Hey take it easy. The U.S. was up against a really tough opponent last night who had a lot to play for.

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Freedom just around the corner for you. But with the truth so far off, what good will it do?

Looks like all the energy we've spent producing Stanley Cup winners may have hindered our development as a soccer nation, eh?

This is 100% false. Player identification, centralized training programs, and the number of parents willing to drive hours for a better team and better coach have never been more prevalent in US Soccer.

Your take is from 1985.

Iceland with a population of around 330,000 qualified. Apparently on their qualifying match 15% of the entire population of Iceland travelled to watch the game.

I went down the list of U.S. cities until I arrived at a city about the same size. It's around Santa Ana, CA or Corpus Christi, TX.

Ireland dimwit

The Taliban could probably put a side together that could kick our guys right in what my wife calls "the jib-lees." ;-)

We're not very good at this sport and we probably never will be. There's no shame in that.

I was based out of Italy a couple of years after that nation's team had won the 1982 World Cup. That sport is culturally ingrained in the Italian psyche, just as it is throughout Europe and Latin America and Africa, for some reason (probably due to colonial influences). Little kids barely able to totter are given soccer balls and taught how to bounce them off their knees and they play pickup soccer games in the street like we used to play sandlot baseball or stickball.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Well it didn't take long for the "soccer sucks, why are we talking about it crowd" to show up. Go figure someone who doesn't follow it commenting on it and being wrong about their "analysis".

The Pay to Play is also ruining development. When it costs $2-$6k per year for a player to play on a good squad, you are automatically eliminating a pool of talent. That kind of crap doesn't happen anywhere else but here. And it is ALL about the $.

And while MLS has been poor for home grown development, it has allowed the other teams in CONCACAF to benefit from a higher level of play.

Love him or hate him, Twellman made a great point on his rant last night/this morning. When Germany failed to qualify for the Euro's, they all got together (Bundesliga 1 and 2 and the German Soccer Federation) and put together a 10 year plan. What happened in 10 years? They won the WC. If we keep doing what we have always done we will continue to have this conversation for decades to come.

Last night and throughout the past 4-8 years our defense has really suffered, but more importantly our teams haven't shown heart. I'm gutted about next year but I hope this serves as a wake up call for improvement in the future.

A big issue is that clubs need to win because that's the metric that attracts parents to fork over money. At a proper academy the metric that matters is turning out professional players, not winning youth games.

Agreed. Leander Schaerlaeckens (I think) wrote this fantastic 5 part article for ESPNFC (Back when it was Soccernet) that I can't find anymore. Talked about the problem with soccer in the US and the foundation was in their development. The squads are set up to win, not to develop (including how the teams play too many games and in practice it was too regimented and doesn't allow for natural development of skills) was the long and short of it. Wish it was still around because it couldn't be more timely than today.

ETA: corrected Leander's last name. I always misspell it.

was out one night in Iraq doing some stuff and we began to hear gunfire all around us? It quickly built into a steady roar of immense proportions. Call came over radio--Iraq had beaten somebody like Egypt or Syria in soccer. Every MF'r in the country with a AK and/or PKM was out pumping lead into the sky. We had to climb into our armored vehicles to seek cover. That's national level commitment baby!

/r

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Steve

It wasn't all a dream. The scores are all still the same.

It would be a different ball of wax if we had played well throughout qualifying and just came up against good performances. We didn't. They were simply awful and seemingly apathetic most times and inconsistent with even mediocrity.

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Gnothi Seauton.

First time in 30 years we haven't qualified for a World Cup. We've not had super-talented players through the years, but we've at least been able to qualify. We've at least been able to be competitive more times than not.

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Gnothi Seauton.

