Agree with the list except for Wood. Still young, playing in a fantastic league, in a position we have no depth in. He was an embarrassment last night, but I think that speaks more to the game prep than him. This was basically a confused, JKesque performance. No one knew what to do, nor did any of the players take ownership, step up, and wake the team up.
Two things I notice, and hopefully no one takes them badly: 1) This is the biggest US-based soccer-related forum online, yet the USA section doesn't have threads specific to soccer abroad. BSMX has such threads, where people exchange news and analysis of games completely unrelated to Mexico or Mexican players. That shows a love of the sport just for the sport's sake. There's much less of a chance to over-hype your own players when you're also keeping an eye on players from around the globe. We tend to be exceedingly parochial, and lack context, so we tend to "inflate" our guys abilities, while being derogatory of others. Also, a greater focus on the game abroad, completely divorced of our nationalistic interests, can serve as a teaching tool: getting our kids to get a much wider variety of role models, far beyond what came from the USA. 2) I was taken aback by the happiness in foreign forums and newspaper comment sections about our elimination. It was a bit like when The Empire falls in Star Wars. No one seems to like us, soccerwise (and probably more, but let's not go there). One of those reasons may be related to the parochialism of our soccer culture, noted above. Another, to the idea that if we get too powerful, we'll push for a change of rules in a sport people around the world like the way it is. But, overall, there's a feeling that justice was finally done, that we had been achieving more than we deserved. Which may be true: what for us is the "gritty punching above our weight" is for others the boring display of a bunch blessed with good luck.
I thought there was no chance of all three results going the wrong way. I thought we might struggle, but win narrowly or tie. But I thought Panama were so poor they'd never win, so yeah, we were all fooled by things.
Americans don't love football. Americans love watching the USA compete in the World Cup (or really, for anything) once every 4 years. We don't give a shit about other national squads. We don't even give a shit about our own league. People are like "where's the outrage and pressure"? 90% of motherfu@#%ers, the folks who broke all those viewership and attendance records in Brazil, can't even name the US captain let alone be bothered to attend a D1 club match in their hometown. Having your soccer culture towed to the back of a national team that plays like 10 competitive matches a year that most fans can't see live has reached the limits of its usefulness. That isn't building knowledge. That isn't building fans of soccer. It's pandering to our already built-in patriotism. If there's an upside to this, it's to see if Americans can actually develop a love of the sport itself the same way Americans love and follow basketball, baseball and football passionately for its own end. Can Americans even love their own ********ing team when they realize we are not realistically competing for WCs, like the vast majority of participating countries? And yes, the arrogance of implementing bullshit rules like VAR to make the game more palatable to a neophyte fanbase that barely understands this game is merely another symptom of the US not getting it.
I remember Alan Gordon saying he never watched any soccer growing up while playing and that blew my mind. How do you become a professional having never cared to watch professionals play? Where do you get ideas/inspiration/tips from if not from watching the best? I don't think that soccer in America deserved this omission but it may have been needed to push it past the state it's in. But it may also take it a step back depending on the course of action that you all go on. Either way...can't be worse then the nonsense we get from the CSA
Agreed about Bradley. My previous post was based on the most AGED players. But if you broaden that basis to include merit or desire, then there are a whole host of players who could be benched, MB included.
It wasn't easy to watch soccer back then. I'm a little older than he is, but not by much. Here is my soccer watching memory pre-1990: * watching Gole' - the 1982 World Cup film, taped on VHS from HBO. over and over * watching 1986 Mexico World Cup on ABC WITH COMMERCIALS * on my black and white bedroom TV set, watching Sunday morning Serie A broadcast over RAI via PBS That was it. And reading magazines. If you didn't seek it out, it wasn't going to find you. Like good music. Also, we're talking about Alan Gordon, who is not a very good player. There are also tons of examples of athletes who are good at their sport but don't like watching their sport.
I guess we have no moderators for this thread as they allow the classless Mexitrash to troll with impunity.
