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OT: The USWNT equal pay thing

Yes, but in Albania they aren't as popular so in SMF's mind, that is justification for the men being paid more.

Correct. Do you really not believe ALL revenue matters? I don't understand where you people are coming from.

Here's the deal. The men areare going to get a pay cut. They have to be paid a competitive wage or else Christian Pulisic isn't going to risk injury and fly across the pond from London. Same goes for their other players in the EPL and Bundesliga who are making 7 figures. So, the women are asking to make as much as the men even though the men bring in far more global revenue.
 
U.S. women’s soccer games have generated more revenue than U.S. men’s games over the past three years.

That’s according to audited financial statements from the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) obtained by The Wall Street Journal. In 2016, women’s games generated $1.9 million more in revenue than men’s games. From 2016 to 2018, women’s games generated approximately $50.8 million in revenue, compared with $49.9 million for men’s games
Whoops
 

Not whoops. I have said the men and women generate similar amounts domestically. From 2015-18, this report shows the women drew slightly more for their games. However, there's a good bit of cherry picking going on. 2015 was a WWC year when interest in the team was at its highest. 2015 was a year after the 2014 men's World Cup when interest in the USMNT would be near its lowest. 2016 and 17 would be kinda similar but then in the end of 2017, the US men failed to qualify for the World Cup so they didnt play what could have been 2 home games in November and mostly went on the road in 2018 as they were in transition and felt it was better to take an appearance fee from European teams rather than play home games.

Again, the women do not want to count the global revenue the men bring in.
 
Can we get back to this crap? Do you really believe this? Maybe you do since you have admitted that you don’t watch the USWNT games.
He has no clue. Pitt men would beat them by 30.

The U15 FC Dallas boys beat the US Women 5-1, when the women walked off the field after 60 minutes.
 
He's an unabashed soccer apologist. Anything to detract or take away from the glory of men's soccer in this country is forbidden.
There’s men’s soccer glory in this country? Who knew?? That said, I’m hoping for a women’s world Cup/ Men’s Gold Cup double header next Sunday.
 
He has no clue. Pitt men would beat them by 30.

The U15 FC Dallas boys beat the US Women 5-1, when the women walked off the field after 60 minutes.
Yeah I did a lot of work in Frisco at that time and know all about that. In reality, it was an organized scrimmage/practice and the women didn’t even know score was being kept. Some overambitious social media person pushed it out as if it was a real game with a real score.
 
I really doubt it would be a blow out. The women couldn’t be physical playing a men’s team but the finesse and speed would be pretty even.
 
I really doubt it would be a blow out. The women couldn’t be physical playing a men’s team but the finesse and speed would be pretty even.
Take the US Women vs a group of pro athletes like football and basketball players, and the women would have their way. But against the USMNT, it would be a no contest. It wouldn’t be pretty.

This from a guy who loves the women’s game more than anyone.
 
Take the US Women vs a group of pro athletes like football and basketball players, and the women would have their way. But against the USMNT, it would be a no contest. It wouldn’t be pretty.

This from a guy who loves the women’s game more than anyone.

Is someone really comparing the USWNT to the men in a straight-up game? The men would win like 50-0. The women would make it past midfield, maybe once or twice all game. Nobody is that foolish.

As I said, a good boys HS team would beat the USWNT. I am not sure of the level of WPIAL Boys soccer so I cant say whether a WPIAL team could do it but certainly a low-level team would. That Montverde team that sent a few players to Pitt would beat them pretty easily. The Riverhounds would beat the USWNT probably like 20-0
 
Is someone really comparing the USWNT to the men in a straight-up game? The men would win like 50-0. The women would make it past midfield, maybe once or twice all game. Nobody is that foolish.

As I said, a good boys HS team would beat the USWNT. I am not sure of the level of WPIAL Boys soccer so I cant say whether a WPIAL team could do it but certainly a low-level team would. That Montverde team that sent a few players to Pitt would beat them pretty easily. The Riverhounds would beat the USWNT probably like 20-0
I dont think so, just based on the fact that how many soccer games, despite how supposedly mismatched they are, end up even 10-0?
 
