I think you're trying to talk yourself into starting an inexperienced, unproven, and possibly hobbled player like Hamid in do-or-die qualifiers, because it has the most potential, so in the process you're exaggerating the supposed struggles of Rimando. Thinking the way you do, you'd lose a lot at key times. Pretty much no actual manager in the world does things like you're proposing, for good reason. Look at the way Tuchel is taking it on the chin a bit right now from playing talent and youth (doesn't mean you should overdo it in the other direction). But those are in league games and he wouldn't overtake Bayern Munchen anyways most likely. He plays tournaments more conservatively, and that would especially be the case if he was the manager of a nt in WC qualifying, one that was already in a big hole to boot. Ideally Howard is healthy enough and he starts. Otherwise it's Guzan vs. Rimando. Those are our only realistic option between the pipes. Hamid simply isn't a remotely realistic option in a situation like this until he puts in the work in friendlies and b-team comps.
This. Of course we should continue to try to develop more technical players. But watch out when someone talks as if "development programs" are to blame or are the answer, like Klinnsmann did. The real problem developing technique in murican players is that the kids don't spend enough time with a ball at their feet, playing pickup or whatever against other talented kids.
This too. However it sure would have been nice to see him come off the bench around minute 80 against Belgium.
I'd argue that this is the biggest problem we have now and will have going forward. You know why we have the best basketball players in the world? Because all day, every day, when kids want to play basketball, they can play basketball somewhere. There's an awesome field near where I live in Los Angeles. A little smaller than normal, full size goals, brand new. It's in a great area and is easy to get to. It sits open with no one on it about 70% of the time. We have to create a soccer culture here that allows kids to play soccer all day if they want to
It's obviously growing. I live in a smaller town, Gainesville, Florida. There's soccer fields everywhere here and people play pick up every day.
I agree with your overall premise on style of play. I disagree on the timeline you seem to imply regarding the production of highly skilled players. For the immediate future (5-10 yrs or possibly more), I agree that we will not have the players but somewhere in the not so distant future I think we will have them. Maybe it'll come from the current U-10's? or maybe from the children of the current U-20's generation? That may or may not be in your lifetime but hopefully it will be in mine. (I guess if I have to wait for the U-20's kids, that could be 20-30 years and I will be pushing my luck)
This thread should be renamed into "Talking out of my ass". Opinions, pure nonsense, popular, unpopular throw it in here. Let's start fights and have fun.
Curious as to your definition of "greatest" and ... who are your Top 5 if Landon Donovan is not one of them. Sounds like a lot of "caught in possession" to me.
If I had to make an educated guess, it will take at least 25 years or more. These things take a long time to develop and mature, especially in a country as vast as ours with a soccer infrastructure still in its relative early stages. As Americans, we are an impatient culture and want it all now, but unfortunately, that is not how soccer development works.
Pretty hard to tell. You may be right but my guess is 25 years or less. Kids that are one or two years old right now will be in their prime 25 years from now. The quality of play at every level has been improving steadily over the past 40 years or so but it's been kind of linear for a big part of that time. Over the past 10 years or so, it seems to be going exponential. Look at the young (16-19 yr old) players that are all the sudden breaking in or seemingly on the cusp of breaking in to the big time. In the past, three top prospects from the U-17's would be a golden generation. There is, of course, Pulisic but now he is not alone in highly regarded young prospects. It is true that it is only potential at this point but I don't remember a time when this many different players were widely regarded as genuine prospects. Today's U-17's will be in their prime 10 yrs from now. Today's U-7's will be in their prime 20 yrs from now and the U-2's will be in their prime 25 yrs from now. Based on this, I believe we can be significantly improved within 10 yrs (2026 WC) but perhaps not at the stage where we can play possession at the later rounds of the wc (I believe that was the criteria). If I have to guess, I will say 15-20 yrs before we can impose a game on our opponent at the highest level. My prediction (write this down!) is that we win a world cup by 2034 (17 yrs!)....2038 at the latest. I'll bet this opinion is unpopular.
I'm just excited to see where we go from here. I can't wait to see what we look like in 5 years, much less 10. I'm excited to see what happens with this u17 group and this u20 group. I'm excited to see what guys like JAB, Wood, Gooch, Yedlin, and all the good young players look like in their primes. Most of all, I'm excited because even if those players don't develop or reach their potential, we have other players who will reach theirs. At the very least, it should be fun to watch
Here's an unpopular opinion...............................actually more of a prediction: Ten years from now nobody will complain that Julian Green was made a part of the 2014WC roster by Klinsmann. He's going to be an important part of the post WC18 re-build as a whole group of our attacking players "age out" He may not have the ceiling of Pulisic, but he has a USMNT-regular type of ceiling. He's no Freddy Adu. He may not be a Bayern Munich-caliber player, but he's going to have a long Bundesliga career.
Benny Feilhaber should have been starting with Bradley from 2007 to present. No other USMNT central midfield has looked as fluid as the Bradley-Feilhaber pairing in a decade. Not Kljestan, not Mix, not Torres, not Beckerman, not anyone. We are worse for it for not sticking with that pairing through thick and thin. Bradley-Jones has never looked more than adequate at best in the middle of the park and gives us Gerrard-Lampard syndrome. Playing the two of them together is/was a hinderance to squad performance at least 50 percent of the time. Hedges/Zimmerman have been no worse than our 3rd/4th best centerback options for quite some time now and are sturdier options than some of the fancy overseas guys. Justin Morrow is no worse than our 2nd best left back in the pool and has been for some time. And I like me some Villafana just fine too. Beitashour would have been at least useful for a few years during that SJ Supporters Shield timeframe, certainly better than Brad Evans. Should have capped him. Obviously now we are armed to the teeth at right back so its a nonstarter, but for a good 2-3 years of Klinsmann's first cycle Beita would ahve been useful to cap before going to Iran