Hello. Welcome to the final installment of our World Cup Preview for College Football Fans. I hope this has been a thought provoking, heart warming journey that has moved you to tears and laughter, due to the gratuitous nut shots I kept showing.
If you're like me, you watched the U.S. in their recent warm up games get ready for the tournament and actually looking pretty damn good in the process; at least during the last game against Nigeria when everything seemed to come together for them. Just as with my Hokies, that was the final nudge I needed into completely blind optimism before the competition actually begins. I'm now convinced that not only can the U.S. make it out of the group stage, but if they play like they did on Saturday, they will win the group and have a casual stroll through the knockout rounds to their first true test against Brazil in the semis.
But before we can get to U.S. trophy celebration, which I can only imagine would include Toby Keith singing on top of a giant red, white, and blue cowboy boot while simultaneously killing terrorists, let's look at some of the other teams that get a nominal shot at what is surely the U.S.'s cup at this point.
Also, don't forget to go sign up for Thekeyplay.com's World Cup bracket challenge! Everyone can have up to two entries and the winner gets to take home a shiny, new TKP t-shirt of their choosing!
http://games.espn.go.com/world-cup-bracket-predictor/en/group?groupID=33...
Group: The Key Play
Password: SamRogers
QUICK! To Group C!
Colombia
College Football Team They Most Resemble: Arkansas. A somewhat psychotic fan base that maintains unreal expectations of what their team can do and then reacts poorly when those expectations are not met. Considering what these teams have to face just to get out of their own region/division, it's not surprising that they aren't so successful while still tending to start over-inflating their own team's hopes and losing their tenuous touch with reality.
Crazy Arkansas fan is crazy
I will say that at least Arkansas doesn't (normally) have the violent bend to their support, and if you haven't watched The Two Escobars then brace yourselves. Colombia once again comes into the World Cup with rather lofty goals and they've already lost their best player. Lastly, tie in the cocaine fueled economy in Colombia and the meth industry in Arkansas, and it's almost uncanny.
FIFA Ranking: 8. As a side note, FIFA just released new rankings so all of my old ones are obsolete. Because of course.
Official Bus Slogan: Here travels a nation, not just a team!
Wow. That must be a pretty big bus.
What's the skinny? Radamel Falcao, in addition to having the coolest last name, has a lingering knee injury that he did not recover from in time to participate. Colombia is not so strong at the back, meaning they're now going to be relying on much less talented attackers going forward to overcome the goals they will surely give up. Luckily, they're in a bad group.
Player You Should Pay Attention To: The easy pick here is Teofilo Gutierrez, who also is on less than friendly terms with sanity. In fact, he reminds me of this former Colombian player:
Just the sack to do that in a game. That's awesome.
But for me, I'd watch for Jackson Martinez. He hasn't scored for the national team in over a year (and competitively, since qualifying for the LAST World Cup) but he's banged in 31 and 29 goals for his club team the last two seasons respectively and I think his speed is the key that unlocks Greece's defense.
Chances of Winning the World Cup: Far, far too high for Colombian fans.
Will Most Likely: Make it out of the group this time (yay! No one gets shot!) but not any further.
Greece
College Football Team They Most Resemble: Okay, imagine the most boring style of football possible. Now, imagine said boring team winning a conference championship a decade ago, in a slightly fluky way, so that team has doubled down on the boring. That's Greece! And sadly, that's also sort of Iowa, only it's that Kirk Ferentz thing they're locked in to until the apocalypse. And now the winning is gone and all that's left is the boring. While I urge you to soak up as much of the World Cup as possible, don't watch Greece. They'll make you hate soccer.
FIFA Ranking: 12. Further justifying the evil that is Greek soccer.
Official Bus Slogan: Heroes play like Greeks
No, they don't. Heroes vanquish the Greek soccer team with fire and brimstone to the cheering of the masses.
What's the skinny? I CANNOT recommend enough that you avoid Greece matches at all costs. They will strive for 90 minutes to prevent ANYONE from scoring and hope to squeak in a goal somewhere. If they could win every match 1-0 or draw 0-0, they would. It's bad and they should feel bad.
Player You Should Pay Attention To: Jose Holebas because he's (seriously) the only player whose first name doesn't end with an 'S' and that's literally the most interesting thing I could find about their team. I fell asleep three times writing this section.
Chances of Winning the World Cup: About the same chance as they have of leading the tournament in goals scored.
Will Most Likely: Score at most two goals and go home after the group stage to leave the rest of us in peace.
Cote d'Ivoire
College Football Team They Most Resemble: This one was tough, but I'm going Wisconsin here. Mostly based on the reputation that the Badgers have for churning out beef eating hulks of offensive linemen and running backs. Cote d'Ivoire has the Toure brothers, Yaya and Kolo, who will decimate you. Yaya is a ridiculously gifted, both physically and technically, midfielder who can outrun 80% of other players and bulldoze the remaining 20%. He's famous for picking the ball up in his own end, dribbling past, around and through everyone else before unleashing an unstoppable shot. He's Ron Dayne and the Wisconsin offensive line rolled into one body. And if he were the only one who could do that, it would still be unfair (he's not).
