What is wrong with the US Men's Soccer Team?

Americans don't like sports that require a lot of work. We like sports that require freaky attributes- like being both coordinated and a deformed giant, or being both fast and morbidly obese.

Any sport that anyone can do, requires a ton on work to be good at it. We hate that.

Here is how the America work ethic goes:

I worked really hard to be 7 ft 6 and still able to move.

I worked really hard for my dad to give me this job.

I worked really hard to get this fat and still be fast.

Kicking a ball around 8 hours a day from age 6-18!!!! Where are the parents?

The kids should be eating fruit loops and watching YouTube.

The Champ wrote:

You don't understand soccer. Nobody in the NBA and almost nobody in the NFL has the physical gifts necessary to play.

Steph Curry looks fast compared to 6-10 guys...but he would be the slowest guy on the field for the USMNT.

There might be a few NFL players who could muster the endurance to exist as pure striker who does a lot of walking.

We are talking about drastically different sports here.

It's a numbers game. We aren't going to be able to sit down and create a list of five specific NBA players who would have been great soccer players. But if all of the people who spent their lives trying to make the NBA and NFL (both successfully and unsuccessfully) devoted their time to soccer instead, we can be sure that some number of them would have become pro level soccer players, and our odds of fielding a winning national team would increase.

Your comments on NFL players are based on their physical attributes after years of training for football. If they'd done different workouts (and taken different drugs) from the time they were young, they would not be pure short burst athletes.

Plenty of football players passed up offers to play pro baseball. Those are "drastically different sports" as well, but that doesn't preclude athletes from being very good at both.

Dora the Agoraphobiac wrote:

I think there is still a cultural component to it. People in other countries live and breathe soccer. They grow up watching it and playing games constantly. Maybe it's different now than 10 years ago when I was still playing, but kids in the U.S. were't watching hours of soccer every week (I had to beg my parents to shell out extra on cable costs to buy the soccer channel), and the club system leaned toward tons of skill-building drills over just throwing a ball on the ground and playing ball. There's a certain intuitive understanding of the game that hasn't been hardwired into enough players. But again, maybe that's changing.

I agree. My kid started playing at 3. He loved it. He kicked the ball around the house, try to do moves that he saw on TV, and eventually I had to buy a goal so he would take it outside. By time he was 7, he was being asked to play on the U-9 competitive team. Now, after 3 straight years of drills, drills, drills, he despises soccer practice, and hardly uses his goal anymore. He went from dominating players who were 2 years older than him, to just blending in now and mostly disinterested. Nobody in the neighborhood plays soccer, even though most are on teams, in leu of shooting hoops or throwing the football. He asked to drop soccer the other day, and that will probably be that.

It's a shame, but I think it is the American culture (more/prefered sports options for kids ) and lack of acceptance of the game that does not get enough young players to really buy into the concept of being the "greatest".

Doping isn't as effective in soccer as in for example the sprints. That's why the US will never succeed in soccer.

They have never put a great scorer on their roster. They need someone who is one of the best in the world at scoring goals. You wont find a top level world cup contender or any team that has won it (and thats the objective), who hasnt had an amazing scorer. not just a semi good one, but amazing.

One problem is that the US views their best players historically (guys like Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan, McBride, Reyna) as international stars when in fact they were all just B level players during their time in the European leagues. I'm sure someone here will argue they were international stars but the fact remains that none of these guys was the best player on a team that competed for a Premier League or equivalent title, much less made a major impact in the Champion's League. Nonetheless they have gotten paid by the MLS as if they were true international stars. If they get treated as stars domestically by being above average internationally, where is the incentive/drive to do more to become truly elite?

To be fair, Clint Dempsey did finish tied for 4th in most goals scored in 2011-2012 while in the EPL at Fulham. The people he finished behind Rooney, Aguero and Van Persie. Not too shabby.

