Where does US soccer need to improve?

Discussion in 'USA Men: News & Analysis' started by Eleven Bravo, Dec 4, 2022.

  1. Eleven Bravo

    Eleven Bravo Member+

    Atlanta United
    United States
    Jul 3, 2004
    SC
    Club:
    Atlanta Silverbacks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I’d say we could improve if we could organize better to get the best kids playing each other. Part of the issue is that we have lots of talented kids but it’s spread out over such a large geography, that it makes sense that a small nation like Croatia or even Netherlands can reach those elite levels. It’s not hard for them to get their best to be around their best.
     
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  2. Crawleybus

    Crawleybus Member+

    Oct 18, 2013
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Good post, there could be something in this.
     
  3. Crawleybus

    Crawleybus Member+

    Oct 18, 2013
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Really I didn't, perhaps you can show me where exactly??
     
  4. The Clientele

    The Clientele Member+

    Portland Timbers
    Jun 25, 2005
    Portland, Oregon
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Agreed...

    If this guy knew me, he'd understand I respect England, its people, music, literature and traditions. And I'm a descendant of English settlers... so I identify with the country.

    But I just don't understand the fixation coming onto this forum to attack and attempt to belittle a country you've shown you know very little about. Dude, we're a bunch of well-meaning guys (for the most part) that are outliers in our own country. We love a game that most of our compatriots know little about and don't follow. That we enjoy talking about our national team is something we're passionate about, especially around the World Cup. Our media doesn't really cover the sport, so that's probably another reason we come here to discuss stuff.

    Let me ask you this... What joy do you get coming here and laying down stink bombs? And why are we such a threat that you'd get so emotionally invested in disrupting a USA soccer forum?

    FFS, dude. Get outta here!
     
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  5. pirozhok

    pirozhok Member+

    United States
    Jul 20, 2007
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    AFAIK FIFA has not decided on WCQ yet, but most likely all 3 hosts will have to go thru WCQ, which will be a cakewalk due to extra slots available. Regarding the matches with decent teams playing friendlies won't help us, we must start facing real competition in competitive tourneys. Prioritizing Copa America over Copa de Mierda Oro would be the first step (not gonna happen unfortunately).
     
  6. gogorath

    gogorath Member+

    None
    United States
    May 12, 2019
    I believe we are all auto-qualified, and as such, we need to go hunt games.
     
  7. The Clientele

    The Clientele Member+

    Portland Timbers
    Jun 25, 2005
    Portland, Oregon
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Someone suggested a competition with African and Asian side, which I really like. We need to find a way to move past the gold cup. I used to like the gold cup because it was our ticket to confederations cup which is the real competition. Our Fed needs to get creative. And fast.
     
  8. RossD

    RossD Member+

    Aug 17, 2013
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Thank you.
    All you have to do is look at London and see how many professional clubs are in the city. Very easy for all of them to get on the same page and you know any and all kids there would get heavily scouted. Plus, it gives the kids tons of options to play for, and move their way up. I'm assuming the English clubs do not have all the complicated signing rules the MLS has.
     
  9. Elninho

    Elninho Member+

    Sacramento Republic FC
    United States
    Oct 30, 2000
    Sacramento, CA
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    One thing that will help: in August MLS announced a big change to Homegrown territory rules. Beginning in 2023, MLS teams will no longer have rights to all players in their territories; they will instead only be able to declare a protected list of a limited number of players within their territory.
     
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  10. pirozhok

    pirozhok Member+

    United States
    Jul 20, 2007
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It has not been decided yet, but either way it's bad for us - we will have no WCQ matches or will play the same shitty teams to get one of 6 slots
     
  11. GKbenji

    GKbenji Member+

    Jan 24, 2003
    Fort Collins CO
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Attempts have/are being made, but IMO are lacking. I spent a long time coaching in the youth system at a club that has produced pros and even a few national team players. The support we got from the Fed, even for the Development Academy teams, was minimal and not very effective. Feedback from Fed coaches was cursory or nonexistent. They were really using it as more of a scouting exercise anyway. Then we'd go to DA tournaments and end up against a team composed of giant man-children who thumped it long out of the back. Very depressing.