Last night, in the Gold Cup quarterfinals, the US played in Philly, on a gorgeous night and the crowd was a bit bigger than for a Pitt spring game.

And what a scintillating performance they put on against Blue Curacao (the team and country, not the drink).
 
I just don’t see men’s soccer ever becoming a thing in the US. This is not me hating, honestly I got two little ones in soccer and I’m actually kind of opening up to it a bit. It’s not a football vs soccer thing either, I like football but I could care less if the nfl ratings go down, would not bother me in the least.

I just don’t ever see a day in the future where the avg American sports fan cares at all about Men’s professional soccer. And honestly, I think that’s our loss more than soccer’s. It is a game of great skill.
 
The knowledge that the men on that abortion of a team that is US men’s soccer, actually gets paid is sickening.

Equal pay is absurd, the women should be paid a lot more than the men.
Well the Cleveland Browns have gotten paid way more for going 0-16 or 1-15, so....

The thing that's funny is Americans expect the USAMNT in soccer to be "good" just because we have a big population, well if that was the main criteria China and India would win the World Cup regularly.

And it's right the women get less, they generate less revenue. I guess UConn women should get paid more in the WNBA than NBA lottery picks based on W-L record.
 
Well the Cleveland Browns have gotten paid way more for going 0-16 or 1-15, so....

The thing that's funny is Americans expect the USAMNT in soccer to be "good" just because we have a big population, well if that was the main criteria China and India would win the World Cup regularly.

And it's right the women get less, they generate less revenue. I guess UConn women should get paid more in the WNBA than NBA lottery picks based on W-L record.
We don’t expect them to be good moreso then we question the fact that we are worse than countries the size of Rhode Island.

even giving up and using foreign born players to try and compete hasn't helped the USMNT.. they cant even cheat right, they still lose..
 
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Well the Cleveland Browns have gotten paid way more for going 0-16 or 1-15, so....

The thing that's funny is Americans expect the USAMNT in soccer to be "good" just because we have a big population, well if that was the main criteria China and India would win the World Cup regularly.

And it's right the women get less, they generate less revenue. I guess UConn women should get paid more in the WNBA than NBA lottery picks based on W-L record.
Well....the fact it is now what, 30-40 years where men's soccer has made concerted grass roots efforts to develop players......and the fact that the best team and talent was like 12 years ago, it has gone down hill. Yeah, we are the US. We have resources upon resources that is more than just being a large country. We are sports crazed. But the fact is, soccer is not attracting that urban or southern rural black kid who is choosing football and basketball, not so much baseball, it is not attracting the working class white kids who are choosing football and baseball, let alone hoops. It is mostly prep school types, but even then their best athletes (at least in the north) are probably choosing hockey.

Remember 1980. The USA upset the Soviets in hockey. Since that moment that grassroots movement in hockey has been exponential. In the most recent NHL draft, 7 of the top 15 selections were American kids. Americans now enter any international tourney, and they are a medal favorite. Granted, yes I know the hockey field is much thinner than the soccer field in international events, but dammit, this program still struggles against teams like Curacao.
 
We don’t expect them to be good moreso then we question the fact that we are worse than countries the size of Rhode Island.

even giving up and using foreign born players to try and compete hasn't helped the USMNT.. they cant even cheat right, they still lose..
Like I said, India and China are huge in population and can't compete with tiny countries like the USA so there's more to it than size.
 
Well....the fact it is now what, 30-40 years where men's soccer has made concerted grass roots efforts to develop players......and the fact that the best team and talent was like 12 years ago, it has gone down hill. Yeah, we are the US. We have resources upon resources that is more than just being a large country. We are sports crazed. But the fact is, soccer is not attracting that urban or southern rural black kid who is choosing football and basketball, not so much baseball, it is not attracting the working class white kids who are choosing football and baseball, let alone hoops. It is mostly prep school types, but even then their best athletes (at least in the north) are probably choosing hockey.

