Commentary
The sky is falling! Making sense of U.S. men's national team fan hysteria
- by Beau Dure @duresport, Oct 18, 2019
1. Get more players to play in Europe and fight for playing time. Check.
2. Increase professional standards in the USA as well. Check.
3. Funnel our best players not just into one academy in Bradenton but a network of academies with direct paths to the
professional ranks, bypassing college soccer and putting teens in pro games. Check.
4. Get Sunil Gulati out. Check.
And the men’s national team is ... worse?
At this rate, by the time we have promotion/relegation and hundreds of free academies that collect the best 7-year-olds from every street and suburb in the country, we’ll be battling Turks
and Caicos in Concacaf Nations League C.
We know the men’s team has issues. And we’re obsessed with quick fixes for them. It’s a whole chapter in my upcoming book, "Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup: A Historical and Cultural Reality Check."
Granted, the book isn’t called "Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win in Toronto." That’s a different level of expectation.
But if you’ve listened to SiriusXM radio shows or been saddled with a Twitter account, you’ve probably heard all of the quick fix proposals, some better reasoned than others.
Tony Meola, the Hall of Fame goalkeeper and one of the more patient radio hosts in the business, finally had to call out a caller who insisted the country had many other players who should’ve been called for the Canada game instead of the players on the field.
Name one, Meola said.
He couldn’t.
Some callers, though, waxed eloquent about Meola’s tenure on the national team in the late 80s through early 00s. In Meola’s day, the bulk of the players played high school and college soccer. Meola played at Virginia for Bruce Arena. Tab Ramos, hailed by many as the man who should’ve been hired as national team coach instead of Gregg Berhalter, played at N.C. State on some very physical teams under the tutelage of George Tarantini, who recently passed away.
No one said we should go back to the time of physical college players (though Ramos was, of course, superbly skilled). But if I hear “grit” and “bite” one more time, I’m going to drive 30 miles to the nearest Waffle House.
Some callers said Berhalter should’ve stuck with the same lineup that routed Cuba. After Couva, didn’t people lob the opposite criticism at Bruce Arena?
Some callers wondered if politics dictated the selection of a bunch of domestic players. But just like the last qualifying cycle, the USA had plenty of players based in top European leagues, while the opponents had a substantial MLS contingent.
Meola’s co-host, Brian Dunseth, pointed out the impact MLS has had throughout the region, a fact that was reinforced by the presence of Vancouver Whitecaps academy alumnus Alphonso Davies on the Canadian side. Davies hasn’t played all that much for Bayern Munich this season, but it doesn’t seem to have invoked the same crisis mentality the U.S. soccer community currently feels about Christian Pulisic being caught up in the Chelsea shuffle.
(I’ll raise a hand here and confess -- I don’t think Frank Lampard’s delineation between international players and a mere “price tag,” as he referred to Pulisic, bodes well for the young American getting a fair shake at the EPL club. But I don’t think Pulisic is in some awful career-ending run of form, either.)
In a similar vein: “The U.S. is fixated on a domestic coach,” said one caller who lives in a country that broke the bank to hire Jurgen Klinsmann and even turned to a European coach, Pia Sundhage, to right the ship when the women’s team was in dire straits.
We’re also no closer to a resolution on a national “style,” a discussion that began in earnest when Claudio Reyna trotted out a national curriculum to a bunch of skeptics ranging from the national coaches convention halls to Bruce Arena and Steve Nicol at the neighboring MLS Draft. A few years ago, we all wanted to play like Barcelona. Now we all think Berhalter is some sort of naive rube for daring to play the ball out of the back.
The funniest, after at least five hours of angry calls on SiriusXM, was a caller asking why everyone was so calm. That was even funnier than the caller who lamented the cost of travel soccer and then regaled the hosts with tales of taking his kid to Barcelona.
