U.S. National Team Part VII

[Chimaera]

MLS has meant a lot to the other teams in CONCACAF though. They send their players to develop here now. The unintended consequence of MLS may be that we've closed the gap in teams below us.

Call me a Euro snob, but I would much rather our guys play overseas. MLS is like 50% exhibition. Everyone makes the playoffs, you can draw through half the season. There's so many team that it's watered down comp.

MLS is not THE reason. It's a contributing factor though. They've spent billions on the damn league.

(Pay to play driving our youth set up is much more a reason IMO.)

Sure, it's allowed some of these sides to get development of their youth players who are living in the US, or who MLS sides see as cheap labor. But that's not the end all be all. They got beat by a team of a nation with the population of San Diego.

they're consistently under performing against sides with far less players who are professional. US Soccer spends more in a month than some of their countries spend in a year.

It's just not good enough. They're not playing together and it shows.

 

[bleedblue1223]

We have more mediocre talented players, not actually more talented players. We are only "deep" at defense because none of them can solidify a spot consistently. We really aren't deep at any other position.

 

[Burner Account]

The only way the MLS has hurt the USMNT is by upping the level of players that play on teams we used to dominate(T&T, Honduras, Panama, etc).

The worrying trend here is our U20 team doesn't have any standout prospects, from what I see. Our best hopes are on the U17 team and they'll be 21-22 during the 2022 Cup, younger for the WCQ slog.

You are leaving out the part where the MLS encourages players to abandon more competitive leagues abroad in pursuit of large sums of money in a pretty bad league.

 

[Chimaera]

The only way the MLS has hurt the USMNT is by upping the level of players that play on teams we used to dominate(T&T, Honduras, Panama, etc).

The worrying trend here is our U20 team doesn't have any standout prospects, from what I see. Our best hopes are on the U17 team and they'll be 21-22 during the 2022 Cup, younger for the WCQ slog.

That's not quite true. They don't have another Pulisic (who could play for them if he wanted), but they do have a few kids who have significant upside. Palmer-Brown's pretty good, him and Carter-Vickers should be in the US backline from here on out if it's up to me. Weston McKennie should be in the men's side from here on out. Heck, the Gonzalez kid from Monterrey should be in the men's side as well sooner rather than later.

A few others play for development sides for some decent clubs in Europe, and at some point might or might not break through. Olosunde, de la Torre, Sargent (though he can play for the u17), Perez, Lennon and a few others have upside.

They have players coming through, and it's going to show over the next 4-5 years, the question for me is more who is going to helm that process. If it's Arena and Gulati, they're not going to succeed.

 

[Chimaera]

We have more mediocre talented players, not actually more talented players. We are only "deep" at defense because none of them can solidify a spot consistently. We really aren't deep at any other position.

I don't agree. They have a number of players who would have made rosters in the past without much of a problem. Go look at the rosters for the 2002, 2006, 2010 sides and some of those names are laughable.

They have a ton more players that are within shouting distance of being on the national side.

 

[chasespace]

They have players coming through, and it's going to show over the next 4-5 years, the question for me is more who is going to helm that process. If it's Arena and Gulati, they're not going to succeed.

Have there been any managers identified that would be a good choice for the US? I know Sunil has a challenger for his next election and I imagine he'll have many more now.

 

[Chimaera]

Have there been any managers identified that would be a good choice for the US? I know Sunil has a challenger for his next election and I imagine he'll have many more now.

I mean, that's some of the problem. Who exactly are they going to go get to manage them?

I don't know who it should be, but in my mind, the US doesn't really have someone they can turn to at this point.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I don't agree. They have a number of players who would have made rosters in the past without much of a problem. Go look at the rosters for the 2002, 2006, 2010 sides and some of those names are laughable.

They have a ton more players that are within shouting distance of being on the national side.

Yeah, mediocre talent. Many players on defense we are going to look back at laughable. Nagbe and Arriola are meh, and they are starters, the list goes on.

 

[Chimaera]

http://americansoccernow.com/articles/the-missing-years-u-s-soccer-s-development-gap

Is a pretty interesting article about the talent and the lack of it. One thing I'd argue in some ways, is the big crop with Dempsey, Donovan and the likes, they probably limited the development of some of the younger players who might have broken through. When you have national side changing players like they did, the desire to see them with 3-4 cycles is great while it lasts, but then you miss a generation breaking through.