But before I forget, Kolo was having an affair and pretended to be a car salesman so his side piece wouldn't figure out who he was (and that he's married with two kids) and she snapped this picture of him to send to her friends when they finally told her (after two years) that he was a famous soccer player.
This is the greatest BUSTED! face ever. In the SHOWER!
FIFA Ranking: 21. Primed for a Rose Bowl run.
Official Bus Slogan: Elephants charging towards Brazil!
Seriously, Yaya might qualify as an elephant, and when he charges, just cower in fear.
What's the skinny? In addition to Yaya, they've got an experienced (but old) goalkeeper and defense and are led at the front by one of the scariest strikers of the last decade, Didier Drogba. While Drogba is 36, he's supported by Salomon Kalou, Wilfried Bony and Gervinho, each of whom will be ready and willing to chip in goals. That doesn't even include Yaya thundering them in from midfield. While Greece will try to suffocate you, Cote d'Ivoire will destroy your will by hammering you in the face with goals, which is much more entertaining to watch.
Player You Should Pay Attention To: Drogba is getting on in the years, and while Kalou and Gervinho are expected to start along side him, I'd watch Wilfried Bony. Besides having the impeccable taste to play for a Welsh team (Swansea City), he's the youngest of their legitimate attacking options and scores about once every three games, all in competitive matches.
Chances of Winning the World Cup: Not as good as if they actually fielded elephants. While I think motivation would be difficult going forward, I feel like an elephant in goal would be extremely useful shot stopper.
Will Most Likely: Relieve us all of the tedious Greeks by taking the second spot in the group, knocking off the winner of Group D in the Round of 16 before succumbing to the Spaniards in the quarterfinals.
Japan
College Football Team They Most Resemble: Imagine a team that all of a sudden, in the last 20 years or so, decided it was gonna get real good at something and started committing resources and their talent to efficiently achieving that goal. Sounds like Boise State, right? Japan cared not about soccer until the 90s, then started its own league and built a national team that dominates its region and took a few scalps off some of the big boys as well. And while Japan doesn't play on blue field, they ARE the Samurai Blue and one time a player proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend right after beating Croatia in the Fiesta Bowl. I think1.
FIFA Ranking: 46, which is about right considering they had a very up and down 2013, including losing all their games at the Confederation Cup last summer.
Official Bus Slogan: Samurai, the time has come to fight!
Now I can't stop picturing a team of blue, sword wielding samurai attempting to do battle with an elephant and now I need to know who would win that fight.
What's the skinny? Japan actually plays a style somewhat similar to the US, particularly in the Nigeria match. Their fullbacks will overlap on the sides and they'll use the concept of pressing as a team to overcome talent deficiencies against better teams. Whether or not they will be more successful against a weaker group will be interesting to find out.
Player You Should Pay Attention To: Keisuke Honda. Shinji Kagawa is the guy you've probably heard of (because he plays for Man U) and Shinji Okazaki is the more likely goal threat, but Honda makes the team go. He's really the best shot for creating opportunities for Japan to score and a legitimate threat to just say fuck it and score himself.
Chances of Winning the World Cup: As likely as actually getting a chance to see sword wielding samurai take on an elephant. And Google was absolutely no help in finding this either. :o(
Will Most Likely: Beat Greece, draw another game and lose the third and miss out on the knockout round.
Alright, the final group up is Group B, home to both the defending Champ AND the runner up from the last World Cup.
Spain
College Football Team They Most Resemble: Florida State. Historically, a very good team that has been through some hard times before finally returning to glory by winning the championship last time out. And while it was Spain's first World Cup win, they do have three Euro Championships to add to it. They will absolutely wear you down with all the talent they have, and while Xavi is much more senior relative to Jameis Winston, this picture of him was recently snapped:
Sure you had that when you walked in. Suuuuure.
FIFA Ranking:
Official Bus Slogan: Inside our hearts, the passion of a champion
Ok, this is lame. I mean, I guess you don't have to go for intimidating when you won the last World Cup and the last two Euros, but since you have a strong one, you should just put your team nickname, La Furia Roja2.
What's the skinny? They're good. Real good. They play a possession based style that's famously (or infamously, now) known as Tiki Taka that's lots of little passes designed to wear down a defense until they make a mistake. Plus, at least eight of their probable starters come from Real Madrid or Barcelona, and remember from the Germany preview about guys being better when they've played together longer? Well a lot of these guys basically grew up together and instinctively know what each other is going to do on the pitch. It's almost an unfair advantage.
Player You Should Pay Attention To: Sergio Ramos. Not because I actually like him...I don't. But, he is one of the best center backs in the world AND he's got a temper like no other, holding the Spanish league record for most red cards (19) in a career. Remember, that means he's ejected from the game and they cannot replace him. He's done that 19 times. And he's only 28. Dude is nuts.
