I always preferred 5 vs 5 small pick up games. Just put some shirts down as goals and have fun. Way more touches on the ball and unpredictable. For whatever reason, they always brought more laughs too.
Shrug. Have people noticed that since 1990, only 30 years ago...................we've made up astonishing ground on the rest of the world in this sport. So yes, go ahead and compare population size of the US to Croatia. Have people looked at Yugoslavia's record prior to its dissolution? They were awesome as long ago as the 50s and 60s. Now look at Croatia's record since it became an independent country. This is a nation with a long history of excellence in the sport. At the first US game I attended, we lost to Bermuda. That wasn't 1930. That was 1991 folks......................... I know its a boring answer, but one of the most important things we can do is stay on target and be patient. Don't become vultures tearing each other apart because the pace isn't fast enough. We were NEVER going to snap our fingers and be as good as France. The Revolution is alive, and its alive in MLS. That's where the iinvestment is happening in youth and player development. You cannot root for the USMNT and not root for MLS to continue its rapid growth. And we're seeing a lot of fruits of those labors with players like Adams, McKennie, Aaronson, Reyna, Richards, and company. They develop in MLS academies and move to Europe to be polished up. But the raw materials are there in spades. Unbelievable potential. We're just starting to tap into it. By the way, I know this is obvious...............but this is sports. There will be ups and downs. Just like your favorite NFL or NHL teams lose games that you think they should win. Sometimes I think fans on this boards don't get how sports works. We lost to Holland. Not Zimbabwe. Holland.
It is better for the development in the sport in this country if he has sustained success in the Premier League first.
This is absolutely true. It's worth noting that this is less true. Coming into this World Cup, since 1990, we had made 4 of 8 -- 5 of 9 now. Even cherry picking our timing, and going from 2002, it was 3 of 5 coming in and now 4 of 6. Now, that's better or equal to a lot of great teams -- Italy and Germany come to mind. But to your point, I think we don't much appreciate even this level. We assume it, even though we're actually closer to 50% than always doing it.
A few teams do. Dallas does. Some still come up a cost, I think, or have scholarship models, etc. We don't have the overall revenue structure to sustainably support a completely free systems. But the better players eventually get funneled up. Others build relationships with local clubs. Slowly building.
I mean the thing is, there's a lot of non-linearity here. Brazil's 2nd choice national team would humiliate Croatia's. Their 15th choice national team against Croatia's would probably be a bunch of excellent professionals winning 10-0 against total amateurs. That reflects a much larger country with a much stronger, deeper development system. But, amid literal bombs and rubble a refugee kid named Luka Modric emerged, and Brazil can produce 300 quality professionals at that position, but zero of him.
Worked on this a little last night, but to add to the discussion about yearly summer competition.... CONCACAF Gold Cup 32 Team CONCACAF-specific tournament Top 24 FIFA ranked teams auto-qualify Remaining CONCACAF members must qualify to enter. Top 8 ranked teams in Pot 1. 9-16 ranked teams in Pot 2. 17-24 ranked teams in Pot 3. 25-32 ranked teams in Pot 4. Tournament held jointly between USA, Mexico, and Canada. USA auto seeded in Group A. Mexico auto seeded in Group D. First year of cycle. Held in June. Group A: United States Saint Kitts and Nevis Martinique* Bahamas* v US Virgin Islands* Group B: El Salvador Cuba Guadeloupe* Aruba* v Turks and Caicos Islands* Group C: Canada Suriname Barbados Saint Vincent and Grenadines* v British Virgin Islands* Group D: Jamaica Curaçao Saint Lucia Cayman Islands* v Anguilla* Group E: Mexico Nicaragua Dominican Republic Dominica* v Sint Maarten* Group F: Panama Haiti Guyana Belize* v Saint Martin* Group G: Costa Rica Trinidad and Tobago Antigua and Barbuda Grenada* v Bonaire* Group H: Honduras Guatemala Puerto Rico Montserrat* v French Guiana*/Greenland*/Saint Barthelemy*/Saint Pierre and Miquelon* Idea of this expanded Gold Cup in the first year of the cycle is to give all the little nations their shot. Plus, in the first year of the cycle, I’d rather have the “easier” games early on when we’re casting a wide net and bringing new players in the fold. The Group Stage will essentially be a warm up. But we should still expect the knockout rounds to offer a challenge. COPA AMERICAS - CHAMPIONS (or Copa Occidental) North and South America 16 teams 10 CONMEBOL teams auto-qualify USA, Mexico, and Canada qualify. 