2026 World Cup Post-Mortem

The top development coach in Japan who has won international awards for his work is American. Kagawa credits his program with much of his success. Honda is another.

He’s also pointed out no American/MLS youth clubs have taken up his offer to implement his curriculum or bring him in as an adviser.

All goes back to the issue isn’t money or investing more. Its priorities. We don’t prioritize technical curriculum on the ball from a young age and don’t prioritize developing pros.

 

This is a bit off the topic of the thread, but this is the closest thread for it I guess.

Despite the shit performance last night, the success of this World Cup, and yes the USMNT is apparent. never have I talked to so many people who were into it. Everyone at work. My 18 year old daughter, not a soccer player or fan, went to a watch party with friends. My wife of 25 years, enduring my fandom with the least bit of indifference, now says we're going to Spain/Morocco.

Having the World Cup on home soil was epic. I was in to it in 1994, but now the whole county pretty much was.

Sad, we bottled it, but this was a success.

 

That, I can certainly agree with. If you're ever around youth soccer, here's a fascinating experiment: watch U8s play. Specifically, U8s from different clubs. Observe the teams that are willing to lose 12-5 but encourage players to take their 1v1s and try skill moves (smart U8 teams are using alternative scoring systems: points for scissors or rainbows coaches track over goals!). Then observe the teams that are training their players to pass around and play in a rigid shape. I guarantee you will see both of those types of play, and you can be the judge which leads to better results down the road.

For what it's worth, two years back, I was coaching on a FIFA-hosted (heh) club tour around the UK. Basically: our U15s were playing true U15s across UK academies: WBA, Wrexham, Leeds. I think the more accurate description was that we were playing their teams just below their actual youth academy team -- so if WBA's U15 youth academy were the top 20 players (let's say), we were playing the next ones on deck as I understood it, but still organized through the club academy.

We hung with them well athletically, and weren't far off technically. You know where they bossed us? Their use of their bodies. None of it was dirty (though refs certainly let a lot go over there that never flies stateside...and it opened my eyes up to how the game really should be officiated stateside, and the disservice I see us doing our players here as a result), but all was just understanding how to separate a player from the ball, how to shield just so naturally. There was so much more physical comfort on the ball.

If results matter (it was a friendly tour ... but you could also tell they really wanted to show us Yanks what was what lol), we won one by 1, lost one by 1 and got absolutely shelled by Wrexham (who were men against our boys, despite being true age level competition!). But the physical confidence gap really stood out.

Which goes back to the original point: the more confident we can get players owning individual possession at a younger age, the better our players will be. That's technical skill -- specifically technical skill at pace (I don't care about your first touch standing still; I care about your first touch on the sprint, AKA Alex Freeman's donkey touch on Tyler Adams' dime the other night). And that's physical confidence and use of the body ... some of which I fear US officiating proactively neuters.

 

Reminder: Tessman and Cardoso started several of the friendlies last fall and in March.

as good as Adams is, he needed another strong DM beside him. Tilman is great offensively, but is he a DM? Having Tessman or Morris alongside Adams might have provided better support the defense.

we needed to play Belgium in a low block. We didn’t and got burned.

 

We can hold possession against worse teams.

against better teams we need to counterattack and be careful.

we didn’t do that and got burned.

 

Were we still playing 5–2-2-1 against Belgium?

Dest can’t play defensive right back. He is a winger, pure and simple. We needed Scally at right back, and Dest next to Pulisic up top.

 

Pulisic had the average/poor World Cup that Landon and Reyna had in 2006.

when your best players don’t show up, the team falters.

 

damn - outstanding post …. Had not thought of the situation that way - so we have NIL for benefit of the player and the entity (university) but there is no sell on benefit back to the originating pay to play club in soccer - well that is a f d up biz model and guarantees failure.

there are some folks who are ignoring biz 101.

 

we did play belgium in a low block, and thats exactly why we got burned.

the biggest difference between our loss and the rest of our matches was being a solid 20-30 yards deeper. every line, every point of confrontation, every phase of the game. we pressed with two at most instead of three, we sat back, we actively backed up rather than pushing higher.

the reason our defense had been so effective to that point is that we completely sold out in pressing crazy high, non-stop. our cbs were dealing with sloppy, loose, rushed long clearances, and ream is the clearest example of that.

i am not singling him our for criticism (freeman and richards were primarily responsible for two of the goal we conceded), but the only difference between the ream weve watched over the last two years and the incredibly strong player we saw in his first 3 matches was his aggressively meeting those long balls, usually 40 yards+ from our goal, clearing any danger before it could even start rather than retreating, backpedaling, hiding at our left post pointing and yelling at who literally anyone else should be marking.

