The rubes, like quoted above, repeatedly said thanks to the USWNT, the men’s coach couldn’t make more than Emma Hayes. It was a ludicrous assumption backed by zero facts. But that gangs’ life is fueled consuming and repeating lies.
As I said technically US soccer may be paying equally which would be correct and the donors paying the overage. We also know that the donors helped to payout Poch from his Chelsea contract.
It fact, Matt Crocker said at the beginning of the coaching search that this wasn't the case. People just believed it........................ I have no idea if this is the "new normal" in terms of what the USSF is going to pay the USMNT coach. I personally think they've gone above-and-beyond in this case due to the impact the 2026 WC could have on soccer in North America. Everyone involved sees it as a golden goose. We have the USSF's tax returns. They're public. We know their financial position. That's why people said we could never afford to pay the salary a guy like Klopp or Pochettino or whomever would demand. They were right. We just got help from outside sources in this instance. Just like we know the CSA's position. They found a way to pay Marsch's salary due to the importance of WC26. You wonder what happens post-WC26. MLS ain't going to pay Canada's coach in perpetuity.
Limping along is an entirely apt description. The team has become so stale and disinterested. A new manager can only do so much. Who are the young guns that might realistically break out in the next year? The pool needs an infusion of both talent and bite.
Once the federation was convinced that their approach of hiring somebody's brother and treating him nicey-nice was not going to work, Crocker rolled his sleeves up and did for the men what he did for our women. We should send him a singing telegram of "For he's a jolly good fellow". Congrats to Canada and Jesse Marsh for leading the way. Thks to Ken C Griffin for discovering the joy and global significance of soccer and making it all possible with a big donation.
I remember a lot of reject chants at supporter's sections. I'll take our current coach thank you very much.
I'd like to believe that opening up a competition for spots in the 11 and in the 23/26, will naturally force players to wake the ---- up. It may not, in which case we're totally screwed, but I'm very hopeful that Poch basically treats this like a 2-14 trash team that is an open competition everywhere. Only guys that have really consistently earned their spot during this Fall '23 to Fall '24 downturn have been Pulisic and Jedi, that's it period. All other starting spots, and bench spots should be open to competition (and honestly, even there's).
One other piece of good news: We know after Crocker came in, he let Ando crash and burn the '23 WC with that wretched 4 year run, afterwords he ---- canned him, replaced him with one of the best coaching options in the world and she managed to win/steal (felt like a little of both at times) a first place finish at the Olympic and a Gold Medal this summer. Just as exciting for me has been the turn around with the U20's. I used the U20's and u17's decline over the past few decades as a signpost for why the women went into decline after the '15 WWC (they won in '19 but there was abundant evidence by then that they would struggle to win a WWC ever, again after that)... Part of my evidence was how our youth were doing: U20 WC: '02: Gold '04: Bronze '06: 4th '08: Gold '10: Quarterfinals: (Lost on penalties in first knockout round Quarterfinals to silver winning Nigeria) '12: Gold '14: Quarterfinals: (Lost on penalties in first knockout out round Quarterfinals to 4th place North Korea) '16: 4th '18: Did Not Advance from Group Stage (3rd) '20: Cancelled due to covid '22: Did Not Advance from Group Stage (3rd) '24: Won first knockout game, advanced to Quarterfinals against Germany (on Sunday). What's exciting to me is that they've basically clearly fell from their dominant heights of 15-22 years ago in the early years of this tournament when they dominated (making and winning the final of 3 of 5 tournaments, making the semifinals in the other 2). Their play clearly fell off last decade with only a superlative performance in 2012, and then fell off a cliff after 2016. But this tournament they played Spain, UEFA U20 Champs, tough in a 0-1 loss, beat Morocco 2-0, and then Smashed Paraguay in a game to decide 2nd place, 7-0. Their game with Mexico was a revenge match, and was back and forth with the US taking and giving up leads twice before finally winning in extra time 3-2, and missing a penalty in extra time too. Germany finished silver at Uefa U20 WC Championships, losing to Spain on Penalties, and just smashed Argentina 5-1 to advance to our game. I have a hard time seeing us beating them, but for me, the good news is that they appear to have begun to right the ship a little bit at the U20 level under Crocker. This is their best U20 tournament performance in a decade, and in some ways, better than '14 considering the '14 team played in a smaller tournament and the Quarterfinals were their first knockout match, which they immediately lost. I have hopes this is a sign that they're getting things a bit more on point there, I hope. We'll see. Since the U17's translates even less to the national team level, and has only been around for about 15+ years instead of 22 years, like the womens U20's, I'm less invested, but it is worth noting we've been utter crap at that level, '08: Silver '10: Failed to Qualify '12: Crashed out in Group Stage (3rd) '14: Failed to Qualify '16: Crashed out in Group Stage (3rd) '18: Crash out in Group Stage (4th) '22: Advanced to Quarterfinals, lost to third place Nigeria on Penalties. For those, even me, that consider the U17's irrelevant, it's worth noting, Spain, the new dominant power of women's soccer, has finished Silver, Bronze, Gold, Gold at the past 4 U17 WC's, and at the U20 level, they made runs to back to back finals, finishing Silver, and Gold. So hopefully Crocker's work is already paying dividends, even when we likely lose on sunday, it's still an improvement for our U20 Women. If we win, WOW. Fingers crossed.
