It takes time. 10 years ago, the only kids realistically playing with pros in some capacity were coaches sons like Bradley or Hyndman (Grandson). With the push to MLS academies, this is happening more often. It's going to take time.
I understand what you are saying and agree but it has already taken a great deal of time as the game has grown from a point where the majority of the US population knew absolutely nothing about soccer to the point where it is now. We now have a sizeable population of young kids playing the game as their favorite sport. We have reached the point where improvements in academies and infrastructure can begin to have a significant impact on the rate of improvement in the US. Meanwhile, the base (young kids kicking the ball around and parents that grew up playing the game) will continue to grow. 30 years ago, an academy like FC Dallas would be benificial but would have much less of an impact and be much less effective than it is now simply because the raw material (young players) would not be as pleniful or as talented. I believe that the improvement of soccer in our country (or anywhere) follows a growth curve similar to the curve pictured below. The only question is where are we on the growth curve? For a long time, there was noticeable improvement but it seemed kind of linear. Are we still in that early phase or are we near the point where the curve begins to steepen at a noticeably increasing rate? Will the U-12's be noticeably better than the U-17's and the U-7's be noticeably better than the U-12's? I believe they will be. Part of the reason I believe this is because the curve seems to be steepening without MLS Academies (Until very recently, only a few teams have put real effort into their academies)and this, to me is largely the result of improved base of talent resulting from more kids playing and more parents that grew up with the game. this will only continue and also, MLS academies are ramping up and expanding their efforts. Academies that were in existence are adding younger age groups and previously non-existent academies are starting up. It will be very interesting to see if at least one or two additional teams live up to the hype and follow Dallas' lead in really playing young homegrown players. It is easy to say it in preseason but more difficult to do it during the regular season. I personally am optimistic and looking forward to seeing more young players breaking in. You may be absolutely right about me being overly optimistic. It could easily take 25-30 years (or more) before we are a real threat to win the WC but I think it will come sooner. I hope I am right. In the meantime, it's fun to dream.
I understand. Some of the countries that have solid youth development, began the process 30-40 years ago and have basically been tweaking it. We are trying to tweak a completely different way that the US treats youth soccer. We might win the 2022 WC or even make the semis of 2018. But it's going to take time to get to where Germany or Spain is. IMO, the jumps in progress will get smaller as time goes on.
Ragging on the guy who scored to take Belgium to extra time never made sense. Just lots of folks picked on young Julian to attack Klinsmann by proxy. I agree he will be a quality Bundesliga striker assuming he stays healthy and we can't have too many of them in the pool. Whether he will be first or sixth choice who knows.
I don't think any amount of time is going to change the fact that taking Green to Brazil was the wrong choice. I bet 10 years from now, regardless of who Green turns into, we will remember him in the WC as the defining moment of the JK era. The "I know more than you because you are just lowly Americans who don't understand soccer" attitude that he had throughout his tenure.
Agreed. All those folks on Big Soccer insisting Swansea was dooomed and it was all the players fault goals rained in during Bradley's short tenure got real quiet as Clement & co climbed well out of the relegation zone. Survival is not assured, and yes he got to bring in some fresh talent, but with exact same players Swansea immediately started playing better. Not that Bradley is a bad coach, but he was obviously not ready for the step up to EPL.
Well.................................he had a better World Cup than Wondolowski. He scored against a team that for most of this cycle has been top 5 in the FIFA rankings. I'll go a little one step further with an unpopular opinion: Jurgen Klinsmann did a good job during the 2014 cycle. Won the Gold Cup, finished first in the Hex, advanced past the group stage of the World Cup. By record, 2013 was the best year in USMNT history. By the way, have people checked out the roster of that Belgium team we faced that day? Hello? They brought on Chadli, Lukaku, and Mirallas off the bench. All Premier League caliber players. Earth to everyone..................taking Belgium to extra time was a good result. I know we all wanted the team to be more adventurous and go for the win (Howard bailed us out time and again). But in 2014 that's a kick-ass team to be facing. Klinsmann parked the bus, and it wasn't pretty. It almost got us a result, though. Wondo finishes that chance, and we beat that team with Hazard, de Bruyne, and company. Green finished practically the one chance he had. Why are people bashing Green? Beats me. Post 2014 the effing wheels fell off, but from 2011-2014? Pretty good, actually.
Solid list! The place I'd Question is that the italicized is debateable and fully disagree with the bolded.
I'm gonna go a big step further. JK shouldn't have been let go in November. If he was to be fired, it should have been sooner. I fully believe the results in those two matches and how we played against Costa Rica deserved firing, but having stuck with him that long, we should have seen it through. I don't think qualifying is really at risk, JK has shown many times that he can turn things around, and think he had a chance to do something special with all these kids starting to break through. I think Feilhaber can help us a lot, but I'd rather see Hyndman get his minutes.
Just so we're on the same page, here's 2012-2013 under Klinsmann............. Just 6 losses. Losses to Honduras, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Austria were on the road. Only other losses were to Brazil and Belgium at home. That's a REALLY good stretch. People can hate Klinsmann. That's fine with me. But pre-WC2014, he was doingpretty well. [Kinda reminds me how the USMNT was playing extremely well under Sampson during the 1998 cycle. They beat frickin' Argentina in the 95 Copa America. The performance in the 98WC has erased all the good play from history.]
The point was that we may get a short term result, but that doesn't mean we are where a fully developed soccer country is.
I disagree with 70% of these. It sounded high at first, but after thinking about it, about what I'd expect.
It's fine to disagree with the sentiment and sure most around here do, but the hyperbole isn't necessary. There are obviously full statements in there that you agree with...
