Pretty comprehensive List. Maybe only other regrets is not beating Mexico thres a cero? 8-0 for that matter as well...... Somebody had to say it
Anyone who wants to play home qualifiers in stadiums with crowds that actually support the USMNT are guilty of being xenophobic? Wow.
Never said anyone, never meant all. But still, I should not have said xenophobia pertaining to that thread. As to my biggest disappointment? It is still USA fan whining, and not just in regards to that game. About venues, about refs, about CONCACAF... Grow a pair. This US team isn't very good, we have no one in the prime of their career who is great. A young Donovan was as good as Pulisic at this stage (Pulisic may go on to have a better career because he is more willing to go stay in Europe, time will tell). But that 2002 team also had a young Beasley, a good Reyna, McBride, etc... Also, we never talk about the opposition. Costa Rica were WC quarterfinalists. These countries also go through good stages and bad stages, they are not static. Because they are small their stages are perhaps more drastic than ours. It is a big country. The USA should spread their home games around. A few away fans won't bite. And we have a two easier games, we will qualify, most likely
The two bold items seem to contradict each other. You imply that we shouldn't be underestimating the opposition in the first, and then you underestimate Panama in the second.
Perhaps. It's not necessarily underestimating them, it's that lack of media coverage and discussion about them. None of the pregame analysis discussed Costa Rica, (I watched but missed the pregame of the Hondorus game). It's just a little dismissive. I suppose this isn't fan related, but at least once or twice the commentator said "Honduras clear", not the player's name. US fans complaints about the unfairness of the world- refs, etc.. -is just tiresome and disappoints me more than the team ever does Do you think there are two easier games we could have ended up with? Panama home and T&T away seems like the best possible scenario. But, for sure, Honduras are flawed, maybe that home game would be better (we won the first time 6-0). I'm not sweating this, but maybe because the outrage of USMNT fans would be as entertaining as the WC.
M'seiu,the saltiness of the average NT fan beats the WC the Super Bowl,March Madness,and Wimbledon combined.
Panama, even at home, is going to be tough. Panama won in Honduras, where we barely escaped with a tie. Panama got a tie in Costa Rica, where we had our heads handed to us. I'd much rather be playing Honduras. Plus, Panama will be going into that game knowing that a win will clinch the first World Cup berth in its history and will be playing accordingly (although maybe the pressure of that situation will weigh too heavily on it, just like it did with Trinidad in 1989).
I am too. One of the things I've particularly enjoyed about being a USMNT fan for the last 40 years is the fact that it's such a roller coaster ride.
For a moment I thought that it would be difficult to choose the biggest disappointment. Then I decided that the biggest disappointment has been this hex, during which Bruce Arena made the most embarrassing comment ever by a US coach - "Mexico owes us one" - and Michael Bradley emerged not as a team leader but as a strident warrior for social justice. The RFK-emulation, however noble and responsible, provoked polemics within the team. Truth to tell, I knew that the road would be tough the moment the team posed for a photo with the Mexicans before the WCQ in Columbus.
We ended up playing pretty well for the rest of that tournament. But that was a men-v-boys game if ever there were one.
The Baby NATs line up and age for that match (it was a very young team): Meola: 21 Trittschuh: 25 Windischmann: 24 Armstrong: 25 Harkes: 23 Ramos: 23 Stollmeyer: 27 Caligiuri: 26 Vermes: 23 Wynalda: 21 Murray: 24 Sullivan: 25 Balboa: 22
It would be interesting to see how we could do in a world cup with a young team today. (23.8 yrs avg age for the 13 above)....or even what the different suggested lineups here on big soccer
Beyond the split fan base who seem at odds with each other, the other long-running big disappointment is waiting every weekend to watch seven or eight Yanks in Europe playing with their teams, to in the end having to settle for one or two. Keeping the channels is expensive, so I'm downsizing at this point, and grabbing a stream for the few minutes most of them do play.
Something Donovan said in interviews, when asked "how did you become such a good player?" and when they forced him to give an answer, is that he didn't want to become a pro soccer player at all. He liked playing "manager" games, and his real ambition was one day to own a team and, as an owner, lead it to glory. He didn't expect or want his life to become tied up to actually playing the game. He just got moved along and promoted because he was very good at it. It was other people's pressure that finally made him take the pro-soccer player path. It was not his original choice. He's said before, too, long before the sabbatical, that it was an annoyance to him, having to do what he didn't really wanted to do. Usually he avoids answering the question because people get upset when a soccer player, perhaps the best ever produced by the USA, chose the career reluctantly. Also, he doesn't really have any "success formula" to give, his story is basically "I played for fun, didn't care much, but happened to be so good that here I am, at times hating every minute of it." Donovan was our soccer Ramanujan. He's not the product of a family passionate about the game (his dad was into hockey), he's not the product of a good system, he didn't have a soccer mentor growing up, he didn't even have much interest himself, he just had the skills and the brains. Here a recent interview where they get him to answer the question: He's the most unlikely of players, the lightning in a bottle, the sort of thing that doesn't happen again.
I didn't believe it, I was at a family function watching a different game (Peru-Colombia) when someone approached me to tell me the score. I didn't believe him at first until I checked my phone :-(
My Biggest Disappointment as a US Soccer Fan? 10/10/2017 The day soccer in America became irrelevant.
Biggest disappointment? ..... There's so much to pick from these last 5 years...... I may just have to let things settle the next couple of months before I can hone in on what most disappointed.
For me, the USSF is the single biggest disappointment. With all the successful models to copy in Europe and elsewhere, and all the money in the US to get it going in the right direction, we get what we have. Almost no chance for sustained success, or even fleeting success at the WC level and now losing that in Concacaf. Fools leading the parade means the parade misses the route.
Consider that the parade is going right were some people want it to go. Perhaps that realization is,in the end,the ultimate disappointment.