I guess I am one of those lost fans. This hasn't happened overnight and I rarely post here anymore as it is. I have rabidly followed the USMNT since the early 90's, driven and flown to matches to watch the team play countless times, world cup trips, sam's army and outlaws member, etc. I have lost interest considerably with growing disillusionment since Klinnsmann was re-upped... but the Arena retread and Sarachan extendo caretaker gig and over a year to hire berhalter were the final nails in the coffin for me. The realization has firmly set in, that following this team under our woefully inept federation is a fool's folly. I can and will do better things with my free time. I will casually watch the games still, if I have nothing better to do, but i'm not clearing my schedule or the like for any of it anymore. ...It's where I am at. The fed has lost me as a rabid fan. I am guessing I am probably not alone? I know this won't be a popular post with some, but I'm just more curious how many others are at the same point (and yeah, I know the "if you really didn't care, you wouldn't be here..." argument...)
I think things are just getting interesting. The US probably has more raw talent than ever before. Berhalter has 8 years to prepare for a World Cup. If you look at the talent between the ages of 16 and 20 and double it then it's going to be a very exciting time. And you have a manager who's committed to putting a winning team on the pitch, rather proving that his way is right or wrong. England is my native team but I'm far more excited about the US.
Maybe. Have heard it all before to be honest tho. I have meager expectations at this point, so it would be nice to be pleasantly surprised.
I am like the OP in a lot of ways. Started following the the team in Italia '90, and have traveled to World Cup matches and meaningless Camp Cupcake friendlies all to support the boys, but have found my interest waning recently. I am not sure how much is the feds fault though and how much is just a natural evolution. Club football has become much more important to me and where I used to look forward to international weekends, as much for non US as US games, I now dread them. A combination of corruption, supporters mixed with the rise of nationalism, and genuinely low quality matches has all contributed to this. None of which is USSF's fault. But where I do blame the fed is the coaching search. Maybe GB will turn out to be an inspired choice, and I would love it if people call me out on this post in 4 years because it means we're doing well in the W.C. which is more important than being right in a meaningless online forum. But it feels like a massive missed opportunity. This is the same choice we made in in '99, and '06, not that either of those were massive failures but hoped we'd moved beyond that. Anyways hope my interest begins to return with the G.C. and the qualifiers. With any luck they'll capture my heart again and force me to hold my nose and enjoy the travesty that is Qatar '22.
Maybe it's time to start following Canada with their 3-1-6 formation, the 6 being: Davies (Bayern Munich); David (Gent); Cavallini (Puebla); Ballou Tabla (Barcelona); Millar (Liverpool) and Larin (Beşiktaş). Jonathan Osorio can be the attacking midfielder. Then they just need some fast-track immigration for a few decent defenders and they're world beaters.
The Federation has some major issues to be sure. But we've been turning out better and better talent each cycle. That gives me some joy. Absent some major outside financial pressure, I dont expect major changes from the federation. Not on leagues or grassroots. Partially that's due to the ongoing lawsuit vs NASL. Otherwise, I dont know. This just isn't like most nations where what the FA does is highly scrutinized by press BEYOND hardcore soccer blogs. I see USSF as still halfway in an Olympic sideshow territory where there is a high amount of concentrated attention during the WC then, meh. Carlos Cordiero is not the same mainstream figure as Goodell, Silver, Bettman or Selig (yeah I know but hes more memorable than the new guy). What's more, even accounting for the issues above, it's going to be a mother to get anything APPROACHING organization on the youth side. It was an ask getting it done in Belgium and Germany, after all.
What lawsuit? The frivolous one against the divisional standards that NASL insisted on creating? Any hearing is at least 9 months away.
77,000 World Cup tickets have been bought by Americans, around a quarter of the total. Women's World Cup that is.
I guess I could say I'm more interested given that before the World Cup failure I was finding NT friendlies increasingly less watchable, and ever since the failure I've caught most of them. I do agree about becoming a less rabid fan than I once was, but for me that's much more of a natural mellowing than because of federation incompetence and/or corruption.
