Americans need to stop overrating their players - Dest

Money can't buy everything. It can help but it isn't a panacea.

I wouldn't call much of what I did math.

 

While that is true and would greatly benefit USA soccer it, probably, will never happen and, if it does anyway, it will be a dismal failure.
I doubt that there is or will be enough interest in the various bastardized versions of soccer that are played and used for training around the world to make that idea workable.

I believe that the USA will never ever embrace soccer. I believe it is almost the only sport worth watching but USA citizens that have any interest in soccer are just too few and too spread out to allow the idea of "mini-soccer" to become popular.

Most people would consider all those little fields to be a waste of space even more wasteful than graveyards or golf courses. Yes, I know that belief is not rational but expecting rationality from USA citizens is like expecting a bull to be a good indoor pet.

Maybe it 50-60 years this could happen but I doubt it even then.

The USA is not and never will be a soccer nation. I strongly doubt we will ever be a top ten soccer nation and soccer in the USA will never be above the 4th or 5th most popular sport. Also the fact that soccer is the number 1 sport in the world is actually a negative for getting it more popular here. Most USA citizens simply don't care what the rest of the world thinks or does.

 

Mods, please close or move this thread. The discussion currently has nothing to do with Dest.

 

Every big problem in the world has a simple solution.

That won't actually work.

Or isn't actually simple.

Because the leaders of multi million dollar organizations typically aren't idiots.

 

To make that work all we need is the supervised flat space (must be supervised or vandals and/or other crooks/drug dealers will make it unusable quite quickly), minimal equipment (really a ball is all that is needed for soccer) and interest. We have plenty of space, just look at all the virtually unused baseball/softball fields, grave yards and golf courses.. Also equipment is easy. However the "interest" is very very very low. In only a few areas, most with large Hispanic populations, have I ever seen pickup soccer work much at all. WE here in the US just do not see soccer as anything more than a way to get the kids something to do.

I have seen several organized adult leagues that have good numbers playing but they already have plenty of places to play.

Here, in the USA pickup soccer is little more than a "pipe dream."
We actually have plenty of places kids and adults "could" go to play if they wanted to but most of those are so under used that it almost seem that the places would be better used to grow corn or rice or even just left semi-wild.

We are not a nation that believes soccer is "fun" to play and without the belief fun just cannot drive the use of the facilities we already have.

There is no point in providing facilities when there is no real interest.

It is a good idea to have a lot of small soccer fields but we are not going to use them so they are worse than building malls or office buildings in the wilderness.

If our existing facilities are not enough it will have to be proven by having them used enough to justify more.

 

I am NOT negative about youth soccer and I wish we could make it into a number 1 or 2 sport but that is not going to happen simply because as popular as soccer is as a way to get kids in organized activities it simply does not translate from youth to adult even young adult. Pick up games just do NOT happen in most areas of the country and where it does most of the players are not multi-generation USA citizens. I have been involved in youth sports since I exited the service and not even once have I seen a bunch of high school or jr high kids decided to go out after school and play a game of soccer unless the school has organized it.

But the post I was responding to had said that the solution was to build more facilities and that is what I believe is totally unneeded. What we have right now is more than enough to get through the next 15-20 years unless the become unusable from neglect.

We, in the USA, tend to believe that greater organization or newer facilities solve everything. But it does not. The "If you build it they will come" mentality is, at best, mistaken.

If we find a way, somehow, to make soccer popular for kids in the older third of high school and recent graduates then, maybe, we need more facilities but the fact is that kids, in the USA, do not see soccer as truly fun so they do not play or watch nearly as much as when they were younger and forced/encouraged by adults to play soccer.

This is not a condemnation of USA culture it is simply what I see as fact. Yes there are limited areas where the demand for soccer facilities is high but those areas are mostly isolated and highly populated by immigrants.

 

Well that's a very defeatist take. What is even the point of progressing or advertising the sport then?

Multi-million dollar organizations or companies are generally in for a profit. What is profitable isn't always what is right unless you only care about money. Also they only think short term, not long term.

 

Tremendous improvement from AC Milan today without Dest, as they heroically fall to a narrow 5-2 defeat at home against Sassuolo.

 

Agreed. Futsal courts would be better used in more urban areas. Suburban areas/less dense areas the soccer field itself will always be king for pickups.

You don't need small fields or pitches. People can just use the space within the larger field for small sided games.

 

Isn't soccer still the biggest youth participation sport? My daughter is looking forward to starting AYSO in the fall. Other than that, I imagine most kids are playing at school during recess.

Also, I saw some kids organize a soccer match with cones in the park just this weekend.

 

I've heard from my teacher friends that, over the past 10-15 years, soccer has increasingly replaced other pickup team sports being played during recess, at least in my area.

We also have national stats from the last 5 years showing a new trend: depending on the survey, soccer has risen to either 2nd or 3rd most popular sport to watch among teenagers and young adults. Among Gen Z viewers it's clearly overtaken both hockey and baseball. That's a far cry from 15-20 years ago; I still remember stories as late as 2005 or 2006 about MLS rookies who entered the league having never even seen a professional match until they played in one.

 

Yep, I would hear stories like this in school about soccer players around that time as well. I think that it finally started to shrink due to a combination of factors, such as the increased success of the World Cup in the US starting in 2006, expanded TV and Internet access to coverage of European leagues along with MLS, and the breakout of the FIFA series in the US.

 

All depends what part of the country you're in.

When I lived in Texas, there were pickup games everywhere. Players of all ages, races, backgrounds, etc. getting together in the park. [Clint Dempsey talks about the importance of these games in his life.]

In Boston, you will rarely ever see a pickup soccer game.

There's a reason that Texas could essentially field a national team at this point. They're basically missing a keeper.

 

Sigh, OP starts with a decent point and then doubles down to insulting silliness. They aren't starters for Real Madrid!!!!! Ergo they belong in Serie B.

 

Underrating: Every American aside from Pulisic belongs in the Championship, MLS, or similar level.

Overrating: losing in the round of 16 to the Netherlands is a horrible result for the U.S., and it's entirely the fault of the MLS players on the roster and Berhalter.

 

I think, on balance, Big Soccer posters have a pretty good understanding of where the pool is and the talent of our players.

There are a couple of really vocal outliers.

Sergino Dest? He's good. A player who's now played about 150 games for Ajax, Barcelona, and Milan. He's played 30 games now in European competition. But is he one of the best RB's in the World? No. We all know that. So I don't know what the original point of the thread is exactly. Seems like a strawman argument against a viewpoint that doesn't actually exist.

 

I agree, much of the overrating of the players has been a strawman to attack MLS or the coaching staff. Deep down we know that these guys have limitations.

 

You can give Texas William Yarbrough if you consider that the state to which he has the closest connection (both parents) is Texas.

But it's true that Texas has a strangely shallow goalkeeper pool. Every few years I've tried to put together "national" teams for each US state. Texas can consistently line up ten outfield players who are starters in MLS or stronger leagues -- and if you don't count Yarbrough, the next best keeper they've had in the last decade is probably Tyler Deric. Other than them, I don't think was even a USL starter quality keeper from Texas at most times in the last decade.