It would've been a much bigger disaster had this happened in an earlier cycle, but this was nonetheless a disaster. That said, the damage has already been done, the chance to fire up casual fans around our team and our sport has already been missed, and Fox Sports' awful, cost-cutting coverage has already been seen and reviled. NOW, we're on a new cycle. The last one before we get to host once again. These next two cycles, and what transpires in our national team program and in our sport in general during these two cycles, are much more important. And full of possibility.
I think missing the World Cup is a disaster in that you miss out on the exposure, the money and the renewed interest. BUT the real problem is that while there were problems, I don't think any of them have really been addressed which I think is why more people are upset. If you miss the World Cup and then make changes to prevent it from happening again, people will chalk it up to a bad generation (which it was) poor luck (had something to do with it) bad coaching (a part of it as well) or ah it happens to everyone just look at Italy. When you miss and then don't make changes though, thats the problem. Have we seen any changes in the way things are done that would suggest going forward the same issues won't be present?
That remains to be seen. Having the kids play in the friendlies leading up to the World Cup was a positive though and would not have happened if we made it to Russia.. So that to me is something that is valuable even if things don't change drastically.
I took the title of the thread a different way. Missing the WC was a disaster. Full stop. It will haunt us commercially and emotionally for a decade or more. But certainly, the USSF (the entire USSF from the Athlete's Council to every Youth Association Rep to the President) is certainly acting like nothing has happened. In fact, they seem to be doing even less than minimum. I believe the USSF is already preparing to cash in on 2026 and nothing between now and then matters to Cordeiro and the board. In reality, if the USA does well or not in that tournament probably won't effect the bottom line at all. Everyone underneath that just wants to keep their place at the table for the scraps. I think Ramos cares; probably Stewart. Garber/SUM/MLS seem happy with the way things are; there was serious worry there in December, but the election went their way thanks to Stu Holden and the rest of the AC.
So the MNT is destined to be an irrelevant also-ran if it even qualifies for Qatar? Our federation is a joke. At times I'm beginning to wonder if this program is snakebitten. It just seems like it is always being horribly mismanaged by incompetent leadership. All they care about is themselves.
The 1998 World Cup was what made me a fan of the sport and a fan of the national team. I tuned in for US games, and even though we sucked I ended up watching as many games as I could. It was an incredible World Cup, with players like Zidane, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Davids, Seedorf, Beckham, Veron, Scholes etc all in their primes. Ratings were down 30-40% this year for the World Cup. Even if the US had been poor as in 1998, it was still a missed opportunity to build passion for soccer in this country. I think WC 2018 was nearly as good as 1998 in terms of quality and star players. It's a real shame that so many Americans missed out and I think it will have lasting effects on the popularity of the sport in this country. So yeah, it: -hurt the program financially -damaged the popularity of the sport -deprived younger domestic based players of a showcase to move abroad(like Dempsey and Yedlin in past World Cups) -made it tougher to recruit dual nationals(who won't view us as a sure thing to make the World Cup) It was a huge disaster. And, what are the changes being made to set the program on the right foot? Seems like nothing yet.
I'm taking the stance, not a disaster. "Deprived younger domestic based players of a showcase" > We were having a hard time get players abroad before and during qualifying. Jordan Morris chose to stay in MLS and Acosta played his way to not going to Europe. After the world cup Bayern has taken quite an interest in talent from the United States and Miazga got another quality loan. So our domestic based players are doing better now. In qualifying we kept playing Bradley, Dempsey, and other older players, if anything that was hurting our younger domestic based players more. "Damaged the popularity of the sport" >Everyone at my work still loves soccer, personally I haven't seen anyone like soccer less. "Hurt the program financially" >Possibly, but I remember Gulati bragging about a surplus. I haven't seen anything that would imply US Soccer or MLS has financial issues now. "Made it tougher to recruit dual nationals" >I think putting everything on the head coach made it tough to recruit dual nationals and this is why a GM was hired. Between MLS/DA developing talent and having a full time GM, the team is not going to be hurting from how dual nationals see the team now. "It was a huge disaster." >Italy was a huge disaster. Losing to Trinidad & Tobago was embarrassing, but missing out of this World Cup was not a disaster. We couldn't beat Costa Rica, it's not like they're world beaters. >We have the silver lining that we no longer have to hear a coach talk about maximizing Michael Bradley's strengths. >We now have an actual soccer mind (GM) involved in hiring a coach and running the program. >MLS/DA is now developing better players than ever. In closing, not a disaster.
