If Pulisic doubles his salary when he moves he'll be on more than the entire Houston Dynamo payroll. Unfortunately any good young American strikers are probably going to Germany or England while still in their teens, whether they've played in a MLS academy or not. Giovanni Reyna of NYC FC is next on the Bundesliga radar. He's already signed up with a European agent and he's only 15. Another reason Garber should be screaming SOLIDARITY NOW!!
They couldn't make a coaching change without Flynn, so he must have been very important. Still has his job. Gulati is still on the board. Arena's staff is still in charge. The VP is now the President. Would be happening if we went to the WC. Failing to make the WC has nothing to do with this either way. Watch the game again. A nice bunker effort but almost no actual soccer playing by the US. A Friendly, result is meaningless. Missing the WC didn't do anything to effect this game. We could have tied France in the WC if we had made it. Have any example of that happening? Unless by "under-served" you mean, South Americans. Anyways, missing the WC certainly didn't make that happen. For SUM? USSF? MLS? What a strange thing to say. Does T&T have a better balance sheet than us, is that why they beat us in the biggest game of the last four years? Make more money. Nothing.
The non-reaction by the mobsters and cartel to not making the WC is the real disaster. They don't want their bread and butter to be threatened. Change is not invited to sit at the table. Change has to beg for crumbs from the elites.
FWIW, Panama got such a brutal group because they were a Pot 4 team. We would have been Pot 3 based on our ranking at the time with the new seeding system. If you want a more accurate list of teams we could have played, replace us with Egypt, Costa Rica, Iran, Peru, Iceland, or Senegal. I think the underappreciated disaster is how much a financial hit came to USSF's sponsor contracts which has hurt their ability to hire.
Whatever the case may be, with the way our back four was looking and our Keeping situation looking like a mess; I do not think we would have advanced and it would have been a three and out. Financially we were in a surplus cycle due to the Copa America Centenaro and there's rumblings of another South American-CONCACAF thing coming back here in 2020. So I think we will do alright financially. No one should shed any tears for the Federation in that regard. I do believe that my post ended on a key note you forget to mention though. The young players were given a chance that they probably would not have been given if we barely qualified.
A top international manager costs ~3 million a year max. And will likely cost less. This is a cop-out. The answer is not that the USSF is hurting for money, but that they are incompetent.
Financially we're ok. A couple of moleros against Mexico make more money for the federation than flying all the way to Russia for a three-and-out.
Time to come to grips with the reality that Claudio, Marcello, the Goose, and Landon were a once in a Century event. They not only had game, they had character. Apart from Pulisic I don't think any of the current crop, or the previous crop, could have started for the 2002 bunch. We got lucky once, but I don't see much hope that the "Iphone" generation will produce another group like that. Time to enjoy the Beautiful Game for what it is, the World's game, and time to give up this Nationalistic crap. Enjoy the U20 women's world cup for what it is, the Beautiful game played by a great group of young, brave athletes.
I don't care if it's "set back", I want to get in, JUST TO SEE THE 3 GROUPS STAGE GAMES, even if they are all losses. I just prefer having a team to root for, even if they suck. I don't expect the USA to win the WC ever in my life time, It would be like Germany winning the basketball gold medal. It would be great if we got better, but I'm not holding my breath for a world championship.
I'm also a Steelers fan, I have this argument with other Steelers fans, who say they'd rather not go to the Super Bowl at all, than go and lose. Me? I'd rather GO AND LOSE! Why? I want to have the FUN of having my Steelers specific Super Bowl Party, and the added fun of ONE MORE GAME, no matter the outcome. I don't care what "effect" the loss has on anything in the future.