against belgium- whos cbs arent anywhere approaching world class- we applied little to no pressure, giving them all the time in the world to pick out passes, building but more often playing long out of the back and we werent able to handle that service. from the first minute to the last. as good as our cbs have looked operating just below the halfway line, they looked immeasurably worse 30 yards deeper.

which is due to simply sitting back. weve spent a month delusionally believing dest is a rw because between stepovers and ball drags that resulted in nothing he (and wes/freeman supporting, over- and underlapping etc) was wreaking havoc pressing and chasing and contributing to those not-remotely-dangerous balls our defenders handled so consistently well.

puli (but in reality tillman pushing higher) was somewhat similar to how weve played to that point, but along with balo- and less of that support from our mids and wingbacks (jedi and freeman were complete non-factors in pressing and/or advancing us higher on the pitch)- were reduced to simply token chasing as belgiums cbs knocked the ball around under no real pressure, able to pick out passes under no duress.

we just backed off. the entire team, the entire shape of the team was different and far deeper and thats the root of every issue we faced. we had no presence in belgiums third of the pitch on the right side whatsoever. none.

its a waste of f'ing time to argue who is at fault for that- but thats 90% of what was at fault. you can believe the players all individually decided to play substantially deeper, engage less, simply refuse to press etc if you want. i dont believe any of our players actual play was measurably "worse" than previous matches, but the position, the situations faced (allowed) were.

and we saw that clear as day late in the game where we vaguely tried to fight back even a little. jedi had two, maybe three crosses to absolutely no one...or did he? dest/wes/freeman have been crashing the box to meet exactly those balls untill last night. balo stepped over at least three low, hard balls at the top of the box that were immediately collected by bel defenders. did balo lose his ever-loving mind out of nowhere? or were the runs from malik, adams, wes simply not there?

now, you can argue no one should be playing so robotically they dont notice no one was in the vicinity of where they were playing, but we were completely at sea. they were playing to the established patterns of attack that was mia because what (say it with me)- we were inexplicably deeper across the board than at any other match.

we were falling on our ass trying to sit on a chair someone had pulled out. over and over.

and only after recognizing that should we even bother assigning blame for individual plays, cause spoiler alert- this wasnt just crazy old ream not being able to run backwards like, you know, a person. no one wants to admit to what actually happened. people are twisting themselves into knots trying to make this about freese, or ream.

the first goal came from a next level defensive touch by freeman, followed immediately by a looping header into about as dangerous an area as it could be- which is only a slightly harsh encapsulation of what he is as a player right now. but everyone wants to point to freese (who had just made a world class save seconds ago) or wes for making too much money or adams for that badge fc lack of heart hes so known for.

that pathetic, non-clearance dropped into a completely open space and they got to it first. it doesnt change the overall extremely impressive wc freeman had overall, it just sucks. but trying to pin it on anyone else is just the weakest of sauce.

i dont have any comment on anyone feigning surprise we checked out after a goal- that particular flavor of mental weakness is one of the only areas our players are more responsible for than the manager.

the third was just an absolute fluke/nightmare. freese comes, chests the ball like the ederson-ten-years-ago "we" have decided our keepers have to be (regardless how how not even close to that any of them are) and then dragged his foot. is he a big, clumsy goof, was there a divot...does it matter? things just happen. as evidenced by ream becoming a cartoon deer on a frozen pond caricature of his known short-comings as a 58 year old. it doesnt erase being an absolute rock for us in simply tweaking one aspect of his game (aggressively engaging vs retreating as fast as humanly possible...which was saw is saying almost nothing) starting with the opening whistle against paraguay.

the soccer gods were as cruel and petty as me in that moment.

and the last goal was one of our best players simply trying to play out of the back simply playing the ball into the back of our net. richards didnt get beat, he beat us as a team. jeff agoos was less culpable on pathetic goals conceded. youd think he turned down a move to bayern for nycfc with the way people gloss over that as quickly as they can before insisting freese just isnt at this level, or theyd be happy to never see puli wear the shirt again.

we made mistakes. balo rushed every shot he attempted. our cbs were exposed by having to defend- more mysteriously than palpatine being alive...somehow- for the first time.