Got that right, Skipper. Until we see soccer stampedes in stadiums here that kill 30 or 40 people and injure hundreds (I'm thinking Juventus-Liverpool in 1985), or players shot dead in cold blood by disgruntled fans, we're just pikers in the great game. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

In Europe clubs have scouts out looking for talented youth. When found they are brought in for a trial, if good enough they stick around until they find someone better than them or they make it. So relentless selective pressure and specific training to develop a professional player.

In the U.S. almost everyone is developed by the hit or miss means that kids who aren't good enough to get into professional clubs in Europe go through.

My kids are in 9th and 6th grade, have done club soccer and school soccer for years yet are missing some basic skills. Neither one had ever done a heading or chest trapping drill until my son did one with his HS team this year. On my daughter's teams almost no one can trap a ball that comes at them in the air from more than about 10 feet away.

That was a great article. And very poignant.

Funny you mention him, he's a great guy, we played on the same men's team up until a few months ago.

What in the ever loving fuck is going on??? Jesus christ.

Never chest trapped or headed a ball until high school?! You're serious, right?

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Gnothi Seauton.

That's because a lot of the coaches at the youth level are barely skilled beyond the basics themselves or are doing it out of a sense of obligation, trying to the learn the intricacies of the game while learning it themselves. It's going to take several more generations, at the sport's rate of growth in this country, before you see the same sort of skills emphasis in the introductory levels that you see being taught almost as an afterthought over in countries where the sport is traditionally an obsession for the populace.

Honestly, given the short attention span we proudly display at every opportunity, I'm not sure we'll ever become as skilled at what the rest of the world calls "football." At least not until the NFL and college football die out, which the pro sports league may just do in another decade, the way it's going. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

NBC sports has a good hour long documentary about Southhampton's youth academy. When you see how a proper academy operates it's remarkable any decent players come from anywhere else but through them. But I guess not that many do.

It was a fantastic one that I wish was still around. Great 5 part article that was well thought out and researched. If you see him, tell him to post it again. :D

Ironically my youth coaches were all foreign born or lived overseas dads because 30 years ago none of the other dads knew anything about soccer

First, they're not kids, they are grown men being paid to plat for their country. And second, if you think that effort last night was doing "all they could" then you define that differently than I do. I thought they played with zero effort or emotion and didn't seem especially bothered about the outcome until they realized they didn't qualify. They acted as if it were a done deal, counting on Mexico or Costa Rica I guess, when all they needed was to handle their own business. They didn't. And they are to blame.

Yup. Born in the 80's to European parents. Of course I played soccer as a kid.

The best teams had foreign parents coaching, because they grew up with the sport. Imagine some parent fresh off the boat from Italy attempting to coach youth football in America compared to someone who grew up in, say, Texas.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Yet the US was in the 1986 World Cup and not the 2018 World Cup.

I won't pretend to be close to the sport because I'm not, but in my circle of friends, coworkers, family the kids played youth soccer and gravitate to other sports when they hit their teens, including a few very good athlete cousins. Someone else mentioned it, $2-6K to play for the good travel programs...how do you develop elite talent when you have a huge nation with talent spread throughout and almost no money spent on development? Say I'm wrong all you want and we've gotten better, if this is to be an elite program we need to actually spend money.
http://www.philly.com/...onal-teams-NWSL.html

$18MM surplus in 2015 alone. They have $100MM in dough right now:
http://www.sgeosoccerclub.com/...?referrer_id=2926058

Why isn't that revenue being re-invested in the development program? Do they have a long-term strategy for the money, because their year-over-year expenditures have remained relatively static for quite some despite despite growing revenues.

I'm sticking by what I said: the development program isn't strong enough to compete with elite soccer nations, at least not when you consider the size of this country and the logistical problems that can create.

American soccer development has implemented a hopelessly direct style for generations. It's as if we've decided to coach our players in a game of chess, and instruct them that the only useful moves are the ones that put the opponent's king directly in check. Any other movement is simply deemed a waste.

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"The right to party is a battle we have fought, but we'll surrender and go Amish... NOT!" -Wayne Campbell