This is chiefly what I'm concerned with as well. I'd be more willing to accept having missed the '18 cup if we'd actually seen radical change take place within every level of the fed to some degree or other but instead it's basically been largely window dressing moves at best, and total inertia at worst. There's very little sense that anything has been done to fix the problems that played key roles in delivering such an abomination 10 months ago. To my view, the only real positives have been that Gulati is finally out (which is blunted by having an insider replace him which is that classic meet the new boss, same as the old boss thing) which, even w/the crappy replacement, is still a net positive, for now, since what Gulati was skilled at had no appreciable impact on the play on the field other than a negative one, and #2 we did hire an outstanding GM to oversee changes to how well, what exactly (this being blunted by the nebulous qualities of the job, and the seeming lack of clear and coherent degrees of power and responsibility).... So 10 months later, the only real positive we can point to is that since November, Sarachan has worked pretty aggressively to play exclusively "kids/prospects" in a mix of domestics and international club players who are young enough to potentially have a role going forward, if they continue to develop. That's not something that would have happened if Arena had gotten the expected result, or even if the ref in the Panama match hadn't made a complete mess in his pants with that non-goal, goal. So to my mind, no, it wasn't worth it, because the changes that should have happened, haven't, almost across the board, and in some cases, things are actually much worse than they typically are due to the instability (I can't recall at any time having a clear, "no one is at the controles/"Executive Decision" style situation with the leadership roles w/regards to our youth teams). +: Ernie Stewart is GM Sarachan really did play the kids, although I think quibbles are justified with his selection, and clear desire to generate results, rather than blood new players in multiple games: sometimes such an achievement matters to a degree, having tied and nearly beaten France in their "send away" game before the World Cup will leave a lasting imprint, to some extent, w/many of the players. You can't take a performance like that away, but generally speaking, that's never acceptable, especially in stand alone friendlies like the Paraguay game. - New President is more of the same, at least to some degree, he's an inside, made man. total instability in the youth programs with no leadership in place. no coach 10 months later despite having gone through two separate hiring periods which were flush with options. No sense that the fed is taking seriously issues with dual nationals and Mexico, or with things like those latino showcase tournaments, where we still seem to have rules blocking easy and smooth scouting of said players. And of course there are a ton of other issues. To my mind, the cost of missing the cup was always only going to be able to be repaid if we took the right lessons from the debacle and acted intelligently and aggressively to deal with the problems. I get the sense that Germany did this circa 1998-2006, I get the sense France did this circa 2011-2018, I get the sense Belgium did this brilliantly with their current generation, I get the sense that Iceland did this brilliantly over the past decade or so, I think even the Netherlands seems to have started to do soul searching after the recent debacles. I don't get the sense we are doing anything of the sort and I find this totally inexcusable. We are not close to Germany or France, or even Belgium, and Iceland has nowhere near are resources, and yet all these nations looked themselves in the mirror, made themselves accountable and rededicated themselves to fixing what needed fixing, and demolishing things that were beyond fixing, and building innovations wherever they could. I don't get any sense that were doing any of this, save for with Earnie in the sense that Earnie clearly used a Moneyball approach in rebuilding clubs in the Netherlands, and was a cutting edge guy, but I don't think Earnie has the same level of power to enact the changes he wants (then again, I can't imagine he would have taken this job w/o assurances that he would have the power to really direct the rebuild as he saw fit. Doesn't seem like he has that power, but i flat out can't see him taking the job w/o getting that). So is all this worth Pulisic and a few other kids missing one of potentially four or more cups they might have played in if the vets had done their damn jobs last year? Nope, not close to me. I'm just glad that the past 10 months are over, and that we are already beginning a new cycle, and at least we've spent the past year blooding young players so they'll have some experience as they work their way into the Gold Cup competition next year. That's crucial for us going forward because if we totally end up botching Copa America participation in a potential extra tourney, we sure as hell better win a ticket to the Confed Cup in '21 (if it happens).
I find the lack of urgency in the USSF startling. We missed the WC. the shock of that still jars me. And I can understand waiting until, well, around now to hire the senior USMNT coach. But all those other vacancies are just crazy. I hear all the time about how the US needs to temper expectations. But look at our players in the 25-and-under category. They are looking really good (oddly enough, except at goalie). At some point the USSF needs to man up, circle a tournament that isn't the Gold Cup, and say "We're going to try to win this one." And then, build a trajectory to get there. Building in a long runway to that time is just fine, but there has to be an endpoint. To me, the 2026 WC is the obvious target. I read an article just yesterday that Mexico is doubling down trying to build a dynamite squad for 2026 - as they should. USSF should be doing exactly the same thing, and building accountability by saying so publicly and often. But I agree with some previous posters - the uber-insulated USSF doesn't seem to be exhibiting any urgency in getting a plan together and embracing a winning mentality (Dave Sarachan, of all people, excepted). And that seems to be the real tragedy of missing the WC - we don't seem to have seized the opportunity that hitting bottom provides. EDIT - I just read grandinquisitor's post above mine. He pretty much said what I wanted to say, but better.
As a redskins fan/victim, it's kind of like the NFL Championship in 1940, where my squad played in a rematch against the Bears after they'd beaten them earlier in the season. They lost 73-0. Still the worst loss in the history of professional football in the US and unlikely to ever be repeated. It's a permanent stain on the franchise (one of many these days), and nothing will ever change that. The World Cup failure last year was an abomination that will NEVER EVER be forgotten or found to be excusable in some sort of revisionist drivel take. What always stuck with me about it since was how much of a slap in the face it was to the generations who played before them, w/little to nothing in compensation, recognition or to build with. There's no excuse possible for what happened. It was absolutely heinous (reminded me of the U-17's losing to Tajikistan at the '07 U-17 World Cup, which not coincidentally was a sneak preview of the first of the failed generations of the early 1990's, but of course about a billion times worse, it's just the scale of difference between what we and the Tajik's had to work with, the advantages we had, and the result, reminded me of the failure at Couvo). That's part of the reason it's so essential to flush the vets/cancer's from that team, and only carry forward a few glue guys. You've got to fumigate when something like that happens.
