This debate reminds me so much of the software engineering world and the role of the "10x engineer" - or someone who can bang out code 16 hours a day and carries a startup in the early years. Just like everyone wants the dominant #9, so too does every startup dream of the 10x engineer. This tends to lead to an overvaluing of software engineers in general, and "10x engineers" in particular - so much so that they criminally undervalue those who make the difference between a product being an industry leader or an also ran. I see the same thing in soccer. People radically overrate things like 1st touch, dribbling, speed, etc... and criminally underrate field position and just overall awareness of a game's given context. JMHO, obviously, but it's kind of funny how closely these arguments track.
Fatigue contributes to mistakes. Most would agree. Fielding players who don't excel at progressive passing and who don't get assists, will also likely contribue to botched execution. This team had been an inconsistent big chance creator throughout the cycle. van Gaal at least uses a cam. Gotta get that creativity from somewhere.
We have enough good athletes to go around. And more and more are turning to soccer. We don't have the coaching and accessibility that other, more established soccer nations do. That's the problem, but it's improving. But we will always have someone look at Lebron James and say "what if he played soccer?" Well, guess what? He would be super skinny and totally suck at it because he'd be way too tall and nobody would think he's a good athlete.
I don't really understand this take. He was poor in his ~25 minutes against Wales and while he did have the decent pass to spring Pulisic for the assist he did nothing else noteworthy today.
Quick, who was the big physical Dutch center forward who occupied both Ream and Zimmerman on the first Dutch goal? (Edit: While blocking Turner's view).
it's not even close; ice hockey isn't played all over the world, for obvious reasons, but basketball is very popular in many places, some that you would be surprised to hear like the Philipines, but I'll bet you aren't going to see them play in any serious competition. I personally don't care for the game, or other sports either, but we do have a shit ton of kids here who idolize the NBA and want to play the game, but they just don't have the size to make it very far ( I know, there are some great players who weren't tall, but seriously, look at some of these players....and we don't have 6'8 goalkeepers either...the Dutch are the tallest people in the world ( look it up ) and I knew a guy who played for their national basketball team ( he was also the volleyball coach at our HS ) but I can't recall their national team making any noise on the world stage. Because their athletes favor soccer ( and speed skating IIRC ) and their basketball pool isn't deep. Curiously, the Dutch do play baseball from what I've read. But I want to say something here; I may be down on this team's chances, but I love this team, even when they are dreadful.
Relative to the rest of the planet they haven’t improved 20 years. Why would they start now? Pulling the plug on Bradenton was a mistake. The US player pool isn’t talented, or deep enough. It is wishful thinking that they can build tactical cohesion, and improve skills, via a handful of friendlies and out of region tournaments. Clubs don’t care about them, won’t release players, or strongly suggest players mark off. Oh look, a bunch of second tier MLSers hoping to hook on somewhere in Europe. And please with the magic coach baloney. They’ll plow ahead with about the same results unless they stumble into a generational player.
I agree that athletes in other sports might not be good soccer players. What I see is kids that could be good pick other sports, ones that they don't have the physical tools for. I really think it is that simple. Plus, the love for the game, the street ball, just isn't there. What I see in the local parks is kids playing football and basketball. Not even much baseball. well, i see a lot of cricket too in these parts....
Disagree. Brilliant tournament both ways (remember England?). Had great moments in the first half today, frustrated he didn’t create a goal, and shut off for a moment. Best players of the tournament - Adams, Christian, Dest, Ream, Turner.
Van Gaal's not interested in creativity from his CAM much, or wasn't today ... everything was to the sides. The dude's openly said he's shithousing his way through this tournament. There are lots of places to get creativity, and few teams actually drive their offense through a single point in the center. A CAM is one, and we may see it since Reyna is well suited. But we don't actually have a second possession CAM in the pool right now ... so a big lesson we learned here was about depth and injuries and that would mean we'd need an alternative even if Reyna turns out like everyone hopes.
harsh, but I can't argue. They ARE better with the ball than in the past. But they don't do anything with it.
Thanks for your insights. My post was focused mainly about how I see hockey versus basketball being the US sport which gives the US team the most elite international competition. As I posted, I don’t watch basketball so maybe there ARE legit basketball countries out there that can go toe to toe against the US team in a tournament format. I have no problem believing elite basketball countries exist outside of the US even though I don’t know who they are, but elite hockey only exists in North America and Europe.
Tons of kids in other sports would be great soccer players if they started from a very young age and focused on the sport. There's no reason why they wouldn't.
Agree. He made one mistake. Yes, it's an unforgiving sport, but he played very well all tournament other than that.
It's not close, but it's been getting better over the last 5 years... you're starting to not just see players who can get minutes in the NBA coming out of European academies, you're starting to see legit stars like Gianis, Doncic, and Giddey. But until the Euroleague gets as much investment as the NBA / NCAA, this change will be slow. There's just more opportunity for high-level play in soccer than there is for basketball...
Spain, France, Australia, Argentina, Canada, countries in the former Yugoslavia all put together teams that can beat the US. The US still has the overwhelming largest bucket of talent but a lot of the high end talent in the NBA is foreign now, and there's only five guys on a court. Giannis is Greek, Luka is Croatian, Jokic is Serbian, Embiid is from Cameroon but may play for France, the #1 pick in next year's draft is French,
France and Spain, and some of the eastern European countries are legit basketball sides. Africa shows some signs of getting there. Italy and Greece have fielded some good teams. I don't think USA is that great in ice hockey. When the cards are right it has won some hardware, but it falls short against Canada and some of the Euro teams. And the true believers in the big 3 still don't consider it an American game. I've read field hockey is big in parts of the world, don't know much about it. As for hoops, the Basketball World Cup is highly regarded as a competition, outside of the USA. I forgot that Brazil and Argentina have been competitive in hoops as well, with Brazil winning the cup a few times ( it was called the World Championship back then ).
Only thing I will say about these World Championships -- the FIBA 3 pt line is a complete joke. It makes the game too much like college, which is super susceptible to upsets just based on 3 pt jacking. FIBA wants to pretend it is important, so it won't move it back, but to have the men's line the same as the WNBA (and pretty close to college) is just kind of stubborn. Meanwhile, while it won't happen, a lot of people want to make the NBA court even bigger.
Absolutely. You can get creativity from places besides specialized cam. But then you actually need to set that up. Never heard the term 'second possession cam'.
I like Giddey but at the risk of you hunting me down, I don't think he's quite in that class. *runs and hides*
Sorry... it's not a term. What I mean is, when Reyna is out, hurt, tired, who takes that role? Aaronson plays CAM, but I don't think he's great at anything but a transition game. You certainly wouldn't run the ball through him against a set defense there. Pulisic would be ... okay? When you commit to a central 10, you're usually focusing the attack there. I think you need a plan B if Reyna is out (which is fine) or we'll need to develop someone else. All this can be in degrees, so it's not the biggest deal. The current Reyna is not good enough to play the primary playmaker role (i.e. focus of the offense) for a Top 8 team yet, but he's young and could improve. But if he doesn't get there, I wouldn't go here. And if he does get there and gets hurt, you need a backup plan, IMO.