U17 World Cup

[Anonymous]

and by working class, I mean manual labor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:US players are just not used to facing that kind of competition. These players from Senegal have been playing soccer 24/7 literally their entire lives, with soccer probably being their ONLY path towards a non working-class future.

Wasn’t Senegal investigated for the use of overage players?

[Anonymous]

Our loss had nothing to do with the use of overage players. Our coach was a hack who played our best left back at CB, which weakened both our left side and the center. Kobe is by far the best left back in our YNT pool, but yet when the roster was announced it was clear that the coach was planning to use him as a CB throughout the tournament. How can we develop elite talent, when we don't give them an opportunity to shine at a big international tournament in their natural position?

[Anonymous]

All the players in the U17 WC are extreme outliers for their age in terms of athletic development. The "smaller, less athletic, more skillful player" doesn't exist at this level.

[Anonymous]

Not playing Kobe at LB looks even more egregious when you consider the starting LB for the senior USMNT is Tim Ream, a mediocre CB. But then again, Berhalter’s first choice RB would be Tyler Adams as an inverted wingback. The problems with US soccer are from the top on down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the players in the U17 WC are extreme outliers for their age in terms of athletic development. The "smaller, less athletic, more skillful player" doesn't exist at this level.

The “more skillful players” are athletic as hell too. People think that athletic means strong and fast, or picture a 7 foot tall NBA center or nimble footed defensive end. There’s different kinds of athleticism. Which is why the whole argument about our best athletes choosing other sports is iffy at best. Takes a much different skill set and type of athlete to play each sport. People just want simple 10 word answers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So you think the US team was faster than Senegal? Really. Also, did you see the French play on the other channel? The US boys can’t hold a candle to the French athletically. And yes, Senegal, France, and Chilie were all better at soccer too. Face it. Our best male atheletes DON’T PLAY SOCCER and our culture and parents and many youth coaches at many levels don’t know the game. They didn’t play it and they don’t watch it. We have no chance. Period. Ever. Not Athletically nor technically nor tactically.

Depends on which athletes you mean.

Our best African American male athletes? Yeah, OK, most don't play soccer.

Our best Asian athletes? I have no stats on this but I'd guess at least half - if not more - do play soccer.

Our best Caucasian athletes? Probably depends on the region. In our area, I would argue that most of the best (not biggest) athletes do play soccer. It is by far the highest participation sport for young kids in the DMV suburbs, and most of the ones who are really good at it do tend to stick with it. In other areas of the country, football and basketball still rule.

Our best Latino athletes absolutely do play soccer, though. And the Latino population in the US is 60 million. That's the main reason why the "our best athletes don't play soccer" argument falls flat for me as an explanation of why the US continues to do so poorly on the world stage. Our Latino population alone outnumbers the entire population of countries like Spain and Argentina, or Chile, let alone tiny countries like Belgium, Portugal, Croatia, Uruguay ... We have plenty of good athletes playing soccer, we just don't have enough of them who are good at it.

What we do have - is plenty of bad coaches getting advanced licences to grow their egos after attending courses taught by other bad coaches with even bigger egos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So you think the US team was faster than Senegal? Really. Also, did you see the French play on the other channel? The US boys can’t hold a candle to the French athletically. And yes, Senegal, France, and Chilie were all better at soccer too. Face it. Our best male atheletes DON’T PLAY SOCCER and our culture and parents and many youth coaches at many levels don’t know the game. They didn’t play it and they don’t watch it. We have no chance. Period. Ever. Not Athletically nor technically nor tactically.

Having speed and athleticism is helpful, but it is not the main ingredient for successful team. Jamaica is faster and more athletic than all the teams you've mentioned. It does not make them an elite level team. USMNT recently lost to Canada, which has its best athletes play hockey, not soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you think the US team was faster than Senegal? Really. Also, did you see the French play on the other channel? The US boys can’t hold a candle to the French athletically. And yes, Senegal, France, and Chilie were all better at soccer too. Face it. Our best male atheletes DON’T PLAY SOCCER and our culture and parents and many youth coaches at many levels don’t know the game. They didn’t play it and they don’t watch it. We have no chance. Period. Ever. Not Athletically nor technically nor tactically.

Depends on which athletes you mean.

Our best African American male athletes? Yeah, OK, most don't play soccer.

Our best Asian athletes? I have no stats on this but I'd guess at least half - if not more - do play soccer.

Our best Caucasian athletes? Probably depends on the region. In our area, I would argue that most of the best (not biggest) athletes do play soccer. It is by far the highest participation sport for young kids in the DMV suburbs, and most of the ones who are really good at it do tend to stick with it. In other areas of the country, football and basketball still rule.

Our best Latino athletes absolutely do play soccer, though. And the Latino population in the US is 60 million. That's the main reason why the "our best athletes don't play soccer" argument falls flat for me as an explanation of why the US continues to do so poorly on the world stage. Our Latino population alone outnumbers the entire population of countries like Spain and Argentina, or Chile, let alone tiny countries like Belgium, Portugal, Croatia, Uruguay ... We have plenty of good athletes playing soccer, we just don't have enough of them who are good at it.

