Soccer discussion thread

[Seeitsaveit13]

Pulisic= good.

[DRiccio21]

you had a typo, you added an extra o in there.

[nick]

Dortmunndddd

[Seeitsaveit13]

you had a typo, you added an extra o in there.

hahah yup

[LetsGoPeay]

And just like that the US is out of the World Cup.

[malvitre]

And just like that the US is out of the World Cup.

We had the best opponent we could have asked for and we put on a performance like that?! Completely disgusted!

[nick]

How the fuck did the US lose???

[GeorgesGoons]

There needs to be some wholesale changes with US Socer. Our MLS needs to groom these young Americans. Absolutely pathetic that we cannot make the World Cup in one of the easiest tournaments

[GeorgesGoons]

How the fuck did the US lose???

I forgot the game was on last night but there was talk that a goal was allowed that shouldn't have been allowed. Waiting for the highlights on ESPN to see

[GeorgesGoons]

How the fuck did the US lose???

I forgot the game was on last night but there was talk that a goal was allowed that shouldn't have been allowed. Waiting for the highlights on ESPN to see

That goal was against Costa Rica I believe, which would have given the team a draw.

[GeorgesGoons]

The US has it all wrong with how we market Soccer.

There are kids that are playing other sports in college that will never sniff any playing time in that sport. We need to identify those kids at a much younger age and get them into soccer so they can use their natural athletic abilities. Some may never pan out but we might find the next Pulisic or two.

We need to fire everyone involved in US Soccer and get someone that has a vision of actually winning rather than just making the World Cup. Germany came out with a 10 year plan and ended up winning it all 10 years afterwards with wholesale changes. We need to follow that model. Either the MLS gets on board or the US Soccer Federation provides them with nothing.


I really want to be a soccer fan but it is hard to root these guys on. Almost like being a White Sox fan right now

[Seeitsaveit13]

How the fuck did the US lose???

I forgot the game was on last night but there was talk that a goal was allowed that shouldn't have been allowed. Waiting for the highlights on ESPN to see

That goal was against Costa Rica I believe, which would have given the team a draw.

Doesn't matter.

Can't leave it up to other people.

We completely failed this entire hex (and beyond) and this was long since coming. We could have snuck in this time, but it wouldn't have solved our problems.

As much as I hate this, I think it's what we need, because we may finally get the wholesale changes that we need. Sucks to waste 4 years of Pullisic, but he can't do it alone

[shel311]

[Cnasty]

USA....soccer!!?!



Come on fellas. Let’s be real here this will never be a soccer nation first so enjoy any inkling of success that comes.

Blah blah blah kids play, blah blah blah increased popularity!

[GeorgesGoons]

USA....soccer!!?!



Come on fellas. Let’s be real here this will never be a soccer nation first so enjoy any inkling of success that comes.

Blah blah blah kids play, blah blah blah increased popularity!

It doesn't have to be a soccer first nation. We just need to make it "sexy" enough for some of the pure athletes that go play college basketball/baseball/football that they may become huge starts if they played soccer.

[GeorgesGoons]

This makes the Hindenburg look like a soft landing

Bob Ley on how this loss affects US soccer.

[ReignOnU]

There isn't 1 single issue.

- Gulati needs to either focus on US soccer (stop the teaching, dabbling in other initiatives) or get out.
- Klinsmann should have been bounced after the Gold Cup failure... not months later.
- Arena... bringing back a retread was such a bad move. We should have looked at Ramos or outside of the USMNT like Porter or Kreis.
- Squad selection was rough. We didn't consistently field our best teams. Too much tinkering, too much reliance on old players. On-going issue here.
- Our system sucks...

We have a broken system. The argument about having our best athletes play soccer isn't really the issue. Trinidad is roughly San Diego/Dallas. Numerous comparisons of other countries. Athleticism shouldn't confused with elite skill. Our 2nd or 3rd level of athletes would be world elites. If you want to find great athletes and develop them with high level skill, then you have to have a structure that is conducive to that.

Our pay to play system seriously limits accessibility and even filters that athleticism. Does a parent want to pay $500 to $4000 a year to play club soccer or will they push their kids to other sports? A young lady that I'm very close with is wrapping up her senior year right now. Throughout her career, her dad has forked over more than $20k. At best, she's going to be playing mid-major level. The amount of money that it costs to play on quality teams, get quality coaching and attend ID camps, just to push for a college scholarship, is incredible.

