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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DP.  Moving the goalposts again?  As we read here last spring and summer, you were waxing on about how this WC we would see the US team crumble.  Now it’s next WC.  Everyone understands that other countries with a far richer soccer culture than the US are finally coming to/have come to a social acceptance and encouragement of women’s soccer.  To say the US has a “better” resources isn’t correct.  European women play with very well funded former men’s clubs and share their wealth of facilities and instruction.  Yes, there are more who play (and are encouraged to play) in the US on the girls side, but they aren’t playing for world renown professional men’s clubs here.  The fact that the US has been able to remain near the top this cycle, win or lose the next game, shows that our product is not as bad as you claim.  It’s ok and actually healthy for the other countries to come up to par and compete.  There may even be a cycle where the US doesn’t make it to the knockout stage.  It happens.  Italy, one of the greatest soccer playing countries on Earth on the men’s side, didn’t even make the WC field last cycle.  This insistence that the USWNT must be on top every game and every cycle is silly and to say they aren’t playing the game well or producing very capable, intelligent players is way off the mark.

I’d wager that the same folks who spend time focusing on every men’s team setback but remain mute after the men’s team advances are at work mucking things up here.  It’s like a dark lobby on every soccer board and now they have brought their agenda to the women’s side, unsatisfied with simply bashing the men.

SMH. [/quote]

OP here. I see your point. There is a lot of bashing that goes on , but this is discussion more than bashing. It's not rocket science as to why we can't compete at a world class level on the men's side: there are very few world class athletes in general, and those who grow up here probably gravitate towards sports that are more in the limelight and offer bigger pay days. I don't think that anyone would argue that the best move for an elite male athlete would be to move to Europe to play, and many young kids won't do that- this was the exact scenario which brought Odell Beckham Jr to football despite soccer being his first love. I don't mean to disparage our men's team at all, and they played well just last night. I hope they can pull off an upset over Mexico.
I am also not bashing the women's side. I am bashing US Soccer. The US women deserve a ton of credit for what they are doing, especially in light of truly bizarre coaching moves. Has there been some luck? Sure. Has there been some gifting by officials? I believe so. However that isn't a black mark on the players. That's life and that's the respect that champions generate. However, and I k how I am repeating myself, but look at what Mallory Pugh used to do and what she does now. She has been cowed into a system which doesn't nurture her strengths. She has been told that what she used to do- shred defenders 1v1 - is bad for some reason..she believes it. I think she is confused. The US has consistently shown an inability to develop teams that showcase the individual strengths of its players and praise creativity in favor of forcing players into cookie cutter formations based on someone else's successes.
The team that the US Women will face in the final, Holland, has long been lauded for doing what few nations can do: compete on a world class level despite a comparatively diminutive population from.which to select players. They have done it on the men's side forever and now they have done it on the women's side. The US should beat them handily, but the Dutch federation is just one example of a European nation that has exploded into the picture in a very short period of time [/quote]

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