Being fair, I completely agree with the second point, you know, 'cause they play in CONCACAF and compared with the Dutch, they're a bunch of scrubs.
LOL... USA is more likely to win a world cup than Netherlands? Lol. I would say women's Netherlands are more likely to win a wc compared to US than men's US to Netherlands. Lol
Mostly added it to add context to the last quote, but even then the US right now looks like a team that will struggle to qualify to the next WC(though I think they will) than the Dutch even with being in a harder qualifying zone.
I disagree, only a few teams get matched up with difficult opponents, Europe has more than its share of scrubs. Once the wc is expanded than sure the US will be the safer bet, but I would not be confident that the us qualifies easily. I’ve seen nothing to make me think it will not be a grind.
That was the most absurd comment. Netherlands is the best to have never won it, they’re beasts and imo among the best in development. Delusional doesn’t come close to describing these dudes.
I assume the thinking is that Holland has maxed out on their potential and has come up short whereas the US has a higher ceiling that just needs to be reached. It all ties back to the arrogant fundamental American mentality that the US is the best in everything it tries to do.
US dominates sports they invented mostly. In footy, they’re decades behind and I don’t think I’ll see a US men’s team ever be considered a power. Growth isn’t linear, it’s impossible to max out potential. Imo, you need a solid soccer culture, a strong organized infrastructure, and then hope/wait for a strong generation of players to come through to make a deep run. The US has none of the 3 going for itself. What it does have is money, money to run a not so great league, and influence in the media to always sugar coat the bad and pump sunshine propaganda.
I tell people who ask me about US soccer and where I see it going that US doesn't have the coaching or structure at the youth level to get to where the other top countries are. In baseball, football, basketball, etc they have good coaching from the time they start at age 5. In soccer every rec league has subpar coaching. Another thing is that even in travel soccer, the coaches are playing the bigger/faster/stronger kids that don't develop footy skills so as they get older they don't have the techniques to compete with top players.
ive always felt there was an unconscious level of typical American prejudice (or perhaps racism) when they bring up the "if only LeBron/Kobe/Jordan" or "if only kids in urban areas played soccer". i mean why doesnt anyone ever say "if only Phil Mickelson had decided to be the best left-footed US player of all-time". or "if only the uber-competitive Larry Bird had chosen to be a GK instead of an NBA great".
As a U8 coach I can attest to the shitty coaching, as a shitty bombero coach myself. Our league was short 8 coaches, meaning parents had to step up. The kids are drastically varied in terms of skill which makes it very challenging to conduct practices that benefit everyone. I’m watching YouTube videos and trying but I know I’m letting them down on some level. They deserve a real coach. The kids should also be split up and allowed to play with more evenly matched kids. Let the kids who’ve never played and immature play non competitive where they can develop basic skills with no pressure. Let the early bloomers play competitively with each other. My kids have gotten a beat down in two games. 8-0 and 8-2. My own kid is sounding like he may not want to play anymore....which sucks because he does have some talent there, but the losing and having dad as his coach are not helping. So you can argue I’m actively hurting us soccer,
There is usually one or two groups in UEFA WC qualifying every cycle that has three strong teams and only two of them would be able to qualify or advance to a playoff... That is really the danger of not qualifying out of UEFA, which group you get...
Drills are tough, I have no assistants so sometimes they’re train wrecks. It’s getting better... Different passing drills, give and goes, shooting drills, sometimes simple tag or dribbling games. Mostly scrimmaging with lots of coaching to simply not chase the ball. They want to chase the ball then lack the aggression to challenge for the ball once they’re their. It’s hard af. I have a mixture of 5,6, and 7 yr olds. The 5 year olds have almost zero attention spans.
there definitely is implicit bias in the notion that "black people are better athletes" and it gets casually applied all the time just like in mexico people talk about recruiting youth outside of the DF and GDL - which is happening I gather - the US could see a bump in performance if soccer was viewed as an appealing sport for the overall population i'm thinking D2 point guards and even golfers like you mention. Phil is right handed, I believe. He plays as a leftie after watching and mimicking his dad swing. He's also not the best example of an "athlete who chose another sport" lmao. the idea the US would dominate reflects the arrogance of the US sports fan, but it is hard to see them not improving when pay to play is less pervasive and technical capabilities of coaches improves in just a few weeks of AYSO, it's super obvious that the technical capacity continues to be a huge weakness in the sport domestically
^^^ toooooootally off-topic, but that's even more incredible. fck, golf mechanics are difficult enough doing it with your dominant hand. OK, how about Bill Laimbeer as a destroying mid. just shows you how ridiculous those "what if Martin Scorcese has chosen soccer instead of film" arguments are.
The specific instances always ring hollow Even Earl Woods saying Tiger would be a point guard at UCLA if he wasn’t a golfer is suspect That’s not exactly how it works