No offense, but that attitude is part of the problem. No longer does he have to earn it or prove that he can play because he plays in Germany and he will be in an acceptable age range. I thought he was the best defender I’d seen in a long time at copa. But after that, his performances took a serious nose dive. Even with Hertha he stopped playing well. Maybe you’re right and he sticks around, mostly because the talent at cb in the youth teams (aside from the u20s) is suspect, but I sure as hell wouldn’t be handing him anything. Nor would I be expecting him to start
This result is disappointing, yes, but what's really disappointing is the lack of talent between the 30-somethings and the 19 year olds. We have few players between Donovan/Dempsey and Pulisic worth getting excited about. So I figure I'll watch the Sounders and Arsenal and maybe an Eredivisie game or two. Plus I'm rediscovering my love for ice hockey this year in honour of my Canadian mother, who passed away recently. Gonna watch some NHL, some club soccer and some American football and forget the World Cup even exists. The good news is I never have to watch undertalented players like Graham Zusi play soccer again (unless he's playing against the Sounders).
The problem I have with wood is not just last night. Even in a game where he scored like Friday, he had about 4-5 legitimate scoring chances and came away with one goal. I’ve always liked him but he gives the ball away too easily and doesn’t finish enough. I feel like those are the criticisms we had of him 2 years ago and he hasn’t really improved. I really think we need to stop worrying so much about where players play and focus on what they do well or don’t do well and how they do when they get senior team opportunities.
As to 1) there are lots of threads about soccer outside on this forum, not in the USA section of course. Because that would be illogical and redundant. 2) The US has been a political, economic, cultural and mililatry powerhouse throughout the world for the past many decades. So, yes, the rest of world does enjoy seeing the US not be good at something Soccer is a something that the US is not a powerhouse in and I‘m sure folks outside the US are just fine with it staying that way. We are, have been, and will be for a long time, UNDERDOGS in soccer. There aren‘t many other areas where the USA is underdogs on the world stage. Honestly, this is part of the reason I am passionate about USA soccer. I love the underdogs we are on the world stage. It still stings that we performed so badly, so utterly badly, this qualifying round. Embarassing. We are not underdogs in CONCACAF but we don‘t know how to play like champions, with heart and soul. The team is heartless and soulless and has been for the past couple years.
where in the hell were Heyduk and Lalas when you needed them to step and shake the team out of its stupor? Oh that is right - we don't have anyone like that right now on our squad . .. I actually don't think talent is our major problem .. this time around it is attitude and preparation .. I squarely put the blame on the team captain (s) , the coach and Gulati. When we had no talent we had to rely on effort, motivation and cohesion .... that we had to have in the past to help us achieve our goals. Who is the next team leader?
To be fair he's from an age group where there were very few viewing options for soccer in the U.S. when he was growing up. Although, I get the point. I suspect loads of kids who play organized soccer in the U.S. today rarely (if ever) watch professional soccer.
Wood didn't discover soccer until he was fairly old. Arena hasn't discovered a CB outside of Gonzalez in quite some time, either.
Came here too see if a political discussion, or if political themes had been touched by either fan base considering the way everything went down. Lets just say you guys dont dissapoint.
Tell the truth you actually came by to troll, and you guys didn't disappoint on that matter. Buenos suertes en el cupa de mundo.
Hey dummkopf, you shoud be complaining about the German-Americans for not being on the roster for the last couple of games instead of writing such a remark.....!!!! Bist du bescheuert oder was......???
See, I said the trolling's gonna be obnoxious for the next 4 years. It's already starting. Awesome... [/sarcasm]
4 years? Cups over in less than 9 months and change and then everyone is looking forward to the next major tournaments in their confed. It would be very cool to see the U17s shock the world this time. That would turn our frowns upside down.
What the fu$% are you talking about, MB hardly played in Italy (AS Roma), he was on the bench most of the time just like LD in Munich. sorry but for my eyes (Mis ojitos) both of them are (were) just losers in my opinion.