World Cup

[mosholu]

Tough loss for the US after a great effort to get to the second round. Have to question the coach's decision to change a couple of players and also their inability to bring into play any width into the attack. That being said there is a lot to build on for 2014 as the core of the team will still be available. Imagine Jozy and Edu with four more years of experience plus Donovan and Dempsey still at an age where they can be productive if they stay away from injuries.

[MarshCappa]

Originally Posted by mosholu

Tough loss for the US after a great effort to get to the second round. Have to question the coach's decision to change a couple of players and also their inability to bring into play any width into the attack. That being said there is a lot to build on for 2014 as the core of the team will still be available. Imagine Jozy and Edu with four more years of experience plus Donovan and Dempsey still at an age where they can be productive if they stay away from injuries.

I don't know man this is pretty optimistic. I saw a team with some major issues on D. They need to fix the early goal thing. I'm not impressed with their performance at all and I think this is a setback for progressing the popularity of the sport in the U.S. While the rest of the worlds top teams recharge the U.S. always seems to be trying to find it's international identity. Time for Pats trianing camp talk!

[luds]

Originally Posted by MarshCappa

I don't know man this is pretty optimistic. I saw a team with some major issues on D. They need to fix the early goal thing. I'm not impressed with their performance at all and I think this is a setback for progressing the popularity of the sport in the U.S. While the rest of the worlds top teams recharge the U.S. always seems to be trying to find it's international identity. Time for Pats trianing camp talk!

I agree that they were not all that impressive but the last thing this tournament has been is a set back as far as the popularity of US soccer goes. The ratings were great and if you turned on the TV you heard about the US team and how they were doing. They dominated Sports Center. It was really disappointing for the team to lose to Ghana again but at least they didn't take a step backwards.

[mosholu]

Originally Posted by MarshCappa

I don't know man this is pretty optimistic. I saw a team with some major issues on D. They need to fix the early goal thing. I'm not impressed with their performance at all and I think this is a setback for progressing the popularity of the sport in the U.S. While the rest of the worlds top teams recharge the U.S. always seems to be trying to find it's international identity. Time for Pats trianing camp talk!

I read an article which addressed your last point. Basically the theory was that all the great football nations have a national identity when they play. With Italy it is defense, with Brazil they attack, etc. Until the US forms that identity so that youth playing in the junior teams all grow up in the national system they will always be starting from square one as each coach has his own plan. With a German youngster the transition to the national side does not require that much effort because the Under 21s played the same system.

[MarshCappa]

Originally Posted by mosholu

I read an article which addressed your last point. Basically the theory was that all the great football nations have a national identity when they play. With Italy it is defense, with Brazil they attack, etc. Until the US forms that identity so that youth playing in the junior teams all grow up in the national system they will always be starting from square one as each coach has his own plan. With a German youngster the transition to the national side does not require that much effort because the Under 21s played the same system.

Yea, exactly! I heard one Irish announcer say that we are the most educated team in the world. Meaning that almost all of our players played in the NCAA. He said that as long as the US continues to develop it's young talent that way they will never win. Think about it, they are 22 by the time they play for the US and all are coming from different college teams with different styles. If we had a true junior team or system these kids wouldn't be going to college at all but instead being groomed for the next level with many of the same kids, so by the time they reach world cup level they have been playing their national style for years and years. We'll never win the world cup at this rate with this system or lack there of. I don't consider the US a world class team at all. World class to me is consistency year after year. So far the US is just consistently unknown in their style. They keep switching coach's and tactics and never truly develop a youth program which will keep us in the lower teir. It's kind of ironic that we are the most educated but no one can figure that out. Most of our team this year is over 22 with this being their first national experience. Germany on the flip side is mostly comprised of 22 or under players with many years of national experience. It's interesting, while it may be growing in popularity here we don't have a national strategy on how it should be carried out for the US to ever really be considered a cup threat. If they could keep this group together and add a few pieces to the D maybe they can do better but I honestly don't think they'll do it.