The Ringer: Own Goal: The Inside Story Of How the Us Missed the World Cup

If nothing else, this article gave the hardcore fans 10,000+ words to consider their previous points of view, then rush back to BigSoccer to declare they were right all along.

 

See, that's where you're wrong....

 

When I say that a USA player should go to europe, I'm not talking about the Irish Premier league or Bulgaria. USA need players to get to Europe and play on teams in the top 6-7 leagues in europe: England, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Etc.

Its something that was becoming more and more common until this last set of 2014 WC USA players came back to MLS. As a result, they regressed.

 

True, but this shows the lack of depth on the team, replacing these players with middling MLS or Liga MX players who sh1t the bed at the opportune moment

 

A gutless player is a gutless player no matter where he plays.

We've had MLS guys rising to the occasion, from Beckerman to Besler. We've also had guys in Europe who didn't, from Sacha to Brooks.

What matters is discerning the guys who will be giving their all to the last minute even if things look grim. You got 11 decent players like that, you may go somewhere.

I was just looking at the squads, and the Icelanders have mostly players in mid-table clubs in rather weak leagues: Rostov (mid-table in Russia), Valerenga (Norwegian league, a step below the Swedish one, two step below the Danish), Roskilde (barely avoided relegation in the Danish league), etc. And several of their guys are just rotational bodies!

Look at another squad, Peru: a good chunk of their players play in their local league, arguably the worst in South America and weaker than MLS, a couple of MLSers, several from MX (some don't even play much!), etc. But with that motley crew, they have managed to be 11 in the FIFA ranking, above Mexico, Uruguay, England, Colombia, the Netherlands, Italy, etc. beating teams full of Top 5 league players.

It's not just where the players play, it's having a coach who knows what he does, having on-field leaders, and having a desire to win. Sometimes it's not the size of the dog in the fight.

 

Everybody, don't worry about anything, everything is well, we were a couple inches from getting into the WC. There is no systemic issues, we got rid of the bad apple JK, we have Cordeiro, we now have Ernie and possibly Vermes. Semi finals in Qatar here we come!!! Don't forget to buy the new USMNT jersey featuring our Captain Michael Bradley and our beast forward Jozy Altidore. Also, we did not raise our game prices and we will keep them at $150, yes we owe it to you all for supporting us through this minor hiccup. Don't forget One Nation One Team!!!

 

For those that are interested in a 15-20 minute interview w/the authors of the article on the the ringers soccer podcast, the interview starts right around the 30-35 min mark after the WC Group Talk that covers the first 30+ mins:

https://www.theringer.com/2018/6/6/...-story-of-how-the-usmnt-missed-the-tournament

 

Bias doesnt have to be premeditated. I never suggested the stuff about Klinsmann was fabricated. There are many things he did that many people dont like. There are things he did that I didnt agree with. Just because the author didnt write it or didnt find the information, doesnt mean it doesnt exist.

I dont condone calling any of them names, but at least captain lion is a direct description of those peoples views of the player. "Schmuck" is just a childish and derogatory term that doesnt have anything to do with a player that didnt perform well and is continuously slandered based on alleged information.

You consider them similarly for the good of the team. I have been on many teams where the top players were given preferential treatment and the team dynamic was horrible. You can't treat every player the same and believe the best approach is to treat every player differently, but their has to be some semblance of each player is an important member of the team. When a coach punishes a role player for violating a "team role" that a top player consistently ignores, it has significant affect on team dynamics.

Your ability to extrapolate is impressive. I guess Freidel retired from international soccer because of a toxic environment instead of his stated reason to extend his career. Howard of course was just using that as an excuse. You really think the national team was why Donovan stepped away? If that is the case, then it makes no sense for him to want to come back and his exclusion is no big deal. I'd love to get the story on Nagbe and he is a horrible example for your argument as I see no reason to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's always showed promise but never delivered for the national team and his automatic inclusion in the side in 2017 was quite detrimental. I dont know if you set out to do it as your incorrect definition of bias suggests, but you have justified actions solely because they didnt like Klinsmann and attacked a German American for similar things.

Yours and others fixation on Klinsmann has you supporting people and organizations that are our real issues. Our Federation was poorly run in 80s and 90s and still is today. The glory days from 1990 to 2011 were no where as glorious as people make them out to be.

The firing of Bradley and the hiring, considering firing, and ultimately firing Klinsmann were examples of how poorly run the place is. Klinsmann is no god/genius, just like he isnt nearly as horrible as folks like you make him out to be. Anyone who thought he was going to transform the team in 3 or 7 years is very naive, but he has started us on a path of transition. Unfortunately, many people seem to want to back to the glory days and even worse, rely on a "much improved MLS", even though it's not clear the Americans are any better.

I've seen idiots around go on and on about how Klinsmann has set our program back years or decades, but when in reality, we primed to make a huge step forward in the next 4 years if we dont get in our own way.

 

The best thing going for the USMNT into a much hard 2022 qualifying is that we missed this one. No longer will the players, coaches, federation, media, and fans be arrogant and complacent. Well, at least the players and the fans...