Interesting side note on the women's U17 team's performance in concacrap U17 championships: '14 cycle: lost in semi's to Mexico '16, '18, '22 were all 1 goal wins by the US in the fnal. What's interesting about the '24 tournament back in February of this year: the US smashed EVERYBODY, 21-1 GD in the group stage, then wom their knockout games 7-1 over Haiti, and then beat Mexico 4-0 in the final. Finished with 32 goals, 2 goals against, for +30. They did all this in Mexico. So maybe the U17's are straightening up too?
Okay, if you didn't see it, you should watch the highlights. Regardless of what happens. The US Womens U20 WC team played Germany, 1 of the 2 best UEFA teams tough, fell behind on a penalty late, but played them even up, Germany added a 2nd halfway through injury time to win it 2-0. Except they didn't. The Crocker/Hayes effect? We score a late goal with 1 minute left in injury time to make it 1-2. And then on the last throw in/play of the game, we bundle the ball in to tie it in the 9th minute, of 8 minutes of injury time. INSANE. 2-2 now in extra time.
And the US U20s won it on penalties. Germany hit the post on one, I'm not sure about the other one, and then our keeper palmed away their 4th penalty for the victory. It's honestly the most shocking victory in the history of US soccer in terms of the odds of having achieved it and I see largely no press coverage. I get that the U20's are obscure, the Women's U20's even moreso, but my god. It was Germany 2-0, in the 97th minute of the game with 8 minutes of injury time to be played AND WE WON. It's the most Matt Crocker/Emma Hayes/Poch "THIS IS THE NEW US SOCCER" thing imaginable. What were the odds of a team winning down 2 goals, with 1 minute of injury time left to play?!?! I have no idea, but it has to be astronomical, and we won. I'm equal parts ecstatic for the women, and annoyed for our soccer press that I saw nothing from Men In Blazers last night, nothing from the usual twitter types, and still nothing from ESPN. It was astonishing. If you haven't seen it, watch. One of my core bits of reasoning for why the US Women were in disrepair summer of '23, and had zero chance of winning the WWC, was both how much they sucked under Ando '19-'23, but also the rapid decline of the team as an U20 juggernaut circa 2002-2012, to a craptacular mess the past 12 years, with only 1 quality U20 cycle out of 4. I was hopeful they could make a run to the quarters this time, win a knockout game maybe. Instead, they've made a run to semifinals. Come on soccer press, tell the story, it was one the most incredible finish to a soccer game ever, for the US, yes, not as big as WC '10 obviously, small stakes, but it was against Germany and they scored 2 freaking goals in the final minute and won on penalties. Its INSANE. Watch it, if you did not. It will make you have hope again . And as I say that, I figure they probably lose to this odd North Korea team trying to win its third WC in 18 years (2 titles, 1 runner up and a 4th, how do they do that?).
Kudos to Tracey Kevins, who is the coach of the team. However, she was also the coach of the last ill-fated squad, which did not do well. It's worth noting this is a VERY young squad -- there's only 11 2004s on the roster, and 3 of those are still 19. They probably cheat, TBH.
Yeah, I imagine you're right. I can't conceive of how North Korea would do it. Little access to quality coaches, exposure to the game in general, lock down with players, all that, but they're aiming to lift the trophy for the third time in 9 tournaments? Strikes me as ridiculous. But they have been heavy favorites in the group stage and against their opponents for a reason, so I suspect it could be a problem for us, especially exhausted after chasing this game for an hour after falling behind, but honestly, just forcing extra time was a win to me last night, that they had it in them to win on penalties was a cherry on top. I'm still stunned. I just checked flashscore after they fell behind 2-0 for an update to see if they could grab a late goal, saw 2-2, and nearly did a spit take. Thankfully I was recording.