Watching the game today one can't help but make the observation that the starting line up and the team as a whole does not reflect the racial and ethnic diversity in the U.S. This is not the case with France's, England's and Canada's women national teams competing in this World Cup. There are talented girl and women players in the Hispanic/Latino, Asian/Asian Pacific Islander, Afro-America/Black and other ethnic communities in the U.S. Who's at fault - U.S. Youth Soccer/ODP for their lack of identification and recruitment, Pia and her coaching staff for lack of selection, U.S. Soccer for complicity, a coaching philosophy that emphasizes physicality and height/size over skill and speed, the fans and ethnic communities for not being more vocal on this issue and putting pressure on U.S. Youth Soccer, U.S. Soccer and their coaching staffs to change.
Who gives a ********? They're Americans representing the United States of America. Their color of their skin does not matter!
1. We just dominated a team of Latin American players with not just physical play, but great passing and some creative shooting. 2. Your argument about size is wrong. Look at the height of the players in our roster. Most of the girls are between 5-5 to 5-8, with a few players a little taller or a little shorter than that. Wambach is the tallest at 5-11.
Some added thoughts: To be fair, some of the women's players look taller on TV. For instance, during today's game I looked at Heather O'Reilly and thought she was about 5'11 until I took a peek at the roster. What's Bigsoccer going to be like the day our men's or women's team is full of Hispanic or African-American players, and some newbie posts a thread asking why we don't have any white players....for diversity sake. I can only imagine the epithets that will be thrown that poster's way.
Um excuse me...first off ...we do not select our team based on how we can have the most ethnically diverse squad...we base it off of the best players...PERIOD. Secondly to suggest that youth sports are biast against people of other races is ridiculous. Thirdly, MANY players on other national teams actually are U.S. citizens. They often qualify for other national teams under dual citizenship. For many, I am sure if they could qualify for the USWNT they would play for the U.S. However we have 350 million people and only 21 spots. And finally diversity does not necessarily mean visible color differences. Arod and cox are both Latin American and both would probably take offense to your assumptions about lack of Latin Americans. News flash moron...latino's come in all colors.
Good point about the diversity, and it might be related to how expensive club soccer is at the youth level system and how well connected coaches at the youth and college level are to the USSF and big colleges. I do not think it is necessarily a race issue. Lets be real, half of the spots on the USWNT are not composed of the best players in the nation, half of the spots are taken up by players that have been marketed by youth coaches and college coaches. How many players has PIA scouted from outside the USSF wing? If you know of one, please let me know. Does the USSF to diversity...hell yeah...the USMNT has begun too...why not the women?
Well apparently according to this moron all Latino Americans and African Americans are short and unphysical and slow... Well someone need to inform the WNBA and the US Track and Field Team cause they are full of a bunch of imposter's
Colombia was an amateur team,,,heck a PAC 10 team could beat them by 10 goals. Lets be real...a good victory for the US, but lets look at the competition. Diversity is an issue even thou your in denial. The majority of USWNT players are clones, regardless I will be cheering for them because they play for my adopted country!
I didnt hear anyone pushing for just Hispanics...but on that note arod and lopez are not even not the best Hispanic players in america... heck the 4 americans that mexico has on their team are better then them or equal.
The four players on the Mexican team will be in their way home immediately after the next cup. None of them could make the USA team. The one that made the big stink about playing for Mexico because ofnthe better playing style doesn't always start on her college team and doesn't start for Mexico
HYPER-BOL-LEE. We dominated them in a game where we could of had a few more goals. That was my point. Being "Latin" or Hispanic doesn't mean you have Soccer IQ or skills in your DNA and your blood. Diversity is not an issue. What would we do if we had a very diverse team and still lost or only got similar results? Blame the coaches for being too "white and American", not foreign enough to "really know the game". Then what would we do if get foreign coaches and lose or still get the same results? I can't speak for you, but I know in that case a lot of posters on BS would be in denial and making up excuses why things weren't work with a more ethnically diverse team and coaching setup.
Probably because soccer is mostly played by rich/upper class kids, and most rich kids are white. That's just the reality of it. I'm sure that will change over time though.
Not where I live, but I can't speak for other areas. Look at the roster. A lot of players with experience and caps from the US youth national squads on up. Who do you think Pia is going to pick?
I think the poster is touching on the old topic of player development ( socio-economic/demographic bias that still exists) and player selection( which is all on the coaches but who are constrained by the pool) And this is a dead horse beaten to death topic. Nothing new. All I will say is that MLS ( men ) are light years ahead of the women in looking outside of the proverbial box for young talent. I'll say it again, as in other of my posts, the player pool for the ladies will remain the same as long its college based, regardless of demographic trends. Finding that 13 year old winger or striker with track star speed and real soccer skill and IQ, and convincing her not to do track track or basketball, won't happen until there is a pro women's league in the USA where the teams can afford an academy. IMHO, that league is going to be WMLS, many many years from now however.
Maybe. But that's a different kind of diversity issue. Jurgen Klinsmann said it in evaluating the men's team during their last cup. Time to drag it out again [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07O6qsZT7lc&feature=youtube_gdata_player"]YouTube - The Future for U.S. Soccer.MTS‏[/ame] Invert the pyramid, first touch, lower and middle class inclusion. And the development goal shouldn't be the college scholarship.
Like Klinnsman and many others have pointed out, the US has the pyramid upside down with it's pay to play scheme. Hence, soccer in the USA is a sport for the rich, while everywhere else in the world it is a sport for the working class/poor. This hurts us in many ways. One way is in the diversity. Another is in the lack of creative play/players are developed (no pickup/street players, all are in organized overly conservative structure from the time they are young). Another is the lack of plugging in to the ethnic communities that have the pick up games, and will produce the creativity and diversity.
I remember watching Klinsi go off live that day--enjoyed every minute of it. Lalas' face got almost red as his hair. Sometimes, the truth hurts...
Great post, this is dead on. OP you need to take a step back and consider what you're about to say before you start a thread like this. Sorry but it is true.
Twix your off on this one....I live in california and it is great site to see. Many lower leagues, youth and adult teams have some diversity, both culturally and economically. Now at the higher club level and college level that are controlled by the same type of coaches is where woman's soccer faces a roadblock with regards to diversity. If we were not a diverse nation, then it would be a non issue, but we are and have always been!
It's easy to forget because they rarely discuss it much. IIRC Lopez is the only one who can speak Spanish fluently or at least fully displayed she could. I would love to learn more about her and her culture. BoxX is mixed. She talks about it sometimes. The coolest thig I remember reading about her was that she majored in African American studies to learn more about her black side. Those are the ones that can afford the best of the best in the states. In other countries you get some where based solely on your talent and not who your coach is or who you play for. They'll pick you up if you show promise regardless of your financial situation. We don't do that in soccer as much as we do in football and basketall. I think that is because of the amount of minorites involved in those sports. I don't know if soccer in the US is ready or willing to reach a miority audience yet. I was taught the game by an Englishman. no American coach reached out to me and asked me to play. A man for the UK did. There's no quota to meet but it would be hard for a minoritiy to identify with this squad. I wouldn't have latched on if I didn't see someone who looked like me. I thought about this when I saw Puma's new series and the I thought about the diversity they had in players verses nike. Hope I don't offend, but unlike many here I've actually lived and experienced it.