this has been called the golden generation of usmnt...its not. it is the softest, though masculinity is being destroyed in the usa...and its no wonder that countries like spain and argentina made the final in such an era - 2 countries unconfused about gender and masculinity Survey Data: According to YouGov, over 60% of men over 65 identify as "completely masculine." Only about 30% of men under 45 say the same. broad social trends and patterns might not seem relevant to what happens between the lines,but I personally think it has a lot to do with how the usmnt plays...and why they seem to collapse mentally at the slightest sign of turbulence these guys are soft and mentally weak and until that changes...nothing else will matter with this group
Bespoke take on the grit/wanting it more angle for how to improve US Soccer. Like wanting it was going to not let the ball drop between 2 guys on the 1st goal, or let Ream squat DeKetelare on the 2nd, or suddenly make Freese minimally competent striking the ball with his left foot....
Look at the first half of Belgium versus US. It was not a difference in "masculinity" or toughness or anything like that. It was a difference in skill. Belgium were better at things like playing out the back, doing one-twos, creating passing triangles, playing in tight spaces etc. You know the type of skills MLS academies are trying to teach. And the team that actually won the tournament, Spain, were the best at those qualities and did not fall for Argentina trying to rough them up. And the two teams that tried to beat the US by physicality, Paraguay and Australia, the US was able to beat comfortably.
Can't help but wondering if we had all just paid attention at those "How to Play like Barcelona" sessions at the NSCAA conferences and in our inboxes in the twenty-teens if maybe our MNT could have won the whole thing
If you think the team is soft, rewatch the Bosnia game.................................... The guys fought like lions down a man for much of the 2nd half.
looking for answers on why this team and generation is soft as charmin and its not "talent" otherwise they wouldnt have the prolific club careers they do and they wouldnt be wiping the floor with lower ranked teams in the world cup if it was a talent issue they folded like wet toilet paper vs belgium...and in many other important matches the last 8 years i cant beleive any usmnt fan who watched the belgium wouldnt think this team is too soft and has a mentality problem point of this thread is trying to figure out why personally, i think its at least somehwat related to cultural trends and less testosterone/masculinity generally.... if you disagree, then lets hear you theory - and I dont buy "talent" as the only factor here
why does this trigger you? you cant consider the possibility that this team isnt mentally tought enough and might have a masculinity issue? youre so bought in to the gender is an irrelvant construct narrative that you cant consider any other reality? or what?
Hey, maybe you should go ahead and take one of those “gender is a construct” seminars for yourself. Then you might realize how equating mental toughness with masculinity makes you a giant parody of the most obvious sort of internet misogynist. There’s a big long list of reasons this team bombed out of the WC and not performing gender to your desired specifications is way down at the bottom of it.
its not really about that, though....how you describe it im not saying this team isnt performing gender accurately im questioning whether their lack of rooted masculinity is connected to their mental softness i dont think anyone can argue that this team is mentally strong and resilient..... ok, yeah, obviously women can be mentally tough and strong.....but mens soccer at the top level is a much diffrent beast than womens soccer at the top level. u15 boys can beat and have beaten the uswnt, easily. when i listen to guys like pulisic, weah, even mckennie (who I like a lot), etc....im not impressed with their personas and defensiveness, aloofness...trying to be so cool etc...they often come across weakly, defensive, whiny, lame, feminine beta etc....for exmample pulisic whining that he was playing well at ac milan second half of the season was ridiculously tone deaf and very unflattering guys like dempsey, jermaine jones, mcbride, even donovan (as a player), hejduk, sanneh, eddie pope, earnie stewart, onyewu, miazga etc ...past generations...were cut from a different cloth....they were MEN...idk...TEAMS WERE NOT EFFING WITH THEM! this generation is just not on that level to me.....all these games where they show up and get ABSOLUTELY TRAINWRECKED like deer in headlights....that rarely ever happened before......even when the talent was much lower..... this generation has lost beligum 4-1 26 wc, 5-2, trindidad (couva) wcq, netherlands 3-1 22 wc, panama 2-1 (copa america), colombia 5-1, japan 2-0 (22).... all of these losses were bizarre and it was like they were walking around zombified or something...i REALLY dont know how to explain it! and i refuse to beleive it is talent...because that doesnt make sense....it is something else so, ok,fine....you dont think it is masculinity or toughness.....so what is it then????? (and you can have whatever gender equality beliefs you want....be my guest....but I am arguing that the future world cup champions will not be countries without a strong sense of masculinity and will not be countries with a strong sense of gender being fluid...its simply not going to happen)
People start having thoughts like this usually once they are older than anyone else on the field. And losses vs Belgium and the Netherlands were showing how far behind we are in terms of tactics. Netherlands and Belgium both had clear game plans we were not prepared for. Belgium focused play down the left because they realized it was a weak spot. The Netherlands in 2022 basically scored 3 versions of the same goal against us.
I awkwardly made eye contact with a guy who looked like Tim Ream at an Indigo Girls concert and he cowered. Makes sense now. He did return my hacky sack 45 yards on a dime across the parking lot before the show after one got away from the circle....so maybe evens....
I think there's a mental element that's off with this crew, but I wouldn't tie it into masculinity. It's not like they were straight up bullied off the pitch. They were shaky with the ball from the get go, before Belgium even had time to intimidate them. Maybe a lack of professionalism. I get the sense that they're frontrunners. When everything is going well, they feed off of it and build their game up. But once uncertainty kicks in, there's not this resolve to put the game back on terms they're more comfortable with by slowing things down and disrupting the opponent. Instead they panic and force patterns of play that aren't there and often end up ball watching. These guys have gotten in brawls with Mexico like the best hits of the past, so I don't think they're absolute creampuffs. For whatever reason they just cant summon that sort of fire against European teams. Too much respect and familiarity from playing over there? They need to put a chip on their shoulder against that sort of opposition already. Fine they may outskill us but we're not gonna let them have their way and just play around us. That sort of thing.
The generation of the 2000s had similar games. There was the disastrous showing against Poland in 2002, where the team switched off after having an early goal disallowed, immediately let in a goal at the other end, and never looked like they were in the game the rest of the way. There was the capitulation against the Czech Republic in 2006. There was the 3-0 loss to Brazil in the first game of the 2009 Confederations Cup. One of the low points was passing a short corner straight to a Brazilian player, at which point Brazil went the whole length of the field unopposed and scored. Dempsey started showboating while 3 goals down, as if he wanted to show he was not as bad as the rest of the team.
Yes I am older than all of the players, even old man ream. What's such a red flag to me was every single player after the belgium game seemed to have no idea what had just happened. They were "stunned" But they didn't seem to have a clear understanding of what was happening tactically. As if they just follow orders on the field like robots and have little understanding of how to impact games or adjust tactics on the fly..... This generation plays at huge clubs....they shouldn't be so clueless. I think they are reasonably intelligent too....which is strange They seem to lack basic analytical ability....which i think is very important. How do they get to such high levels of a sport they dont understand??!?!
Thanks this is the post I was hoping for Yeah... I think they are frontrunners aka mentally soft I also think they dont really understand the game and how they can adjust their own play to take agency. Rather, they just follow orders out there and dont even think much of the big picture But I think players from top 10 nations all do that