but the simple truth is we were paraguay in the opener. we came out substantially different (altered shape, more withdrawn, and only backing off from that starting point) than the style of play that goes us there. we never recovered in large part due to belgium not allowing us to. we played soft as all hell, which means we didnt get a single hint of a call- but as much as that sucks, and the game itself is in a pretty shitty place imo, thats just how the game is currently. hacking, grossly over-physical 90 minute scrums. if you arent proactive in every moment (or france) you arent going to be competitive.

and we werent. its not about a lack of quality. saying its about mentality on an individual level would be a more convincing argument if we hadnt played drastically different in our 4(3) previous matches. that guy is still posting hed take dest over peak donovan, ffs.

we were set up and sent out in a very, very different way and no player or group of players decided that. no, they didnt perform well enough. if you think this belgium team is just clearly "better" than us thats fine, i guess (though youve been lying a whole lot over the last week). bad moments/bounces/call outweighed good almost completely. the answer isnt mls and poch isnt a victim of not having a team.

"we" are exactly where weve been for well over 30 years. a delusional, insecure soccer nation whos fans and former players (in service to their own egos) say we need that grit and fight from the good ol days in same breath as insisting we need to play how the biggest teams play, regardless of how ill-suited we are to do that. "we" reject the notion of being as good as we can possibly be doing the things our players at any given time allow us to do. we think theres any difference between consistent r16 and qf teams other than circumstance.

we are more forgiving of a foreign manager who changes tactics and team shape the moment his bowl of lemons go bad or we get comfortable in them (whichever comes first) than our own players who are proven successful/able at the very, very, very least at high levels of the game, because that way its never his fault how successful we are. furthermore, "we" literally hate our own players who strive to be better than american players 30 years ago- as if lalas and wynalda and ramos didnt go as far as they possibly could abroad.

"we" would rather barely escape the group/lose the first ko match with luna and roldan to show how strong mls is (based on anything other than on the pitch play). we have no ability to develop players and no managing/coaching to speak of that moves us an inch further than we moved two decades ago.

there are too many things that factor into a nations development/growth (as a whole) that we could fit into any ten threads, but the fact is we are- and have been- an international soccer power. weve missed one world cup, we consistently get past the group stage, we will consistently win ko matches going forward with expanded fields. i dont have the knowledge or interest to endlessly debate grass roots level issues (while recognizing that is what moves the needles...10 year down the road at the very quickest). at the senior national team level we arrived. a long ass time ago. weve improved more than weve regressed in almost any area.

why would i get into the mud over u-9 coaching and how much it costs when at the senior level "we", as a devoted, allegedly knowledgeable fanbase, have our heads so comprehensively far up our asses? ussf flits from wanting to be a german-syle "program" to dutch to argentine, as if that happens in less than decade-long increments.

but thats nowhere near the constant identity-crisis us soccer fans have. as if insisting luna is going to be as effective as puli on his worst day is any different, or dumber, than insisting bedoya or diskerud is a 6.

if we are ever able to maximize what we have rather than trying to be anything we arent we can/will take another step forward. if not all we have are twenty and thirty year timelines of development no more guaranteed to happen.

 

More and better players. That's the primary way forward. Going to be a long, long haul. I'm 52 and I don't expect the US to seriously compete for a World Cup trophy in my lifetime.

 

Having a higher line than Belgium, and going with Ream, was dumb. It's as if nothing has been learned in 12 years of playing against these guys.

 

I don't know how we can call it a post-mortem when I am still actively mourning.