Remember 1980. The USA upset the Soviets in hockey. Since that moment that grassroots movement in hockey has been exponential. In the most recent NHL draft, 7 of the top 15 selections were American kids. Americans now enter any international tourney, and they are a medal favorite. Granted, yes I know the hockey field is much thinner than the soccer field in international events, but dammit, this program still struggles against teams like Curacao.
Another part of that is the culture of travel soccer, where you have to pay a lot to play and the college coaches don't really recruit from the teams where you can play for free (high school). And even then, even if they played, there's no guarantee "urban black kids" would dominate, I laugh when people act like LeBron would dominate soccer if he had played since childhood, maybe he'd suck?
 
We don’t expect them to be good moreso then we question the fact that we are worse than countries the size of Rhode Island.

even giving up and using foreign born players to try and compete hasn't helped the USMNT.. they cant even cheat right, they still lose..

They drew 26,000 which is more than all USWNT home games this year except their friendly in St. Louis which drew 35K but put an * by that because for whatever reason, St. Louis is a stupid good soccer market. The men drew 43K for a game against St. Vincent & the Grenadines (real country, seriously) there in 2015.

The crowd was about what I'd figure for a match against the Netherlands M team (aka Curacao). I say that because all of the Curacao players were either born and raised in Netherlands or born in Curacao and moved to the Netherlands at a young age so we were really playing the Netherlands's M team, so to speak. And yea, USA's A team was about as good as Netherlands's M team.

This is as bad as a USMNT as I've seen, maybe since the 1998 World Cup. I dont want to spend much time getting into why as there have been other threads on that. For the most part, as we know, as mature as soccer is in this country, we get absolutely 0 of the best athletes this country has to offer. This is unlike the women who get the best because there is no football and very few girls grow up dreaming of a WNBA career.
 
Well....the fact it is now what, 30-40 years where men's soccer has made concerted grass roots efforts to develop players......and the fact that the best team and talent was like 12 years ago, it has gone down hill. Yeah, we are the US. We have resources upon resources that is more than just being a large country. We are sports crazed. But the fact is, soccer is not attracting that urban or southern rural black kid who is choosing football and basketball, not so much baseball, it is not attracting the working class white kids who are choosing football and baseball, let alone hoops. It is mostly prep school types, but even then their best athletes (at least in the north) are probably choosing hockey.

Remember 1980. The USA upset the Soviets in hockey. Since that moment that grassroots movement in hockey has been exponential. In the most recent NHL draft, 7 of the top 15 selections were American kids. Americans now enter any international tourney, and they are a medal favorite. Granted, yes I know the hockey field is much thinner than the soccer field in international events, but dammit, this program still struggles against teams like Curacao.

Hockey is a terrible comparison because only a few countries play it and they have tiny populations.

You are correct about soccer not increasing its demographic. However, to take it a step further, those rich kids who pay to play travel soccer, are not even making it to MLS and the USMNT. Americans and the USMNT are disproportionately made up of sons of immigrants who grew up playing soccer 24/7 in a soccer household, dual nationals who didn't grow up in the US, African-American US Army members who had kids with German women while stationed in Germany, and sons of former US professionals. Very, very, very few of your typical Joe Blow American Kid from the suburbs makes it to MLS let alone the USMNT.
 
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I just don’t see men’s soccer ever becoming a thing in the US. This is not me hating, honestly I got two little ones in soccer and I’m actually kind of opening up to it a bit. It’s not a football vs soccer thing either, I like football but I could care less if the nfl ratings go down, would not bother me in the least.

I just don’t ever see a day in the future where the avg American sports fan cares at all about Men’s professional soccer. And honestly, I think that’s our loss more than soccer’s. It is a game of great skill.

Define "thing." If the EPL moved all its teams to the Top 20 American cities, it would be crazy popular, drawing NFL sized crowd and be #3 in TV ratings behind NFL and NBA but pretty close to the NBA.