As the United States get better in the future (at least that should be the hope), the concept of players beyond a select two or three playing more than one or two world cups should disappear.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Best players play. Players don't develop when they play with their national team, it just helps them get integrated into the team, and that can be done in friendlies and less important matches until they prove themselves.

 

[Ivan13]

That's the way he asked them to pronounce it. When he first came up, they used the Euro-traditional pronunciation, but like many others in America, he prefers the Americanized version of the name.

Yeah, but it's an absolute horror to hear someone pronounce his surname like that.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Yeah, but it's an absolute horror to hear someone pronounce his surname like that.

It's what he prefers, so not really.

 

[Ivan13]

It's what he prefers, so not really.

As a Croat it is, hurts my ears.

 

[YEM]

I really don't think there's any doubt at all that the MLS hurts us and helps the other CONCACAF nations
this situation overall is an utter debacle

 

[The Abusement Park]

My parents were in Iceland during their miracle run in the Euros last year on a ski trip, and being the soccer family that we are soccer came up a lot with the guides there.

According to the guides there every coach at every level has a A level coaching license from FIFA, and it's definitely shown for Iceland. They don't have the best talent, but they play incredibly smart organized soccer. Anf that always seems to be an issue with our players and teams, is that we aren't organized.

I'd really like to see something like that, where we actually coach our players to understand the finer details of the sport instead of just seemingly picking the fastest strongest guy like it almost always seems to be the case.

 

[phisherman]

You are leaving out the part where the MLS encourages players to abandon more competitive leagues abroad in pursuit of large sums of money in a pretty bad league.

This is part of the problem. What incentive does an American player have to better himself in Europe when he can earn millions being a big fish in a small pond in MLS.

 

[John Price]

 

[bleedblue1223]

While entertaining, that's fake right?

 

[Cory Trevor]

As a Croat it is, hurts my ears.

In fairness, basically any country in the Balkans can have people with identical last names but dialects and pronunciation can vary, often noticeably, but yeah, broadcasters have been adding a k to the end of a name for which we already have the phonetic ability to pronounce and even if he prefers it, it's something that makes me notice it every time because it's technically incorrect.

 

[Cory Trevor]

You are leaving out the part where the MLS encourages players to abandon more competitive leagues abroad in pursuit of large sums of money in a pretty bad league.

I disagree with this. I really don't enjoy the MLS and probably won't until they have consistent talent in which we are pulling the best talent in the world. No pipe dreams and overaged players. We aren't getting deep in a World Cup run without our domestic league playing well.

To your point though, it can't be forced. It has to be organic which is still at least a decade and a half off.

 

[Cochese]

MLS is garbage, cannot understand the appeal. Such a hinderance to development.

 

[Burner Account]

I disagree with this. I really don't enjoy the MLS and probably won't until they have consistent talent in which we are pulling the best talent in the world. No pipe dreams and overaged players. We aren't getting deep in a World Cup run without our domestic league playing well.

To your point though, it can't be forced. It has to be organic which is still at least a decade and a half off.

I don't really think it's a matter of opinion. It's the same as players leaving European leagues to play in China. You move to a less competitive league for more money. If you need an example of how international managers view this, see: Giovinco, Sebastian.

The US will never pull the best talent in the world.

We aren't getting deep in a World Cup run with MLS players.

 

[Cochese]

It will never happen because it's not part of U.S. sports culture, when you have a league with no relegation structure this is what you get. Complacency, no pressure, stagnation. It goes beyond that though, when you have a league full of has beens and college never weres it is what it is.

 

[Burner Account]

It will never happen because it's not part of U.S. sports culture, when you have a league with no relegation structure this is what you get. Complacency, no pressure, stagnation. It goes beyond that though, when you have a league full of has beens and college never weres it is what it is.

That, and the top European leagues/clubs are global institutions that have more support in the US than US teams do.

 

[Moncherry]

The systemic failings of U.S. soccer shouldn't matter in this case. They should always be qualifying for the World Cup. You don't have to be good to make it out of CONCACAF. You needed to tie against Trinidad & Tobago ffs. That's just a colossal f***-up.