Not sure how many soccer fans there are on the board - but there is a do or die game on right now - FS1 - US vs Honduras. Winner goes to the Olympics. Loser misses out.
The US is on a serious drought and Honduras has made it three times in a row. US down 2-1 on a freakish goal/mistake by their keeper. Currently in the 63rd minute and it's getting chippy.
More than questionable officiating
And blown opportunities to equalize
US soccer and the CONCACAF in a nutshell unfortunately
More than questionable officiating
And blown opportunities to equalize
US soccer and the CONCACAF in a nutshell unfortunately
How'd you guess?
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Questionable defending
More than questionable officiating
And blown opportunities to equalize
US soccer and the CONCACAF in a nutshell unfortunately
How'd you guess?
US Soccer and Rangers defending with less than 90 seconds left in a period are amongst the most predictable things in sports
And just like the Rangers...sure! Let's wait another 3, 4, 5, 12 Fucking years and keep making excuses. Horrific.
Bad coaching, sure to kill any team in any sport no matter the talent level.
Idk what JK was doing with that setup in the first half. He wasted 45 minutes with wings on the wrong side and a crazy amount of space in between the back line and midfield.
Missed the last three major tournaments and 4 of the last 5 Olympics. Embarrassing and pathetic. The squad was talented enough to win today, but they wasted half the game in a terrible formation with no fire, fight or courage.
No question about the coaching issues. At this level and with the national team coaches are in over their heads. Watching the collection of talent available to Berhalter and then watching them squeak by a team like Northern Ireland or tonight with the U 23s looking disinterested for much of the game—just another disgrace for this program. Hoped we would avoid nepotism in selecting the national coach and go with qualifications. I was wrong. It’s only four more years—what the hell. Hopefully all of us will still be here and care when the US tries again.
Because the mickey mouse national team job is beneath his dignity.
Until that happens, I just don’t see the results getting better.
They player pool it literally in the best position it has ever been in and yet you would think that they just lost to TT again. Take a deep breath and enjoy the next eight years when the games that matter come around in September.
They player pool it literally in the best position it has ever been in and yet you would think that they just lost to TT again. Take a deep breath and enjoy the next eight years when the games that matter come around in September.
Certain MLS teams didn't release players. They had plenty of players in NI today who could have played in Mexico today. But apparently, US Soccer doesn't take the Olympics seriously enough to warrant its best players playing in important games for the PROGRAM. It's a continuous systemic failure by the leadership and a weird adherence to certain coaches who simply toe the party line. It's a joke. The organization is broken.
Enjoy the next 8 years? How about the last 8 years? So, now we're supposed to enjoy 16 years of utter futility, embarrassment and inconsequence even on our own continent? Cool. Sounds fucking awesome.
Might as well beg Bruce Arena to come back at this point. Berhalter? Kreis? Fuckin hell.
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This was a D league u23 squad that was severely hampered because teams don’t have to release their players for Olympic qualifiers. Yea they still should have beaten Hondorous but let’s not act as though this is a huge deal.
They player pool it literally in the best position it has ever been in and yet you would think that they just lost to TT again. Take a deep breath and enjoy the next eight years when the games that matter come around in September.
Certain MLS teams didn't release players. They had plenty of players in NI today who could have played in Mexico today. But apparently, US Soccer doesn't take the Olympics seriously enough to warrant its best players playing in important games for the PROGRAM. It's a continuous systemic failure by the leadership and a weird adherence to certain coaches who simply toe the party line. It's a joke. The organization is broken.
Enjoy the next 8 years? How about the last 8 years? So, now we're supposed to enjoy 16 years of utter futility, embarrassment and inconsequence even on our own continent? Cool. Sounds fucking awesome.
Might as well beg Bruce Arena to come back at this point. Berhalter? Kreis? Fuckin hell.
