This @Bach1685fan guy is an abomination to one of the great composers of all time. GTFO with this crap. This got me laughing. Post of the day (besides mine of course!)
Yeah. Sure you did. The USA is back in the World Cup. Italy isn’t. Are you going on the Italy boards telling them they should emulate the United States because we’ve “been recently more successful?” Remember, kids: Don’t feed the trolls; they’ll follow you home.
I think everyone is being a bit harsh on the OP. I don't agree that Australia is better. But one thing I like, if it's true, if their league gives their domestic players more minutes than we do, that is something I think we should look at. But he seems wrong about players we send over to Europe. We have a lot of players in Europe and I think that will only increase. But there is a lot about soccer in the USA that can be improved upon. So much. But at the highest level, it comes down to culture and fans. That drives the consumption of the games which drives revenue which drives budgets which drives players compensation and opportunities available. If we want the fan base to grow probably we should get more Americans to watch European soccer first where they can really learn the game. A lot of non-soccer fan Americans travel to Europe and end up at a match in Germany or Spain where they get a good taste of it all and come back and become fans.
Thank you @NewDadaCoach. When I said A-League is better than MLS I didn't mean it in absolute terms in every aspect. The US has over 10x AUS's population and a lot more $$$ so MLS will always have larger budgets and afford better signings than the A-League. But what makes A-League better than MLS is they do more to grow soccer and develop Australian players and get more output when taking population and resources into consideration. Also, the top attacking players and goalscorers in the A-League are Australians where almost all the top offensive players in MLS are foreigners w/ no US eligibility. Then you wonder why Australia is so far ahead in producing attacking players and potent goalscorers than the US. Also, about player transfers to Europe, yes the US sends more than AUS but they have better results per capita. Keep in mind soccer is ALSO the 4th or 5th most popular sport in AUS.
I don't think we should discount the benefits of USL soccer. A lot of those teams could be better, and many don't meaningly participate in youth development. However, we are starting to see a handful of USL players contribute to US underage rosters. Meanwhile, Australia doesn't even have a fully professional 2nd division (they are supposedly planning one). Between MLS and the two professional USL leagues, the US will have 63 fully professionalized men's teams in the 2023 season. That works out to roughly one professional team per 5 million Americans. Australia has 1 pro team per 2.5 million Australians, so I guess it is arguably easier for an Australian to become a pro soccer player than an American. Now, I definitely have big problems with the access to quality training/opportunities in the US. However, the pure volume of professional opportunities in the US means that Australia would have to be significantly better and more efficient at developing players if it is ever going to definitively pass the US. I just don't see hard evidence that that is happening, nor that Australia is doing anything better at the grass-roots level (though I am open to evidence/anecdotes on that last part).
MLS is also the largest first division in the World in terms of the number of teams. There are currently 29 teams with St. Louis on the way as the 30th. As the league has expanded, the domestic talent has been diluted. So they have to bring in foreign talent in order to maintain the same standard. Note: MLS; 29 teams Australian A league: 12 teams Half of MLS has been founded since 2011, by the way. Some of those teams are only now starting to develop domestic academy talent.
Just a little note: Which of these nations has been to the Round of 16 THE MOST since 2010 (so the last 4 World Cups): Germany Italy United States Belgium [The answer is the US of frickin' A.] Its weird to me that people suggest the USMNT/USSF should use nations like Australia as a model, when those nations are nowhere near as successful as the US. The US has been to back-to-back-to-back U20 World Cup quarterfinals. And they had a wicked hypothetical U20 team in 2021. That cycle was cancelled. But eligible players included Reyna, Musah, Pepi, Scally, etc. People watch this current generation of young Americans at the World Cup (Pulisic, McKennie, Dest, Antonee, etc.) and behave like that's it. But the talent pipeline is really strong and continuing. The US just waltzed thru the CONCACAF U20 Championships. And that was without some of its best players. Gabriel Slonina, for instance. Paxten Aaronson was one of the stars of that group, and he just moved to Frankfurt. When people talk about domestic talent development problems in the US, I'm not sure what they're talking about. There's always more that we can improve on. Of course. However, our domestic talent development pipeline is really healthy.