It’s not that the criticisms were all easily refuted. Berhalter didn’t exude a lot of passion or give fans any reason to believe he had tried to fire up the team. The long wait to hire a coach, essentially wasting a year of national team development, looks much worse now. And U.S. Soccer keeps putting off the hire of a new CEO, perhaps realizing that critics everywhere have their knives out ready to pounce if they promote Jay Berhalter, Gregg’s brother, or perhaps anyone else whose leadership was called out anonymously in Glassdoor reviews and New York Times interviews.
(Less well-developed: the argument that U.S. Soccer waited too long to get a new president. Apparently the split-second in which Sunil Gulati banged his gavel at the end of the 2018 annual general meeting and officially handed off to Carlos Cordeiro within an hour or so of the election was too slow.)
What happened in Toronto was relatively simple: A team that had circled this date on the calendar long ago effectively suppressed and overran a team that was far less interested, and the gap in skill wasn’t enough to make the latter team win anyway.
We shouldn’t be surprised by the difference in intensity. All we heard going into this game was that the Nations League wasn’t really useful. Canadians couldn’t be blamed for thinking we arrogant neighbors felt this competition and this game were beneath us, and they were ready to teach us a lesson.
We can be aggravated that the USA lacked the skills and sense to beat pressure. We’re all supposed to have been teaching those skills for the past decade, whether it’s under the “dribble first, ask questions later” mentality that many coaches have preached or the “death by 1,000 passes” approach in Reyna’s now-discarded curriculum.
But are we now supposed to toss aside such grandiose notions? If we have no patience with Berhalter trying to get players to play out of the back, should we just slam the ball upfield to a target forward who can lay the ball off for the magical feet of Pulisic? Should we, in the words of so many callers to English radio shows, quit mucking about and play 4-4-2?
U.S. Soccer needs changes from the ground up. MLS has decent academies, but the rest of the youth soccer landscape is a fragmented mess -- not just on the boys’ side, as Paul Riley lamented on Twitter. Some of the lawsuits are unavoidable results of various soccer entrepreneurs’ hubris, but some should’ve been avoided.
And one thing that didn’t seem to come up on the radio call-ins: The men are still playing under an expired CBA. That point seems to have been lost while the women’s lawyers claim the team is due eleventy billion dollars in back pay and U.S. Soccer counters by pointing to the existence of the NWSL despite scant investment. Playing without a new contract probably isn’t good for morale.
We can identify problems. We can come up with solutions. But a mythical knight galloping across the ocean from Europe isn’t going to prevent more Couvas or Torontos. It’s going to take a bit more than that -- from all of us.
(Beau Dure's latest book is "Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup: A Historical and Cultural Reality Check." He is also the author of “Single-Digit Soccer: Keeping Sanity in the Earliest Ages of the Beautiful Game” and the host of the podcast “Ranting Soccer Dad,” and has been a longtime youth soccer coach and referee in Northern Virginia.)
Hmmm,
I like your pieces usually, Beau, and I appreciate your listing hysterics. BUT, 1. Hysterics is normal in most of the world when the NT plays terribly. This is not an issue of wins or losses, but playing cluelessly. Do you remember Mexico recently going through 6 HC changes until they settled on one successful man? Or Italy? or Brazil? or England before Gary Neville ?
2. I watch a lot of MLS and a lot of EPL, Bundesliga and a few other places.(Having coached ACC soccer champs years ago and taken one youth team to the top in a large metro area). All I can say is that Weston McKennie plays infinitely better at Schalke than here, Sargent plays better at Werder Bremen than here; Pulisic played much better at Dortmund than here,etc.
What seems to be wrong with G.Berhalter is that he has ONE idea of how to play without enough players at that level to fit his system. He does not understand how to use the above players properly, and now he has them scared to make a mistake by crossing the coach's philosophy. Like Klinsmann at the end, he has lost the lockerroom. Do you think that two players at Germany's No.2+3 clubs in terms of popularity will listen to him anymore ?
P.S. I have also been convinced that the U-20s with Soto,Reyna, Gloster, Richards et al. would defeat Berhalter's NT. Not because they are better individually; they are not. But because they play soccer more naturally, freer and hence more positively. Criticism is in order.