1st place UNCAF (Central America) qualifies. 1st place CFU (Caribbean) qualifies. 2nd place UNCAF v 2nd place CFU qualifies. Second year of cycle. Held in June. Group A: Brazil Chile Ecuador Costa Rica Group B: Uruguay Mexico Paraguay Panama Group C: Argentina Canada Peru Jamaica Group D: Colombia United States Bolivia Venezuela If South America wants to keep their Copa Ameria CONMEBOL specific, then, they can do so in the first year. Hopefully, this joint Copa America will be successful enough that we continue it every four years. Both confederations should want this. CONCACAF gets better competition and prestige. CONMEBOL gets more money and marketing. CONCACAF CHALLENGE CUP 16 teams 8 CONCACAF 8 Guest teams - 2 CONMEBOL, 2 CAF, 2 AFC, 2 UEFA (modifiable) Top 4 ranked CONCACAF auto qualify (Mexico, USA, Costa Rica, Canada) 5 (Panama) plays 12 (Guatemala) ranked team 6 (Jamaica) plays 11 (Trinidad) ranked team 7 (El Salvador) plays 10 (Haiti) ranked team 8 (Honduras) plays 9 (Curaçao) ranked team Third year. Held in June. GROUP A: United States Panama Japan - ? Nigeria - ? GROUP B: Jamaica Costa Rica Brazil - ? Hungary - ? GROUP C: Mexico El Salvador Argentina - ? Czech Republic - ? GROUP D: Canada Honduras South Korea - ? Senegal - ? We do not need two identical Gold Cups. Keep one, the first one, CONCACAF specific. And make the second one much more difficult by requiring the lower teams from CONCACAF to qualify and by inviting quality guests around the world. If we’re not going to have the Confederations Cup and we’re over reliant on FIFA and CONMEBOL for this competitive tournament, we can make our own too. And highlight CONCACAF in the process of doing so. Ultimately, we want this tournament to be the best warm up that we can get before the World Cup.
Just as an aside, aren't FIFA claiming there's going to be an imminent re-jiggering of the international calendar? God knows what they'd do and on what basis, but that would certainly be relevant to any future plans.
I feel like each MLS team should fund futsal courts in their region. Like, a basketball court, but with soccer goals. And, the Fed, should be encouraging city councils to put in futsal courts whenever a new city park is built. The goal should be whenever a basketball court is put in a city park, a futsal court should be put in.
Agreed. Compared to other countries, we seem rarely to be able to shoot on target from distance. Often, when we try, the ball ends up in aisle 289 in the stands. Our collective mastery of the basics is still way behind the top 10 of the world. The top 10 simply don’t make the small errors that consistently turn over the ball. Hate to pick on players, but Yedlin, Moore, and Long come to mind here.
On our team, Weah seems to be the only one who will make that hard strike on goal from distance. Reyna will try to place it from distance. But we have very few who try to be that threat from outside the box. Too much of trying to be too cute.
Me too. I miss those days. No doubt channeling my fondness for actually playing here on this board. As you all know, it’s definitely not the same!
It's silly of me to post this, but .... When I was coaching AYSO I tried to schedule my practices at a field that had a wall. My warm-up-wait-for-everyone-to-get-there was having the kids kick the ball hard against the wall. It worked out to be about 10 minutes of actual practice time. Maybe less. When they got competent with their strong foot, I had them do it with their off foot. The increase in the kids' abilities to strike the ball was profound. Had a scrawny 9 year old who had no power on the first day end up scoring on a 30 yard well struck ball with his off foot.
Actually not silly at all. I think it reinforces what we are talking about. The basic skills need to be developed at an early age. Your story is case in point.
That’s how I gained most of my power growing up too. Something that just feels good when you can hit the ball hard against a wall.
What about using the gym at the schools. Every high school and middle school have them and probably a good number of elementary schools. Or converting the local basketball courts into "dual-use" courts - basketball or futsal.
Probably, though I think he's a better natural fit for this player pool RIGHT NOW than he might be in 2030 (and I can't extrapolate beyond that).
If you include Croatia's diaspora (and Croatians and the HNS do, believe me), it's more like 10M. Croatia has actually decreased in size over the past two decades due to emigration, most of it to western and central Europe.
How much has actually changed, though? That friendly loss to the US is Morocco's only loss by more than one goal since 2014. They were at the 2018 World Cup as well as this one, so it's not as if they weren't facing quality opposition.