1. There were so many great moments for USMNT in this Tournament, I pronounce it a success. Just to simply be in a packed bar on a Friday night at 10:45 PM EST with like minded USMNT fans like myself smothered-and-covered in US jersies, scarves, t shirts and hats and asking everybody around you "Have you ever seen a half of US Soccer that lookes like this?" To go a full 24 hours watching, listening to, reading and absorbing all of the coverage of the Paraguay game and to hear the terms "fluid" "attacking" "an exciting brand of football" "proactive" and all the plaudits tossed onto the midfield and our attackers were things that at minimum I haven't seen attached to the USMNT since possibly the Confederations Cup against Brazil and Spain. That was 17 years ago man. And it built on itself to be a captivating story whether you were American or not.
The fast starts in the first four games, again, something we're not seen from the USMNT regardless of competition level and I'd add the sheer quality of the goals themselves. Even the own goals were the byproduct of a multitouch, dynamic buildup where we had multiple people on the door step.
2. ...then the Red Card fiasco. What I would term a typical US media fiasco in my mind created for that typical US motivation behind most media events...the almighty Rating. Hell, it had all the Hallmarks of a WWE Good Guy to Heel script. Mission accomplished there, I guess. I think it was an extraordinary disservice when it's all said and done to a roster full of what from a personal perspective seems to be simply Good guys.
...and like others I believe there will be shithousery attached to it in the intermediate future; European clubs with US players refusing or at minimum putting up walls to releasing players for competitions beyond the way it's done now (I see you Bayern Munich and Davies). Heck European clubs putting up barriers to SIGN US players and even the concept of stash and store dual nationals who have American affiliations, and fully UEFA endorsed if not outright financed. Players like McKennie and Adams frosted out of the Top 5 in their next step. Our Federation is now a target beyond a way it never was before.
3. So we look to the future and I mean beyond the post-World Cup, or post-Copa America or the post-Couva 96 hour period where we take big dumps on the USSF over the youth soccer money grab and the seeming inherent exclusion of non-Upper Middle class youth. We have made incremental improvement since Couva whether people really want to confess it or not, but I think we really suffered when it's all said and done from not having to suffer through a good old dirty CONCACAF qualifying cycle where you have to overcome so many intangible. Part of my post-mortem is to dream of the night the US finally beats El Tri in Azteca. My dream remembers the way we played in Group; my nightmare becomes was that just a one momentum building one-and-a-half week of Euphoria on the West Coast?

 

its not the height of the backline, its the depth of the frontline. i think the positioning of our "front 7" will look noticeably different in our three wins.

 

The USMNT Went Out With a Whimper at the 2026 World Cup. What’s the Hope For the Future?

https://onefootball.com/en/news/the...ld-cup-whats-the-hope-for-the-future-43109531

 

I mean the "how" is pro academies. That's exactly what you're describing. And they exist. But of course, spots in them are by definition going to be extremely limited.

The US currently has what, maybe 35-40 academies run by professional clubs? Our competition in Europe or South America might have 2-3x that, although a lot of the additional ones are run by lower division clubs that don't have the resources an MLS or even USL team does. But, every additional academy means another handful of scouts looking for talent (an exceptional player discovered by a lower division club's academy can always move to a bigger club a year or 2 later), and this is all in countries smaller both in geography and population than the US--in most cases a fraction of our size. So there's going to be a gap for the foreseeable future.

What it seems people who decry "pay to play" want is a comprehensive network of professional caliber youth clubs, blanketing every inch of the country, scooping up every kid in America who has even a sliver of potential, giving them professional level coaching and development....and "someone" paying for all of it. Who? Dunno.

 

Amen. And fwiw, the answer now is not a satisfactory one...and probably not a consistent one across clubs: those who can subsidize those who cannot.

At least in the club where I coach, a small percentage of fees goes into a scholarship fund. Anyone can apply for financial aid, showing appropriate documentation (or just having a conversation about financial hardship). But obviously, the flaw is: the more people who request aid, the more diluted that aid becomes per family.

We try to supplement with various fundraising events throughout the year. I just ran a charity tournament myself a few weekends ago. It's a highly imperfect system, but it's the one we got unless the city/state/federal (lol) provide resources. As is, it's of course the other way around: we pay the city to lease space (while owning some of our own.)

 

This is the biggest thing. Hands down.

Wealthy donors and financial supporters of US Soccer must insist on it.

 

This tweet is incorrect. Club fees at the top youth programs are $3k to $5k. Perhaps a family could spend as much $15k for the year when including travel costs. those extra costs go to flights, hotels, and gas bills, not the club.

Pay-to-play soccer is widely misunderstood. Here's the short and sweet of it.

1) The free MLS Academies and top pay-to-play programs operate similarly. Both want to get the star players and both want those stars to play well for them. In fact, I would go so far as to say that their priorities are just about identical at the younger ages. When the players are in the mid to late teens, though, the Academies are thinking what they will be like as adult players and the youth clubs not so much. So, that is a difference.

2) Both places are star driven. The MLS Academies because the stars are the ones who might help them some day at the adult level, which is what ultimately matters. The pay-to-play programs because the stars win games, which attracts attention, prestige, and new customers to the club. Plus, every coach likes to win!

3) If a player is good enough, he will find a club that will let him play for free. The marketplace is actually pretty efficient. In the Chicago area, where my son competed, most of the leading pay-to-play teams had recruited Hispanic stars who played for free. In fact, the travel costs for their parents were covered in at least one of those instances. And it worked both ways. The top Hispanic league teams recruited star gringos. Every coach wants to win! (And every parent too.)

I'm not saying that MLS Academies, offering their services for free and thinking about how the players will be as adults, aren't an improvement. They are. But the gap between them is nowhere near as large as is commonly thought of, by those who are looking from the outside.