He is, arguably, the best field (non GK) player America has ever produced. It's tough for me to go with Donovan because Donovan was always the big fish in a little pond (MLS). Dempsey proved his worth in the EPL.

Thanks for proving my point. Fans are satisfied when a guy finished fourth in scoring in the league despite his team finishing down the table and far from a Champions League berth. Dempsey a very good player but not an international star. Ask yourself, would he be a star on a team like Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Germany? Would be even start?

I understand soccer just fine. Thanks for repeating what I already said :-)

If you think the problem is "best athletes", you really don't understand. I am not trying to be argumentative- if you want to see the counterargument to your belief, look at the 3four3 blog and site. It is our culture and our system that holds us back.

Its not the problem wrote:

If you think the problem is "best athletes", you really don't understand. I am not trying to be argumentative- if you want to see the counterargument to your belief, look at the 3four3 blog and site. It is our culture and our system that holds us back.

Fair enough.

I am saying it is both. We certainly have the talent pool, though, unless you think that there is something about being German or Brazilian or Argentinian that genetically more prone to having better foot skills.

Bookmarked 3four3 :-)

I think we need to take a closer look at Klinsman style and results. When he took control of the USMNT he promptly went winless for what, his first 10 or so games? We were all, myself included, vexing over his inability to get a result.

Then WC comes around and the emerge from the Group of Death (don't listen to the English about how their group was tougher). Had Klinsmann not made the tactical error of leaving Donavon home it would have been a very successful campaign.

Klinsman is just tinkering with players and their capabilities and roles. They'll suck for a while but I'm confident that we'll qualify and have a competitive side come Russia.

Now for the athlete debate. You can not turn an NBA/NFL/MLB player into a WC/Champions League soccer player no matter how hard you try. It would be the same as trying to turn a 400 meter runner into a miler.

Their physiological composition is not conducive to the endurance required to play soccer at the WC level. Soccer is the perfect blend of speed, skill and endurance, rugby is the perfect blend of power and endurance. The big 3 sports in the USA do not have an endurance component; the NBA is a blend of height, skill and speed, NFL/MLB is a blend of power, speed and skill. The athletes that gravitate towards those leagues because they have the specific skill set and body types to meet the required skills to play the game. There are certainly some athletes that could cross over to the MLS, point guards and cornerbacks/safeties come to mind, but they would be hard pressed to achieve the top level of the sport.

With that said, I believe that there are a lot of throw away athletes from the big 3 sports in America walking the halls that could become great soccer players or middle to long distance runners for that matter. They just had too many slow twitch muscle fibers to make the cut in non-endurance based sports.

Look, of all places, to Belgium for what is wrong with the US.

Belgium recognized nearly 15 years ago that they were in danger of international football irrelevancy. So they changed their ENTIRE system. ALL youth programs play the same formation - and the youth are developed accordingly. 15 years ago there was no Hazard, no Courtois, no Kompany, no Fellani - you get the picture.

That's where I'm disappointed with Klinsi. We're in the 5th year of his tenure. Other than Bradley as Mid - does ANYONE have any idea WHAT the lineup will be? Is there progression form the youth teams? The vaunted poaching of players (see Aron Johannsen) has gone nowhere. What's the plan?

Yes, football is not the US main sport. But the amount of support at the bars at the last World Cup here was astonishing. There IS a fan base. There IS a passion here - not as large as in other countries but growing.

so where are our players being developed? If Yedlin is the shining example we are no farther than 4 years ago - which means we are well behind. That - that is on Gulati. Stop spending time on the uniform and the logo - get our players overseas to develop. Take over a small team in Belgium or France - many are for sale - and send our guys over to play there and develop. it's not happening in MLS to any degree as those coaches are playing for their jobs.

American Outlaws is planning a protest march to Soccer House in Chicago tomorrow should there be a loss tonight. Let's hope this is not necessary.

America really should not be looking to model anything after Belgium right now.

