USA!
- Thread starter Fk_Pitt
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They will probably be too young to go far in 2022 but in 2026, on home soil, that could be something.
We will need world class CB’s and a world class keeper to surface. Steffen is a question mark and guys like Miazga aren’t quite good enough.
What is the CoNCACAF qualifying schedule going to look like? I know the lead up to the hex was already going to change, but will the final 32 be set by November or will it bleed into early ‘22?
Steffen is good enough. I had high hopes for Cameron Carter-Vickers and Erik Palmer-Brown to be the CBs of the future. They grew up in the Tottenham and Manchester City academies. But neither ever played for the senior team. Palmer-Brown is still on City's books at least but is playing in Austria. Carter-Vickers is playing in the Championship, which is still a reasonably high level
It is going to be a complete and utter cluster****. And somehow the US got just about the worst schedule possible. They are going to play THREE games in four of the five FIFA windows they have for qualifying. And the US got a schedule that has NO back to back home or road games.
So it depends on exactly which teams make it through the qualifying rounds, but the US's schedule is going to look something like this, assuming the highest seeded teams win the qualifiers (and remember these sets of three games will all take place in one week):
September 2021 - US at El Salvador, then against Canada in the US, then back on the road at Honduras
October 2021 - versus Jamaica in the US, then at Curacao, then back to the US for a game against Costa Rica
November 2021 - only two games in this window, Meixco in the US and then on the road at Jamaica
January 2022 - El Salvador at home, then at Canada, then back to the US for Honduras (this one won't be too bad)
March 2022 - Mexico in Mexico, then Curacao in the US, then at Costa Rica
I'm guessing to cut down on travel as much as possible they are going to play many of those games in the southern US, which they try to avoid against some of the Central American teams. For instance that first window, where they go from El Salvador to the US and then to Honduras, you would think they would want to play that game in the US in someplace like Houston to cut down on the travel as much as they can. Or that last one, Mexico surely in Mexico City then back to the US and then to Costa Rica, you would think that game in the US would have to be someplace like LA or Phoenix or Dallas or Houston just to cut down on the travel.
Also note that the one that I said won't be too bad, the US to Canada to the US set in January 2020 is only really that way if Canada ends up winning that qualifier. That could also be someone like Haiti or Nicaragua, which would make the travel worse.
To say nothing of what it might be like to be playing a game in Canada in January. I wonder if they will play that inside somewhere on grass that is shipped in special for the game. Otherwise, the weather for that could be awful.
To say nothing of what it might be like to be playing a game in Canada in January. I wonder if they will play that inside somewhere on grass that is shipped in special for the game. Otherwise, the weather for that could be awful.
The US needs to stop d****** around with these homr qualifiers and play them all in cities with low numbers of Mexican and Central American immigrants. Like Columbus, KC, even Pittsburgh. A big reason why they didn't make the World Cup is they played a defecto road game in New Jersey vs Costa Rica. The federation was blasted for scheduling such a huge match in a place where everyone knew would create a home crowd advantage for the opponent.
Also, what's the rush to get qualifying done by March 2022? The WC isnt until December? Couldn't they also use the June windows to avoid 3 games/window?
Well the problem with that is going to be that playing them in places like that is going to make the travel a little bit worse than the awful that it's already going to be. It is going to be interesting to see where they play some of these games once the final qualifiers are determined so they know who exactly they are playing in each slot.
Also, my guess is that FIFA told them they had to be done with qualifying by March, because it looks like Europe is using two of the windows to play three games in to get finished by March as well.
I would guess FIFA told them that because they are incompetent. No reason they couldnt play in the June window.
As for venues, I think the extra 1-2 hours on a plane is worth the homefield advantage than giving some Central American side a home game in Houston.
Two more Americans who are making solid contributions at the highest level are Antonee Robinson who looks to be the top left back at Fulham FC and playing well. And then there’s a guy I never heard of, Owen Otasowie, who plays for Wolves and came on vs Chelsea the other day and had an assist. He plays midfield, only started playing soccer 4 years ago and is in the Premier League and starting to make a name for himself.
