USMNT vs Ecuador Game Thread

[Anonymous]

Wonderful, I guess it was necessary so we could squeak out a 1-0 win over Ecuador who are missing their best forward Enner Valencia.

[Anonymous]

Bradley hasn't made one single pass forward!
Every pass is back.

[Anonymous]

A 1-0 win against Ecuador, on a fluke goal, is a disappointment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bradley hasn't made one single pass forward!
Every pass is back.

Why even bring him in? What, are we blooding him?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Subbing off Pulsic speaks volumes. His lack of play at Dortman was really showing tonight!

Seriously? Dortmund.

[Anonymous]

Ha Bradley. Just rewatching the end of the second half and I love wehere he takes a pass from one of the backs, turns and immediately gets his pocket picked by Ecuador.

So frustrating to watch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ha Bradley. Just rewatching the end of the second half and I love wehere he takes a pass from one of the backs, turns and immediately gets his pocket picked by Ecuador.

So frustrating to watch

If that's frustrating, just wait until you're forced to watch him get manhandled by Chile. He'll be lying on the ground looking up as Vidal drives to the goal with the ball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Subbing off Pulsic speaks volumes. His lack of play at Dortman was really showing tonight!

Seriously? Dortmund.

I feel that because Pulisic is our best player, he’s going to be squarepegged into the hole as a 10, when he would be best out wide.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps more disappointing, our U-23, which is pretty strong on paper (Carter-Vickers, Weah, Sargent) just got badly outplayed by Egypt, and lost 2-0 in a friendly.

[Anonymous]

Men's soccer is struggling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Men's soccer is struggling.

Men's soccer is struggling to get out from under the oppressive mediocrity of MLS. When you have mediocre competition (because everyone has to suck equally) and mediocre coaching you get mediocre results, even from players who do fine on European teams in tougher competitive environments with better coaching.

[Anonymous]

The USMNT struggles have less to do with coaching and more to do with talent. The top countries have full rosters of starters playing in top Euro or SA leagues. The US have a handful of guys that struggle to start in Europe and no one that is a bona fide international star on a top EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, or Serie A team. That is the difference. Even Costa Rica has a couple guys that play big time ball, like Navas that played with Madrid. US has never had anyone close to a starting role on a team like that.

MLS has done a decent job of raising the median level of pro US players, but at the top of the international game it will never compete due to money differences. Many of the US top youth athletes don’t stick with soccer as they get into their teenage years. Instead they switch to other, more lucrative sports in the US. They don’t seem too want to stick with soccer and try to earn the milllions that Europe offers, preferring to try more traditional US pros sports with the same level of money. Add that to the fact that US Youth soccer is a pay to play sport and that the money is not there to consistently pay for top young talent to play like it is in AAU ball (again due to the limited financial upside for those that might pay for those kids). So the entire poor rural and inner city populations are driven out of the equation. We are then left with suburban kids, that have decent homes and lives already and don’t have the hunger to practice and train like fiends to become world class.

In a nutshell, the USMNT will always struggle due to alternative pro sports that offfer more money and drive the potential superstars to play other sports at critical ages. This is why the USWNT is so much more successful than the men, those alternatives, largely, do not exist ... so the top women athletes stick with soccer. Hence, the US wins at women’s internationally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The USMNT struggles have less to do with coaching and more to do with talent. The top countries have full rosters of starters playing in top Euro or SA leagues. The US have a handful of guys that struggle to start in Europe and no one that is a bona fide international star on a top EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, or Serie A team. That is the difference. Even Costa Rica has a couple guys that play big time ball, like Navas that played with Madrid. US has never had anyone close to a starting role on a team like that.

MLS has done a decent job of raising the median level of pro US players, but at the top of the international game it will never compete due to money differences. Many of the US top youth athletes don’t stick with soccer as they get into their teenage years. Instead they switch to other, more lucrative sports in the US. They don’t seem too want to stick with soccer and try to earn the milllions that Europe offers, preferring to try more traditional US pros sports with the same level of money. Add that to the fact that US Youth soccer is a pay to play sport and that the money is not there to consistently pay for top young talent to play like it is in AAU ball (again due to the limited financial upside for those that might pay for those kids). So the entire poor rural and inner city populations are driven out of the equation. We are then left with suburban kids, that have decent homes and lives already and don’t have the hunger to practice and train like fiends to become world class.

In a nutshell, the USMNT will always struggle due to alternative pro sports that offfer more money and drive the potential superstars to play other sports at critical ages. This is why the USWNT is so much more successful than the men, those alternatives, largely, do not exist ... so the top women athletes stick with soccer. Hence, the US wins at women’s internationally.

This is exactly right

[Anonymous]

Kids aren’t dropping soccer and becoming NFL stars, with the exception of Odell. It is not even the same pool of kids. Ditto for basketball. 6’4” + teens aren’t in soccer, except for a few goalies.

There is this theory kids drop soccer and become pros elsewhere— uh, no. Soccer was never on their radar.

We have thousands of kids in the US soccer pool (playing the sport) with genetic pro potential internationally in the earliest years, but they will never develop properly because Americans cannot develop soccer players (don’t know how), there isn’t adequate challenge or culture. We don’t ha e a youth soccer system that develops for the long haul, much less knows what to look for. And, most importantly, it’s too expensive/pay-to-play for the majority of players. The travel is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids aren’t dropping soccer and becoming NFL stars, with the exception of Odell. It is not even the same pool of kids. Ditto for basketball. 6’4” + teens aren’t in soccer, except for a few goalies.

There is this theory kids drop soccer and become pros elsewhere— uh, no. Soccer was never on their radar.

We have thousands of kids in the US soccer pool (playing the sport) with genetic pro potential internationally in the earliest years, but they will never develop properly because Americans cannot develop soccer players (don’t know how), there isn’t adequate challenge or culture. We don’t ha e a youth soccer system that develops for the long haul, much less knows what to look for. And, most importantly, it’s too expensive/pay-to-play for the majority of players. The travel is ridiculous.

Nope. The point was they drop it all along the way and it's true whether you like it or not because I've lived it. There are overlaps in the pools and soccer is not on the top rung. Especially football receivers and DBs. Also, there are plenty of HS and college basketball players who are 5'10-6'2."