Peter, well said.
Beau, I don't read fan sites. I read SA because it provides excellent articles and the forums attract comments from many experienced people like Peter. Here the comments on coaching have been quite harsh, but well deserved I think. There is always some negative comments about players, even when the team wins, but I didn't notice any upsurge here after the last match. Some of the same negative comments were made after the Cuba match.
Bottom line, I think a lot of people will see your article as a pure apology piece for Berhalter. I for one, don't think we should accept his apology (which he himself didn't offer).
PS: Your negative comments about the WNT were uncalled for.
Peter, some good points but my answer to your statement that players like McKennie,whom I'm not really impressed with one bit,Sargent and Pulisic play much better in Germany with their club teams than here can be answered very simply. They play with better players, who help them lift their own game. And because these players are better they ,in effect, cause McKennie's, Sargent ,and Pulisic's to sort of hide or gloss over the weak parts of these three.
The problem is that when these three come back here to play , their own weaknesses become glaring due to the lesser quality players they play with. That tells me, these three have not improved enough in terms of eliminating their own weaknesses playing in Germany. For example, when I see Pulisic running around with the ball ,like a headless chicken, into 5 Canadian players, all wearing bright red jerseys, tells me enough and worse it happened a couple of times...
Lets face it Sargent is in the wrong country trying to learn to play centerforward or rather #9 or wing position. Germany hasn't produced this type of player since Klinsman or Rudie Voller. Look at Bayern Munchen's front line when Guardiola coached had a Pole Lewandowski, a french and dutchman on the wings...Sorry to say Germany tend produce defenders and midfielders but not frontline players and basically they don't produce creative players....
Well said Peter B.
Beau, the four things you listed that we “knew” are still all necessary, but the timeline to measure their efficacy is not measured in months—it’s years. So checking our progress after 6 of 12 months seem premature on items 1 and 3. Those four are also not performance goals—they’re administrative in nature. So completing your homework is not the same as taking the test. We took a quiz in Toronto and failed, for a variety of reasons. But the real test is the final, and that’s some time from now. Do we stick with the same teacher if he is unable to use methods that get results? Or do we wait, take the Final and then worry about it? Our country has a history of replacing teachers after the Final because the college entrance scores are bad, but the real problem is in elementary school. Because of grade inflation, we’ve convinced ourselves we’re smart at age 8, but we’re falling behind and no one cares enough until students are older and notice the 12 YO reads at an 8YO level, to further flog this metaphor.
Check yourself on 1-4. Begin with #4. Is Gulagi really gone? Are 1-3 really ‘complete’? The MNT is playing using a favorite Meola term ‘trzash’.
Guys, I continually read comments that one of the problems is that GB's system is to difficult to sophisticated to play. REALLY,REALLY??? You mean to say GB who played in Europe ,on some second division teams as a central defender, a position the great Ernst Happel , the crown jewel of coaches as called Franz Beckenbauer and Cruyff, stated where you basically learn only to chase the heels of attackers; Happel stated" what can you possible learn about soccer from this type of player."...sophistication??????
Forget the system, and lets just say the Canadian team players and the players got on the field and played a pickup game; in other words let them decide how to play on the field. Forget who would win or lose but I'm willing to bet you will see the same STUPID mistakes, the same level of quality of play made out there.
Systems have nothing to do with trapping a ball and passing under pressure, looking for an open man, dribbling into 5 opponents, standing with 5 men in a straight line in front of the goal waiting for a cross with no backup for secondary balls, not spreading out in ball possession, making bad passes, unable to make a decent cross, create give and go's and on ,and on, and on...etc....Like Wim Jansen a teammate of Cruyff so artfully puts it, what good is any system when you lose a majority of 1v1 duels; in other words you bring it down to simplest factor , it's not the system...