Particularly when the Federation has done no such clearing house. In fact, they may have become even more convoluted than before, depending on how this nebulous GM role functions in reality and over time. The top guys (Arena, Gulati) were replaced by their right-hand men (Sarachan, Cordiero). The YNT programs have been left relatively untouched, yet in the lurch without coaches. The "overhaul" seems to be with the GM position, a role that lacks a clear delineation of powers, and one that has not alleviated the chief issue of finding a manager. And without the transparency that everyone outside of the establishment would like, we won't know what exactly Earnie's role in hiring the next guy will be!
Why? What the top brass cares about is money and the ultimate punishment for missing the World Cup is hosting in 2026. No need to change when the gravy train is rolling.
less people on facebook complaining about how boring soccer is was probably the only benefit for me. support the girls next go around, they did pretty well.
Ummm. So you're not paying any attention to the kids coming up? I'm filled with as much rage and disgust as anyone, but I'm not blind either. Back to back runs to the quarters in '15 and '17 at the U-20 World Cup, an excellent performance by the U17's in '17 as well. Weah is already earning minutes with PSG and scored in back to back games. Sargent is just a year removed from the U-17 World Cup and has repeatedly been referenced as a senior team option for Werder Bremen. McKennie a starter for Schalke, giving us two in the Champions League at minimum. Then a giant pile of other guys like Amon, and even Sabbi (who I wasn't even considering), the deepest and best pool of defensive talent ever? More midfield talent then at anytime since 2002 when for a brief moment we had Reyna, O'Brien, Beasley, Mathis, and Donovan at the same time (the latter also forward capable of course). We haven't had this many prospects EVER bubbling up (1995-2001 generation for now, with some '02s and '03s), not close, we haven't had so many on the cusp of breaking through at the same time in Europe ever either. We literally have options almost everywhere other than goalie (very shallow) and forward (where until Weah made leaps and bounds, looked quite shallow too). I am filled with disgust over what took place, but thank heavens this isn't 2007-2013, when we essentially graduated virtually nobody from the U-17 teams to the senior team (kind of like the NFL RB classes from 2009-2014, now suddenly they've had 3 outstanding classes, and a fourth top heavy one since 2015), instead, just as the senior team reached its nadir we've had a tremendous bubbling up of talent at a level literally never seen before. Health and further development is crucial, it's still a long road for many of them, but when you have this many quality kids coming up, it makes positive things happen because an Adu or Gyau or Renken crashing out isn't going to be catastrophic because more kids are coming. I'm excited for the future of these kids, but disgusted with the present (w/regards to the vets and the fed).
Looks like we're going to have a few good quality attackers and several ok defensive players. What we're going to be missing is good quality starters in defense (including keeper) and backup guys for the attack.
In consulting the 2022 starting lineup threads, and other threads connected to projecting young prospects down the line the sense I get is that Keeper behind Steffen is a real problem, and that doesn't take into account that Steffen is spectacular but also incredibly inexperienced, and that at forward, we've got some potential cream, and then a ton of question marks and vets that can't get it done. I suspect we'll have our best defensive set up since '01-'04 or thereabouts, w/room to be best ever w/more experience. We've got multiple guys with starting gigs in legit leagues in Europe to choose from. That's much better, to my mind, then the '14, and '10 cycles, '02 and '06 were pretty damn good though as standards, so we'll see about that. Midfield is a bit odd, we seem to have a gazillion central guys, but in terms of potential playmaking types, kinda feels like we're running short there, with the most talented super young (Reyna and Carleton off the top of my head), we even have legit wingers, but they are also super young and inexperienced, and many of them have had a litany of injuries. I'm much more positive and upbeat then you based on reading your previous posts in recent months though. If the kids stay healthy and continue to improve I think this group will be the best US side ever, w/o question, although the '02 had parts that were better (the '02 group had the best combo of attacking talent, when healthy, we've ever really had, add in some defensive studs, 2 legit Euro keepers and that team was really special). I just happen to think that if these guys continue on their trend line we'll have legit starting options everywhere by 2020-2023 or thereabouts. Still a long road from here though, and we already know that 2001-2004 or so grouping actually did it on the field, before injuries and age demolished the team.
I strongly disagree with two of them - Brooks and Miazga. Brooks is a Bundesliga starter when healthy. Miazga is a little more debatable, but if he finds a starting position at Nantes, that's an indication of a very high-performing player. He was very good a Vitesse. It isn't a sin to not quite make it at Chelsea by the age of 23.
Brooks is a tronco more likely to get exposed by the small, fast, dribbling C-CAF forwards than by the BuLi teams. Same CCV. EPB needs to mature positionally as a CB. Miazga is ok, but not good. When I say good enough to be a starter, I mean in Qatar, not when facing Guatemala.
Young players are always given a chance after the WC. Bruce Arena did not have to embarrass us by not getting out of CONCACAF to give young players a chance. First match after WC last cycle: Green(18) Altidore(25) Gyau(22) Corona(24) Mix(23) Bedoya(27) Johnson(26) Brooks(21) Orozco(28) Chandler(24) Guzan(30) Hyndman(18), Garza(23), Shea(24), Morales(24) Ream(26)