What we do have - is plenty of bad coaches getting advanced licences to grow their egos after attending courses taught by other bad coaches with even bigger egos.

+1. Especially the last point. We also have bad scouts (which in reality are from that same network) that select the wrong things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you think the US team was faster than Senegal? Really. Also, did you see the French play on the other channel? The US boys can’t hold a candle to the French athletically. And yes, Senegal, France, and Chilie were all better at soccer too. Face it. Our best male atheletes DON’T PLAY SOCCER and our culture and parents and many youth coaches at many levels don’t know the game. They didn’t play it and they don’t watch it. We have no chance. Period. Ever. Not Athletically nor technically nor tactically.

A
Depends on which athletes you mean.

Our best African American male athletes? Yeah, OK, most don't play soccer.

Our best Asian athletes? I have no stats on this but I'd guess at least half - if not more - do play soccer.

Our best Caucasian athletes? Probably depends on the region. In our area, I would argue that most of the best (not biggest) athletes do play soccer. It is by far the highest participation sport for young kids in the DMV suburbs, and most of the ones who are really good at it do tend to stick with it. In other areas of the country, football and basketball still rule.

Our best Latino athletes absolutely do play soccer, though. And the Latino population in the US is 60 million. That's the main reason why the "our best athletes don't play soccer" argument falls flat for me as an explanation of why the US continues to do so poorly on the world stage. Our Latino population alone outnumbers the entire population of countries like Spain and Argentina, or Chile, let alone tiny countries like Belgium, Portugal, Croatia, Uruguay ... We have plenty of good athletes playing soccer, we just don't have enough of them who are good at it.

What we do have - is plenty of bad coaches getting advanced licences to grow their egos after attending courses taught by other bad coaches with even bigger egos.

+1. Especially the last point. We also have bad scouts (which in reality are from that same network) that select the wrong things.

Travel soccer is for rich kids. Seriously that’s it. Even at the early ages you are driving to practice 2-3 days a week plus the weekends. Playing travel soccer requires a flexible job, a stay at home parents, two reliable cars and/or 3-10k laying around. So what ever athletes you get are from a very narrow economic bracket.

In this country basketball and football get better athletes.

[Anonymous]

While this particular U17 team may not have great athletes (who knows based on this one result), I don't think the problems with US men's soccer come down to the athletes playing soccer. We are traditionally strong at the U17 and U20 level and then lose ground at the full NT level(relative to our strength at the youth levels) when team tactics and soccer IQ are equally if not more important than the athleticism of our players. The problem is we don't properly identify, develop and maximize the talent we have. This comes down to coaching at every level.

While I did not watch this entire match, what I did see after they scored early, was a team playing slow, plodding, aimless soccer much like the full NT did against Canada a few weeks back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While this particular U17 team may not have great athletes (who knows based on this one result), I don't think the problems with US men's soccer come down to the athletes playing soccer. We are traditionally strong at the U17 and U20 level and then lose ground at the full NT level(relative to our strength at the youth levels) when team tactics and soccer IQ are equally if not more important than the athleticism of our players. The problem is we don't properly identify, develop and maximize the talent we have. This comes down to coaching at every level.

While I did not watch this entire match, what I did see after they scored early, was a team playing slow, plodding, aimless soccer much like the full NT did against Canada a few weeks back.

No one intelligent who knows anything about soccer buys into the "US soccer sucks because we don't get the best athletes" nonsense. Almost of our challenges stem from the fact that we have pitiful coaching resources compared to soccer super powers, which leads to the problems you mention.

One thing that is an extremely positive recent development is the number of kids now going pro both here and overseas at young ages. Even a decade ago, almost none of our U20s were pros; now, almost all of the U20s and a good number of the U17s are. That will make a big difference over time (probably a long time, but still).

[Anonymous]

Again before we trash the athletes, remember that our best attacking fullback is being played at CB. Imagine Kobe overlapping on Reyna’s side. But nope, let’s play him in a spot where his skill set doesn’t get utilized.

[Anonymous]

I thought the U.S. v Japan game was very enjoyable. Odunze had a great game to keep the score even.

[Anonymous]

All- you do realize no one is being binary here. We aren’t saying it is ONLY because we don’t have great atheletes playing. It is a contributing factor, along with culture and coaching. It is ALL these factors combined. We have ZERO chance to compete at the highest levels in international soccer because we don’t have great atheletes AND we don’t have great coaches AND we don’t have a great scorer culture.

Meanwhile, congrats to the NATS!!! WS Champs!! You think if DCU had just won the MLS Cup the city would be partying like they are right now (or like they did a few years back when the Caps won)? No, of course not, and thus endeth the lesson on culture and importance of the sport in America.