When I watch how the US play, its not that smoke is coming out my head because the tactical system they play is so sophisticated and confusing me. Come on! There is nothing out of the ordinary in how they play. It all comes down to looking for the open man, proper positioning off the ball, the speed of the ball, and making the right decisions and ofcourse TECHNIQUE needs to be in good order. Let me give you another example, your team plays 4-4-2 , your leftback has the ball in the corner and is in deep trouble, than to get out of that situation at the moment is to yell out "system change ,play 4-2-3-1 ", as if that's going to help the leftback any.....
Frank, true it isn't the system but it still involves coaching. Against Canada, the opposing coach watched how the US was playing and then 10 minutes in, he changed his gameplan by moving the fast attackers he had on the flanks to the inside going against the DM and CBs directly. Why? Because the attackers had a huge speed advantage which they exploited in the central zone instead of the flanks where there wasn't such a huge mismatch.
Berhalter made no adjustment.
Bob, good point about Berhalter not reacting but you see in the old days when Cruyff played players took care of the situation themselves when a situation on the field needed to be change tactically, no coach was needed. Players today lack the savvy insight to be to things on their own and make the changes. Everything now has to be initiated by the coach, if he's aware of the problem, and hopefully knows what to do.
Cruyff had stated that todays game, is not gotten more difficult but instead the players are not as bright or savvy. The reason for this is that players use to learn their trade and tricks, and savvieness playing pickup. Coaching over time as today has gotten more and more involved and programmed thus reducing player initiatives to set matters in order on the field. And today there is no leadership on the field, no hierarchy to make decisions.
Frank, that's ultimately why I hung up coaching. Having to think out loud for the players. It's steadily gotten worse.
Ships, their loss, not yours ,that your not in coaching any longer.
Hierarchy, was created in the pickup days, the better ruled roost and chose the teams, they led. In order for you to be a leader, you needed to be the best in the your neighborhood, that was ultimate attainment. I worked myself up trying to become the best. I remember as a kid finally moving up in the ranks to be #1 but one day a new kid moved in the neighborhood and he was perhaps 5% better than I was. Unlike on grass it wouldn't be so noticeable but on the street, on concrete it was evident he was better. I lost my position became #2. I made sure I played against him everyday and it took me 2 months to finally bypass him. That day of joy I can stil remember.
In order to stay #1 I would travel to different neighborhoods and play every monday in order to see and learn new skills, new ways, new competition to keep preventing me from getting stale. I always carried 2 tennis balls nwith me because in those there were no leash laws and dogs had a habit of stealing our game ball. By going to different neighborhoods, you build a reputation, like the gunslingers of the old west and challenging the fastest in town, the best in their neighborhood.....That was what it was like in the old'street soccer' days.
The hierarchy continued all through different levels on up to the pros. In the WC'74 , the dutch had 4 tables for players to eat at. You weren't told but where to sit but everyone knew where you were positioned in the hierarch.you knew who were the leaders. Table 1 was Cruyff, Keizer, van Hanegem, Krol, Rensenbrink; Table 2 was Jansen ,Neeskens, Rep ,etc, and the last table were the subs....
It was those on Table 1, that made decisions on the field, not Michels... Today we don't breed leaders because all the kids are programmed, and are trained by coaches who a programmed....
Ships ,BTW, a great example of the players making decisions out on the field was when Holland in '74WC had difficulty with Bulgaria because Bonev a phenominal player was giving Neeskens a difficulty time. Wim Jansen along with van Hanegem and Cruyff solved by letting Wim Jansen take over Neeskens' role and solved the problem....That's how things were done in those days....
There is an interview with a Dutch soccer journalist named Derksen on youtube( in dutch),who was a close friend of Johan Cruyff. He stated while he visiting Cruyff in Barcelona he listened to adiscussion going on between Cruyff and Piet Keizer. He learned that these two were not that all impressed with Rinus Michel's coaching for he wasn't detailed enough in deeper aspects of the game and that it was basically Cruyff and Keizer that ruled and made the decisions on the field during the games, regardless of what Michels stated
Derksen asked why this was never brought out in the press for no one knew the behind the scenes stuff. The reason was that they had a lot of respect for Michels in what he began and created and would never allow the public to know this. He was the father of Dutch soccer in a way ,and Cruyff had a lot of respect for him in how Michels took care of him as a kid when Johan's father died by doing a lot things for him. This is why as critical Cruyff was you never hear a bad him say a bad word about Michels even though these had their problems..
