I haven't posted on here in forever. But my lord, WTF has happened. As I had said a long time ago I thought we were making a mistake trying to emulate everyone else. We'll forever be chasing the countries who are already better than us, and in turn find no real identity of our own. Well here we are. We've lost our mental edge. There is almost no toughness on this team whatsoever. Where are the athletes that used to out fight, out work, and out tough the enemy? By losing what made us half decent in the first place - we're left with nothing. It's a complete joke. If nothing else, I want us to field a team with the most competitive SOBs we can find. I never again do I want to see an American team look like a bunch of entitled pansies. Was Clint Dempseys skilled? Yes. But what made him one of the best players we've ever had was the fact that he wasn't intimidated or felt like he needed to do it anyone else's way. Why was Jermaine Jones the best CM in the last half decent World Cup? He was a warrior. It's a mentality. We don't have it. No where is this more evident than watching Michael Bradley. He went from a tireless soldier who would pound over every blade of grass, fly into the box, and fist fight after the game. To being beer league Andrea Pirlo. Now even his interviews have no passion or decisiveness. Time to ride the pine Mike. US Soccer breeds softness from the top on down. It starts with kissing South American and European boots - and not embracing our own identity. It's reached pathetic levels and I'm sick of it.
Excellent post. For years, we didn't have the most talented players but we had heart. Our guys took pride in playing for the US and would run through a wall for the shirt. And they played as a team, nearly always coming up greater than the sum of their parts. And as fans we watched the slow but sure improvement in youth development, first at Bradenton and then the MLS academies in their infancy, and envisioned a day where we would be able to put out a team of legitimately world-class players who kept those intangible qualities that made US teams in the 90s and 00s able to compete with anyone in the world on a given day. A team full of guys combining legitimate world class talent with old-school American heart would be able to compete for World Cups. Instead we went the other direction--got soft. I said it watching the home win over Panama a few days before the loss in Couva, a game in which Pulisic got the crap kicked out of him for 65 minutes before getting subbed out and no one, least of all our supposed captain, stood up for him. We've gotten soft, led by Bradley, and while I do see some of that old school fire in the belly in some of the younger guys it isn't truly their team yet--and Bradley's continued presence along with that of MLS lifers like Trapp, Zardes, and Lovitz holds them back.
One thing I think hurts is there is no distinct separate strong US amateur culture that is completely separate from the pro culture. The way soccer is sold in this country so much is streamlined into MLS or through pay to play academy teams. My cousin runs an unaffiliated weekend youth team and the hoops he has to go through to just organize matches and secure a field (if you call them that) are just ridiculous. It shoiuldn't be that difficult to just get a kick around. One thing I remember about growing up with US Soccer in the 80's and 90's was there was that sense of freedom. Like "this is new, we have to teach ourselves" type of attitude. My dad and lots of parents who were passionate about soccer and there was a certain gusto with the first US national teams to prove their worth. This sense of endless possibility. But the errors of the first pro soccer leagues taught the current US movers and shakers where and how to market the sport with the mentality, "This WILL make money and this WILL pay for itself." And you get that feeling now in almost every decision made concerning youth sports or the national team. Are we really building a sports culture with a strong grass roots and making a competitive player pool at an international play? Or are we seeing this as a specialty sport that you can brand market within certain demographics? Other countries with more ingrained and historically legendary soccer cultures may have learned from past errors we have yet to make.. but it seems like the USSF esp, is just completely dropping the ball. Our players look like there are disillusion pro athletes like you might find in the NBA or NFL with this sort of beaten "club and country, I'm just a pro" type mentality. I saw Oleksandr Zinchenko celebrating on Ukraine TV after they made the Euros like a little kid. It wouldn't even cross your mind that he was a high paid Man City LB. It just seemed so genuine. I don't know when we are going to get back to that again.
As I, and others, have said in other threads we miss Bora. He had very little to work with (One of his top players was Alexi Lalas) but he still produced and gave some fear to the top teams when he played them. He was also very much the man in charge: "When Alexi Lalas first showed up at training camp, Milutinović told him to get a haircut or get off the team." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bora_Milutinović#United_States_(1991–95) Players and 'board" members never pushed him around. By being as strong as he was he forced the low talented team into playing at least two levels above their abilities. Over the last several coaching changes we have had nothing but wimps. Even Klinsmann, who did have guts, was too sensitive to public opinion in most cases. But his guts lacked the pragmatism to see when his theories were not working. The US does not need a consensus coach. We need a strong, smart and flexible coach that will take charge and work to find a system that will fit our talent pool. Also he/she needs to throw out the over-analysis that everyone seems so enamored with and just throw the best 11 that they can find out there and then "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."
That is the thing every sport is becoming more specialized and grass roots sports are dying everywhere in this country. Even in Basketball and Baseball.