Time for a total US Soccer house cleaning, starting with Gulati all the way down. The entire system needs a nuking.
That was pretty wacky to watch unfold. Give credit to Panama and Honduras - and frankly T&T for fighting. That's sport.
I don't even feel bad. The US just never looked like they cared throughout this. The talent should've been there to easily make 2nd or 3rd with a push for 1st place, but it's like they expected to just walk it in. Utterly pathetic. If this doesn't start the process of massive change, then we can probably expect to see more of this down the line.
How many years has US Soccer been set back after today? We tried to say we were continually getting better and just on the verge of greatness and now we have become irrelevant overnight. The USMNT has given this country a wound so deep it won't even begin to heal for 4 years.
US Soccer will be fine if it is swift with changes. Gulati and Arena need to go. Immediately build to the future. Guys like Howard, Bradley, and Dempsey should never see the field again.
I stand by my comment that we made it too easy for our best players to come back to be "the man" rather than compete week in and week out for their spots. Maybe these were the wrong guys (because say what you want, but LD--and KB--did flourish in MLS and on the world stage), or maybe we need to evaluate what role MLS should be playing (do we want expansion, should we look at pro/rel, etc). If we start with a blank slate, we have to consider role of MLS).
Pro/rel will never be a thing, and it wouldn't improve the US players anyway. Time and investment into the youth structure is what will help down the line. As long as MLS keeps improving, it'll eventually get to a point that more US players will choose soccer over one of the other big sports. If you're a talented kid and have a choice of soccer vs football, baseball, basketball, or hockey, most kids will choose any of those others.
Pathetic effort, yet again. At least RSL won't be missing many players next year during world cup timeframe. Gives MLS an excuse to avoid fixing their international break overlaps for at least another two years.
If the US gets the 2026 world cup? ~8 years, assuming the US qualifies for that one. If the US doesn't get the 2026 world cup? Who knows. Tell me who the next generation of player is that's going to be the big hitter. Pulisic and.......? He's 19 ********ing years old, who else is out there? Altidore, done. Bradley, done. Dempsey, done. Who the ******** is going to be the face of US Soccer outside Pulisic for the next cycle or 2? Those faces currently don't exist and honestly of the "potentials" out there I'm just not seeing anyone that fills that role.
continued development and local support of lower level leagues as we see with the healthier USL teams will be very good also. If youth in the US see that there's not just MLS an international jobs, but also lower level league paying jobs as players, there will be more interest. Soccer needs to emerge culturally as a true equivalent in 'mind share' as hockey so that player development at the lowest levels is encouraged by the local parks and recreations folks, the parents of Sally and Johnny, etc.
Just glad they got rid of Klinnsman when they did! Imagine how we would have felt if he failed to get the US thru. Oh wait?
Not going to happen until pay-to-play goes out the window and it becomes easier for coaching licenses and reffing licenses to be acquired. As it stands it's extremely expensive to put kids through the camps/clubs/teams needed to make any significant waves as a player, those costs are what is holding development back. You think the really good kids down at whatever park in whatever city have the money to get into the comp clubs? Not a chance. What will happen with a better paying USL-level league is more guys coming from CONCACAF and CONMEBOL regions who are willing to play for a modest salary and already have baseline development/skills needed to compete right now. We'll see the region as a whole get stronger, but the US will continue to flounder because US kids aren't being developed properly.
That's why there needs to be more investment in the youth. If you can go to the academy for free, you open up a lot more options for some of these kids. I think MLS clubs would likely see a good return on investment if they were to more heavily invest in bringing up quality youth. With a population this big, there has to be plenty of Donovan level players, with some Pulisic level players as well. I'm sure there's even higher potential players out there as well that will never get a chance due to the pay to play system we currently have.
it is possible (and reality) that he wasn't the right guy AND Bruce Arena failed. These things aren't mutually exclusive. Mods - might I suggest we create a USMNT Failure thread. This is going to be a hot topic for some time
I am gutted now that the US failed to qualify. Having said that, I can stomach enough to be thankful that the Old Guard will now be dismantled. Fresh blood, new faces and young legs. That's what we should be expecting (and demanding) to see. 'Bout damn time. Start moving forward NOW.