Beau, thank you for a dose of sanity. Soccer forums are places where people can second guess the coach (or the federation), which is too be expected. And of course, everyone can benefit from post-game analysis, but I get annoyed by the constant "sky is falling" and if we don't change x, y, and z we won't qualify for the WC. I think you analysis of the game was spot on; Canada wanted it more than we did, and we weren't skillful enough to overcome their effort. We used to occasionally beat teams in that way (out hustling more skilled opponents). Every team has bad games, but some teams are good enough to win in spite of that. There are no obvious solutions. No soccer guru can say if you do x, y, and z, you will win every time. As you pointed out, the US has often made efforts to improve the game; they may have even improved our play (I am often impressed with the quality of our play, I think it is at a much higher level than years past), but the problem is, our opponents see these things and can implement them as well. The joy of the game is that it never stands still. I liked the line-up GB put out there against Canada. It was not a pretty game (the announcers said the conditions were not good, which might have explained some of the ugliness), and our guys put in a decent effort, but it did not match the Canadians. They wanted it more, they fought for it, and they deserved the win. And their one player (David? the one at Bayern Munich) is clearly going to be a force to be reckoned with. But I don't think we're in a disastrous position, either. I was not overly excited by GB's appointment as the coach, but neither am I appalled at how he's done. I don't agree with everything he's done, but I think he deserves more time, as long as the players support him. If they've bought into the system, and have confidence in him as a coach, he should stay. If he's lost the support of the locker room, then it probably is time to look for a new coach.
I am not second guessing anyone when I say we are going to lose matches if Roldan and McKennie start in a 3-man midfield. We will lose the battle for the central zone. They don't defend well enough and cannot maintain possession by passing well enough for success in the international game. We might get by with one of them, but not both, provided the replacement midfielder is a very good CM.
Yeah, Mckennie and Adams make the most sense when on the road in a 4-2-3-1 or diamond midfield. But Adams hasn't been available for a while.
Bob, I agree. Roldan had a horrible game (and I've never been particularly impressed with him). McKennie seems to have potential, but in the last few games (with the exception of Cuba), he just doesn't seem to do much, so I am unsure what to think about him.
McKenna?? on paper he plays midfield, on the field he's not a midfielder, he's everywhere but there. I like to see him as right back for a change but not at midfield....
If US Soccer can't admit that their player development system needs a major overhaul, then we'll be having this same conversation for years to come.
Well, that's part of the problem, isn't it? We've been having this conversation, on and off, for the past 25 years. And the answer from USSF has always been MLS.
And the danger is that USSF will "prove" their system is perfect as is by selecting players from the USSF DA and MLS teams.
What they don't explain is why we are losing ground to countries that select heavily from MLS teams too. Could the difference be where and how their players developed before they went to MLS?
I don't know much about soccer, but I did play hoops and baseball competitively in High School. My daughter plays club in SoCal U16. Played in the DA's first season as 8th grader. Was told if you want any chance to play YNT, you can't play HS Soccer. My dd said, "oh well" and is playing ECNL and HS Soccer. This is a pay to play system at the youth level and at the highest level. Because of that, soccer is not a true sport in America. America was born to win! I see one glaring hole with our USA Soccer Program.... No Ganas to WIN!!!! I see no passion except from a few. Were missing the fire to win. I don't believe in "systems" in sports. Play free and play hard. Play with heart and American pride. HS Soccer has been under attack by Euro soccer coaches who have no clue on what HS sports means here. "One Nation, One Team" they say, but Latinos are no where to be found and they tell Freshman HS Soccer atheletes, "100% All IN Soccer, no social life & NO HS Soccer or any HS Sport for that matter" This is 100% the biggest problem for our youth. No other sport has a US Federation telling their student atheletes they can't play for their HS and local comminuty. What a joke!!!!