It will never be a "thing" here because we dont have the world's best league like we do in other sports. How good would MLB or NHL do if the best players didnt play in it?
 
U.S. women’s soccer games have generated more revenue than U.S. men’s games over the past three years.

That’s according to audited financial statements from the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) obtained by The Wall Street Journal. In 2016, women’s games generated $1.9 million more in revenue than men’s games. From 2016 to 2018, women’s games generated approximately $50.8 million in revenue, compared with $49.9 million for men’s games

Since when does $50.8 million minus $49.9 million equal $1.9 million?
 
Since when does $50.8 million minus $49.9 million equal $1.9 million?
he forgot to "borrow" from the 0 which makes you borrow from the 5, that extra step kills me in subtraction too. I mean anyone can borrow from a 2 or a 3 but you borrow from a 0, mark it a 9 then you got to do the second step and borrow again, it's a killer..
 
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They drew 26,000 which is more than all USWNT home games this year except their friendly in St. Louis which drew 35K but put an * by that because for whatever reason, St. Louis is a stupid good soccer market. The men drew 43K for a game against St. Vincent & the Grenadines (real country, seriously) there in 2015.

The crowd was about what I'd figure for a match against the Netherlands M team (aka Curacao). I say that because all of the Curacao players were either born and raised in Netherlands or born in Curacao and moved to the Netherlands at a young age so we were really playing the Netherlands's M team, so to speak. And yea, USA's A team was about as good as Netherlands's M team.

This is as bad as a USMNT as I've seen, maybe since the 1998 World Cup. I dont want to spend much time getting into why as there have been other threads on that. For the most part, as we know, as mature as soccer is in this country, we get absolutely 0 of the best athletes this country has to offer. This is unlike the women who get the best because there is no football and very few girls grow up dreaming of a WNBA career.
What the hell did Klinsman do to the USMNT. At least the USMNT was making quarterfinals of the World Cup at times. Now this program seems to be worse. Where would this team be if Pulisic didn’t go to Europe at a young age to join an Academy?

Btw, why are these gold cup games in NFL stadiums? The MLS is not good soccer but they at least draw 25K per game. Only one game in this tourney warrants an NFL stadium and that’s the final. And that’s only if it’s USA vs Mexico.
 
What the hell did Klinsman do to the USMNT. At least the USMNT was making quarterfinals of the World Cup at times. Now this program seems to be worse. Where would this team be if Pulisic didn’t go to Europe at a young age to join an Academy?

Btw, why are these gold cup games in NFL stadiums? The MLS is not good soccer but they at least draw 25K per game. Only one game in this tourney warrants an NFL stadium and that’s the final. And that’s only if it’s USA vs Mexico.
True, I went to the GC in Ravens Stadium in 2015, 33000 showed up, but it looked empty but I loved the $250 club seats for $47.

And yeah, this USAMNT sure seems way worse than 2-6 years ago.
 
What the hell did Klinsman do to the USMNT. At least the USMNT was making quarterfinals of the World Cup at times. Now this program seems to be worse. Where would this team be if Pulisic didn’t go to Europe at a young age to join an Academy?

Btw, why are these gold cup games in NFL stadiums? The MLS is not good soccer but they at least draw 25K per game. Only one game in this tourney warrants an NFL stadium and that’s the final. And that’s only if it’s USA vs Mexico.

Mexico only plays in NFL stadiums because they have a massive fanbase so they sell out or come close. The US has played in 2 MLS stadiums and 2 NFL stadiums. They drew 23K in Cleveland and I think it's a good idea to go to non MLS markets. Wished Heinz would get a game. This quarterfinal was set up at the Linc with the idea that Honduras or El Salvador would be there. They would have brought 20K-30K of their own fans.

And this isn't Klinsman's fault. Its systemic. This program hit its peak in 2002 and has been level to that for 15 years, now it's on a bit of a decline. Without Pulisic, I'd take the 94 World Cup team over this team easy.

