The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

Necessity is the mother of invention?

It really comes down to growing up in america playing other sports. We use our hands a lot more in Basketball/Football. Tony Meola always said that he was such a good goalie because he learned how to rebound in basketball and translated that into understanding angles and high pointing balls on the crosses, etc.

[Priceless]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

CONMEBOL: 14-2-3 44/57 (.772) (2 CONMEBOL v CONMEBOL game)
UEFA: 17-7-11 58/105 (.552) (5 UEFA v UEFA games)
CONCACAF: 6-3-6 21/45 (.467)
CAF: 3-3-11 12/51 (.235)
AFC: 0-3-9 3/36 (.091)

[Jimjamesak]

This is nonsense. The intersection of the populations who have the potential (and body types) to play both NBA and MLS (or NFL and MLS) is vanishingly small. Our untapped soccer players aren't in the NBA or NFL - they're tending bar at your local watering hole, working at Home Depot, going to B-school, etc - and all talking about their youth days when they played on a couple of AYSO club teams but didn't bother to stick with it since it didn't seem like there was a realistic career path.

Yeah, the mindset is already starting to change a bit with younger players who can now legitmately look at soccer as a career path. Yedlin's story is the leader at that, 4 years ago he was a teenager in the Sounders Academy program that got converted to right back because they had enough midfielders. Last season he got a contract and then got an opportunity to play and showed why he deserves it. Same thing in this World Cup.

A lot of it is opportunity that wasn't there before.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

This is some prime Wiki-vandalism:

[jmh]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

Oh, and the next World Cup is in Europe, where we've never won a game.

Too bad the furthest east according to the bid is Yekaterinburg (GMT +6:00)

To be fair, that's still in Asia. More importantly, "we've never won a game in Europe" is basically meaningless going forward. It's the kind of fake statistic that's made to be broken. It's a small sample size of games played by players who will almost all be retired by the time 2018 rolls around.

My Predict the 2018 Roster:
...

Brad Guzan
Cody Cropper
Tim Howard (if he's still playing, Sean Johnson if not)

DeAndre Yedlin
Timmy Chandler
Geoff Cameron
John Brooks
Matt Besler
Tim Ream
Fabian Johnson
Tony Beltran

Michael Bradley
Mix Diskerud
Stuart Holden (hopefully)
Danny Williams
Luis Gil
Brek Shea
Gedion Zelalem (hopefully, for a different reason)
Julian Green

Jozy Altidore
Aron Johansson
Terrence Boyd
Jack McInerney

I liked Zusi on set pieces but otherwise agree that he just wasn't up to it, along with Bedoya. Maybe my untrained eye missed something, but Bedoya didn't do a whole lot for me.

I'll reiterate that I am still shocked not to see Diskerud or Johannsson more.

I have to agree - none of those supporting guys (including Davis in limited opportunities) stepped up, which was really disappointing. I agree with your surprise not to have seen Diskerud. I might've tried him behind Aron with Dempsey on the left.

On another note, who are you guys rooting for in the WC, now that team USA is out?

Costa Rica, certainly. Beyond that, Argentina because I love Messi; Colombia because they've been really good for a while now yet are somehow still under the radar. Belgium, because better them than the other European teams that are left.

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

To be fair, that's still in Asia. More importantly, "we've never won a game in Europe" is basically meaningless going forward. It's the kind of fake statistic that's made to be broken. It's a small sample size of games played by players who will almost all be retired by the time 2018 rolls around.

While this is true, there is a correlation between difference in timezones and success in world cups. Brazil is the only country to win a tournament not played in it's home hemisphere (1958 Sweden, 2002 Japan/S. Korea) and other than 2010 in South Africa, only CONMEBOL had ever won a tournament hosted outside its confederation (other than those previously mentioned it was all when in CONCACAF with Brazil and Argentina winning in Mexico and Brazil in USA). It's not surprising that UEFA does best in UEFA...which hurts USA, especially when they've always been drawn into a group with 2 or 3 European sides when playing in Europe. Not saying its impossible for USA to get out of the group or win a game on European soil, just that it does swing some of the intangible things towards other teams.

[unofan]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

Everytime I see a replay of the set piece at the end, I'm left wondering how we don't score. That was a farking brilliant play, and we had two guys behind Dempsey that could've pounced on the rebound if it kicks out just inches more to the left or right.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

While this is true, there is a correlation between difference in timezones and success in world cups. Brazil is the only country to win a tournament not played in it's home hemisphere (1958 Sweden, 2002 Japan/S. Korea) and other than 2010 in South Africa, only CONMEBOL had ever won a tournament hosted outside its confederation (other than those previously mentioned it was all when in CONCACAF with Brazil and Argentina winning in Mexico and Brazil in USA). It's not surprising that UEFA does best in UEFA...which hurts USA, especially when they've always been drawn into a group with 2 or 3 European sides when playing in Europe. Not saying its impossible for USA to get out of the group or win a game on European soil, just that it does swing some of the intangible things towards other teams.