Players that shouldn't wear the badge ever again that were part of this last round of qualifiers: Tim Howard Rimando Beasley Zusi Cameron Bradley Bedoya McCarty Feilhaber Dempsey Wondo Players that need to be phased out before the next qualifying cycle: Guzan Gonzalez Besler Ream Players that could be part of next cycle: Yedlin Nagbe* Pulisic Arriola Acosta Wood Altidore* * These two need to be seriously evaluated. They'll be over 30 for the 2022 world cup. Are they worth it? Whats shocking on that list is how many players we need to get into the national team. The u23 guys need to be given their first team chances now. Probably yesterday, in fact.
The youth need to be given those minutes. Sadly, I feel as if this won't be a wake up call, and we'll go back to playing the same people that couldn't get it done.
Some of them likely should have been phased out before this cycle. But yes they need to be gone. They should all announce their retirement from international soccer. Couldn't agree more. They bring nothing that can't be developed by playing younger players. They simply did not seize the opportunities given them. Agreed again. Nagbe struggles because he doesn't have a role with Pulisic. He's not a winger because he doesn't track back. He can't play alongside Pulisic because he isn't tough enough. And he can't play centrally because Pulisic is much better than him. He is talented but is limited when not playing his position. Altidore is simply not the answer and never developed into the point forward we all have been waiting for going on a full decade now. The other players should continue to receive call-ups and caps. The entire focus should be on 2022. Schedule Barbados or Antigua and Barbuda for sometime in November. The sole purpose of this game would be to feed Dempsey so he can break the scoring record. Then you sub him off with a standing ovation and thank him for this years of play. You sub off Howard, Bradley and the others so they can have rousing send offs as well. Then you turn the page and focus entirely on the youth movement and playing players younger than 28. Full stop.
I thought that Grant Wahl's piece in SI was spot on. Also, he floats Lagerway as possible GM for US Soccer, which I thought was an interesting idea: https://www.si.com/soccer/2017/10/1...-president-usmnt-world-cup-qualifying-failure
Also, I wanted to say this: First, I fully agree that any player who will be too old to play in 2022 should be done as of now (or maybe have a send-off game for them). We need to re-focus everything on youth and preparing those players. That being said, I really feel for some of those guys. Especially Bradley. That guy has the passion and talent, but the system has really failed him and, ultimately, robbed him of another World Cup experience. Similarly for Cameron, and some of the others. Also, I can't help but give respect to the players who were willing to talk to the media after the T&T debacle: Bradley, Howard, Gonzalez, and Altidore. I can't imagine trying to face the media after that.
I've seen lots of calls for the end of pay-for-play youth setups. Could someone walk me through how that's supposed to work? Who pays for coaching if it's not the players' parents? Outside of professional team academies (and the occasional need-based scholarship), I don't understand why anyone would have the incentive to pay for someone else's kid to play soccer. It's my understanding that outside of the highest level in Italy, where funds come from professional team academies, it's essentially a pay-for-play system.
Eh The system certainly didn't HELP Bradley, but even as one of his biggest fans I was livid with him recently. I mean, Lalas nailed it. He is too zen these days. The bite that made him so fun to watch while in Italy is almost entirely gone. When it's the 90th min in T&T, you're losing, and have to score to stay alive - that's when the captain emerges. He didn't. He was piss poor and lethargic and it killed me to watch. Which is a point I'm not seeing enough. I love the talk about what can be done to "fix" US Soccer. This is a healthy thing. However, no matter what you think of the talent that the US had on the pitch, we simply shouldn't lose to T&T. No matter how poor you think Tim Howard has become, or Gonzo, or Bradley, or Altidore, or Dempsey, etc... those guys still have the talent to beat T&T. Blame Arena if you want, but that game specifically is all on the players, to me.
I'd be interested to know how this would work, too. When my kid went from rec to comp, the fee went from $70 to about $600. Plus coaches' fees of about $40/month. It's no wonder the best high school teams all come from the more affluent neighborhoods. A lot of those kids have personal trainers, etc. If we went away from pay-to-play, where do the funds come from?