If only they'd let me run US Soccer.
 
Mexico only plays in NFL stadiums because they have a massive fanbase so they sell out or come close. The US has played in 2 MLS stadiums and 2 NFL stadiums. They drew 23K in Cleveland and I think it's a good idea to go to non MLS markets. Wished Heinz would get a game. This quarterfinal was set up at the Linc with the idea that Honduras or El Salvador would be there. They would have brought 20K-30K of their own fans.

And this isn't Klinsman's fault. Its systemic. This program hit its peak in 2002 and has been level to that for 15 years, now it's on a bit of a decline. Without Pulisic, I'd take the 94 World Cup team over this team easy.

If only they'd let me run US Soccer.
Actually to run US Soccer I think they need someone from another sport, a successful sport. Someone from USA Hockey, at least they have experience in building something
 
Like I said, India and China are huge in population and can't compete with tiny countries like the USA so there's more to it than size.


Actually as preparation for the Gold Cup Curacao played in a friendly tournament in Thailand. Their first opponent was India. They beat them 3-1.
 
Only one game in this tourney warrants an NFL stadium and that’s the final. And that’s only if it’s USA vs Mexico.


Mexico's games have drawn 65,000, 53,000, 59,000 and 70,000. Put them in any Mexican-friendly city in America and they can play in the local NFL stadium.
 
Actually to run US Soccer I think they need someone from another sport, a successful sport. Someone from USA Hockey, at least they have experience in building something

Actually, no, they shouldn't hire someone from the US to run it. Need to hire someone from Europe. The biggest problem is the cost to play at higher levels in the early ages. The pay for play system cripples the program. It's ok in hockey because only Canadiens, Russians, and a small fraction of Europeans play the sport but it wont fly in soccer. You need to bring in someone from Europe who understands the program is doomed unless funding can be found to let these kids play for free so they can recruit and keep the better athletes playing soccer.
 
Actually, no, they shouldn't hire someone from the US to run it. Need to hire someone from Europe. The biggest problem is the cost to play at higher levels in the early ages. The pay for play system cripples the program. It's ok in hockey because only Canadiens, Russians, and a small fraction of Europeans play the sport but it wont fly in soccer. You need to bring in someone from Europe who understands the program is doomed unless funding can be found to let these kids play for free so they can recruit and keep the better athletes playing soccer.
But the fact is, soccer is not attracting that urban or southern rural black kid who is choosing football and basketball, not so much baseball, it is not attracting the working class white kids who are choosing football and baseball, let alone hoops. It is mostly prep school types, but even then their best athletes (at least in the north) are probably choosing hockey.
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Let me say this. I’m not an authority but I am someone with credible experience on the topic, who has been involved coaching in suburban youth sports for 25 years and involved in HS Sports for 15 years while coaching HS for the last few years. I’m in an area that is not starving for talent or starving to get players to fill leagues or rosters in any sport. Kids start playing soccer at 4-5 years of age. Some of them quit and go to hockey and other sports. But the best players of that crop mostly stay with soccer because they see that they are excelling and have no desire to leave the sport. I’ve coached mostly girls and they don’t quit for other sports. The best female athletes play soccer. But I’ve also coached boys. I lost three kids to other sports. 2 went to hockey. They were smallish but decent athletes. I wasn’t upset to lose them. The 3rd kid didn’t give up soccer until 9th grade, when he sprouted up in height and shifted his focus to basketball. He’s currently 6’6” so it’s hard to argue his choice.

I can’t speak to MA, MN and MI, so I don’t know if the better athletes pick hockey. I do know that those are pretty good soccer areas too. But I can speak to western PA which has turned into a pretty good hockey area and I can confidently say that there is no difference between the hockey and soccer kids. I have watched hockey kids grow up around here. I have watched them train and play in my community. I have watched a couple kids move on to play at the Junior A level in Canada. Both are pay to play sports, so aside from being athletically similar, the sports are also demographically similar.