That's a fair point. I'm a bit more detached from sports these days. Also, I've been a soccer fan for almost 21 years now; when I first got into it I was absolutely obsessed and determined to make up for lost time (I was already in my early 30's). Now, my fandom is mellower. Also, my wife doesn't enjoy watching games like she used to and our son is off to college, so the days of watching National team matches together as a family are mostly over. That could all change, though.
I still follow the Women's side of out national team BUT I am no longer following the men after seeing that the "new" guard is really no different than the "old" guard. The men are playing like they are afraid of making a mistake and we are trying our hardest to play "not to lose" instead of playing to win. There is zero creativity and that makes for boring soccer and my time is too valuable to waste watching such displays of cowardice. So I will no longer be watching the US men sort of play soccer at least until there are real and meaningful changes made. I know it is no big loss for the men to lose me as a fan but it is still a loss, albeit a small one.
I actually watched the men's team for the first time in quite a while (the Panama game). It wasn't great soccer but my wife and I are already planning on watching the Costa Rica game tomorrow. Sorta makes me think--some of this waxing-and-waning fandom is likely due to factors other than the quality of play, the direction the Federation is taking, etc. At least for me.
Is this really an issue? Win and scrutiny and fans will come back. A certain portion will ALWAYS have it out for the federation but it's still sports. Win and fans will turn out.
I rarely watch Friendlies anyway, except for maybe the ones just before the world cup, so it doesn't make a difference unless they fail to qualify. I wouldn't have watched these winter friendlies either way- although, if I could attend in person I probably would.
England went through a similar phase when they failed to qualify for two successive World Cups in the 70s. Just 45k for a Euros qualifying game at Wembley! Then after the 1990 World Cup, supporting your national team became synonymous with patriotism. Blame this guy!
Part of it is also having so much time between competitive fixtures. By the time the Gold Cup kicks of it's going to be over 20 months between meaningful matches. It's hard to keep even the most die hard fans engaged when all your doing is playing friendlies for over a year and a half. Missing the '18 World Cup was a kick in nuts to the US men's program and we'll probably continue to feel the ramifications for the rest of this W.C. cycle. But while it hurts, it won't be fatal, which it might have been if it'd happened earlier.
Bump. This thread is MONTHS old, but I heard something relevant on the United States of Soccer on Sirius XM. Apparently there is a huge story out that former employees of soccer house in Chicago (USSF) have absolutely killed the organization on an online job service website (glassdoor.com, I think). Apparently, the word is that the environment at soccer house is an extremely toxic environment and the word is that the vast majority are saying it is a horrible place to work. He backed it up by saying that people like Miki Turner have heard from employees who seem to confirm that the place is a shitshow. At the end of the segment, Jason Davis said that the word is that with Flynn finally about to leave, it is Gregg Berhalter's BROTHER who looks likely to step into the CEO position. Wow. There is not even a pretense any longer of this being a competent and meritoriously run organization. This could get worse before getting better.
The only thing as insufferable as the Fed is our whiny fan base. I have my issues with the Fed as well, but our fanbase has become so jaded that it looks for failures, and evaluates players and games with confirmation bias... supporting any player they deem valuable based on their preconceived criteria and denigrating others... Honest evaluation is no longer common place and supporting the shield even less so. It has become increasingly difficult to be a USMNT fan both due to our Fed and our fans (not that i will stop having been a fan since the 80s)
Sometimes I worry that it is American's in general that have become insufferable, but then I go to a Rapids game and remember I like most of our fans.
I'll always be a fan but the current toxicity has me wanting to distance myself a bit from too much NT-centered discussion. We're at the point where simple lineup disagreements can lead to "SUM operative" accusations and some fans actively hope that certain players boycott competitive games. It's pretty bizarre.
I used to watch a lot of USMNT games at the home of a friend whose adult son would wait to see who was in the U.S. lineup before deciding whether to root for us or against us. That used to astonish me, but now he seems to have a lot of imitators.
We've finally arrived as a football nation!!! I used to be jealous of my friends from Central and South America who would talk about how incompetent and corrupt their FA's were.