Team of Mutts - the US U23 national team

Gotcha. I would say no, because soccer is getting a lot more popular. The important thing to remember is that a lot more people that are around 25 years old right now played the game as a kid than say people that are 45 years old. It's like a lot of other sports, parents will gravitate their kids to sports they're familiar with. My dad played hockey growing up, so I learned to skate and started playing when I was like 5. But then I played soccer in the summer of course.

 

I know what you mean, but Canadians still have us beat with players like Ryan Getzlaf, Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins etc guys with sublime skill that matches anybody in the world. We have basically Patrick Kane and Phil Kessel. The rest of our players are just really good grinders like Ryan Kesler, Zach Parise, David Backes etc.

A big reason for that (in my view) is that Canadians start earlier and play more than Americans do. It's a similar issue (of several) for the majority of American kids (compared to say Spain or Argentina) who grow up only playing organized soccer and not really focusing at a young age on the sport. Kids in Brazil or Germany are playing mostly soccer, for most of their free time in the street or in playgrounds. The kids that do that here, a lot of them have immigrant roots and that's why in my view a lot of our best players have a higher proportion of that connection that the general population.

 

All the numbers I've seen for MLS ticket sales, TV ratings etc for soccer show a sharp connection with a younger more educated set of fans. A good portion of soccer fans are under 30 and if you go under 40 it's nearly 90% from some numbers I've seen. Once that group starts to have kids (ie you and me who had parents growing up playing other sports), I think we will see the talent base expand.

Hopefully our development system will catch up as well.

 

Hey, we may be play like shite but at least we're DIVERSE. That's the most important thing!!

It's a shame Spain or Italy isn't blessed with as much diversity we have. Maybe they will learn from us.

 

I'd do for way less diversity and way more talent. And maybe some brains to go along with it. Bloody losers.

 

Castilian people
Catalan people
Basque
Andalusian
Valencian
Guanches
Asturian
Murcia
Navarre
Albacete
Burgos
Aragonese
Canarian
and a Brazilian.


it's sort of diverse

 

The great thing about the U.S. is the diversity we have when it comes to picking the strengths of the best countries in the world. For example, if you were to make a list of the best countries by position, it would look something like this:

Best countries in the world at producing defenders: Germany, Italy, England, France

Best countries in the world at producing midfielders: Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico, Portugal - generally any Mediterranean countries

Best countries in the world at producing forwards: Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, Poland, Serbia, Russia

We have all these people in our country because we're so diverse. We should use our strengths to our advantage. Yet we're not picking these players. There's your problem. Focus development on players from these countries. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. You go with what works for the rest of the world!

Onto the 2016 Olympics....


(Map of countries that won the world cup)

 

All that diversity sure did perform.

Too bad we didn't have less diversity and more talent.

 

Did you put Poland in the "Best countries in the world at producing forwards" because you support a Polish a club, or were you being sarcastic ? Because I can think of about quite a few countries well in front of them. Zbignew Boniek ended his carrer quite a long time ago.

 

>Germany and England producing the best defenders
>Mexico and Uruguay producing the best midfielders
>Poland, Serbia, and Russia producing the best Forwards


Hah. Are you for ********ing real?

Of the ranking for the Golden Ball and the World Top Goalgetter and the FIFPro World XI for 2011 not a single of the forwards listed was from Poland, Serbia, or Russia. The top players were Argentines, Brazileans, Colombians, Germans, Dutch, Chileans, and Spaniards.

Of similiar rankings for defenders the lists included Portuguese, Italians, Brazilians, French, Belgiums, and Serbians.

For midfielders the list was mostly Spaniards, followed by Brazilians, Portuguese, Germans, and Colombians.

 

Agreed.

 

Yea, actually selecting the best and most skilled players for teams instead of who fits the diversity profile requested by the marketing people would be a great start. Reminds me of a few years back when some state teams would just select anyone with minimum skill, but at least one foreign born parent. I cannot imagine Spain, France, England, Germany, Brazil, or any other soccer power doing that. They actually take their player selection seriously.

 

I'm sorry, but--what?!

Are you seriously suggesting that US Soccer and Porter went through and picked a whole bunch of players because they fit some "diversity profile" based on national origin? Because of all those sponsors who stand to make huge, huge money off an American men's U-23 soccer team? Seriously?

Do you have any evidence to back that up? For starters, enlighten us as to which more talented players were left off this squad (excluding the injured ones and the ones whose teams wouldn't release them)?

 

How to say this diplomatically.

I highly doubt the U23 coaches cared about diversity in selecting the Olympic pool. However, I don't doubt that youth national coaches take nonsoccer factors into consideration when making their decisions. It will be good for youth soccer to move past that stage.

 

I'm curious as to what you mean by "nonsoccer factors."

 

Great title for this thread....This team played like a bunch of Mutts. Unfing believable.

 

Other coaches' kids
Friends' kids
Face of America desires, i.e. ethnic balancing

Although in truth the biggest nonsoccer factor is early puberty, that's by far the largest effect. The year I saw ODP in operation it would not consider a forward who was not in the top 10%% for early physical development, meaning deep voice and big leg muscles at age 12/13. That has zero to do with adult athleticism; effectively, the staff was eliminating 90% of the player pool for a nonsoccer reason.

Was thinking about this the other day as a local soccer player joined his HS track team and went 22.6 for 200 meters as a 17 year old. This kid couldn't get a look at State ODP because he was an alleged nonathlete. The guys selected over him he could now beat running backwards.

But that's a different subject. I don't have much to say on Mutts, just that here and there being PC seems to cross the coaches' minds. But not a big deal overall.

 

That wasn't what I observed, but many believe it to be so. That belief doesn't hurt the chances of semi-foreign kids during the selection process.

 

See the Akronism thread.

 

Doing what France tried to do. And then it blew up in their faces. Now it blew up in our face.

The big difference is France learned from their mistakes. The question is, will we learn from our mistakes?

 

Ok, I agree with you. The original point was we're not picking players from those countries when we have them in abundance in our country. We have Chilean-Americans, we have Portuguese-Americans, we have Italian-Americans, we have Dutch-Americans, we have Spanish-Americans, we have German-Americans, we have Brazilian Americans, and we have French-Americans. Where are they?

Instead, this is our team:

3 Nigerians
2 Ghanians
1 Sierra Lione
1 Jamaican
1 Trinidadian
1 Canadian Guyanese
2 Norwegians
1 Panamanian
2 Mexicans
1 Puerto Rican
1 Colombian
1 German American

Majority of those countries are very poor at soccer. And does Jamaica, Trinidad, or Guyana have any track record of producing world class players? No. Does Nigeria, Sierra Lione, Norway, Panama, or Puerto Rico ever do well at the World Cup. Nope again.

As I said before, don't try to reinvent the wheel. Go with what works for the rest of the world. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out.

 

Can you please explain what you mean by "doing what France tried to do"? I can think of a couple of possibilities, but probably best if you just clarify so we're on the same page.

 

Like during World cup 2006 ??