    I'd say it's not just the licensing that needs to be improved (I think it's more educational now, but even just 10-15 years ago the USSF program was about testing, not teaching) but the continuing education needs to be there. Too many coaches get their D license (or C or even B) and go on their way doing whatever they did before, for better or worse. We always complain our National Team players often lack vision and tactical savvy; well, their coaches never imparted them that wisdom.

    Having MLS clubs as part of the academy picture now is a move in the right direction. They have a vested interest in fostering that kind of development. But as has been pointed out, the clubs are too few and far apart in such a geographically huge country. It makes scouting and development difficult.
     
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  12. DuneauxHarm

    DuneauxHarm New Member

    Liverpool FC
    United States
    Nov 22, 2022
    This is extremely awesome analysis. I appreciate your whole thread and others contributions. You have made me infinitely smarter about all of soccer in the U.S. from all levels. Thanks
     
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  13. RefIADad

    RefIADad Member+

    United States
    Aug 18, 2017
    Des Moines, IA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Going back to my post about futsal, if you ever wanted an advertisement for what futsal, "street soccer", and other small-sided work being the foundation of our youth development, the first 45 minutes of Brazil-South Korea was it.

    Marco Antonelli wrote a book and has a website that I'm going to share here. In my opinion, his work should be in every single club technical director's library and given to every single coach in the USSF grassroots course. I'm that convinced that Antonelli should be at the forefront of completely changing how we address youth soccer development in this country. I'm not a coach, but I bought his book and gifted it to one of my son's club coaches a couple of years ago.

    https://www.soccerpoweredbyfutsal.com/
     
  14. Eleven Bravo

    Eleven Bravo Member+

    Atlanta United
    United States
    Jul 3, 2004
    SC
    Club:
    Atlanta Silverbacks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thank you!
     
  15. Eleven Bravo

    Eleven Bravo Member+

    Atlanta United
    United States
    Jul 3, 2004
    SC
    Club:
    Atlanta Silverbacks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There’s one very important point, in my opinion, that I want to circle back to about Mentorship opportunities.

    Granted, in my personal and professional life outside of BigSoccer, this is my wheelhouse. This is what I do. So, it’s very near and dear to my heart. Although, it’s not at the forefront of my conversations on this website.

    On a personal note, as a parent, it gives me anxiety the thought about letting my kid go alone to Europe from any age of 15-25. And, it’s not like my job would allow me to move there on a moment’s notice either. Heck, my daughter is 18 now, and she fortunately decided to go to a state college for her undergraduate. Which gave me enough worry with just that. She wanted to study in Europe, and she actually got into Oxford and Saint Andrews (maybe she can go there for her doctorate). People can say that’s a great opportunity. But it’s hard for me to see my baby girl go from living at home to all of a sudden being an adult without much support at all at just the snap of finger. Even in my case, I joined the Army infantry right out of high school, because I wanted to do my part like my grandfather did his, but at least, I had a built in support system that made sure that I was going to be okay and do the right thing.

    Point being, how many of us would want our kids to go abroad and try to make it in this very competitive environment? Even if they really wanted to do it? I’ll tell you this much, it would be a strong “no” for me if Real Madrid, or whoever, sat down with me and invited my kid to play for them. First question that I would ask them is how do I know that my kid is going to be okay? Physically? Psychologically? Etc. It’s not like I’m going to jump in my car and drive to Madrid from America just to take my kid out to eat when they need a little support. Maybe I can get on a Zoom call. But I’m not going to be able to physically check in with them and make sure they’re okay either.