You understand the problem. Moreso, the top youth academies, like Ajax, require their players to participate in other sports too. Quite the opposite to banning it.
People's attitude toward sports participation has changed so much. I played 4 sports in high school during the 1960s and I wasn't a "jock". I was a bookworm. My mother played tennis and my dad softball while I was growing up. Everyone participated in physical activities of some kind. The idea of banning kids from playing HS sports was unthinkable.
Well, in SoCal lot's of extra $$$ going around to get kiddos into top college. One SoCal parent just confessed and pleaded guilty to paying $500,000 to get his two kids into SC and two others SoCal parents coughed up $400,000 each for Georgetown. Holy moly, some people will do whatever it takes to kid their kids in the "game." No more, "work your ass off" and earn your spot. So much dirty politics in soccer in America. Even the Big Club Docs in SoCal tell their top players that "HS Soccer sucks and you will get hurt" BS. This is only to keep their top players for thier clubs only, so they can promote on Instagram and Facebook how many kids are going D1, YNT and now the new one for girls, Training Center participant. This is all marketed to dumb dads and moms like me when our kids are under 11.
Well, in SoCal lot's of extra $$$ going around to get kiddos into top college. One SoCal parent just confessed and pleaded guilty to paying $500,000 to get his two kids into SC and two others SoCal parents coughed up $400,000 each for Georgetown. Holy moly, some people will do whatever it takes to kid their kids in the "game." No more, "work your ass off" and earn your spot. So much dirty politics in soccer in America. Even the Big Club Docs in SoCal tell their top players that "HS Soccer sucks and you will get hurt" BS. This is only to keep their top players for thier clubs only, so they can promote on Instagram and Facebook how many kids are going D1, YNT and now the new one for girls, Training Center participant. This is all marketed to dumb dads and moms like me when our kids are under 11.
Justus, I hear you, but I am not sure if you hear the other side. When I coached my son's club soccer team--no $$, just a Boys & Girls Club team,but we won (:-)--he also captained his HS team. Here is the problem with HS soccer: The season is too short; the players keep changing with seniors leaving & freshmen/sophomores coming in,hence no continuity; the coaches are often required to be faculty members rather than soccer specialists; the scheduling is awful: two matches,week after week b/c the season is so short, hence very little recovery and coaching and mostly running;the referees in midweek games in the pm are rarely qualified.
Perhaps you know that other countries have no athletic teams in conferences for HS and college; schools are only for education, and sports are played in sporting clubs. Big difference.
Good luck selling your book if it is as poorly argued as this article. "How many straw men can you cram into 300 words?" would have been a better title.
I hope you were going for humor and don't usually sound this arrogant and snarkish.
Apparently the split-second in which Sunil Gulati banged his gavel at the end of the 2018 annual general meeting and officially handed off to Carlos Cordeiro within an hour or so of the election was too slow.
That is just insulting to serious fans of the USMNT with legitimate complaints about the program.
This should not be about a side. Every HS student, male or female should have the choice to do both and not feel like they will miss out on some YNT opportunity that only .05% will get a sniff at anyways. No other sport tells 8th graders you have to give up HS Sports so you can make the Feds YNT with the hopes of making the National Team. Water Polo? Volleyball? Hoops? Baseball? Track? Softball? Tennis? Why the band on HS Soccer? Why not let each kid choose? This is complete BS. You have one league, the DA telling all their customers, "No HS Soccer Allowed." DA has the carrot to market which is the YNT List. For some reason that list has much more value compared to the other sports YNT Lists.
Beau, I apologize for Mr. Hudson. The rest of us can disagree with what someone says without getting personal.
I enjoy your informal writing style, even when I disagree with what you might say.