So in my opinion, through MY experiences, there is something different between hockey and soccer that allows the US to be a good hockey country and a mediocre soccer country. And the point about inner city and rural blacks is obvious. Soccer is not getting those kids any time soon. But why don’t the inner city and rural Hispanics in this country excel at the sport either??

Oh and back to the subject of losing kids to other sports. I don’t know why this is, but every year I see kids who can’t make a HS roster for soccer gravitate to lacrosse and become stand out players. Not sure why that is. But it’s not anecdotal. The sample size is huge and I’ve been seeing it for years.

It’s a fascinating topic.
 
The main argument here is that the US women are light years better than the US men (comparatively speaking) and their games are watched more in person and on TV in the USA than their Male counterparts. On the surface, they have a great point. However, although the US men are mediocre at best, they play the world's most popular sport whereas women's pro soccer on the global scale may not be on of the Top 25 most popular sports on the planet. What this means is that the US men, by default receive a lot of money from FIFA, CONCACAF, and other federations that the US women do not. Also, if the USMNT wants to field a competitive team, they have to pay their players at a competitive rate to what the big boys pay. The problem for the women is that their sport, although popular in the USA has almost no popularity globally so the majority of their money comes from domestic "sales" while the USMNT freeloaders, in a sense off of the massive global popularity of men's International soccer.

So, while I believe we still have a long way to go close the pay gap, in general, in this country, I dont think the USWNT should be paid anywhere close to the USMNT. It's pretty simple, really. How much does the USMNT bring in (including all FIFA and overseas TV deals) and how much does the USWNT bring in? They should be paid in proportion to what revenue is brought in.
anyone else have to look up what USWNT meant?
 
Let me say this. I’m not an authority but I am someone with credible experience on the topic, who has been involved coaching in suburban youth sports for 25 years and involved in HS Sports for 15 years while coaching HS for the last few years. I’m in an area that is not starving for talent or starving to get players to fill leagues or rosters in any sport. Kids start playing soccer at 4-5 years of age. Some of them quit and go to hockey and other sports. But the best players of that crop mostly stay with soccer because they see that they are excelling and have no desire to leave the sport. I’ve coached mostly girls and they don’t quit for other sports. The best female athletes play soccer. But I’ve also coached boys. I lost three kids to other sports. 2 went to hockey. They were smallish but decent athletes. I wasn’t upset to lose them. The 3rd kid didn’t give up soccer until 9th grade, when he sprouted up in height and shifted his focus to basketball. He’s currently 6’6” so it’s hard to argue his choice.

I can’t speak to MA, MN and MI, so I don’t know if the better athletes pick hockey. I do know that those are pretty good soccer areas too. But I can speak to western PA which has turned into a pretty good hockey area and I can confidently say that there is no difference between the hockey and soccer kids. I have watched hockey kids grow up around here. I have watched them train and play in my community. I have watched a couple kids move on to play at the Junior A level in Canada. Both are pay to play sports, so aside from being athletically similar, the sports are also demographically similar.

So in my opinion, through MY experiences, there is something different between hockey and soccer that allows the US to be a good hockey country and a mediocre soccer country. And the point about inner city and rural blacks is obvious. Soccer is not getting those kids any time soon. But why don’t the inner city and rural Hispanics in this country excel at the sport either??

Oh and back to the subject of losing kids to other sports. I don’t know why this is, but every year I see kids who can’t make a HS roster for soccer gravitate to lacrosse and become stand out players. Not sure why that is. But it’s not anecdotal. The sample size is huge and I’ve been seeing it for years.

It’s a fascinating topic.
I won't say it again as much, some people here think I'm lying, but where I live, more kids try out for soccer than football, it's pretty rare for a kid to leave soccer for football, even though it does happen, and the teams are loaded with black kids, boys and girls. For every kids baseball game you see, there are probably 100 soccer games. One thing I do notice is that there are lots of Hispanics, but not many in the organized leagues as much as high school teams where of course is free, and Hispanic girls participation is low, I kind of think some of that is cultural, different areas value soccer differently. Howard County Maryland brags about being a soccer hotbed since the '60s and plenty of kids play and a good number have gone pro as well.

