Assess the USA soccer situation here

If Adu would indeed be non-competitive in World Cup-level soccer ... then I've got to doubt the ability of MLS to prepare our players for international competition.

Unless, of course, Adu is borderline non-competitive in MLS. If that's the case, someone let me know. I forgot to renew my subscription for MLS Direct Kick. But, I mean, the kid has been deemed worthy of not only a roster spot, but significant PT for one of the league's cornerstone franchises.

Unless it's for the gate attraction. And if that's the case, then I've been giving MLS far too much credit. (And believe me, I give it very little credit to begin with.)

 

I find that genuinely interesting ... not trying to be a wise ass. Thanks. Marvell Senior could fly.

 

I'm sorry, but MLS is lame beyond belief. Get these players to Europe, stat. All MLS is good for is showing that a soccer league in the U.S. can find non-bankrupting economies of scale. And the U.S. better than in 1990? So what? That's pretty much assumed when you actually take a national development program seriously. And I have no idea how the world rankings are developed, but if BYH cared about soccer, he'd lay off A-Rod and attack that. Mere common sense would tell you that the U.S. is not a top-10 soccer nation, let alone No. 5. And the World Cup seedings did show common sense, putting the U.S. anywhere from 17th to 24th in the world, which I can buy, I guess. And things will not get better until we develop our first world-class playmaker, or we somehow get one of the dozen Brazil has and fast-track his citizenship.

I'll grant that the U.S. is probably not as bad as they looked, but they sure in the hell don't deserve the pollyanic view some of you are giving them.

 

Not sure I completely agree with this. Clint Dempsey is in the MLS. He's not one of the best five players in the league, is he? I only ask because a player from the MLS had the best world cup of anyone for the US national team.

 

I'd be more interested to know if there's anybody in the pipeline who can play.

 

One of the U-20 defenders, Jonathan Spector, has been in the Manchester United program since 2003. Loaned out to Charlton for all of the 2005 season. So there's somebody who's doing it the right way, anyway.

 

impressive, shottie. good find.

 

Gave it a little harder look, A_F. He's moved to West Ham United this season, but dislocated a shoulder and has missed a lot of time.

 

Well, that kid in Single-A hit a homer against Clemens a few weeks ago — top-flight college kids and kids in A ball being relatively equal — so anything is possible in sports. I hear your point. A lot of folks here think Adu wasn't ready. I just think that if Adu is part of the future of US Soccer, putting him on the squad wouldn't have made things any worse.

 

I'm gonna jack this thread instead of starting a new one.

Instead of looking at the future, let's do something Mark McGwire doesn't want to do: Talk about the past. Name your all-time starting 11 and three subs in U.S. soccer history. Feel free to do any formation, but I'm doing the standard 4-4-2

GK: Tony Meola
D: Thomas Dooley
D: Marcelo Balboa
D: Eddie Pope
D: Tony Sanneh
MF: Tab Ramos
MF: Ricky Davis (poor dude. He was frickin' good but his teams were awful)
MF: Joe Gaetjens (hey, he scored against England in 1950, so that alone puts him here!)
MF: Landon Donovan
F: Eric Wynalda
F: Brian McBride

SUBS
Paul Caliguiri
Earnie Stewart
Hugo Perez

 

99.9 percent of American sports fans don't care about soccer.
It's a nice little recreational sport for all the little Jasons, Justins and Joshuas who aren't athletic enough to play football.

There. Situation assessed.

 

I wouldn't state it nearly that strongly, but to repeat something I said earlier in this thread, when one in every three people checking in on a sports journalists' message board start out by saying they don't know much about soccer, it's very telling.