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Open Wide For Some Soccer!


Mike

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It is bizarre how rubbish the United States are now. Honestly, the talent is just poor outside of Pulisic and even his progress has stalled for two years now. I saw the match yesterday and the Davies boy was a class above anything the US could purport to have. Not sure when America became so weak-minded on the pitch, either. From 2002 to 2014, I thought of them as a physical team that was extremely hard-working/defensively organised and could rely on their one or two good attacking players to create a few chances. There is not any of this now. They just play passively and let themselves be bullied when playing away to the Central American countries and now even Canada which has no use for football.

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The physicality aspect is a huge difference. We used to be tough to play against in 9/10 matches even if we were outplayed by a better team. I don't really know what happened there. There's some talent coming along, more than in the past, but they're mostly still a few years off and that leaves us with Pulisic, McKennie, and Tyler Adams, whenever he gets healthy. I suspect we'll luck into being average or above average in 5 years because of the talent coming through alone, but that ignores a lot of the issues with USSF that don't look like they're getting fixed anytime soon.

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USSF is plagued by nepotism and chronically-shit decision-making. Even if they sack Berhalter, which I can’t see them doing any time soon, the major power brokers will still be ensconced at the top. It’s disheartening, because we do have quite a few talented players coming up through the ranks.

 

It defies logic that 1) it took them over a year to actually hire Berhalter, who was apparently the only name they had in mind from the beginning and 2) they didn’t even entertain the idea of interviewing established managers like Tata Martino or Julen Lopetegui, both of whom were allegedly interested in the job.

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It is bizarre how rubbish the United States are now. Honestly, the talent is just poor outside of Pulisic and even his progress has stalled for two years now. I saw the match yesterday and the Davies boy was a class above anything the US could purport to have. Not sure when America became so weak-minded on the pitch, either. From 2002 to 2014, I thought of them as a physical team that was extremely hard-working/defensively organised and could rely on their one or two good attacking players to create a few chances. There is not any of this now. They just play passively and let themselves be bullied when playing away to the Central American countries and now even Canada which has no use for football.

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure Canada is in the top 10 countries with the most amount of registered players. Ok the country is massive, but it only has a population of 40m, which is smaller than both the UK and California. I understand that previously Canada have been shit and not really produced anyone of any real quality, however the interest in the sport is there and it’s growing. I think 5-10 years time, North American football will be dominated by Canada, Mexico, and the USA. You have to say though, the USA and Mexico are certainly on a downward spiral from where they used to be.
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It is bizarre how rubbish the United States are now. Honestly, the talent is just poor outside of Pulisic and even his progress has stalled for two years now. I saw the match yesterday and the Davies boy was a class above anything the US could purport to have. Not sure when America became so weak-minded on the pitch, either. From 2002 to 2014, I thought of them as a physical team that was extremely hard-working/defensively organised and could rely on their one or two good attacking players to create a few chances. There is not any of this now. They just play passively and let themselves be bullied when playing away to the Central American countries and now even Canada which has no use for football.

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure Canada is in the top 10 countries with the most amount of registered players. Ok the country is massive, but it only has a population of 40m, which is smaller than both the UK and California. I understand that previously Canada have been shit and not really produced anyone of any real quality, however the interest in the sport is there and it’s growing. I think 5-10 years time, North American football will be dominated by Canada, Mexico, and the USA. You have to say though, the USA and Mexico are certainly on a downward spiral from where they used to be.

I don't deny that the game is growing in Canada. I've been to Toronto, Quebec, and Alberta and I have seen some interest (especially in the first two places), and like the US, it will benefit from a large population of first and second generation immigrants coming from places where football is very popular. The MLS teams and the new Canadian football league will also help. However, it is still not a football nation, and I doubt they will take over CONCACAF anytime soon though. Costa Rica is tiny, but has a great football culture and will remain more competitive. From what I saw at Gold Cup, Jamaica, Haiti, and Curacao have the national resources to be serious teams in the current generation before Canada if we are talking in the next 5-10 years.

 

I think America will be alright in the long run with the young players coming along, but they need to use the endless money that have to dump the current coach and hire a real manager right now. They will struggle out of the hexagonal again if he remains. The Nigerian FA has no money that they are willing to spend, and even we have a real manager.

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California Republic will certainly be an MLS team within the next few years.

Yes, losing to Canada is a big deal. There are 30m of them and they all play ice hockey.

Berthalder is useless and the USSF is garbage. Sack them all and put Caleb Porter up as the USMNT manager.

FFS... this is so irritating.

/rant

 

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  • 3 months later...

Someone I know who's friends with a few people at US Soccer says Jay Berhalter is resigning tomorrow morning. Would be pretty big for things in house, he's a big reason why the Fed didn't change its business at all after the qualifying disaster

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Someone I know who's friends with a few people at US Soccer says Jay Berhalter is resigning tomorrow morning. Would be pretty big for things in house, he's a big reason why the Fed didn't change its business at all after the qualifying disaster

 

Rare good news out of USSF

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