Your anger is misdirected here. US Soccer can't force the club teams to allow their players to take part in Olympic qualifiers (or the Olympics themselves for that matter). Yes, there were players that took part in the Northern Ireland friendly that were ELIGIBLE for the Olympic qualifiers, but there was no way in hell that clubs like Chelsea, Barcelona, and Dortmund were ever going to allow Pulisic, Dest, and Reyna to spend three weeks in Mexico for a youth tournament. Not at this point of the season, and not with as much money as they pay these guys. US Soccer would have MUCH rather have had these guys playing in Mexico than against Northern Ireland, but it was out of their hands. They can only play the cards they were dealt.
I was initially down on Berhalter, but I think he's been doing a decent job of late. I loved that he switched things up against NI and tried a back 3 with wingbacks today. They actually looked pretty decent, especially considering they only had one practice with it. This is something that I can possibly see them springing as a surprise on Mexico somewhere down the line (especially in Mexico).
I've been following US Soccer since 1985, and we've never been in a better position in terms of talent pool and level of competition that our players are playing at currently. We're light years ahead of even the the Donovan/Dempsey era. None of this guarantees success, of course, but we are very well set up for the near future.
Until that happens, I just don’t see the results getting better.
My feeling on this for years, and it's just my opinion, has been that we suffer from a general lack of confidence in our ability to compete with the supposed best countries in the world. I don't think it impacts us at a player level - I think there's a good chance our players are better than they've ever been. But from a structural perspective I think we still act like soccer is an upstart niche game. I don't think we trust ourselves to develop our own coaches, our own style, and even our own league (which is still structured like American investors and fans are too simple to accept a single table relegation model).
I was listening to the Tifo podcast (excellent out of England) recently, and they said they bought into the idea that the US would be a semifinalist at the 2026 World Cup (which will be co-hosted by US, Canada, and Mexico). How many Americans would share that same belief? I've always felt like our players are respected more in Europe than they are here.
Croatia was a finalist at the 2018 World Cup, and a semifinalist at the 2000 Euros. That is a country of 4 million people, roughly the population of the Detroit metro area. It is less than 3 decades removed from a horrific civil war. The average attendance per match in their domestic league is under 3,000.
That is a country with no meaningful advantage over us, yet if we faced them on a neutral field we'd probably feel like big underdogs.
I'm rambling a bit, but to sum up I think we lack belief that we belong with the supposed best in the world.
I don't think Marsch would entertain the position at this time. He's on a path to succeed at higher levels in Europe and he wants to make it happen. The time to have reached out was before he moved to Leipzig, but they wanted to wait until Berhalter was ready to leave Columbus.
I would think the USMNT would fit Marsch's style perfectly....with that said I don't think Berhalter is a bad coach. Just not happy with the process.
To the point above regard talent at NI, even if they wanted to release them (which they never would) they couldn’t cause of covid travel restrictions. Yea the last 6 years has sucked, no one sane will say otherwise, but what more do you want in this exact moment. You can weirdly get angry about a nothing burger or you can relax and enjoy what is hopefully a good World Cup run.
The problem with this team is that the wingers/inside forwards sucked, which is kind of a prerequisite for running a 4-3-3. Mihailovic and Saucedo weren't athletic enough, and Lewis and Michel apparently don't know how to trap a soccer ball. In retrospect, Llanez getting injured (and De La Fuente not getting released) kinda screwed this team. Should they have run a 4-4-2? Even then I'm doubtful because it would've required Soto doing something.
Also, for whatever reason, the US just hasn't got it's act together in any of these recent Olympic qualifying tournaments. The 2004 team with Donovan et al got rocked by Mexico in the semis. People forget that the 2008 team - loaded with future pros like Altidore, Davies, Holden, and Edu - looked shaky as hell in their qualifying group stage and needed to be bailed out by Freddy Adu of all people. The 2012 team had a keeper gaffe at the very of the last group stage match against El Salvadore that knocked them out. The 2015 tied Colombia IN Colombia then choked at home. All the bounces just seem to go against them in these qualifying tournaments.
Nevertheless, the senior team is still looking good and we'll find out a lot more about them in June against Switzerland, Honduras and then hopefully Mexico.
