Copa America

Wales can smoke anyone? Sure they can.

 

This is delusional. And my guess is if the US team had a player of Gareth Bale's quality, they'd do OK too.

 

Yes, of course. But the US has no players of that quality. which is kind of the point. You would think that random chance might have thrown up a US star of that caliber by now. A lot of people live here andmany of them play soccer at some point in their lives. Dempsey and Donovan are the closest thing to it we've had in this century. Both are fine players. Neither was on Real Madrid's wish list It is apparent to me the program is mired in mediocrity (a considerable improvement from where it used to be mired, I admit) and there doesn't seem to be a path forward. I cited three teams on the big stage who have been playing way above their heads. and the reaction seems to be "Oh, the US is much better than they are." Not the past two weeks, they haven't.

 

Kind of my point as well. Bale is a once in a lifetime player. You do realize Wales hadn't even been in a major tournament in about 50 years (IIRC)?

 

The US has 100x the population of Wales. We maybe should be able to come up with a superstar at a faster rate.

 

Dempsey and Donovan are pretty damn good. Bale is one in a billion. Sounds so easy. It's not. Especially since soccer has largely been a child's sport here until fairly recently. I played at a fairly high level for 13 years. Never considered it an option for the future. It's changing slowly. MLS is leaps and bounds better than it was 10 years ago.

 

And yet last night still illustrates how wide the gap truly is between us and the top teams. Argentina had three or four players sitting on their bench who, if they were American, would be the best player the USMNT has ever had. Aguero and Di Maria didn't even see the field. Meanwhile, we're trotting out Beckerman and Wondo, who wouldn't even make most teams' rosters, to try to compete with Messi.

And Messi was in God mode, like he has been the entire tournament. The USMNT could have played to the absolute limits of its potential last night and still lost by multiple goals.

 

See: Argentina. Messi has been groomed since he was like 8 years old to become the best player in the history of the sport. And he had something to strive for. And the team is littered with world class players for the same reason. We are building that, but what does anyone here really know about our development process?

 

I am not in any way arguing the gap isn't there. I'm trying to put it in perspective. If you want the USA to be at the level of the best team in the world, you need a Rip Van Winkle-style nap. For quite a while.

 

Without question. In retrospect, the whole Project 2020 thing was just such a miscalculation by U.S. Soccer. You've got to have realistic, managed expectations.

 

I'm just wondering what games Gee is watching. Wales certainly did not "smoke" England. Northern Ireland was playing everyone back against Germany and were fortunate to lose 1-0. I wouldn't think a team that went 1-2-0 in the group stage is better than the U.S. Yes, the U.S. is far behind Argentina, but it is certainly better than the third-place teams and most second-place teams in Euro 2016.

 

Again, you are misunderstanding me. I am saying tiny countries are playing over their heads in Europe, and the US is not doing so, which is the only way it can hope to meet its own expectations. The people in those countries have had two weeks of pride in their teams and here it's "same old, same old." It's not a matter of who's better, it's who's used a big tourney to move forward and who hasn't.