Rickey Dudley came to Ohio State as a basketball player and ended up being a first-round NFL draft pick. The days of Bo Jackson are long, long gone. There also comes a point where the college football coach doesn't want his guy getting hurt playing baseball. College football and basketball together is definitely out of the question now that a ton of football teams play well past Thanksgiving. Multi-sport stuff works in high school, but not past that. You're exactly right. There's a movie called "He Got Game" which is about a the father of a dirt-poor five-star basketball player getting the kid to sign a letter of intent at Big State U. Taking out the ridiculousness of the situation (in reality, someone with his pedigree and economic status would absolutely have signed with the NBA), someone super-talented and who grew up in the slums wouldn't pick soccer. The money just isn't there. The best option for soccer is the academies and even that pays somewhere between dog piss and jack doodle compared to a backup player on a big-name NCAA football or basketball team.
More refers to always being injured he needs to get stronger but it’s partly might be just unfortunate events (some call bad luck )
I'm not sure we really want to know how many players pee on/near the field. There was a time when Crew practices would be open to public viewing. I remember hearing a story from one mom how she would be talking to her kid while standing in a place that would strategically face the kid away from 3-4 players standing over by the fence. Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley just were unfortunate enough to get caught on camera.
Cherundolo appears to have been chosen as Olympic coach. Might be a good choice for senior coach. If he wanted it. https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...gnMwz-SAAG8On8BWnl_aem_bL7zVWgP0cR_ELL35n0B_w
I never said it was the first time. But he had a reputation for a long time for being inconsistent and for pulling disappearing acts. 2006 had a lot to do with it. In some ways, he’s on a similar national team career path as CP. Success early, followed by disappointment and question marks. As a matter of fact, Pulisic's getting heavily criticized for talking about being able to rest now, which is admittedly, tone deaf right after the Belgium bombout. But let's not forget that one of the big reasons why Klinsmann decided not to take Donovan to 2014? Donovan took a sabbatical from soccer, and he (and others) were wondering if he had anything left. And somehow Donovan is one of the ones lobbing grenades from the cheap seats.
I'm in the camp if he stayed over seas the MLS wouldn't exist anymore and Landon would have regressed as a player. Let's not forget he was still from the era where Americans were frowned upon if they didn't grow up within the overseas system.
What about them? Do we have time to list all of Brian McBride's injuries? He had facial fractures. He missed most of a season because of a blood clot. He dislocated his kneecap in the act of scoring a goal with Fulham. A close friend of mine and former BigSoccer poster (who will remain nameless to protect my mental health) used to refer to him as McBandaid because of how often he was hurt. I don't remember anyone for a SECOND ever accuse him of being soft. He had to leave the first Mexico qualifier of U.S. Soccer's golden age in his home stadium because of the eye injury, but that was an injury that we could see, so that's different, I guess. I don't remember Carli Lloyd or Sydney Leroux telling him to look out of the other eye.
Are you saying Pulisic is as tough as McBride? Because I look at their play styles and see how one could get hurt a lot, the other not so much. Also, I'm not trying to slander Pulisic about this. He gets hurt a lot, it's a fact. I'm not sure what the point you're trying to make is. Relying on someone like that (and Reyna and Adams) seems kinda ricky as they enter their 30's for the next cycle.
The point I'm trying to make is that fans seem to pick and choose which guys they hold the "he's always injured" critique for. My argument against Pulisic has more to do with the fact that he's just not as good as we need him to be. If he wants to be part of the next World Cup cycle in any meaningful way, he really needs to show up big time at the next Gold Cup, and that's just for starters. He's going to need to earn it constantly for the next four years.
🇺🇸 From the inside read of the USMNT World Cup campaign... which really started when Mauricio Pochettino took over and found some culture shock:“The situation was worse than we really believed,” Pochettino said last month. Ahead of their first training camp in Austin, Texas,…— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) July 9, 2026
https://slate.com/culture/2026/07/norway-soccer-erling-haaland-united-states-world-cup.html A discussion of Haaland and the difference between youth sports in Norway vs. the US. Kids are encouraged to play multiple sports. They are encouraged to have fun. They give participation trophies. The horror! Somehow they still do pretty well in international sports.
He'll be there (health permitting). Who could even dream of replacing him? Diego Luna? Jack McGlynn? Any of the other jokers Poch wasted 18 months fvcking around with? As long as we play with wingers or attacking mids, Pulisic will be on the team, due to a lack of options more than anything.
I think that is mostly a thing or the past with regards to multiple sports in the US. Also if you all listen to the Donovan interview/podcast, he approaches the message to Pulisic from an angle of I made these mistakes in the past. He knows Pulisic likely won't listen to him, but he did live through similar ups and downs that had big time mental impact on him, which Pulisic is surely feeling as well. Pulisic still has time and talent, the future could go in any way.
The same people complaining about participation trophies need to look in the mirror and see who's giving them out.
Btw, on McBride https://www.transfermarkt.us/brian-mcbride/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/3469 season by season stats. He seemed relatively healthy to me, especially in his prime. At Fulham he played 16 games (half season), 31 games, 38 games, 38 games (league games). Final season he missed time with a knee injury. Seemed to played when in MLS between loan stints. For the US in World Cups: 1994 - in squad but healthy scratched 1998 - played two of three group games 2002 - played all five games 2006 - played all three group games Played in all five Confed Cup games in 2009. So how that compares to Pulisic I'm not really sure.
In youth team news, Tristan Brown got called up for the 2026 CONCACAF Men’s U-20 Championship. Saturday, July 25th against Haiti Tuesday, July 28th against El Salvador Friday, July 31 against Cuba All games are 9:50pm and listed for FS2, although my guide has the Cuba game on FS1 and FS2.
Yes. Hes a highly rated prospect. And the u20 (and u17) tournaments are big for european scouting. Its where a lot of mls academy guys started coming out