The problem with this kind of thinking is for example if you don't see the search result on Google you assume it must not exist. When an entire race of kids has been shut out of soccer at the very early stage of age 8 or younger you then naturally see very few YOU can point at. Someone has curated your player search and so you think they must not exist. When I am in Germany I take my kids to play at a local team for free. They invite you in. After 1.5 hrs my boys come back bruised , battered, black eyes and swollen shins. That is the game. Fast. Furious. Physical. When in the US I go through a methodical and expensive , as in thosuands of dollars of tests and requirdments and medical forms and diagnostics and questionnaires. It is mind blowing how bloody awful they then are at a soccer practice that has zero heart. You know what I do? I go to the nearest Mexican restaurant near my house run by Mexicans or latins. I talk to the cooks or owner all of them and I ask them, where do your kids play soccer. Because they are so goddamn disenfranchised they always create their own league. Sometimes officially, sometimes unofficially. I then show up with my boys. Talk to the coach who eyes my blond boys wearily and then they go play and proceed to come back bruised , battered, physically drained. I recommend you try this. Watch the level these kids play at. Feel the intensity. Then watch our T&T match or the Bosnia match. There is a gap. It is a gap based on entitlement. That is why you see no fire in the US based player. He is spoilt rotten.
The amazing thing is that on Extra Time last night, Meola and Dunseth were talking about Zardes and how there must be something wrong with him since the injury. He is, was and always has been a donkey. Prior to his injury, he had guys playing around him that could lead his donkey tail to the trough and all he had to do was drink. He has zero brains in his feet. He may be an athlete, but we all know how well those do in the beautiful game without the technique to go with it. I hate that guys who have platforms in soccer have too much invested in the current status quo to actually shed light on things as they actually are. Meola is a paid employee of US Soccer. Dunseth has relationships with these guys that doesn't allow him to say what is blatant too all who watch these players. I guess we need a soccer journalist who is not an ex-player and whose ability to obtain news isn't tied to the very people about whom that person is reporting. I understand that relationships mean access. But relationships also mean bias and inability to speak truth to power. As awful as the federation is and has been, our media has to shoulder some of the blame as well.
Media coverage is driven by the fans/consumers. If enough people demand and pay for coverage, the media will provide it. Sadly, I believe the voice of the soccer community is still too tiny in this country for the media to react to. Wonder why every news website you visit always have some articles about the Kardashian clan? It's because people wanted it. They view it, they click on it, they read it, they shared it, they tweeted it....so the media respond by providing more Kardashian coverage.
Correct and none of those consumers will be watching the USA in Russia this summer and consequently there will be no coverage and no need for media. They can take the summer off, without pay. And when the empty seats get more numerous at MLS games the media can go ask their bosses for a transfer to the baseball department at which point they will be told "thanks, Judas, your services are no longer required, here is your severance pay, thirty pieces of silver now go hang yourself for all we care".
ah, the ol' chicken or egg question- there's very good evidence that if the product is good or better than good, people will engage- doesn't mean they'll BUY- most people don't buy news anymore. also, we know content forms change. mush of my soccer news comes via podcasts, for instance.
That is not true. The media is paid by the soccer apparatus in some cases , think Doyle for example. Other members of our soccer media are exiled when they make any disparaging comment. As in completely shut out. Some are fired entirely from their jobs and then are only rehired if they promise to play nice : never say a disparaging word about Michael Bradley. Tim Howard. Clint for some reason gets abused. So did JJ. FabJ gets trounced. Jozy clearly can't take criticism. Watch your back Sacha! I wrote above about the entitlement of the players. I should have also noted the absolutely pampered, ignorant and arrogant coaches, coaching staff, administrators, and committee members.
That's not a soccer issue, but a social issue. And it's not going to get fixed by anything done by the USSF. The sport needed money to grow. That's why the system is the way it is. And you can't have too many of "those people" getting help to play with the middle class kids because, well, after a point people get uncomfortable and the paying costumers start leaving. At any rate, it's a social problem and you cannot just force integration in a country where most people are still stuck in the 50s.