Solution: Kick *** an take names for the next three years so we can build our FIFA ranking and get drawn with just one Euro team, and an Asian softball to go with [insert African nation here].

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

Solution: Kick *** an take names for the next three years so we can build our FIFA ranking and get drawn with just one Euro team, and an Asian softball to go with [insert African nation here].

I'm sure if that happens, they'll change the rules to keep the USA out of being seeded...not a bad idea though...being a non-UEFA seeded team, we'd still be likely to get a 2nd UEFA team in our group...

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

Everytime I see a replay of the set piece at the end, I'm left wondering how we don't score. That was a farking brilliant play, and we had two guys behind Dempsey that could've pounced on the rebound if it kicks out just inches more to the left or right.

I think it was just a heavy first touch from Deuce. Or a pass too far in front of him. In either case, Belgium closed in on him and he had no angle.

Crazy missed opportunity, though.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

I'm sure if that happens, they'll change the rules to keep the USA out of being seeded...not a bad idea though...being a non-UEFA seeded team, we'd still be likely to get a 2nd UEFA team in our group...

What, like how England, Italy and Uruguay wound up in the same group?

[Jimjamesak]

I'm sure if that happens, they'll change the rules to keep the USA out of being seeded...not a bad idea though...being a non-UEFA seeded team, we'd still be likely to get a 2nd UEFA team in our group...

Outside of FIFA seeding the field we will end up with two UEFA teams and an African or South American team every time.

[Patman]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

The problem has been the amount of money to be invested in programs. The biggest improvement that has been made is the amount of money invested in youth development, the Development Academy system is already doing wonders and will continue to get better with the new MLS TV contract.

Right now, a lot in the media are doing the usual "we need to change things!" speech (that's where my complaint about people coming out of the woodwork is directed at, not at anyone here). But, I think we just need to stay course right now. We've made changes and now we need to take the time to let them come to fruition.

From my limited vision, I think that's probably right. Keep doing smart things. Let the system re-invest in itself. Development is a slower process even when done right. You can infuse cash in places but you rarely improve things when you're interested in creating chaos vs opportunities.

[Patman]

Re: The FIFA World Cup Thread (Spoilers Welcome)

This is nonsense. The intersection of the populations who have the potential (and body types) to play both NBA and MLS (or NFL and MLS) is vanishingly small. Our untapped soccer players aren't in the NBA or NFL - they're tending bar at your local watering hole, working at Home Depot, going to B-school, etc - and all talking about their youth days when they played on a couple of AYSO club teams but didn't bother to stick with it since it didn't seem like there was a realistic career path.

Its often said by the weightlifting community that most of the best talent plays on Sundays... but that's not entirely true unless you're looking at the heavyweight classes. The lower weight classes there's room but nobody will ever know.

There are occasionally players that are so crossover they truly deserve the label "athlete"... but there are only so many.

ON THE OTHER HAND... whenever we look at our country's systems everything is geared at the top 20-30 athletes. Understandably in the case of national teams. In the end, people draw huge judgements on these low samples. What do we need to support top athletes? How do we identify?

I get a little annoyed that the smallest of mistakes (see Wondo) becomes an indication that we're doing something wholesale wrong. The only thing you can do with young talent is to bring them in, develop them, and pass them high enough to inspire improvement while making sure they turn out alright as stable people.

In the end, we may not be able to create a class of wunderkinds... that's a function of time and luck. However, if you can elevate the entire class of player then the rest has to come with. I think the goal of increasing depth of US soccer is working. I'm concerned about MLS over-expanding but even that won't affect the national team... it'll mean more in terms of bankrupt fools and former players (looking at you Mr. Beckham).

---

The other possibility... which Lynah may allude... is just the lost opportunities. It happens in a lot of sports because players burn out because of the politics or because of lack of support in the area. I've got a co-worker in suburban DC Maryland already deal w travel leagues for his 9 year old. Not always necessary but so it goes. A co-worker's brother was a USNDPT invite but didn't want to move away from home.

What may happen is not that our best athletes are in the NFL... which is true to a degree... but rather they played college level in a sport they loved but didn't match their talents. Some Div III tailback who never really cared to kick a ball around... but so it goes.

[HumRsky]

What may happen is not that our best athletes are in the NFL... which is true to a degree... but rather they played college level in a sport they loved but didn't match their talents. Some Div III tailback who never really cared to kick a ball around... but so it goes.

This. I think about this looking back at my participation in high school athletics. American football was (and still is) my favorite sport and stuck with that in high school for that reason. I played in in-house summer soccer leagues, and when I think about it, I should have went that direction, because I was a much better soccer player. If I had grown up with the opportunity to watch soccer, not just football, perhaps that decision would be different. I'm not delusional enough to think I would've made the national team, but there are probably some kids out there that played football, or other sports, in high school, then gave up on athletics, but would've found their calling if they were exposed to soccer. We're a lot more likely to snag those kids these days.