Assess the USA soccer situation here

Well, the U.S. shouldn't have treated the Czech match as an exhibition, as getting their feet wet. That's what friendlies are for. As disappointed as I am in the showing, I'm not in the least surprised that it went down this way considering how the U.S. looked in pre-Cup friendlies.

The Americans got blown out of the water by a team that didn't even advance through. That's why they're going home early. And give Ghana a little damn credit here. That's a pretty good team.

 

Frank DeFord had a great explanation for why soccer is huge around the world but not here - our games are better. Baseball, basketball, football and up north ice hockey are better games to watch than soccer, that's why there is a lack of interest here. If that is the case (and I suspect most non-soccer lovers agree) then I don't see the situation changing.

To the socceratti, don't rip me, I like the sport and watch the EPL on Fox Soccer channel.

 

Arena could have done a much better job than he did. However, this doesn't all fall down on him.

The 4-5-1 is a formation that achieves many ties and a few wins by small margins with teams that have an extremely talented striker up top. The Dutch used this formation many times with Van Nistelrooy as the lone striker. They would win 1-0.

The red cards in the Italy match forced the US to change tactics and because of that, they went with a line-up that doesn't play to their strengths.

Arena cannot be blamed for Donovan turning into a little boy, Reyna breaking down, or Beasley only showing up a few times. He can be blamed for the continued playing of Beasley and Donovan.

 

The PK call was awful.  Even if there was any real contact -- and there wasn't -- when have you seen a PK call so far from goal which didn't involve a handball or taking someone's legs out on a tackle?  The ref decided the game right there.  Ghana knew it could bunker the whole second half.

As I said in the other thread, I blame The Bruce for how flat the team was, but not his tactics.  Which is funny, because his reputation is that of a motivator and not an Xs and Os guy.

I liked the formation.  Ideally, Landon is best behind two strikers, but we don't have two strikers.  EJ was OK in garbage time against the Czechs, but this game was not for him.

 

ThomsonONE, that, of course, is the other side of the coin of one of the points I was trying to make. (I knew if I did though the socceratti, great term, would go nuts.) Even having lived abroad, I don't know why everyone else likes soccer so much and doesn't like the other sports. It's not like you don't have access to the other sports nowadays in the Internet/satellite age. Maybe it's just ingrained generation after generation that soccer is THE sport and the American ones are boring. Again, I don't know why that's the case abroad; I just know that's how it is. And it's that generation after generation thing that makes me wonder if it's going to take generation after generation after generation to see any changes in the results on the field. Because, not only would it take a while for the US to become passionate about soccer like people abroad are, but also would the other countries have to become more interested in other sports and lose potential soccer players to other sports to level out the playing field? Again, I'm speculating a bit about how much the passion of the country towards soccer affects the on-field stuff. (It's not like there's some formula I can use to calculate Xpassion=Yresults.) I just do know the rest of the world cares about soccer WAY more than we do.

 

Here is the USA soccer situation. It sucks. The women's program is more advanced because in reality, we're the only country that gives a damn about it.
The men's program is a joke. An even bigger farce is Bruce Arena. There. It needed to be said. And I feel so much better.

 

Moddy, Reyna did get abused. He played the ball poorly. As to the PK, Webster said it, not at all a foul in any sense of what a fould could even be construed as.


FTC we don't need the rest of the world to care about soccer less. That doesn't matter. You have a roster that has a fixed amount of players which are your best. If the US produces that many players equal to the other top teams then they will be set.

As to the generations of sports fans over there, they view many American sports as incredibly boring. Baseball is a slow game that takes hours to play. Personally, I love it. But when I talk to some of my friends from overseas they say that there is too much standing around and waiting. They look at our football and they see rugby, only with lots of padding.

They have other sports overseas. Those other sports are just not as popular soccer.

 

Japan's all about team play dude.

Canada? Right. But as we all know, A-Rod is a nimrod when it comes to big games, big opportunities.

But at least year in, year out, the Americans CAN be a factor in baseball.

 

The US Baseball team lost out and didn't even make the Olympics the last time. They didn't make the finals of the WBC.