Marshall U wins NCAA men’s soccer with 25 foreign athletes

truth here wrote:This is DISGUSTING.

Our NCAA system is solely developing international athletes. That's why USA men's soccer can't qualify for the Olympics or the World Cup. Young American soccer players never get a chance to play in their own country, they are pushed out by foreigners who had a soccer ball by their feet by the time they could walk.

Some of the best US players never went to college. They went straight to Europe. An example would be Christian Pulisic who plays for Chelsea. Most top level soccer players don't go to college they go straight to a European team. You also wouldn't want our "top" players playing in the US MLS. That is not a top league by the world standard and is actually far from it.

As for the US not qualifying for the Olympics, you do know that is a U-23 tournament, right? Our best U-23's are playing professionally in Europe like Pulisic who I mentioned earlier. Others are already on the senior National team so they don't play for the U-23 team.

leo2 wrote:In West Virginia (and many other states) there are no opportunities for advanced training in soccer. Everything is set up for football. Appalachian State doesn't even have a soccer team. West Virginia and Marshall have over 50% of their soccer roster as international athletes.

That is part of the problem. Soccer is a very low priority sport in the state of West Virginia. Excluding the international students, how many team members are there on the Marshall roster that are from the state of West Virginia. This year there are more than usual in that they have six. Some years they have none. May be that is because they have a roster of 47? I counted that they have 23 internationals and 18 out of state players. The few scholarships they have don't go very far.

truth here wrote:

we aren't qualifying for the World Cup either.

But the truth is we aren't getting knocked out by just the bigger European countries, we are getting beaten out by tiny countries like Costa Rica, Panama and Tunisia.

The US had a streak of six straight WC qualifications prior to missing out in 2018 - and that was due to incompetent leadership from Klinsmann paired with all of the important US players being past their prime. It was also at the early end of when MLS academies started turning out pro-ready players.

As far as being “knocked out,” knocked out of what? In the last several major international competitions, they’ve been knocked out by teams like Brazil, Belgium, Mexico, and Ghana. They haven’t played Tunisia in a significant match in at least 20 years.

Sprint42 wrote:

truth here wrote:

we aren't qualifying for the World Cup either.

But the truth is we aren't getting knocked out by just the bigger European countries, we are getting beaten out by tiny countries like Costa Rica, Panama and Tunisia.

The US had a streak of six straight WC qualifications prior to missing out in 2018 - and that was due to incompetent leadership from Klinsmann paired with all of the important US players being past their prime. It was also at the early end of when MLS academies started turning out pro-ready players.

As far as being “knocked out,” knocked out of what? In the last several major international competitions, they’ve been knocked out by teams like Brazil, Belgium, Mexico, and Ghana. They haven’t played Tunisia in a significant match in at least 20 years.

I meant those teams are qualifying for the world cup and we aren't. They are knocking us out of qualifying for the meet. Belgium is small though, their population is smaller than Ohio. We are 33x larger than them.

If all of the important US players were past their prime in 2018, we should have been able to reload with talented players that developed through the NCAA system. Instead, more than 50% of scholarships go to international players. You'd have a better shot at getting a scholarship being kicker for the football team.

truth here wrote:I meant those teams are qualifying for the world cup and we aren't. They are knocking us out of qualifying for the meet. Belgium is small though, their population is smaller than Ohio. We are 33x larger than them.

If all of the important US players were past their prime in 2018, we should have been able to reload with talented players that developed through the NCAA system. Instead, more than 50% of scholarships go to international players. You'd have a better shot at getting a scholarship being kicker for the football team.

You qualify for the World Cup by finishing high in your geographical area. Therefore, Belgium and Tunisia have no bearing on the US qualifying for the World Cup.

The NCAA has very little influence on the US qualifying for or doing well in the World Cup. As has been pointed out earlier by many different posters, most top level American players bypass college and go directly to a professional league. If you are playing college soccer in the US, whether as an American or international student, you are most likely not of the caliber required to perform on the world stage.