World Cup

[Clogston29]

The us's style is basically to play predictable, high school style soccer - just at a higher level. Good hustle and teamwork, but no style or imagination.

It'll be a really hard thing to change. I don't buy into the whole, we just need to attract out best athletes to soccer argument. I think they are fine from an athletic standpoint, not from a soccer standpoint. American players aren't plucked up and put into development programs and youth teams of elite clubs at 14-16years of age like they are in Europe and other parts of the world (kind of like juniors for hockey in canada). because of this, they develop playing with inferior players and coaches, and develop to be only good enough to stand out in that system. just look at the style and level of play in the MLS.

just a few examples. rooney (who was very disappointing in the cup) was with united at 16. giggs (my favorite player as a kid) too. remember when holland was churning out stars like kluivert, van de sar, bergkamp, gullit - they were all coming out of the Ajax youth progam (although in hind sight, steroids may have had a lot to do with it). Spain and Portugal have both built their current teams out of their national development programs from U14 to U21 to olympics to full squad. The African and South American countries have development camps, often sanctioned by european clubs looking to farm talent, where success is a way out of poverty - a level of motivation very few american players have.

i'd love to see the US soccer federation bring in Klinsman either as a coach or a consultant to help develop their program from the ground up. there's no reason that the US, with our population and diversity, cannot become an elite (say, top 5) team in the world.