 

The guys getting paid by MLS rated an MLS player higher than a non-MLS player? Shocking!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_spot...rica_s_breakout_star_could_ve_played_for.html

 

We've had a lot of articles about the coaches. For closure, someone needs to write an article about Bradley. His biggest fan base is the US Soccer media, so I'm not holding my breath. But it is what I would like to see. I really don't think he should ever be brought back, but all the signs point to the idea he will. We need the idea that his skills degraded and he was a polarizing locker room figure analyzed as much as JK's treatment of Donovan and BA's treatment of Cameron.

Building the team around Bradley was probably JK's biggest post-2014 mistake and the one thing that JK did that BA didn't change. Sunil in charge of the program and Bradley as the Captain were the constants in the disaster.

 

Actually they were using Pulisic and Mallory Pugh to market the new jersey.

Although props for not including a Zardes slam. Made your complaining look at least a tad bit less generic.

 

Several players were generally sluggish, barely closing down and barely hustling throughout the entire match, all of which contributed to the loss that night. Players in both articles commented on it.

Those are all separate issues to the giant years-spanning cluster******** that was the Jurgen Klinsmann era, which several players also commented on in both articles.

 

Jones was not in MLS at the time of those ratings. Neither was Julien Green, who earned a whopping 9.5 from that MLS article, higher than any MLS player.

 

The 2014 World Cup was hardly a cluster. Your apocalypse tone when it comes to Klinsmann really makes me feel like your judgement is heavily skewed. Yeah, some times things don’t work out or bad decisions are made, but I’m pretty sure Klinsmann didn’t smash your windshield.

 

I wasn't complaining, I was just relaying the info the US Federation keeps on throwing at us. I should have used Zardes though because they love to market MLS.

 

The mistake actually started at the WC2014, and definitely downhill from there. People claim that there were no better options and maybe they are right, my beef was, did we really try to find a replacement, I don't think so. I think it was MB and 10 more.

 

JK was a horror show no doubt. I guess the problem is that the horror show ended 10 months before the Disaster. 9 months before the home loss to CR and a road performance at Honduras only matched by the performance at T&T.

It is using JK to absolve BA that is the problem for me. They both are to blame. Along with Sunil and Bradley. It is possibly Sunil (who hired both JK and BA) that is the most to blame because you can only let BA off the hook by saying that Sunil left JK in charge too long.

I think Bradley has not received enough criticism. Not because he walked for a corner kick (but that looks terrible, you can't defend it) but because he was in charge of a locker room which was incredibly toxic. That his presence was actually a contributing factor to the division of the team. When they needed to fight for one another, none of them wanted to.

Klinsman, Arena, Sunil, Bradley...these are the four most responsible for missing the 2018 World Cup. I'm not sure of the order yet, but I'm starting not to care. Ready to move on. The negativity that greeted the hiring of Earnie Stewart just shows we are all still in a dark place and need to get out of it.

 

You're apparently unaware that Dempsey was captain during much of the time covered in the article.

Now that you realize the truth, does that change your viewpoint? Facts are the underpinnings of opinions, so I wonder if your opinion might change.

 

Hey now, what's wrong with Bulgaria.

 

I wonder if journos have looked at Bradley's role and just concluded, based on all their interviews, that he shoulders little blame for the morale problems. The Ringer article, I think, is the only time he's come in for criticism.

But I just want to add that he wasn't in charge of the locker room.

 

I'm not sure it was dumb to build it around Bradley 2012-2014. I do think that the 2014 WC showed JK had a much different idea of what MB was than what he was.

The one thing Arena, Sunil, and Klinsman had in common is that they couldn't and can't admit making a mistake.

 

is no one ever to blame? Answer: Yes.

 

I said this elsewhere, but if we had Bob Bradley we would have finished 2nd or 3rd in the HEX - maybe even first as it's not like Mexico was unstoppable.

The lack of high end talent would have curtailed us in the world cup.

 

Very good post in my opinion.

I will say that I think Arena has only taken responsibility in a very superficial way. I believe that the players are really the only ones that have taken responsibility for the whole ordeal. Some have taken more blame than I would give them. I think the article generally places most of the blame on Gulati, Klinsmann and Arena. There is also blame assigned to the players but not in the same way it is placed on the first three.

The criticisms they have of Bradley and Chandler are rather mild I believe. The quote about Chandler is difficult to assess because it is lacking the context of the severity of the injury and the overall conversation. The criticisms of Bradley being a leader that others couldn't follow because he made too much money or his style grated on them are kind of ridiculous (in my opinion). If anything, they are more a criticism of the players on the team than anything. The players are supposed to be professionals and theoretically shouldn't need a leader to prepare themselves to play well or follow a game plan. When a coach designates a captain he isn't saying "look guys he is the captain, all of you other guys are folowers". An ideal team consists of multiple leaders that lead in various ways by word and example. Likewise not respecting the professional accomplishments of the coaches is a pretty crappy excuse for poor play and is not a reason to disrupt or contribute to the disruption of the team environment.