truth here wrote:
johnny99 wrote:
This may be a troll post, but if not it's pretty uninformed.
The top American players don't play college soccer. College rosters have no bearing on the United States' ability to qualify for the World Cup, and have minimal bearing on qualification for the Olympics.
Our best players now are professionals by the time they are 18.
The "N" in NCAA stands for NATIONAL.
How anyone can support giving any scholarships to any foreigner is SICKENING while Americans are CRIPPLED under immense student loan debt.
For the May 30 friendly against Switzerland, a 40 man provisional roster was named. Scanning it, I saw maybe 4 or 5 players that had attended some college (maybe not 4 years). The other 35-36 never played a second of college soccer. And there's no guarantee that those college players will make the gameday roster, which will probably be around 23.
When MLS launched, college soccer provided a lot of players to the league. Over the last 25 years, however, academies have taken over as the primary source of professional players and, by extension, national team players. A guy who turns pro at 22 after 4 years of college soccer often has no chance against guys who have been professional since they were 17 or 18.