For those needing to wash the bad taste out of their mouth from Sarachan's bizarre show in Carson, consider that Sarachan wont have to bow to any heavy pressures in selecting his team to play Japan in Italy, if that game is actually going to happen that is. Pulisic will want to play that one and lineup pretty much writes itself. With some small adjustment here and there probably in the cards - for injury, form etc., - I see ------------------Sargent----Pullisic ---chandler--wes----Williams----Parks--Yedlin ----------------Ream---Brooks---Miazga ---------------------gk:Hamid (Klinsmann) Can call Saief in and play the 433 as well. I"d take Ream over Chandler at fb in the 433 but people never learn and will insist that chandler has to play there. Also have EPB available to fill in for an injury --------------Saief-----Sargent----Pulisic --------------Wes-------Williams--Parks ----------Ream---Brooks---Miazga---Yedlin ------------------GK: Hamid (Klinsmann) What's so nice and easy here is that we don't have to pick 3 mids out of Acosta, Nagbe, Bradley, Durkin, Jonathan Gonzalez, Carleton, Trapp, Adams, Roldan, Delgado,Rowe, Nguyen, Feilhaber, Kljestan, Sean Davis, McCarty, Polster, So, you can see where we went wrong in 2017. The team didn't pick itself. We asked our manager to do it.
It's high time to give Yarbrough another look. He's improved a lot in the last year. I know you're using only Europe-based guys in your lineups, but I just needed to mention it at this point.
off topic wow, hope that wasn't Klinsi - helicopter crash in Newport Beach https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...outhern-california/ar-BBIuc5T?ocid=spartanntp
My feelings after watching that game is that you cant judge anything with the likes of Dave Sarachan running the show. He is an Arena sock puppet and like Arena, can't win a somewhat easy game. From some of the players called in to the starting lineup to the final result... He failed on every level. I truly hope a real coach is hired very soon... one that will use the best players, not idiots like Zardes. One that has no biases towards older players (why Arena failed) and one that that can actually take the USA back to a high level. I have high hopes but I never want to see Dave Sarachan run a USA team again
I think even the media was disappointed which is a rarity when a manager puts a screwy lineup out there. Imagine Sarachan's dismay when instead of the usual kumbaya, wink and nod from media he reads tolmich over at SBIsoccer This isn’t meant to be any sort of knock on the experienced faces, but we know Jordan Morris. We know Gyasi Zardes. We’ve seen them dozens of times and we know what they’re capable of. Yet, as January camp concludes, we don’t know Christian Ramirez. We don’t know Brooks Lennon or Danny Acosta or Justen Glad. We don’t know Russell Canouse or Ian Harkes or Nick Lima or Marky Delgado. The USMNT offered a taste of some newcomers with the likes of Matt Polster, Zack Steffen and Ike Opara earning their debuts, but it didn’t feel like enough. Now, that could have been for a number of reasons, and the U.S. still has a whopping five years to cap and integrate new faces. But if you aren’t going to give some of the more promising young players a chance to play in January camp, when will you? Finally somebody seems to have had enough. I was wondering if the crowd had to dwindle to 3 drunk outlaws before somebody would start kicking back
Based on the highlights of this game, I cannot see the USA qualifying for Qatar if this continues for the next 5 years. Drastic change is needed and soon.
Honduras looks unlikely to recover, Costa Rica seems set to continue a slow descent, and Panama's Golden Generation will be over by then. On the other hand, Jamaica may become scary. But we're set to qualify, not based on our merits but on the fact that the other C-CAF countries are going to be weaker. We're going to get punked in Qatar though.
I'm not sure where you're getting that from. USSF's leadership is a gigantic millstone around the MNT's neck that is certainly capable of allowing another missed World Cup.
All of this is totally true. Having coached at the whitest of white clubs in Denver, I can attest to what Sam is saying. And I don't think I ever won when we played the Mex league teams.
Dude, he had a puppy to take care of. You know sometimes you got to do the right thing and put family first. RESPECT!