Gentlemen/caballeros: Y'all know me and know that I've been commenting for quite a while - and for those of you who don't, FYI, I'been invoilvded not only with SA, when it was at first known as "Soccer West" out of the SF Bay Area, I was involved with youth soccer from the late '60s to the mid '90s, including collegiate ball at the DI & II, and community colleges. So, in short, been there, seen that and this, and all I just want to say, is that youth sports in this great country of ours, is and has been enmeshed in a myriad of rules and regulations; youth soccer at the rec and club/competitive level, affiliated and unaffiliated, have been going at each other's throats, including threatening to going to court (read: ayso vs US Youth Soccer, etc.) pay for play, etc. etc. ad nauseaum. I will regale you with the tired old axiom of "in ten years our teams will give everyone a run for their money" and yet, it same-old-same-old. Yes our MNT did look rather pathetic as if they were stepping on the pitch for the first time, CP, is visually frustrated, and now we are crying over spilled milk and some even crying in their cervezas. So what's the cure: heck, I don't know other than telling everyone to stop moaning and groaning, put our collective heads together, and get down to playing some real futbol. Or else this hue and cry will continue for time to come, so let's say: PLAY ON!!!
Gentlemen/caballeros: Y'all know me and know that I've been commenting for quite a while - and for those of you who don't, FYI, I'been invoilvded not only with SA, when it was at first known as "Soccer West" out of the SF Bay Area, I was involved with youth soccer from the late '60s to the mid '90s, including collegiate ball at the DI & II, and community colleges. So, in short, been there, seen that and this, and all I just want to say, is that youth sports in this great country of ours, is and has been enmeshed in a myriad of rules and regulations; youth soccer at the rec and club/competitive level, affiliated and unaffiliated, have been going at each other's throats, including threatening to going to court (read: ayso vs US Youth Soccer, etc.) pay for play, etc. etc. ad nauseaum. I will regale you with the tired old axiom of "in ten years our teams will give everyone a run for their money" and yet, it same-old-same-old. Yes our MNT did look rather pathetic as if they were stepping on the pitch for the first time, CP, is visually frustrated, and now we are crying over spilled milk and some even crying in their cervezas. So what's the cure: heck, I don't know other than telling everyone to stop moaning and groaning, put our collective heads together, and get down to playing some real futbol. Or else this hue and cry will continue for time to come, so let's say: PLAY ON!!!
Good stuff, Ric.....the answer is to all this garbage is to heavily invest, not money, to instill a drive into nurturing an environment of pickup soccer, that will eliminate so many problems of choosing, pay for play,etc
Bob - I just wish Mr. Hudson had made a point.
Bob - I just wish Mr. Hudson had made a point.
Bob - I just wish Mr. Hudson had made a point.
Bob - I just wish Mr. Hudson had made a point.
Bob - I just wish Mr. Hudson had made a point.
Beau ,I think you made your point :-)
I am not hysterical, only deeply concerned about the dubious choice of Greg Berhalter as USMNT coach, and, in turn, his choice of players. Berhalter lacked recent international experience before his appointment and he has too much MLS blood flowing in his veins.
This is the time to clean house, to look at the players who performed well in previous USMNT international matches, to say thank you and adieu to Bradley, Altidore and others who have not played up to the high international standard, and to infuse the team with more of the U20s who performed so well under the tutelage of Tab Ramos and maybe some other young, hungry studs. Finally, play a more technical game than the USMNT currently plays, with more possession.
The Dutch national team got turned upside down after its last failure to qualify, it will very likely be in Qatar in 2022. The Italian national team is changing even as we now speak.
Found that the article only offered ying to yang. Change does not come easy to people that, are protecting turf. If you don't think this federation has major issues, wouldn't know what to tell you. The national team is what I am most passionate about and it is floundering! The people that are supposed to be helping, aren't. What you would want is for something positive on all fronts. USMNT, USWNT, youth, inclusion & lawsuits. Still waiting!!!
When are men going to stop thinking that only men can coach (or referee) games played by men. Jill Ellis needs to be in every conversation about what to do about the crisis involving the USMNT. She turned the USWNT into a force both on the pitch and in the courts. Maybe the men need the same approach from a coach.
Unfortunately USSF's solution is to put Earnie Stewart in charge of the WNT.