PBP: 2018 CONCACAF U-20 Championship: USA vs. Honduras 11/19 8:00 ET

Right now, the question of identity and the exclusion vs favoritism towards Hispanic or European or suburban or urban kids is a real issue. Lots of people have completely opposing views on what is happening. The close observers of the talent typically are 90% in agreement with Tab. Which is as good as it can get.

 

I mean, I think it's just random. Obviously, loads of non-Hispanic people don't make it.

I think there's a weird expectation that because we have 40 million Hispanic people, we're going to produce a bunch of Chicharito's because a lot of them like soccer. Now, I'm sure that socio-economic realities play a role, but I think it's also the fact that they're American.

Yes, their parents, or grandparents, or great-grandparents came from a soccer-loving culture, but kids are influenced by where they grow up. Football, basketball, and baseball are still king in this country, and they attract a lot of people, doesn't matter if you live in an immigrant community or not.

Someone posted on another thread that there were "millions" of unregistered youth soccer players that would put the millions of registered ones to shame. Maybe, but somehow I doubt we're sitting on a thousand Messi's.

All we can do is keep qualifying, keep growing the game as much as possible. Keep trying to reach out to isolated and underserved communities. Eventually we'll get enough coverage.

Sorry for the tangent.