    I think we all know the cutthroat dog-eat, dog-world that is sports. We can say “get tough,” and I believe it’s important to have some level of mental fortitude and resiliency, and not rob our kids of those opportunities. But at the same time, they’re still human beings. They’re still young. They’re still a developing person who needs guidance and support from a positive role model. Life isn’t meant to be figured out alone. You’re supposed to have support systems.

    This strikes me as an opportunity for US soccer to get on the payroll some former players / people with some background with human relations, to help be that person that supports these young people; to be that support system and role model while they’re learning how to be an adult and while also learning how to be a professional soccer player.

    For example, I could see someone like Jay Demerit, or whoever, get hired by US soccer, with maybe another staff member or two, to set up a Headquarters or Resource Hub in London for all the American players playing in England, Scotland, and Wales. What I envision that their role is a little bit of case management (make contact, help them get stuff squared away), cheerleader (go to some of their games), career advisor, liaison for their parents, and a stable base where they know that they can get support while they’re playing abroad.

    You can say their agent is this person. But in my experience, once you mix big money into the equation, you’ve tainted that relationship to be more transactional than anything else.

    You can say the clubs themselves provide this, but why should they be individually invested in an American player who is playing across continents? And what about if they transfer? That relationship isn’t going to be consistent.

    Furthermore, I just don’t like the idea that any of our players would ever say, “I haven’t heard from the US soccer federation.” They don’t have to be a helicopter parent. But they should feel like there is someone is always there for them and this person gives a damn about their well-being. At a minimum, I’d like to hear, “I know how to get in touch with them when I need it.”

    There are opportunities for jobs here. We’ve had a whole generation and more of players now who have gone over and done it. Learned what works and what doesn’t work. They would make such a great role model and support system for the next generation. And besides, it sounds like an interesting post-playing career decision to move into. Personally, that’s what I could see myself doing, if I had that background. Helping young kids learn how to be successful men!

    At the end of the day, let me stress, these are young men who are being thrown into the fire when they go abroad at such a young age. I guarantee you that no 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 year old has life all sorted out. They need guidance. They need support. Where are they getting that? How locally are they receiving that?

    Happy players make better players. Sad players need a pick-up every now and then. And I think a lot more of our young and promising players would go abroad and try to make it in the Big 5 leagues, if they felt like they had the support to do so.
     
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  16. dspence2311

    dspence2311 Member+

    Oct 14, 2007
     
  17. grandinquisitor28

    Feb 11, 2002
    Nevada
    Extremely difficult to schedule due to nations league and with Conmebol and UEFA merging some aspect of NL, it will make it even harder. Sucks. The entire NL concept is a stupid mess the players hate AND it has wrecked our ability to reliably schedule friendlies against legit competition. With that knowledge in tow, we should make sure we don't have Gold Cup or NL anything scheduled for the same time as the Copa America (which appears to have been changed to match the Euros on the schedule). We must use the Copa America or we will have no serious competition period other than the olympics before the next World Cup. That's what we've got. We've got to build a positive relationship with them so we can use that going forward or were screwed in terms of scheduling legit competition. Our region is trash, it just is. We desperately need conmebol to alleviate some of that, friendlies with europe aint gonna fix it (though we should do that when we can, and make them away games).
     
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  18. gogorath

    gogorath Member+

    None
    United States
    May 12, 2019
    I have the feeling that FIFA is going to pave the way for this Copa America and also perhaps for us to fit in qualifying in another federation.

    They have so much upside financially from a successful US run in 2026 that changing the rules over player releases or something for host nations isn't something they'd let get in the way.

    The US is worth billions to them in TV money and sponsorship.
     