Otasowie played in the last 2 friendlies. Looked decent but didn't stand out.
The guy to keep an eye on is Yunus Musah, who also played in those friendlies and looked good. All this 18 year old kid is doing is playing in arguably the best league (La Liga) week in and week out. He's also eligible to play for Ghana and Italy so that's a recruiting battle Berhalter has to win.
Its funny that although very young, the USA can field a lineup almost made up entirely of blue blood or near-blue blood players.
Nice try, dude. I'm the exact opposite of that. I am simply saying for qualifiers, the USMNT should schedule games in cities which are most likely to provide the best home field advantage. Cities with large Mexican and Central American populations do not provide a home field advantage because they buy most of the tickets. The US has played Mexico in Columbus, OH the last 4-5 qualifiers for exactly this reason.
Please rep read what you wrote. So are you telling me a Mexican immigrant is going to go to the game and cheer on Mexico over their newly adopted country. I don’t know you sound like a Trump supporter.
Absolutely they are. I follow world football enough to know that most immigrants still root for their country of birth. Beyond that, many who were born here still root for the country of their parents are grandparents. However, its not so much about "national pride" to them, its just the favorite team that is passed down from generation to generation no different than raising our kids as Pitt fans.
I remember watching a World Cup qualifier on Univision or some other Spanish language station because I didn't have the obscure English language station it was on.....I believe this was in 2009....Univision had a live feed from Iraq of US servicemen of Mexican ancestry having a watch party, rooting hard for Mexico to beat the US.
I just having some fun with you. I do not follow soccer I saw the Freddie Adu thread and then starting reading the other threads. I will ask a simple questions why does US women soccer and hockey and US men’s hockey rule and our USMNT can’t win anything? I am not asking this question to be an antagonist I ask friends of mine who are big soccer fans and they have no answers.
1. The best American athletes don't play soccer but I'm sure you knew that.
We can start an entire thread on why that is but the biggest reason is that it costs thousands of dollars per year to join an elite club. And you have no chance of going far in soccer unless you join one of these at a young age. Often, the best players are priced out.
The girls have the same pay for play system but the best female athletes in the US play soccer.....and basketball. And most other countries dont take women's soccer seriously
Your first point is where this discussion always begins. So let’s look at some stats we are the fourth most populated country in the world. And please this is not a debate but a discussion. By your definition we would suck at hockey. Soccer is played in every state. As far as women pay that is not relevant.
Hockey is only played in a few countries so that cant even enter in the debate.
There's really no debate. If you took the best American athletes at age 8 and had them play soccer only at an elite club, we'd compete for World Cups. The best athletes aren't playing.
Odell Beckham, Jr. was a really good soccer player but split his time with football and the other sports so he couldn't concentrate on football. Same with Chad OchoCinco. Same with Trae Young. What if they played soccer only from age 8? To be world-class, you cant play anything else. Its got to be soccer all day, every day. Its too difficult of a sport to master.
I think you are a good dude but read you comments hockey is only played in a few states so there is a relevant measurement.
I'm not getting the hockey thing. Only Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Czech Republic play hockey to a large extent. All are small countries (by population) but Russia and hockey is still #2 in Russia behind soccer (though its close). USA Hockey has very few countries to compete with. Its not a relevant comparison to soccer. I mean as hockey-crazed as Canada is, they only have 38 million people. If you estimate that only 5% of Americans are "hockey people" (I just made that number up), that's 16.5 million Americans who are hockey people (ie could have kids who may play). That's more than enough to compete with small European nations and to beat Canada every once in awhile.
Conversely Tim Howard was a high school basketball star with D1 offers who elected to concentrate on his soccer career instead. Obviously he made the correct choice.
Didn't know that about Howard but I do know his mom was a Hungarian immigrant. The common theme of USMNT players are:
- son of an immigrant (ie at least 1 parent to push soccer)
- son of an American serviceman and German woman raised in Germany
- son of a former pro soccer player
There are few top USMNT players who don't fit these categories. Landon Donovan (though one of his parents was from Canada), Clint Dempsey. Cant really think of any others. Point is the son of Joe Jock who was maybe a D2 QB but has a really athletic son who is playing all the sports in elementary school, just about never "picks" soccer.