As far as hockey is concerned, I don't think you can compare it to soccer, soccer you need a ball, hockey you need a ton of specialized gear and a sheet of ice, if you are one of a few countries that can make that stuff even marginally available, you have a good chance to get good.
 
79, fkthomas, all great discussion and points. But again, we are the USA. We are not just a large company, we are a rich country, and a sports crazed country and we excel at pretty much every sport we focus on......except Men's Soccer. Not Women's, women's we dominate.

We can discuss all we want, but again we see countries like Iceland, Costa Rica, friggin Switzerland.......all ranked amongst the top 25 FIFA counties, some of these with the population of like Allegheny County, and we cannot find 12-14 accomplished and skilled enough athletes between 20-32 years old out of this nation to be competitive???

Why did we get rid of Jurgen Klinsmann again?
 
79, fkthomas, all great discussion and points. But again, we are the USA. We are not just a large company, we are a rich country, and a sports crazed country and we excel at pretty much every sport we focus on......except Men's Soccer. Not Women's, women's we dominate.

We can discuss all we want, but again we see countries like Iceland, Costa Rica, friggin Switzerland.......all ranked amongst the top 25 FIFA counties, some of these with the population of like Allegheny County, and we cannot find 12-14 accomplished and skilled enough athletes between 20-32 years old out of this nation to be competitive???

Why did we get rid of Jurgen Klinsmann again?
You have a sense of entitlement IMO, just because of all the reasons you site, there is still no guarantee of success. It's like when Sargent Elias tells Chris in "Platoon", "we're going to lose this war", Chris replies, "Us? Lose? Not US?" Like as if the USA is guaranteed and entitled to win everything all the time. Personally, from where the USA was in soccer when I was growing up, I'm pretty impressed with how popular it is now and actually how good we've become, USA didn't even make the World Cup, from 1952-1992, I think?
 
79, fkthomas, all great discussion and points. But again, we are the USA. We are not just a large company, we are a rich country, and a sports crazed country and we excel at pretty much every sport we focus on......except Men's Soccer. Not Women's, women's we dominate.

We can discuss all we want, but again we see countries like Iceland, Costa Rica, friggin Switzerland.......all ranked amongst the top 25 FIFA counties, some of these with the population of like Allegheny County, and we cannot find 12-14 accomplished and skilled enough athletes between 20-32 years old out of this nation to be competitive???

Why did we get rid of Jurgen Klinsmann again?

The US doesn't "focus" on women's soccer. It just so happens the best female athletes play soccer and basketball in this country because there is no football and pro softball isn't really a thing. Women's soccer and basketball are the 2 major women's sports by default.

As we know, the best Male athletes play football, baseball, and basketball (with a small fraction choosing hockey). This isn't hard to figure out. For the most part, we are sending our 2nd and 3rd tier athletes to compete with the top athletes from other countries.
 
The US doesn't "focus" on women's soccer. It just so happens the best female athletes play soccer and basketball in this country because there is no football and pro softball isn't really a thing. Women's soccer and basketball are the 2 major women's sports by default.

As we know, the best Male athletes play football, baseball, and basketball (with a small fraction choosing hockey). This isn't hard to figure out. For the most part, we are sending our 2nd and 3rd tier athletes to compete with the top athletes from other countries.

Yeah. With Iceland. All you do is make excuses that are over simplistic. Let's face it, until the there is a vibrant world class pro league in the US/North America, this will always be the issue, isn't it?
 
here is a crazy question and please excuse me for my lack of international soccer knowledge but if there are some decent leagues in mexico or central America, what about some Hispanic dominated market in the US trying to get into that league as an expansion team..

go to southern California or sw texas, it's practically Mexico City north. has any of these leagues looked into expanding into the US? All you hear about is the nba or mlb looking into a mexico team, why cant it work the other way around?
 
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