Mario Rodriguez looked like the most disinterested player I have ever seen in a competitive soccer game. I cannot believe that is the best we have in the US.
Hey, Texas, try not to dictate what others in the US think, alright? This isn't a Solar vs. Dallas Texans game. I'm sure that at some random youth club match where it's the parents of both teams they don't shout profanities in Mexico either. If you want real profanity, travel to Australia. Some of the stuff that gets yelled there is utterly unreal... if you watch the youth/reserve matches of the NRL I think the language might offend you to death. Yet, in just small youth matches between local club sides I never heard anything that bad.
We need someone who isn't torn between two professions. Also, someone who has played before at the highest level. The guy should have brought in Klinsman before, now its too late. The guy should take robot bob and cabrera with him.
Columbia is a zombie factory anyhow. That makes me less confident in Gulati than I would be in some blue-collar manager from south america.
Results in youth tournaments arent all that important to me, but I do want to see talent moving in the right direction. Unfortunately the youth game is severely lacking, and until domestic $ makes >100 pro academies an established part of the American soccer landscape there isn't anything the USSF can do to unseat the pay-to-play clubs. Klinnsmann, Hiddink, Mourinho...no coach can change that. Look at who foots the bill for youth soccer in the USA...until that changes, nothing changes. So open up your checkbooks, folks, or prepare for a long, long wait.
Not only is our senior team pitiful, so is this junior team. They managed to make the first game encouraging, but really looked bad today without Pelosi and at least three others. Bob Bradley must go, then I'm sorry to say, Wilmer Cabrera should go. It's on the coaches not the kids, not the older players.
Its not just Texas, guy. Its the way that youth soccer is all over the country. Any responsible adult sees the problems with such childish and offensive behavior and sees that it has negative value, no matter what the context. Aggressive profane bullying is not something that's smiled upon in US youth sports, period. I could care less what happens in Australian leagues. That's their culture. But I seriously doubt that Australia would want to present themselves as jackasses to the world when they were hosting an international tournament that calls for international class and behavior.
Club (youth club in the US) soccer is different from school/national team/any kind of regional soccer though. Nobody cares really, it's just a few parents who worship their children, not people who have a tie to the club. As I've said, I've heard more offensive stuff playing HS in SoCal (the most offensive stuff is in the non-Mexican neighborhoods, coincidentally enough) than I ever did playing club. It's just a different environment. It's good practice. I've never commented on the morals, I've just stated that it's good practice for them and that Americans who try to make it out as some difference in class are completely full of shit because I hear worse things from my fellow angelic WASPs more than I do from Latinos.
Time for Sunil Gulati's head. I didn't agree with it until now. After looking at, not just the recent results, but the way our players played and how skillful (and actually UNskillful) they are, there needs to be a shake-up. The full NT was toyed with in their loss. Again, it wasn't about the loss, but the way they lost, which points to a larger problem. The U-20's didn't even make the World Cup. Thomas Rongen is still coaching in US Soccer. And, the U-17's weren't just beaten, they were embarrassed. They were stripped of the ball time and again. They couldn't beat their man on one-on-ones, they couldn't defend, shoot, or pass well, they were slow, and they had ZERO heart. (No one give me the weather excuse... both teams had to play on it) Time for new management at the top. US Soccer is in ruins.
Fair enough. But man for a country as large and diverse as ours (and encompassing so many good players), we sure are fielding crap teams at all 3 levels right now. The U20 team just being the worst of the 3.
Let me know when you hear crowds chanting "f*gg*t" to players at an FCD/LA youth match. Otherwise, get back to me when you are old enough to vote.
I think the biggest gap in our players are not their technique, but soccer IQ--quick decisions and the ideas to play defense or offense at high speed and high pressures.
Well, we have the best program among the four nations in the world with over 200 million citizens... and 2nd-best among the eight nations over 150 million. So size doesn't seem to mean a whole lot in that regard.
Are you being intentionally obtuse? I've heard worse from white people at my high school when I was 16. There is no difference in class, which was the point. In fact I'm the only person who brought up some guy on his INS comment earlier in the thread. ZOMG we have so much more class than them! And all you've done with your age comment is show how little you have to come back, I've already refuted your comment but the best you can come up with is an age insult that's four years off base.
You do realize that the antiquated term 3rd World had nothing to do with profanity and socioeconomic status? Wow, I find your posts to be both sanctimonious and almost bigoted. It strikes me as the height of chutzpah to believe one can speak authoritatively for all responsible adults across this country let alone youth soccer and youth sports throughout this vast and diverse country. What you describe does not comport with my experience in competitive soccer in New Jersey and in NYC where there is a mixture of all sorts of types of behaviors. Your world almost sounds a little like Pleasantville.
In answer to SUDano, I would: 1. Close residency. 2. continue to expand the U.S. Soccer Training Centers, looking at more kids, more often on a select basis, which almost becomes like a regional training center (just without the residency part). 3. Create a top division of the Academy for clubs that do not charge their players. Arrange feeder setups for those clubs with the other academy clubs, including some kind of financial incentive to discourage player hoarding or otherwise anything that prevents the most promising players from getting the chance to compete in the highest level of competition. 4. Follow through with the plan to drop academy down to U14 age group. This is already happening in some places, but needs to be codified, with the training schedule and coaching evaluation guaranteed. I think three of these four things are already in the works. Residency has been extended by technical staff (I think that means for two more years), but I'm sure a certain shoe company has something to do with this.
I always love when people try to sound intellectually superior by using the 1st/2nd/3rd world system while not understanding what it actually was, why it's outdated, or what the criteria even was for being a member of one of those groups.
Let's hope there is some really special 16-17 year old kid hiding somewhere out in the U.S. because after winning the Golden and Silver Balls 12 years ago for the first time I can remember there wasn't a single U.S. player who looks like a sure bet to at least get some caps for the full National team someday. While I agree with most that a lot of blame has to be put on the coaches as well as the overall system of development we currently have, I'm going to place a lot of the blame on the kids (not just this group, but in general) themselves and their focus and commitement on the sport they want to play. Think about 15-20 year ago, how hard was it for most young players to see professional soccer being played. Now think about how easy it is today. And yet my guess is that the vast majority of young players probably watch no more soccer today than those 15-20 years ago did. I'd even venture to bet some spend more time watching other sports than the one that they themselves would like to someday be a part of. I know that there are European players who do watch other U.S. sports (like Henry), but honestly think of the amount of time that most kids in other countries probably spend watching soccer. It's not a substitute for good coaching, but believe me it can make a huge difference in learning to read the game, give ideas for offensive players to try the next time they go out, force defensive players to think about how they might have dealt with a given situation, etc.