 

Guys like McKenzie, Scally, Aaronson play week in/week out for clubs that play in a top 5 league side and yet play as if they don't. No urgency to prove themselves as worthy of bigger clubs.

 

This post mortem echoes some of what Rebecca Lowe said: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/...e_code=1.wFA.fX5-.-mK6x59WkL-3&smid=url-share

 

I think we have youth systems that reward the wrong attributes, because of the financial incentives. They prematurely reduce the pool size by killing love of the game in pursuit of winning records that attract parents. At most youth levels you can do that by assembling the best and most aggressive athletes to disrupt what the other team is trying to do. Technique and tactical development suffer, but it looks like success. Parents infer, incorrectly, that that must be the best place to develop my kid.

It’s a big ********ing mess dominated by salesmen with English or Spanish accents.

 

I think you missed a key point .... from age 8 up to 14 (where his analogy started) pay to play dominates in the US ... if the clubs get the sell on wages it subsidizes the entire club so the clubs aren't constantly depending upon parental fees (whether for training, travel, club dues etc.). These clubs have to generate enough revenue to cover their costs .... you want and need professionals for the most part training the kids - for a variety of reasons. If a possibly talented under privileged kid (it is not simply about Hispanic children - it is about any kid who has the desire to play and may develop the skills and the desire) isn't identified and trained from 8 to 14 - chances are he/she will not be good enough or will be playing some other sport that is "free" (or close to it) ...

I still think the answer is about expanding the Academies (we have a geographically MLS centered system and have to leverage that - in Europe the population density and proximity makes it easier for them) ... but now I can also see that fixing the pay to play for 8 - 14 year old situation is vital as well ... whether legal or business wise ... The clubs have to go where they can get the revenue - if Barca is not going to be able to compensate Yedlin's youth club (hypothetical) then they have to find the revenue somewhere and will approach the wealthier parents - because they have no choice .. yes the wealthier clubs can subsidize those that need the help (I was a part of the "subsidizer group" in the past) but that only helps a subset of the population ... does not fix the broader structural problem. Legally and business wise - the feedback loop from the pro clubs needs to be enabled to unlock the leverage off all the American kids that want to play the game. It is not that we don't have the numbers of kids that want to play the game. We do.

And winning should not be a key focus from 6 - 14 .. development should be .. and game enjoyment ... and finding the kids that need careful attention and focus from age 14 and on. Winning focus actually detracts from that. Having been on the sidelines in the US and having played as a kid in Germany I can tell you clearly in which culture more parents are screaming from the sidelines. Hint - it is the US. And yet Germany has a solid organized culture of introducing the game to all and developing their top talent ... it was very methodical and organized and parents pretty much dropped their kids off and watched or left and came back later ... no histrionics for sure.

 

There is no magic bullet here. But getting the developmental piece right by killing pay to play and restoring the payouts to the academies is the biggest thing we can do.

Last 3 cycles: 2018, 2022, 2026.

World Cup Winners:
Brazil x5: QF, QF, R16
Italy x4: did not qualify, DNQ, DNQ
Germany x4: out at group, Group, R32
Uruguay x2/x4: QF, Group, Group
Spain x1: R16, R16, in QF
England x1: SF, QF, in QF
Argentina x3: R16, Won, in QF
France x2: Won, 2nd, in QF

Teams that have not won it:
USA: did not qualify, R16, R16
Croatia: 2nd, SF, R32
Netherlands: DNQ, QF, R32
Portugal: R16, QF, R16
Belgium: SF, Group, in QF
Morocco: Group, SF, in QF
Switzerland: R16, R16, in QF
Mexico: R16, Group, R16
Sweden: QF, DNQ, R32
Colombia: R16, DNQ, R16
Japan: R16, R16, R32
South Korea: Group, R16, Group
Senegal: Group, R16, R32

 

Yeah, there's not enough pro teams is the big part of why pay to play has a void to fill. The differences are very simple:

In other countries, there's enough demand to watch soccer that the country can support hundreds of professional teams well enough to run an academy where in the US, we're maybe at 40 for 340M people. 30 MLS academies isn't enough, but it's not force of will that does this; people need to go watch their local soccer club. As an Oakland Roots fan owner and season ticket holder, I tell you they do not.

In other countries, they also simply have a lot more adults with more soccer knowledge willing to donate time to coach lower level or do it for cheaper per capita.

So the things people can do is if they are capable, coach, and if they have a local club, support it.