I am not sure how much of what you say still holds. Several things have changed.
1. It costs thousands of dollars for kids to do any sport or activity.
2. All sports are played year round.
3. Pro soccer is mainstream. Kids and parents know both pro and scholarship money exists for soccer as much as it does for hockey and baseball.
4. Our generation has many US born dads and moms that played the game. Parents without accents are quite capable of coaching kids. It is common for community youth teams to have parent-coaches that played at fairly high levels.
5. Because of (1) and (2) as well as head injury concerns, it appears many of our best athletes are playing football. For evidence, i submit playoff scores. Seems like way too many blowouts to have each school's best playing.
I did some quick research for the current state of a mythical USMNT starting 11.
For this, I used Joe Price Wright's 10/8/2020 lineup. Starting 11
Three were born in NY.
Two were born in PA.
1 each in AL, MO and TX -- 8 were born in America Of those, at least three have professional soccer athletes as parents, - Weah, Pulisic and Reyna. Of these, only Weah's parents are immigrants.
1 each was born in Germany, Netherlands, and England to American Fathers. In addition, McKennie's dad was stationed in Germany when he started playing.
I find several things very encouraging.
1. This group isn't a bunch of hired guns. They all identify with America.
2. Most were developed through one of the American systems. Even if success is in spite of this, the current structures aren't preventing our players from reaching the biggest stages.
3. They are playing for big time clubs.
4. The MLS has become a selling league. Top young players go from MLS to the USMNT to top clubs.
Because Soccer is but one of many options in this country, I don't see us ever being THE power. However, with the right coach, I do expect us to be favored against way more nations than we have in the past, starting with this cycle. They will be young, but not that young.
Player | Club | Birth |
Steffen | Man City | Downington, PA |
Dest | Barcelona | Netherlands |
Richards | Bayern Munich | Birmingham, AL |
Brooks | Wolfsburg | Germany |
Robinson | Fulham | England |
McKennie | Juventus | Little Elm, TX |
Adams | RB Leipzig | Wappingers Falls, NY |
Weah | Lille | Rosedale, NY |
Reyna | Dortmand | Bedford, NY |
Pulisic | Chelsea | Hershey, PA |
Sargent | Werder Bremen | O’Fallon, MO |
So immigrants in these cities are not welcome in your mind to root for their homeland. But they are absolutely welcome to vote for your team of democrats? Sound about right for you.
They are absolutely welcome to buy tickets and root on their team. However, in a qualifier when you need a home crowd advantage, its best to play in a city when more USMNT fans can pack the house. Is that really too difficult of a concept?
What I'm saying is that in all other American sports, there is a diverse path to becoming world-class. LeBron, Jordan, Magic, etc. They didn't have pro athlete parents. To make the USMNT, you basically have to have a former pro soccer player parent, the son of an immigrant, or grow up in another country. There's a huge reason for this. The best athletes dont play so there is nobody to push these kids who have decided advantages being that they grew up in Europe or were born into a major soccer home.
No. Not too difficult at all. Neither is seeing your hypocrisy.
in any event, what’s being discussed here regarding soccer is something that I can generally agree with you on. Unlike every other hair brained subject you opine on. I’m with you.
I’ll add this. I used to think that our problem was that there is no pick up soccer or playground soccer being played in this country and kids aren’t free to be expressive in their games because everything they do here is under the supervision of a coach. But I no longer feel that way because the euros are dominating the game and they are being identified at extremely young ages and are signing with club academies in the 1st and 2nd grade. That is where the development occurs and our American kids don’t have that luxury...although our clubs are much better than what they were a generation ago. Our system is no longer Neanderthal, but still can’t compare to Europe.
Agree about no pick-up soccer being played but we could still get over that hurdle if the best athletes played.
You missed my point. I don’t think think euros are playing much pickup when they are 6, but they get into the academies and develop there. Our kids don’t get to those academies until their late teens if they are fortunate enough to get there at all.