We call it football wrote:

Lots of good points about best athletes in other sports. And the US does have world class keepers and other players. But we don't have any world class strikers. And really only have 1 striker on the USMNT. You can't win if you can't score.

Also the club coaching is awful in the US. The country is too big to truly develop talent or implement a cohesive system or develop coaches. If we picked a single state and focused all US soccer efforts on developing players and coaches there we might have a chance. But that would never happen. For example, Imagine if all the US soccer players and top coaches were all from North Carolina. It would never fly. Yet that's why tiny countries such as Belgium can be among the top 5 in the world. Do you think they have the best athletes?

Yes they have better athletes. Kompany and Everton striker Romelu Lukaku are of Congolese heritage. Fellaini, Tottenham Hotspur’s Nacer Chadli and teen sensation Zakaria Bakkali are from Morocco. The father of Tottenham’s Moussa Dembele is from Mali.

The family of Liverpool striker Divock Origi is from Kenya. The father of Zenit St Petersburg midfielder Axel Witsel is from Martinique. Thomas Vermaelen speaks to the media in Flemish. Chelsea’s Eden Hazard speaks in French. Man City’s Kevin De Bruyne speaks Dutch, French and English. Fellaini can speak Arabic, French and English.

They have better athletes with better development training and competition. How can they not be better ?

Imagine if the US had the following American athletes playing soccer as their chosen sport if passion and $:

Keepers: Lebron James

Backline: Eric Berry. Laron Landry. Rob gronkowski. Revis.

Mid: Wes welker. Chris Paul. Steph curry. John Wall. Marques colston

Forward: Desean Jackson. Reggie Bush. Chris Johnson

The athleticism of American soccer is diluted and weak comparatively and relatively to other American sports and to Belgium.

Show me a single instance of an American player of elite athleticism who relieves elite coaching and development from youth level on up and loves the sport with an obsessive passion. They do not exist. We have Bryce Harper in MLB, we have Kobe and Durant et al in NBA, football has its players. soccer simply does not in the USA. We develop great athletes in all major sports by end of high school and they can go pro. We develop nothing pro ready for soccer.

It is what it is. Klinsmann has forced America to take its blinders off and he goes after the best players eligible to be USAMNT just like Belgium does.

Someday it may be different but not now.

Disappointed in Gulati/Klinsi wrote:

Belgium recognized nearly 15 years ago that they were in danger of international football irrelevancy. So they changed their ENTIRE system. ALL youth programs play the same formation - and the youth are developed accordingly. 15 years ago there was no Hazard, no Courtois, no Kompany, no Fellani - you get the picture.

get our players overseas to develop. Take over a small team in Belgium or France - many are for sale - and send our guys over to play there and develop.

It is difficult to to have all the youth systems all play the same system. It's an awesome idea and has worked great elsewhere.

In the US it s a difficult idea to implement as development is spread out geographically and among many, many different club entities, developmental academies, etc.

Sending all our youngsters overseas to develop is OK, but difficult with the FIFA statutes. The only youngsters we can get over there near are those with EU passports.

Claude Reyno wrote:

Thanks for proving my point. Fans are satisfied when a guy finished fourth in scoring in the league despite his team finishing down the table and far from a Champions League berth. Dempsey a very good player but not an international star. Ask yourself, would he be a star on a team like Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Germany? Would be even start?

Exactly

Dempsey would not start at the striker position for those top teams. He would be moved to a midfield wing position or be a backup if that I am not sure he would be the top 3 or 4 strikers on those teams.

America's best athletes play other sports, as a result the USA team is not as good as 1) it could be and 2) other teams get used to it

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Thank God for that. Soccer is one of the most boring sports ever. I would rather watch a good old smash em, crash em football game against two lame teams rather than watch a soccer game with the two best teams... Now women's soccer... different story.

Kids in the US:

- play basketball in the winter

- soccer in the spring

- baseball in the summer

- football in the fall

Kids in Germany:

- play soccer year round

I'm not saying one is better than the other, but that's how it's like.