Has loads of potential, like him but yet to be consistent.

Either hot or cold and needs to find a way to stay heathy and get more playing time.

Chelsa's away goal could be huge in the 2nd leg. Last year of the away goals in Champions League so should be interesting.
 
If he can stay healthy, then maybe we'll get to see what he can do.

As soon as he starts to get some steady playing time and starts to shine, he gets hurt. He could be a big asset to Chelsea and the USMNT, so let's hope that he can keep healthy.
 
Pulisic even though he came off the bench was awesome and that assist was both unselfish and lovely. Perhaps an American in a Champions League final.

Also it's an all English final. The top of the premiere league is really pulling away from the rest of the world (and the rest of the EPL), and with the failure of the Superleague, that's only going to continue particularly given the financial difficulty the Spanish and Italian clubs find themselves in (I don't know the financial condition of PSG and Bayern)
 
Pulisic even though he came off the bench was awesome and that assist was both unselfish and lovely. Perhaps an American in a Champions League final.

Also it's an all English final. The top of the premiere league is really pulling away from the rest of the world (and the rest of the EPL), and with the failure of the Superleague, that's only going to continue particularly given the financial difficulty the Spanish and Italian clubs find themselves in (I don't know the financial condition of PSG and Bayern)

Pulisic was excellent when he came on, scared RM to death and a critical assist so coolly taken.

My 0.02 worth

The EPL does look like it could pull away. Its the second time in 3 years that it's an all English final, and its two different teams. The Europa league final could also be an all English affair with Man Utd all but in and Arsenal needing to turn around the first leg. And that's two different clubs again.

Add in that Leicester look likely to qualify for Champions league next season, that's a demonstration of a very strong league.

PSG are loaded, with basically billions behind them if needed. Even with that they may not win the French league. They got very petulant yesterday and were basically outplayed by Man City for 3 of the 4 halves.

Bayern are also dominant financially in Germany with Adidas, Audi & Alliance (insurance) owning a 25% stake between them ... no shortage of money and guaranteed champions league every year.

Real M and Barca need to rebuild, but that's expensive and the latter may not be able to afford it and stay competitive outside Spain in the short term. Real were shown up to be old, IMV, today. The Italian league is generally weak. There are quite a few players that couldn't quite hack in the EPL going there and tearing it up ... that should tell you everything. Again, it gets highlighted in the Euro comps when they meet top class opposition.


City are a pretty good "case study" on building a team versus the galacticos approach favored by Real M, Barca & PSG. The City team vs PSG cost a cool $1B approx. (below in GBP stolen from elsewhere). There were no "huge" buys, just lots of good (expensive) "buys", and while they obviously pay crazy well, there's no $1M a week net of taxes salaries etc. It means that they can take a hit when someone is out, because they have someone else nearly as good. They also play a system, with some exceptional talent obvs, so you can slot players in VS "get the ball to Messi/Neymer/Mbappe/Ronaldo".
Starting XI:
Ederson-£35m; Walker-£50m; Stones-£50m; Dias-£62m; Zinchenko-£2m (anomaly); Mahrez-£60m; Fernandinho-£35m; Gundogan-£20m; De Bruyne-£55m; Silva-£44m; Foden-acadmey.
Subs:
Ake-£41m; Sterling-£50m; Jesus-£27m; Aguero-£35m; Laporte-£57m; Rodri-£63m; Torres-£21m; Mendy-£52m; Cancelo-£27.5m; Steffen-£5m.
So that's a starting XI costing approx £413m and another £378.5m waiting on the bench. A total match day squad of approx £791.5.

Oh yeah ... the EPL roster size is 25 players I believe, so they have more players again in the roster - crazy & scary all at the same time.
 
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