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  19. jond

    jond Member+

    Sep 28, 2010
    Club:
    Levski Sofia
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
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  20. grandinquisitor28

    Feb 11, 2002
    Nevada
    XG says we were damn near even in the game. The problem was, the chances we gave them were the sorts of chances you cannot give a top 10 side in the world w/o it costing you. Recall our dominance over Germany in WC '02, then we give up a lazy, maybe foul, maybe not foul, and boom, 1 open chance, and Ballack buries it immediately. Those are the edges once you try to break into the top 8. Generally, top 8 sides create more of those chances and finish more of them. The Netherlands didn't really create more, but they finished all of them save like one. We finished none of ours save not even a half chance.

    MIB did a nice job shredding Berhalter's Depay quote and they weren't wrong. We have guys w/far more CL reps than Depay, we just don't have a coach, nor a system that brings out our attacking players best attributes yet, and its worth noting, they haven't had enough reps together either. Wales had played together in Euro '16 and Euro '20 and had basically been a group to some degree for at least six years. England's young like us, but they have WC '18 and Euro '20 reps, and are about 2-4 years older on average in terms of the core, Iran I'm not as sure about but the core definitely appears to be built around guys with reps in 2018 and some as far back as 2014. Netherlands had Euro '20 reps, some with Euro '16 reps I think. Our guys basically began coalescing in the winter of '20-'21 other than basically about a core of 4-5 guys. So essentially about half of our core, and more than half of our depth hasn't played together more than 18 months to two years. It showed. So did the did the system, showed did the coaching, so did the youth, so did some poor roster selections. All of it.
     
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  21. grandinquisitor28

    Feb 11, 2002
    Nevada
    THANK GOD!!!!

    I wonder what pot we get in? It looks like they do their pots based on FIFA rankings, so we'll probably be Pot 1 or Pot 2. Sounds like its likely to be a 12 or 16 team tourney.

    The funny thing is that the host has been thrown back into open because Ecuador decided against hosting. Peru is trying to get it.

    Sounds like Canada in, probably Mexico in, USA in, will anybody else join, or will they limit it to 3 groups of 4? Not sure. Hopefully we're in the same pot as Canada and Mexico so we can avoid them and play outside our confed.
     
  22. gogorath

    gogorath Member+

    None
    United States
    May 12, 2019
    Yes, although I think our chances were very mistake driven and their chances were decently generated, and the mistake allowed for conversation. Nuance? Yes.

    Would we all like to overperform talent? Yes. But teams that upset other teams usually do that through superior execution. Can coaching set up help that? Yes. But in the end, underdogs almost always have to execute better to upset. That's how it goes. (It also goes that the favorite has to underperform -- but that doesn't really apply here.)

    Regardless of how anyone feels about the set up ... we had our chances and didn't execute. And we left far too many chances open. You don't upset anyone that way.
     
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  23. Papin

    Papin BigSoccer Supporter

    Nov 19, 1998
    le côté obscur
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
     
  24. matabala

    matabala Member+

    Sep 25, 2002
    How do we know he isn't? If it walks and talks like a Soccer House duck...:)
     
  25. grandinquisitor28

    Feb 11, 2002
    Nevada
    The third goal and the goal before half time for me were so insanely sloppy it beggars belief. I get that the first goal was too, but at that point we thought we were basically bossing the game while instead we were falling into a trap, Adams and Musah get caught out, boom. But the 2nd and 3rd goal only happen because a team isn't mentally "on it". In many ways the 2nd goal was like the Wales Penalty in that a fit, ready, on it, USMNT is taking care of the throw in, marking everyone. Instead, we're tired, stretched, and not feeling the game, and not coincidentally both those goals came after we were starting to feel it (Pulisic chance before the 10th min goal, Weah's chance before the 2nd goal, only like 2.5 minutes earlier).

    We switched off as people said after in part because we were tired, in part because were young and in part because that's how all teams lose: a single mistake. Soccer is that ultimate edge game, and if you make mistakes, or fail to capitalize on them, you're always at the mercy of those particular moments.

    The third goal though, my god, in the moment I saw Turner gesturing and screaming about the unmarked guy, and NOBODY did a damn thing in the frame of the shot. Nobody.
     
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