How many kids do we have that are going completely unnoticed? The talent is out there, we're not finding it and developing it. We're sitting back, racking in the cash and putting it back into a broken system that is never going to succeed. There's obviously the counter-argument of how do you fund clubs that accommodate low fee or no fee participants? Teams have to fund them. The money flows downhill. It's a reinvestment. No different than what we see in Europe.

Just as an example, the Crew hosts series of camps and they range in price from $100 to $500 based on age/details.
http://www.crewscplayerdevelopment.com/ ... st-by-date

They also have CUSA Crew (honestly not even the best organization in Ohio), which is their "affiliate" club organization. Prices to play are $900 to $1300 age 8-15.
http://www.cusacrewjuniors.org/feesandf ... dex_E.html

This stuff is absolutely crazy. It's a huge money grab, while praying that some talented kid stumbles through the door.

[ReignOnU]

We'll get a younger coach soon, I'm sure.

My preferences domestically...
1.) Caleb Porter - Even though he's underwhelmed in Portland, I still believe he can build something powerful and long lasting.
2.) Gregg Berhalter - I think he's the best young coach in MLS, better than Porter, but I'm not sure about his long-term sustainability.
3.) Jason Kreis - He's proven he can build long-term, but he's struggled recently with 2 expansion teams. I think his RLS time is really an idea of what he can do.
4.) Jesse Marsch - He's in a highly organized situation. Has USMNT experience. I think he can apply that structure and succeed. Maybe a low ceiling?
5.) Tab Ramos - Not as young as the guys above, but he's been heavily involved with the national team the last few years. Could be a good fit to take the positives that we've had and weed out the negatives.
6.) Oscar Pareja - Not really "young," but has a good decade or more of coaching left in him. I think we're missing out on Latino players and maybe this move transitions us away from the Euro focus.
Wildcard: John Harkes - Has his first head coaching gig at Cincinnati FC. He's got the attitude and energy, no idea if he has the ability to build anything. Definitely has the history (like Tab).

Going back a year... I'd still have Porter at the top of my list. I'd probably add Peter Vermes somewhere in there. Ramos and Pareja are in the mix. Kreis may bout due to his recent issues with MLS. I'm not sure what the current status of Marsch (Redbulls) and Berhalter (Crew) are.

[GeorgesGoons]

There isn't 1 single issue.

We have a broken system. The argument about having our best athletes play soccer isn't really the issue. Trinidad is roughly San Diego/Dallas. Numerous comparisons of other countries. Athleticism shouldn't confused with elite skill. Our 2nd or 3rd level of athletes would be world elites. If you want to find great athletes and develop them with high level skill, then you have to have a structure that is conducive to that.

This is what I was talking about earlier (as well as a few years back, most likely during the 2010 world cup). We need a way to find these exceptional athletes at a younger age and develop them. I am sure there is at least a handful on a division 1 college football team riding the bench that if groomed from age 13-15 would make an impact on our national team.

You go on to talk about the financials regarding these "pay to play" teams. I didn't know it was that bad. This is where our major sports franchises could help. Going on to what I said earlier, I think there is a huge amount of talent in the inner cities but they just aren't given the opportunity to showcase it due to socioeconomic injustices happening there (time for another debate). I am not saying we need to farm out our inner cities to produce elite athletes. I'm just saying there are probably some that are being unrecognized due to their living situation.

[ReignOnU]

Honestly, it really doesn't even have to be that excessive.

I coach for our local SAY organization. Here's a pretty straightforward plan that gets a pro team involved:
- Fund $500 to $1000 per team in the organization to help pay for uniforms, end of season stuff. This keeps the barrier of entry for a local player at $50 or less per season.
- Setup 2-3 coach training sessions per season, to help these moms and pops with basic fundamentals. These can be regional.
- At the end of the season, sponsor a few all-league teams, that compete like a small club team for a short window, 6-8 weeks. These teams are coached by better coaches, provided by the pro clubs.
- From there, the pro clubs an vulture the talent that's already been sorted out.

Kids play cheap. Low barrier of entry. Lowest level of coaches get some help. Organizations get insight into these kids that opt to never look at the more expensive club teams.

The 1 issue that you're going to run into here is that the SAY branch, which is part of the USSF, is all about letting any kid play. This is great, because it does get more kids on the field. But you have to have a mechanism that gets the kid out of the lower, non-competitive SAY level, into a more structured environment, without breaking the bank.