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I just don’t think USMNT fans demand enough from the program. It feels like every 4 years we get excited and hope the team goes on a run, it has a very patriotic and pep rally type feel to it. It’s fun & I enjoy it; however, when the results aren’t there, it doesn’t feel like there is much outrage or demand for accountability.
I see what you're saying here. I do think there's a case that the mentality doesn't match the talent. I was looking back at some of the results in the 90s and it's amazing what they accomplished with a lesser player pool. They beat Mexico in both the 91' Gold Cup and in the quarterfinals of the 95' Copa America. In that same Copa America, they beat both Chile and Argentina.
30 years later, we have a more talented squad losing to USL-level players against TNT in Couva, and a bunch of MLS pros in this olympic qualifying squad losing a similar USL-level team in Honduras. I don't if I agree if it's a confidence thing though; in these recent examples, it feels more a like 11 guys thrown together on the field than a team, which speaks to a potential structural/philosophical problem.
The good news is that senior team - in its most recent friendlies (Wales, Panama, Jamaica, Nothern Ireland) - looks more cohesive is actually bossing the games that they should.
And that's really the takeaway here. The Olympics are a bit of a sideshow. Naming recent Olympic champions in soccer doesn't mean a whole lot.
The goal is to qualify for the world Cup, and that's where the success of the rebuild will be measured. The Olympic qualifiers really don't reflect much at all on the actual USMNT
If this team doesn't easily handle Honduras in June, then I'll start ringing alarm bells. I just watched a Greece B-team beat Honduras 2-1 in a game that wasn't even that close.
I get it and appreciate your post. Just frustrating that the US won't have representation...again. And they had the players to win last night but pissed it away.
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My feeling on this for years, and it's just my opinion, has been that we suffer from a general lack of confidence in our ability to compete with the supposed best countries in the world. I don't think it impacts us at a player level - I think there's a good chance our players are better than they've ever been. But from a structural perspective I think we still act like soccer is an upstart niche game. I don't think we trust ourselves to develop our own coaches, our own style, and even our own league (which is still structured like American investors and fans are too simple to accept a single table relegation model).
I'm rambling a bit, but to sum up I think we lack belief that we belong with the supposed best in the world.
This bothers the shit out of me. We are so unique in the world and we try to play a mishmash of all these styles, and then they change from coach to coach.
Personally I think our best bet to join the upper class of the second level of national teams is to have a style where we just throw the biggest, best athletes out there that can run all day. America seems to have some of the best athletes in the world due to a lot of how we approach youth sports, nutrition, and training modalities. Let's use that to our advantage.
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“I told him: We want to join MLS, but we don’t have the $100 million,” Ronaldo says of the franchise fee at the time. “I said, ‘It’s better that you [adopt] promotion and relegation to improve football in America.’ And he said, ‘That’s not working here.’ He was glad to hear from me, but at the end he just said, ‘If you want to join us, pay the franchise fee.’ After that meeting, I started looking for new opportunities.”
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That's really interesting.
I think relegation could work here - but the way the leagues are set-up without the strong feeder system and strong lower tier divisions, it is the owners who are reluctant to adopt it.
I think fans would welcome it and it would strengthen soccer in the US because lower tier teams could ascend.
you can't have the Seattle Sounders, Atlanta FC, or la galaxy relegated.
You should set up relegation between tiers 2 and 3 first. See how that progresses.
and start small 1 team gets relegated automatically and another gets into a playoff
Yeah, it's almost antithetical to the American business model.
@JozyAltidore
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46m
Taylor twellman national team career was laughable. Beasley should be that analyst or a Mia Hamm. Twellman need to be on extra time radio with Bobby warshaw. He a white boy with connects. Stop giving him a platform.
@JozyAltidore
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46m
Taylor twellman national team career was laughable. Beasley should be that analyst or a Mia Hamm. Twellman need to be on extra time radio with Bobby warshaw. He a white boy with connects. Stop giving him a platform.
I'm not sure why Twellman's on-field career is relevant. For starters, his career was cut short by injuries and concussions, and more importantly, one doesn't need to have been a star player to provide insightful commentary.
Much like his playing career, Jozy was off target.