Aaron Mooy? This has too be a troll. Active players that started in MLS and became established European players including a top four league. Tyler Adams, Brenden Aaronson, Tim Ream, DeAndre Yedlin, Jozy Altidore, Zack Steffen, Michael Bradley, Geoff Cameron Those are just the active ones that are well established. I could toss in Chris Richards, Matt Miazga and Gianluca Busio but I think I'll leave it with the above.
Is there anything that Australia can teach us? I am sure there is something. Are they a role model for us? Not even close. Much smaller population to start off with. Second I'm noticing a huge drop off in their talent base.
Isn't the A League model based on MLS? Marquee Players....Salary Cap..... Also, Australia does not have a national second division. Kind of difficult to implement Pro/Rel without any pro leagues below the top league......
So what's Australia's youth development doing? Hm. Qualifies to about half the U17 World Cups so there is talent potential there. But what do they with that talent? Do they consistently develop good pros? Let's take a look at U20. Oh wow! Ouch! Australia last qualified to a U20 WC in 2013. In 3 qualifiers they only made it out of group stage once but where eliminated by S. Arabia. Oh, Lord. This is just a bad, bad idea. It's like random internet poster saw a team had a two streak win and decided that these are the guys who are doing it right. Don't get me wrong here. I'm all for studying other programs. Discounting Japan and Korea because they are "culturally different" is just as wrong IMO.
Why are all of you wasting your time responding to this obvious troll account that was created a week ago? Block him and move on.
Well that would make sense. The US is basically the size of all of western Europe. I'm surprised that all these little European countries have their own leagues actually. They should combine. Like the Balkan countries should combine into a Balkan league. I find it hard to believe we don't have the talent. There are so many kids that play soccer here. A ton. So many clubs and academies and college teams. US fans would rather see a US player, maybe not moreso than a foreign A-list star like Bale, but moreso than a 3rd tier guy from Finland where no one has any idea who he is. Sign the americans. instread we rejec them and make them play in the NPSL's
You mean national team first fans would rather see U.S. players? That makes sense, but from following the club scene I don't get the sense at all that existing fans prioritize nationality over their club doing whatever it takes to win. Foreign players who aren't "name brand" a la Bale become local heroes all the time.
You could say concacaf overall is underperforming. Has a concacaf member even ever been to a WC final? Now we have 3 asian federation countries in the brackets. South Korean, Japan, Australia. That is quite impressive. One concacaf member. While the US is improving so are many other countries. Look at Croatia, if anyone punches above their weight it's them.
Only two confederations have ever produced a finalist and those two have also produced all by 2 of the semifinalists. Two other confederations have produced one semi-finalist each.
Here's the thing about Australia this cycle. They looked weak in WCQ and were barely hanging on to a playoff spot and nearly didn't qualify. They then land themselves in the AFC playoff and won that. Then they had to face a Conmebol team and everyone thought they were toast since Peru in 2018 convincingly beat the Aussies. At the WC they weren't expected to get even a win after the stomping by France and they ended up winning not 1, but 2 matches and advancing from the group while heavily favored Denmark didn't. So Australia is overachieving all this with a roster that looks like a US B/C team and defying all expectations. So don't you think we ought to emulate thei success? This isn't trolling, just stating the facts and giving some thought.
A lot of fans are in the midwest. You're trying to pull fans from football and baseball. They aren't used to Polish names. Have you tried to pronounce a polish name? its awkward
Polish names aren't that hard, you just have to learn. For example: sz=sh, cz=ch, dz=j, rz=s in leisure, j=y, w=v or f like before -ski, ch pronounced like German, etc.
OK, not their qualifying form but their WC performance so far. Australia is overperforming expectations while the US is performing at or below. Australia's talent on paper is less impressive but why are they getting better results than us?
I dont know, but this guy might be a troll. Not surprising at all, but a shame the usual crew to go into all out mob mode. I personally prefer what Japan has done. They have done great work building their league to cover a larger portion of their country. Fun team to watch.