Concacaf WC Qaulifying

That d*** Bryan Ruiz...

 

But those two points dropped by Honduras help us greatly.

 

Most important guy for the US might be the equipment guy in charge of getting the proper length studs on the players cleats today.

http://www.espnfc.us/team/united-st...-united-states-aims-to-lock-up-world-cup-spot

I'm guessing there might be a change or two because of the conditions of the pitch and that a draw will seal it (unless of course if Panama beats CR 8-0 ).

Old Man TIm Cahill scored a brace to lift the Aussies past Syria 2-1 (3-2 AGG) in extra time (Syria hit the post on a free kick late in ET that would've given them the away goals victory). The Socceroos await the 4th place team.

 

They filming this thing with a drone? That constant humming, with the hs soccer atmosphere and these vanilla announcers are making this painful to watch. And then there’s the performance. Hell of a 2nd goal by T&T.

Oh well, go Mexico and Costa Rica!!!

 

Awful and uninspired do not do justice to describing the US first half.

 

fuck russia, anyway, but that was a pile of dog$hite and US gets what it earned. ..nothing.

 

Welp, go Iceland.

 

When you strive for mediocrity, that's usually what you'll achieve. After all the emotional finger pointing subsides, what should we do? The first thing is obvious...start preparing for 2022. But there are some fundamental changes that need to occur at US Soccer, starting with leadership. Personally, I think everybody in a leadership position directly related to the men's national team should go. Then we need to look at player development at all levels and figure out who's succeeding and who's not, and clean house. Gulati and Arena must go now. That much I'm sure of. But the organization needs to look at everything they're doing, including how it's structured. Tear up everything that exists and start from scratch if need be, but doing nothing is not acceptable.
The saddest part for me is the fact that we'll not likley see Clinton Andew Dempsey score another World Cup goal for us. You could have bet the house, the farm and your children that he would have, and felt relatively safe that you wouldn't lose any of those things.

 

The fact Bruce Arena didn't resign at the press conference last night sickens me.

The fact Arena flew our best defender over from England and didn't play him sickens me (what must be going through Geoff Cameron's mind on his trip back today?)

The fact Arena thought Darlington Nagbe was a better option then Fabian Johnson is laughable.

I certainly feel for Clint as well Jump, remember when Landon joked that Deuce should stop and they could share the scoring record? Odds are they will. However, I feel worse for a 19 year that did everything in his power and now he's going to have to wait 4 years to have another shot.

 

Twellman's rant is solid.

 

As said before, we don’t deserve to go. The effort and urgency were lacking throughout the hex and there simply is not enough talent in too many positions.

I agree there needs to be a shakeup, obviously. I’m a bit sick of the MLS talk. Our best players have almost always played abroad. They learn how to be professionals better and the competition for places is higher. There needs to be a strong push to encourage our best young players to go to Europe. They can always return to MLS to finish their careers at home like Dempsey and Howard have done. I don’t include Bradley because he came back too soon, imo. Does anyone think MLS Bradley has been better than Roma Bradley?

We need to be placing a greater emphasis on speed and athleticism in selections, even if that means playing younger players who aren’t as experienced or reliable yet. They’ll learn. Our lack of speed, skill and guile at cb and wb (except for Yedlin’s 2 matches) were glaring and really hurt our margin for error.

And we need to stop equating MLS success with USMNT success, as Don stated. The greatest beneficiaries of MLS have been the rest of CONCACAF not named Mexico. We’ve given more of their players a better place to play professionally than they’ve had previously and they’ve closed the gap on us. They also don’t fear us because they play against a number of the guys on our roster now and know they can hang.

And lastly we need to get away from pay to play. I live in San Antonio. You cannot tell me that if we thoroughly scouted the American Southwest alone, we wouldn’t find a collection of talent on par with Mexico. This is the only country that treats soccer as an elitist sport. It’s unnecessarily and stupidly handicapping us. Just look where the greatest US goal scorer and one of the most creative players in our history came from and what his parents had to endure just to get him to that stage. Do you really think you can’t find more Dempseys playing in CYO leagues and their ilk in LA? We’ve got to get much more grassroots and make connections in those cities to find where the best poor, hungry kids are competing, scout them and help them find opportunities to advance their game. US Soccer will benefit. We need to do the same with the kids of US servicemen abroad. That’s one area I’ll give Klinsmann credit for.

