Copa America Brasil '19: USA Invited

Self-correction: they qualified back in 2002, albeit without Japan/Korea, a bit like qualifying in Concacaf without the US and Mexico taking 2 spots...

I'm of the opinion that more matches is almost always better. We make money too? A bonus. We need to get used to tournaments of high quality opposition, so the more chances to test kids vs CCaf, and regulars vs. Conmebol, the better.

 

I think it could best be summarized this way:

It's much easier to jump from 125 to 50, then it is from 50 to 15, just as it is much easier for us to climb from 30-35 (if I recall correctly, a touch worse than we've been at our worst the past decade) to 15-20, then it is from 15-20 to 5-10.

The higher you get, the harder it gets.

Think of it this way, what new teams entered, and sustained a position inside the big 10 over the past 50 years (say England's World Cup)?

1966-1980:
Yugoslavia
Netherlands
Argentina

1981-1995:
France
Spain
Belgium (maybe?)

1996-2010:

Portugal

Czech Republic (1996-2006)

African Team (Cameroon/Nigeria/Ghana-to my mind there has been a top 10 caliber African team in world soccer just about every cycle since 1990-but it's evolved over time, rather than consistently being any one team)

2011-2017:
I think Ghana fits from 2005 to the present

In terms of new teams crashing into the top 10 and sticking around, the only teams off the top of my head that have done it in relatively modern times are Argentina, Netherlands, the pieces of the former Yugoslavia (makes you wonder just how incredible Yugoslavia would have been if it had never split apart considering Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Bosnia have all qualified for the world cup as relatively small pieces of what once was Yugoslavia and Montenegro has been consistently competitive), a trio of African sides that kind of passed the baton to one another, the Czech Republic which had a golden generation that made the Euro Final in '96, semifinals and were the best team at Euro '04, and the World Cup in '06 before injuries and age left them a distant memory, we have Ghana, which to me, has been a top 10 world side since 2005, and lastly Portugal which kind of broke the schneid that had largely sidelined them after England '66 at Euro '00, and since then they've been a consistent top 10-12 power in the world (although it was the '00-'06 generation, rather than the Ronaldo generation that was their most impressive team, unfortunately for viewers, it was Ronaldo's less impressive side that actually won the hardware this past summer, instead of Figo's classic golden generation squad.

Additionally there are France and Spain which entered the fray later than Germany and the Dutch, but were also weird entrants in tht both sides were always legit powers but just didn't seem to play well as international sides until much more recent times as compared to say, Germany or Sweden or Brazil.

So to me, you've got somewhere between 2-3 international sides that climb into consistent top 10 status a decade (or so). It's pretty damn rare, and amongst the teams I list, only a handful are actual teams that came in largely w/o much of a prior pedigree. Countries like France and Spain and Portugal and some others I mentioned were not so much surprises as countries that just got their act together, while other countries had their time and went away, and I don't know enough about Argentina to get why it took them a while to be relevant. So if you take that into account, the only real new entrants that have had staying power are probably the African nations and the Netherlands.

So clearly, making a run at perennial top 10 consideration for the soccer nouveau riche has been extraordinarily difficult unless the various countries had a preexisting pedigree. I think just assuming China can make it because of numbers is as silly to me as thinking the same of the US. It takes so much more than that. They are also huge huge fans of basketball there too, so even if they wanted to dump all their eggs into soccer, it wouldn't happen, as basketball already has huge built in support. I think they're just as likely to become an excellent basketball nation as a soccer nation in the near term.

The good news for us is that I do believe soccer is continuing to have a stronger, and stronger influence on youngsters than ever before. It's night and day compared to the 80's for kids, and even the early nineties. Add in every other development and I suspect that by '26 we'll have a legit chance of making a deep run w/some breaks going our way and health.

 

Mentality is the #1 reason why we've been a consistent Top 20 for a while.

Judging by individual quality of our players, we shouldn't belong there. But it's been the never-say-die attitude plus the great stamina that always pulled us back from the edge.

 

bump, any news on this since the May 11th story? I am kinda praying we accept the invite considering the World Cup just went spinning down the toilet.

 

Not to mention the 2021 Confed Cup seems to be at risk too, vastly reducing the significance of the Gold Cups. US won't really have anything major to play for, for a solid 5 years if they don't go to these CONMEBOL events.

 

I can't imagine the rationale for not accepting.

 

https://tradingeconomics.com/brazil/exports
Exports from Brazil jumped 18.1 percent to USD 18.67 billion in September 2017 from USD 15.80 billion a year earlier, boosted by higher sales of primary goods (30.2 percent) and industrial products (10.3 percent), of which manufactured (12.4 percent) and semimanufactured (5.8 percent). Among major trading partners, exports increased to China (43.3 percent), the US (8 percent) and Argentina (25.9 percent

 

I have a feeling that we will soon only have one Gold Cup a cycle.
2019 - Possible Copa America in Brazil
2020 - Copa America in America
2021 - Gold Cup

 

I don't see how they could have a Confed Cup in 2021. It would have to be in the summer when the temperature is ridiculous. They can rearrange the scheduling for WC 2022 to be in the winter, but they can't do that for the Confed Cup.

 

We have never been so desperate for a Copa invite then we are now

 

We have the invite. The question is has it been accepted.

 

I see no reasons not to accept. We need as many competitive tournaments we can get into for the next five years.

 

Agreed. That would be one of, if not the worst thing that the USSF could do for the senior team.

 

Back to back Copa Americas, one in South America, next up here, would be awesome.

Well, going to the WC would be awesome but beggars can't be choosers.

 

FIFA has already said they will put the Confed Cup in a different country.

 

I'd be careful calling any team a joke team at this moment.

 

Can South America resend it's invitation after what the USA just did?

 

Gulati: extraordinarily unlikely for #usmnt to play in 2019 Copa America #ussf #ussoccer

— Michael Lewis (@Soccerwriter) January 18, 2018

 

lol, does the US have anything planned in 2019 besides the Gold Cup? Don't tell me the GC took precedence....

 

Uh...what?

Also how is that his decision?

 

I hope it is just his opinion and not his decision.

 

I'm sure it isn't his decision. It's probably Garber's.

 

First, I don't see how Gulati's opinion on this can be at all binding. Second, I think the US should go to the Copa.

However, I can see the argument for not doing it. I think that as long as you're part of a confederation, you have to take that confederation's tournament somewhat seriously. In other words, it's kind of unfair for the US to say, "The Gold Cup is stupid, and we don't want to waste time competing in that. We'd rather go to the Copa. But we still want a better chance of qualifying for the WC, so we'd never entertain fully joining CONMEBOL." So, if it's only possible to send the A-team to one major tournament that summer, I think you're obligated to prioritize the GC, especially since that's been the "A-team GC." And if that's the case, it might not really be worth for the US or desirable for CONMEBOL to send a B-team to the Copa.

 

We should play both Copa and GC.

Copa should be primarily a Euro team and GC a domestic team.

This way we develop depth. Euro managers will be happier having their assets displayed in Conmenbol and GC will be a decent test of Stateside strength while making it less logistically difficult for stateside players to travel.