BeauFoster wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 11:13 am

bigdaddyg wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 11:01 am

Probably the equivalent of being down 28-0 at the half of a football game. It's amazing that from a purely numbers perspective (population and country size) that the US can't put a team together to beat one from most countries a fraction the size of the United States.

Was talking with a client of mine who is Argentinian and lives in London, he basically said the same thing. The problem is that the US is decades behind the rest of the world in terms of youth development. Kids even 15 years ago couldn’t see high level soccer (football) on tv and there wasn’t streaming back then. Now kids can see how the game “should” be played. It’s going to take another 10-15 years, but if we continue to develop at the youth level, we will eventually become a power.

The sheer population of the US, along with the number of athletes in the country should almost promise that. can you imagine someone like Armanti Edwards, who had an insane amount of athletic ability, playing soccer from an early age instead of football? And being properly developed? The talent is there.

You can also see it in our MLS soccer. Stars from Europe, who have gotten too old to play there, come and play in the MLS. I've been coaching soccer for the last 9 years and played growing up. The youth leagues, travel teams, and instructional/rec leagues we have now will eventually lead to US success on the world stage.

BeauFoster wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 11:13 am

bigdaddyg wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 11:01 am

Probably the equivalent of being down 28-0 at the half of a football game. It's amazing that from a purely numbers perspective (population and country size) that the US can't put a team together to beat one from most countries a fraction the size of the United States.

Was talking with a client of mine who is Argentinian and lives in London, he basically said the same thing. The problem is that the US is decades behind the rest of the world in terms of youth development. Kids even 15 years ago couldn’t see high level soccer (football) on tv and there wasn’t streaming back then. Now kids can see how the game “should” be played. It’s going to take another 10-15 years, but if we continue to develop at the youth level, we will eventually become a power.

The sheer population of the US, along with the number of athletes in the country should almost promise that. can you imagine someone like Armanti Edwards, who had an insane amount of athletic ability, playing soccer from an early age instead of football? And being properly developed? The talent is there.

One aspect that may never change is the fact that we have more popular sports that kids play aside from and in addition to soccer. When I was young we played most every sport (sandlot stuff). Soccer was just getting started- I'm talking 40-50 years ago. My first experience was in eastern Virginia where I lived until about age 13. We played rec soccer and games were on the local Air Force Base. The military kids who had lived overseas were clearly more advanced. Played my last year in high school and it was the first year we had soccer in our schools ('82). Again the military kids could play.

The US has been caught up to in baseball because kids don't play all summer on the sandlot anymore and at least where I live little league/rec baseball has all but died and has been replaced by travel ball. Kids in the other counties play soccer every day and it's a religion. Hard to imagine the US getting that passionate about it but who knows.

Was in Trinidad in the hill country for nine days some years back. Saw one basketball goal (it was behind a church) the entire time. Passed a field on a slope of knee high grass and eight kids were playing soccer. That’s the difference.

The fact that those who don't like or understand soccer go out of their way to disparage the game is also a problem. Think of the athletes who might be great soccer players who never play the sport because their parents or some other influential person in their lives who hates soccer, for no reason other than ignorance and/o stubbornness, forbids them from or talks them out of playing. Heck, I heard it last night during the App/Charlotte bball game. The jerk that you could hear yelling the entire game was accusing Xavion Brown of acting like a soccer player when was clearly elbowed in face and went down. Americans, in general, have a horrible attitude about soccer.

As much progress as this young USMNT has made, The Netherlands are clearly the better team. They could win the whole thing. Watch out for us in four years.

The Dutch are just more clinical than the U.S. The athleticism is there and the skill is far beyond what we put in the World Cup in the 90s. The youth on this team will hopefully serve us well over the next four years. All three goals that the Netherlands scored came on poor defending. We had the same number of opportunities but the ones we gave the Dutch made their shots much easier to take.

I think it was a balance of poor defending coupled with the Dutch passing. Some of the ball placement from a decent amount of spacing was pretty impressive. Our ball passing was not close to matching the Dutch. Guess there a variety of ways to get to the other teams net...the Dutch were very good ball distributors.

Our elite athletes (huge majority) funnel into football, basketball and baseball - a huge majority in Europe play soccer - we took trains thru Europe years ago but every small town, medium size or cities we passed had several soccer fields visible from the train. Very few if any basketball goals ---

As per the US team - to me, and I am not anywhere near a soccer guru - I didn't see even one corner kick that ever came close to be a dangerous scoring opportunity in the entire tournament

Now I have to figure out who to root for.

Messi just doing his thing...

ASUTodd wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 2:36 pm

Messi just doing his thing...

Best ever? One of the best, no question.

BambooRdApp wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 12:44 pm

I think it was a balance of poor defending coupled with the Dutch passing. Some of the ball placement from a decent amount of spacing was pretty impressive. Our ball passing was not close to matching the Dutch. Guess there a variety of ways to get to the other teams net...the Dutch were very good ball distributors.

That's why I said they were more clinical and certainly more technically sound. In each case, as you suggest, the assisting passes were right on target.

WVAPPeer wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 1:44 pm

As per the US team - to me, and I am not anywhere near a soccer guru - I didn't see even one corner kick that ever came close to be a dangerous scoring opportunity in the entire tournament

You are correct...despite his skill on the pitch his corners are not that good. I would like to have seen Reyna take them as he often does for his club.

USA should FIRE the Coach!!!!!!!!!

hapapp wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 12:23 pm

The Dutch are just more clinical than the U.S. The athleticism is there and the skill is far beyond what we put in the World Cup in the 90s. The youth on this team will hopefully serve us well over the next four years. All three goals that the Netherlands scored came on poor defending. We had the same number of opportunities but the ones we gave the Dutch made their shots much easier to take.

I think you could also see our youth against Netherlands and England. Most of our team are literally the age of college students/recent grads and it shows. Those Dutch dudes and some of the English looked like they had that dad strength. I can’t wait to see how our guys look in 4-8 years.

goapps93 wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 2:23 pm

Now I have to figure out who to root for.

The Three Lions

McLeansvilleAppFan wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 5:15 pm

goapps93 wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 2:23 pm

Now I have to figure out who to root for.

The Three Lions

It’s coming home.

(It’s not, but that’s a catchy slogan)

A lot to build on with a promising young squad
2 items:
1. Learn to mark the trailer
2. Find a stud who can hit it from outside the box.

Rekdiver wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 5:45 pm

A lot to build on with a promising young squad
2 items:
1. Learn to mark the trailer
2. Find a stud who can hit it from outside the box.

You nailed it.