This no doubt hurts, but sometimes wake up calls are good. We’ll see what happens.

 

I am glad Christian Pulisic decided to play for the United States and he really was the brightest star for this time. But right now, I bet he wishes he would have chosen to play for Croatia(They are still in the fight). This kid really did give this team a fighting chance and if he wasn't there, we might have actually finished worse than we did.

That Alvin Jones goal was nice and T&T was the better team last night period. Not a single away win for the US in the HEX. So there is no point complaining about what happened with Panama.

So where do we go from here?
1. Bruce Arena is gone. When you say you did not give thought to T&T and you are the coach, you do not deserve to stay. He has no passion and he deserves to go.

2. USSF must have a conversation with MLS, NASL, and USL and say "This system is not working for us but it's benefiting everyone else in CONCACAF." We need to combine our resources and make a system where player development is key and consequences for not producing is a reality. If that means promotion and relegation, so be it. If it means the USWNT members get paid more than the men's team for the next 4 years to get the point across, so bet it. In fact, I support that 100 percent, because they know they are playing with pride and heart every time they are out there. And it's way past time they deserve it.

3. The USSF must find a way to not only reach out to low-income neighborhoods and invest, but also find a way to help schools that have soccer programs(High School and College) and encourage them to learn and adapt to FIFA style rules. It doesn't help when everyone is not playing the same game by the same rules when everyone else around your age has been.

4. There is no reason that we can't have at minimum a soccer equivalent of a little league world series with every state having a team to represent them. It puts youth on the national stage and the USSF gets a chance to look at kids that they normally would ignore. Give the kids a chance and stop focusing on bringing all of these European teams over here in the summer, just to make some money. I am mentioning the kids because when you watch the LLWS, you see the passion, the anger, the frustration and the joy of playing the game. I didn't see that last night from the US team. Perhaps a tournament like this would be a reminder of how much heart is needed to play this game.

Because at the end of the day, it looks like the US fans took the heartbreak a lot more serious than the players and the coaches, and that is concerning.

 

as to #3 above: Find those mids/teens that aren't going to play pointy football anymore and move those athletes over to soccer. That's the job of a national organization that needs to step it up for development.

And find a $%cking coach for the long term development. JK started an idea - somebody that knows their stuff needs to build on it.

And clean house otherwise.

And a 12 year old soccer world series - great idea. as little league does, playoffs in each region and winners to the finals

 

I like the LLWS idea as long as we’re pulling from all-access leagues. There’s a ton of pay for play “all-star” teams in baseball as well. I don’t think anyone will argue that US baseball hasn’t undergone a massive decline from 40 years ago or that we haven’t been surpassed by a number of our Caribbean neighbors.

 

DCH, I love the pick up game mention and it spurns me on. As to pick up games (and I walked 40 miles in no-snow to get to school) we played all of the time - football (tackle), soccer, basketball, baseball (mostly whiffle but some hardball b/c a parent built a field near us). And disagreements were sometimes resolved via the throwing of rocks at each other from a distance (after a while parents caught on and tried to end this system of justice). The point being, you could go outside and just play with your neighbors - and that doesn't happen at all anymore in most places. Pay to play rules the day.

 

Very good point. I lived outside, mostly playing every sport you can name. When we weren’t doing that we were riding bikes or swimming or hiking down the creek. Shoot, we used to climb these pine trees on the hill outside of our townhouses and jump. The branches and needles were thick enough to arrest your fall. We called it parachuting. I give my nephew crap all the time about his lack of toughness. We didn’t complain about bruises and scrapes and scratches, they were badges of honor. The more the better.

But it was a different time. I didn’t have access to video games outside of an arcade until I was a teenager. We had crap for tv channels and cartoons were only on in the morning. And we didn’t hear about how dangerous the world was all the time because most of our news was local or regional. Our parents didn’t realize just how prevalent crimes against children really were and as a result we, and most of our friends, had a lot more freedom. Now, kids around here are often limited by their parents to playing in the backyard, if they aren’t being ferried around to different activities and you can get them off the damn Xbox.

I’ve run off on a tangent, but Seth and I binge watched Stranger Things this summer. It was awesome because that show takes place when I was the age he is now, and roughly the same age as those kids. It’s really cool for him to be able to see how his Mom and I grew up. Well, minus the monster, the nefarious govt agency and the Upside Down.