U17 World Cup

[Anonymous]

Soccer, not scorer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

It is a mistake to confuse the unpopularity of MLS with the overall popularity of soccer in America.

The World Soccer Talk site keeps stats on TV viewership of soccer in the U.S, and the numbers are interesting.

From Oct 9-21, for example, total viewership of all soccer games broadcast in the US topped 12 million households. Of those, there were only 3 MLS playoff matches in the top 20, and none in the top 10. More people tuned in to watch a friendly between Argentina and Mexico's U23 teams than the Philly - NYRB playoff match.

Even if there are other sports which are still relatively more popular as a % of our population; in terms of shear numbers there is in fact a huge soccer culture here. It's just that for the most part that culture is not very interested in MLS.

Yet, US Soccer will continue to give MLS / SUM credit for "growing the game" here.


Its BS.

[Anonymous]

20 of 21 players on the roaster spent at least one season in development academies and they crash out with 1 point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:20 of 21 players on the roaster spent at least one season in development academies and they crash out with 1 point.

DA hinders rather than develops the swath of players in the US. It’s such a tiny portion and it’s all USNT draws from these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20 of 21 players on the roaster spent at least one season in development academies and they crash out with 1 point.

DA hinders rather than develops the swath of players in the US. It’s such a tiny portion and it’s all USNT draws from these days.

We can all agree that DA, MLS and USSF should own this fiasco.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20 of 21 players on the roaster spent at least one season in development academies and they crash out with 1 point.

DA hinders rather than develops the swath of players in the US. It’s such a tiny portion and it’s all USNT draws from these days.

DA is a league. It's clubs that develop, and most clubs don't do that well.

[Anonymous]

The DA is world class!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The DA is world class!

The full year league and preventing more than two games in a row are great for players.

[Anonymous]

It's a good thing they changed the age groups to promote better talent identification for national team players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a good thing they changed the age groups to promote better talent identification for national team players.

Actually that is the one thing that I find totally ridiculous. They should have at minimum grandfathered in older teams. And I don't think it should have affected rec. One of the things that was nice about the previous age system was it mostly kept kids of the same grade together on the same team

[Anonymous]

You all know nothing! We will keep doing what we do and making money. Screw you guys.
Signed,
US soccer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all know nothing! We will keep doing what we do and making money. Screw you guys.
Signed,
US soccer

So what was being done in the past that gave us all those World Cup trophies? It’s easy to say they did not do well so US Soccer’s DA system is at fault. But yet no one is putting forth a better alternative.

[Anonymous]

The attention being paid to the results from this tournament is ridiculous, these kids are 16 and 17. The number of players from the U-17 WC that make it (from any country) is extremely low, the results tell very little about a country’s future prospects. But I guess it’s something good to complain about for those inclined to do so.

[Anonymous]

It’s only the worst performance we’ve had in our history of playing in this competition, no big deal

[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.

I'm a professional trainer and I will say that 80% of the best athletes are African American. And they do not play soccer. They play basketball and football.