Pros: 1. It allows the players to set a list of demands that can be made public. One of the worst things that could happen is for Berhalter to be fired as a scapegoat and then the USSF not making any changes. In the case of a lockout, the players, and the fans, can demand change and refuse to provide any service until changes are made. We need a complete reworking of the organization with all outside hires and people who actually care about the future of US Soccer being put in place. Then the media will have to start talking about those points or they'll get crucified with the federation. 2. Every player that actually deserves a USMNT call up can afford to ignore the monetary benefits earned by playing for them. This isn't the USWNT where they need to play for the team for their income. Our top 23 all does pretty well for themselves. 3. Everyone can stop going along with this sh*t because everything will *probably* be alright even if we don't change anything. The federation has been coasting by, raking in the cash while the inevitable surge in the popularity of soccer makes them look like they're helping when in reality they're impeding all progress. 4. This will make mainstream news, and there's nothing that could destroy the USSF more than actually being brought up in normal conversation between average Americans. Their corruption slides by because it's too complicated to explain to the average sports fan in normal conversation, but when their nepotism and incompetence is the beginning of the conversation, their names will be known across America. 5. We get to watch Berhalter coach a bunch of MLS scrubs that don't deserve anything near a call up, and I think there'd be nothing funnier than being forced to coach awful players and losing to crappy nations while literally no one watches. We can all finally stop watching the team that we've been saying we'd stop supporting but been unable to cut off because there's always the off-chance Pulisic has the game of his life or Sargent scores his breaking out goal or something like that. Cons: 1. World Cup qualifying isn't too far away, and it would suck if a guy like Christian has to miss his 2nd World Cup in a row. Hopefully things change before that. 2. The Olympics are coming up, and I was really hoping to watch our U23s send an extremely strong side. I'm not sure how that'd work with a lockout, though. Other than that, I don't see much downside. I'm done with the USSF. This is insanity. I refuse to let these guys in the USSF ride the coattails of a new generation of players that deserve much better. Our country should have the best-ran federation in the world, not one of the worst.
Seriously? You think players are going to refuse to play and submit a list of demands that will completely rework USSF and get the coach fired? Dream on.
My respect. And that doesn't mean I don't think things are bad right now and Beerholder isn't doing a crap job.
Players will strike for things like players not getting paid or if they are practicing in a way that is unsafe. Not for something like this.
I get that it's cute, but how else do you expect anything to change? US Soccer is more of a cash cow than MLS is. They literally could not do any work for the next 20 years and still make a nice living. Something has to be done.
1. Soccer in the US wont ever recover. What a silly idea. The US Men are facing apathy and Women's soccer isnt self sufficient. You want to kill soccer in the US? Do this.
The public rarely sides with players when they strike and that is when they are striking for good reasons. And the job would become a lot less desirable for future coaches.
I don't think a public "walkout" would be more effective than a private one (similar to the one that Bradley tried to lead vs. Klinsmann). In other words, they can exert pressure directly to Earnie or Cordeiro and use "injury" or "concentrate on solidifying my club roster spot" as rationale for missing games. That being said, I don't see obvious evidence that Berhalter has lost the locker room at this point but the public is usually the last to know. There was some random tweet but didn't seem corroborated by anyone substantive.
What is killing US Soccer are the people who "lead" US Soccer. It wasn't the crew in the boiler room who killed the Titanic, it was the idiot owners of the company and their lackey captain. If the crew in the boiler room had said enough is enough, and refused to charge full steam ahead in pursuit of some ephemeral time record, it would have prevented the end of that ship. Just because we have become habituated to a bunch of corrupt bastards sucking the life out of US Soccer doesn't mean that they aren't sucking the life out of US Soccer.
some of the blame has to go to the iceberg, no? not to mention humans inability to breathe under water and handle cold temperatures.....so you can really say lack of evolution and adaptation is the real culprit here...
So, do any of you cynics have a better idea on what to do as the US faces the distinct possibility of not qualifying again? (And anybody who thinks that won't happen, probably thinks global warming is a hoax and the earth is flat.) I'm not watching any more USMNT games until that start winning consistently. I'm fine with the Premier League and greatly looking forward to the Euros. I might even watch the MLS Final...though not live.
Berhalter has 0 wins against Top-50 teams, and they've looked bad each time. That's factual, not cynical.
respectfully, ebbro, that’s the wrong question. we are a nation that had one of the world’s longest streaks of making the world cup and not so long ago, many BS posters expected us to make it to the World Cup knock-out round even when facing Germany, Ghana and Portugal. lowering the standard to just qualifying is a huge step backwards even acknowledging that we didn’t do it in 2018.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not happy with GGG. Just pointing out it's also cynical to think we won't qualify and to refuse to watch until we start winning while calling the rest of us cynics.
cant argue with that. I’m very much against lowering our expectations and that irrespective of Berhalter - we should expect to make the World Cup, finish no worse than second in concacaf and get points at home vs Mexico and Costa Rica. World Cup expectation are draw dependent.
Possibly 3. CR, MEX, and CAN (depending on how they do in NL). Certainly, you could say that Canada has the roster of a top 50 team, even if they've been held back by historically poor play. The real issue with that stat is, while we may not be facing good teams after CR (aging out, trending down), Canada (young, trending up), and Mexico, we WILL and DO struggle against teams away from home. Last cycle we got zero wins. We struggled for ties, got smoked in CR, lost in Cuova, and escaped with ties to Panama/Honduras. Top-50 wins at home can be indicators that we'll beat 60-70th ranked teams away in CONCACAF. Our record has been dismal instead, despite better fields and friendlier confines than traditional CONCACAF road games.