Literally every explanation you give reminds me it was a total disaster. I don't what stage of grief people are in by now to have threads like this. As far as credibility is concerned, the sport leadership in this country is just failing incredibly. They are lucky to be positions with close to zero accountability, because most of them would have been fired elsewhere.
FIFA are recommending the A-League form it's own governing body and that FFA will be suspended if they don't comply with certain regulations.
We do have a lot more talent coming through the pipeline, in the roughly 16-21 year old age group right now, than we previously had. Additionally, virtually everything that could have gone against us this past Hex did including some bad luck and we still only missed the WC by the skin of our teeth. So we are near certain to qualify for the next WC and there's a good chance we'll even look good in doing so, and while that's obviously a good thing the danger now is that the improved talent pool and lack of some bad breaks that went against us the past cycle bail out the USSF leadership, we assume everything is fine, and the structural problems never actually get fixed.
The USSF Board of Directors are mainly unpaid volunteers elected by mainly unpaid volunteers. The people probably most responsible for the 2018 failure, Gulati, Klinsmann and Arena have gone. I don't know what responsibilities Dan Flynn has with regard to the NT. The USSDA is finally producing top class players and the under-20s have put together their best back to back World Cup performances ever. The team that played against a full-strength France looked phenomenal considering there were no starters under 25 and several players haven't played for their club's senior team. And Pulisic was missing. I think the partnership with MLS is hugely important with the MLS teams taking responsibility for increasing access to soccer in under-served communities. Whether the SUM partnership is ethical or not it's working in creating a healthy balance sheet. The question I would ask, is what is the consolidated long-term USSF strategy and what's being done to "legalize" solidarity payments.
I think that other than SUM having a bigger interest in developing players for Mexico than the U.S., the solidarity thing is the biggest issue in U.S. soccer.
Absolutely. And, if they can sell players, they will have incentive to cast a wider net. Develop more players. Some of those players will be only eligible for the U.S. or will pick U.S.
The reason for pointing that out is that is a lot of non-MLS supporters seem to think that MLS is partially or totally to blame. Really MLS should be backing the Yedlin case.
Oh, MLS is to blame. There is a ridiculous dearth of U.S. eligible players playing midfield and forward positions. I've given up watching the league. There is a limited number of hours a week to watch soccer. If I'm not going to be watching our league giving a lot of U.S. eligibles a lot of opportunity, I'll watch something else. I'll look for U.S. eligibles in other leagues, or watch NWSL. But, establishing solidarity payments would help.
I will be a good thing as long as we clear the slate, and don't let older players back on the field. We have plenty of good young players and we should use this opportunity to play them all.
This is just crazy talk, it really is. SUM is basically marketing MLS plus a mix of other things. Their long-term foundation is going to be a successful MLS and they would love to have young Americans they can market. This is even leaving aside the issue that the player development side of MLS is actually run by the player development side of MLS. As to the WC being a disaster, it certainly was a disappointment and a missed opportunity but I'm not sure that it was more than that.
If we don't qualify for Qatar either the blessing-in-disguise is going to be so huge that after that we'll be winning the 2026 World Cup at home.
In the sense that interest in the US in the sport of soccer didn't collapse in 2018, then the US failure to qualify wasn't a complete disaster. I'd argue that this was a legitimate fear of a US failure to qualify for the World Cup, all the way up until 2010 or so. But a housecleaning of USSF is necessary after a failure like the 2018 cycle.
England not qualifying for the 1974 and 1978 World Cup and the 1972 and 1976 Euros was a disaster. Missing 1994 was not as it turned out.
If the missing of the WC were to have lit a fire under the ass of US Soccer, it would've been worth missing the additional exposure during the WC. That doesn't seem to have happened. Still, this thread makes more sense than the one about not building around Pulisic.