It was a joke and I'm sorry you seem to take it so personally when someone disagrees with you. I really don't agree with anything you said. Jk has already proved that he can lose to Honduras, Panama, and Jamaica, and Guatemala. It seemed like every time he sunk to a new low, he would win a few games to give you a little hope. Then, he would find a new low to sink to. I wholeheartedly believe that if we didn't fire him, World Cup qualifying was anything but a guarantee.
Decent joke and I don't take it personally. What part of this do you disagree with? Agreed. He also shown with us and Germany that he could turn things around. I'm sure he could have found another low before 2018, but nobody should be surprised by these results. In retrospect, I think he was stupid not playing these games more conservatively, as these were the only games that would get him fired. He was still close to a draw against Mexico which probably would have saved his job. We'll never know, but I think he would have likely done as he did last cycle after losing to Honduras. He'd have found a way to rally the team and the injection of Hyndman and Arriola or Perez or some other kid to the team would have been as helpful as whoever Arena ends up going with. What is your specific take on this. I interpreted staying away from Feilhaber was more a message that nobody was above the team and I'd rather go with an up and coming almost 21 yo than a guy beyond 30 that has been nothing more than a solid role player and comes with potential issues.
Chandler is actually a good player. He's held down a starting spot in the Bundesliga this season and is one of the better right backs in the league. Sure he hasn't looked great for the national team but perhaps some of that has to do with putting him in a better scheme to succeed....
Disagree Disagree Disagree Debatable Disagree Agree Disagree No Disagree Disagree Disagree. Williams is underrated. Disagree Disagree. Depends on formation. Disagree. Current Arena hasn't proven to be as bad as '06 Arena, our worst coach ever. Agree Disagree Agree Agree. Overrated. Disagree. Possible.
A few unpopular opinions, and given what I've been told, some of these are extremely unpopular, so here's the trigger warning. 1) Our player pool isn't nearly as good as most think and most of the arguments over this player vs that player mean very little as it's still mediocre vs mediocre. 2) MLS is providing very little to our NT. Our best generation ever was developed in a broken landscape with a fraction of the current resources. 3) Our system, employed by both MLS and the USSF is anti-development to its core. Hence, poor development. 4) The tactical acumen in MLS and by extent, large portions of our NT and player pool is below that of many 2nd tier Euro leagues, like Norway/Sweden/Denmark/Greece/Ukraine, even 2nd divisions like C'Ship/2Bund/Segunda. 5) Single entity as employed is one of the worst things for American players. 6) Any truly ambitious and talented teen should do everything possible to sign overseas by 18, particularly in Germany. And no, that does not mean hopping on a plane to Lithuania makes you a better player. 7) Our youth don't have true love for the game. If they did, they and most of our player pool would be far better on the ball. A true love for the game in your youth necessitates hours upon hours of 1v1 time with the ball, on your own, practice, practice, practice, like we see with basketball players. When a Zardes tries to trap the rock and it hits some lady in the face in the 10th row or the best youth American striker in MLS is 22 with essentially zero left foot, they didn't love the game as children. 8) We as a landscape have zero clue how to develop and cultivate creative players. 9) Our current 22-30 or so generation is the most comfortable in our history and it hurts the NT. 10) Pro/rel is in our future and our landscape will be forever limited until down the road it's implemented and true competition allowed to flourish. 150M+ expansion fees and locking out numerous markets is based on a corporate monopoly for the profit of a few rather than the good of the game at large.
The problem with putting too much stock in friendlies and not enough in competitive play is coaches try shit in friendlies. We never should even talk about the scores or results of friendlies. Lest I remind you that our first goal against Germany came because of a nice back post run and great finish by Mix Diskerud of all people. The other key play was that great dummy by Jordan Morris to set up Bobby Wood's game winner. Guess who didn't play in the next competitive match for the US, the opening game of the Gold Cup against Honduras.... Bobby Wood, Jordan Morris, and Mix Diskerud. When it came time to pick a lineup, JK had no strategy in mind so he frequently picked the wrong players. There was no idea of, "we can use Yedlin's pace to counter on the right side if we start a good, technical right midfielder who can spring him down the right side." He would just think, "I like Bedoya's defending ability, so I'll start him." Then, when the opponent blows past Bedoya because Bedoya is slow and can't keep up, he blames Bedoya for not being in the right place or being out of shape. After a while, that starts to wear on players. One former USMNT player once said that the team gave up on Steve Sampson when he played, so I'd bet the current players gave up on JK too. It sure as hell looked like it against Mexico and Costa Rica. I thought Feilhaber made some bad passes in the friendlies. I thought he lacked the consistent ability to make that last pass that Kljestan brings. But I thought he has the speed and ability to move the ball quickly that we desperately need in the midfield. Hyndman is hard to say. I'm of the opinion that he and Trapp couldn't play the ball forward against Colombia and it cost us a trip to the Olympics. I think there's a reason he was on the bench all season before moving to Rangers. I think he needs some more experience and maybe some consistent playing time before it's fair to really evaluate him.
I agree that bashing Green is dumb and that he may yet prove to be an excellent Bundesliga and USMNT player, but let's not exaggerate about what he's done, either. That was a garbage time goal, not an equalizer. We were already in extra time and already 2-0 down when he scored.
Wow, man. Just wow. If this isn't the most unpopular comment on this thread then something is wrong with the world.
Number 9 is correct if only because we do a poor job of training up the kids from the poor immigrant families and such. The pipeline of technically skilled kids from mostly immigrant families is limited by the money demands to play in the best academies. 10 I'll just say this: "competition on the field, yes; competition between who is the richest oligarch and dictator's relatives who use slave labor, oppress women, etc., and who can afford to overpay and kill true competition ala the big leagues in Europe? I'll pass."