Post-match: USA v Belgium knockout game

But I am, I still see the same proclamations only put a slightly different way.

 

I've explained this pretty clearly. It's pretty clear at this point that you just want to insult Americans as you refuse to even try to understand or engage rational points. I should have listened when your own country mate called you out for being an asshole here.

Goodbye.

 

As I've mentioned elsewhere, the key is to build a center of gravity around an area with a soccer-first culture. Until we do that, we're never going to have that final ingredient. Our soccer culture is too diffuse and doesn't have the requisite "iron-sharpening" characteristics that produce truly elite players.

 

???

*Where*

 

Sooo.. Western Europe and UK together have about 270 million folks. The USA has about 350 million. Imagine a 'best of western Europe and UK soccer team from this WC. Then imagine the USA's best going against those guys. It's kind of depressing! In my opinion, there is a massive gulf there, a gorge of epic proportions. I mean, if the USA closes the gap little by little (which we have been) but it will take forever to close it (if we ever do at all).

It has been baby steps. We breezed through our group, played a team with our B squad (10/11 players were non-starters) and only got beat in the last second. We handled BIH with aplomb, with 10 men and even scored while down a man. We've never done those types of things in a world cup before.

Then a crappy game against a good Belgium side. I won't go into why we played crappy because I don't know why, but I do have thoughts...

My point(s): This world cup was a net gain, we did do better than ever on the balance. One crappy R16 game does not a world cup make. Second: we are a looonnnnnggg way from catching the world's best (and I don't think there is a quick fix, we are decades away if ever).

Reference: I've followed USA soccer since 1990.

And lastly; Belgian fries are the best, waffles are awesome, Chokotof bon-bons are amazing, and Belgian beer is top notch. Who doesn't like Belgium?

 

Very few “elite athletes” choose wrestling as their sport here and only a few make a living at it…..yet we’re in contention for every world championship. I suspect it’s because there is less gatekeeping.

No need to make the travel team or know the right people….just pay a modest entry fee, make weight and wrestle.

 

I am old enough to remember when the key to winning World Cups was not coaching, but kids growing up playing non-organized soccer in the streets of Brazil and Argentina…

 

Oh wait… that also? Except now suburbs of paris? Haha

 

This is what we need. Kids becoming good players by playing on their own in non-organized settings and learning what works and what doesn't by having the opportunity to make mistakes without getting yelled at by parents and other adults. That and a change in emphasis in youth soccer to player development instead of winning tournaments.

Whether any of this is possible in today's world is the $64,000 question.

 

I think you need both good formal and informal coaching. Pick-up games like you describe give kids a chance to coach themselves and get coached by their peers. That’s great for developing key skills and a love of the sport. But at a certain point, you need good formal coaching to teach tactics and to help players figure out the varying ways that work for each specific player to turn potential into performance. And of course both kinds of coaching come from having a culture where the sport is known and valued.

 

Not harsh enough

 

Men's soccer is the most developed and competitive sport in the world, drawing from a truly global talent pool, with a large industry dedicated to identifying and training these athletes.

Wrestling isn't.

 

That's actually the key point. That, and an excellent detection and training system.
The national team in any team sport is a selection of the best players drawn from the population that—both sociologically and geographically—plays that sport most intensively. As long as kids in impoverished US urban neighborhoodsas as well as the wealthier kids at American universities, prefer basketball or American football to soccer, the US team will lag behind.

 

Population of UE and UK together is 520 million people.

 

Thank you - that sounded off but I was too lazy to look it up

 

The biggest reason is that wrestling isn't the #1 sport for much of the rest of the World.

There's no doubt pay to play limits our pool. I'm not saying that. But our population, general sports culture and investment is why the US dominates the Olympics. Hell, it's why for a number of Olympic Sports, the world trains in the US even if they aren't American.

 

Original post said Western Europe + UK, so you’re referencing two different things.

 

If you play a 39 year old defender because of his ball-playing skills, you can't complain when he is found out in terms of mobility and speed when required to actually defend. This was the experience the last three or so years that Vertonghen played for us too.

 

The post I responded to in post 1178

 

Erm.......you do know that wrestling isn't real don't you?

 

I happen to think that the 'if only our best athletes played soccer' crowd are mistaken thats all - I haven't insulted anybody, are people not allowed different opinions?

 

Troll alert! Troll alert!

 

Soccer has more than one royal family.

 

Try making a post or two without "The problem with you Americans is that ..."

If you disagree with an idea, disagree. If someone responds with another idea, read that idea and respond to it, not continue ranting against the original point, often a strawman, you've been on.

Avoid generalizing 340 million people into one point of view you read on the internet.

 

Right. Western Europe isn't UE.