Chances of Winning the World Cup: Pretty good. They'd become the first team to repeat since Brazil did it from 1958-1962.
Will Most Likely: While most of this team comes from the Barca academy, they'll run into the best player from that academy, Leo Messi, in the semis and the dream will die at his hands, or rather feet.
Australia
College Football Team They Most Resemble: A team in a really hot, dry place that recently made a significant upgrade in their conference/region affiliation and has a really weird indigenous mascot? If they wore purple, Australia would BE TCU. Tired of beating up on New Zealand and Tahiti in the Oceania Federation, Australia jumped ship to Asia3 in order to play better teams more regularly. They also call themselves the Socceroos and have a kangaroo on their badge, which is no weirder than calling yourselves the Horned Frogs, if you ask me.
Also with a reputation as a stronger defensive team, sadly the analogy dies when you realize they don't have a LaDanian on their team with misspelled tattoos.
FIFA Ranking: 62. Despite the move to Asia, the Socceroos bring the lowest ranked squad this go around. Deservedly.
Official Bus Slogan: Socceroos: hopping our way into history!
Oh my lord, this a strong contender for worst slogan. I don't even have a joke here.
What's the skinny? After seeing the draw and realizing that their "Worst Team Here" problem is compounded by the "In a Group With Both Finalists From Last World Cup", Australia went for a makeover. They hired a new coach late last year who is bringing a ton of young players and you have to feel they've given up any hope this year to build towards 2018. They probably have the best chance to lose every game here.
Player You Should Pay Attention To: I was tempted to go with Bailey Wright here, a 21-year-old who has NEVER played for Australia before and is somehow going to the World Cup. Instead, I'm going to pick Massimo Luongo, who has played for them once, in March. Not because these guys are going to do anything in Brazil, but because this is the future of Australian soccer and they will be in their prime for the 2018 World Cup. Also, I picked Luongo because I saw him play in person last year playing for Swindon Town, a podunk team in the middle of Wiltshire, which is where rednecks in England would come from if England had rednecks. It was awesome and he was pretty fun to watch.
Chances of Winning the World Cup: About the same as the Moonshine BBQ shenanigans Outback is trying to pull not being a complete culinary travesty.
Speaking of which, I think it's appropriate to take a moment to bring back the food section and see what the people are saying about the Moonshine BBQ. Leila R writes:
Tonight was just such an epic failure food-wise... (T)he entrees...the terrible terrible overpriced entrees. I decided to try a selection from their new Moonshine BBQ menu...What came out was the smallest steak I think I have ever seen...The shrimp were also tiny, there were four on the skewer and the little strip of bacon they were wrapped in was pretty gross. The shrimp themselves tasted rubbery and even with the overly sweet bbq sauce, still lacked any semblance of flavor...I definitely did not get my $14.99 worth and when they asked me to take their new menu selection survey, I made my disappointment known in the comments.
Damn. Shockingly, an Australian themed restaurant screws up cooking with fake Appalachian spirits. And Leila let it be known with a STRONGLY WORDED LETTER. I think that's Australian for EAT IT, SUCKERS.
Will Most Likely: Honestly, they'll probably lose all their games. It will suck hard.
Chile
College Football Team They Most Resemble: Ole Miss AND Mississippi State. While they produce the occasional star like Alexis Sanchez and Arturo Vidal (not unlike Ole Miss), culturally I believe they are more akin to the blue collar Mississippi State mindset. Regardless, they are massively emotionally involved in the sport but surrounded by too many good teams to ever actually have succeeded at winning an international tournament, even with pulling the occasional diamond out of their ass like Sanchez.
FIFA Ranking: 14. Hahaha, now I'm trying to picture either team from Mississippi justifiably ranked that high and I can't stop laughing.
Official Bus Slogan: Chi Chi Chi! Le Le Le! Go Chile
Okay Australia, you're off the hook for worst slogan. God, this is almost as bad as thousands of people ringing cowbells for three hours straight.
And because I kept having to write the country name and now have an insatiable craving for it, here you go. NOW YOU WANT IT, TOO.
What's the skinny? From one perspective, Chile is like a Bud Foster defense, aggressively swarming the ball as early as possible to force you to make mistakes. In other respects they are the polar opposite, since if their opponent breaks through the pressure, the back of their defense is extremely shaky. Their aggressive defense can be fun to watch but will surely contribute to them giving up stupid goals and they'll have to rely on their stars up front to keep their heads above water.
Player You Should Pay Attention To: Alexis Sanchez. He's ridiculous and was the second leading goalscorer (behind Messi, of course) at Barcelona amongst a constellation of talent, including Neymar. He's their best hope of knocking in the goals to keep them alive against the likes of Spain and the Dutch, and I'm actually kind of excited to watch him eviscerate the suspect Dutch defense.
Chances of Winning the World Cup: They've never won an international tournament. That statement will still be true in a month.
Will Most Likely: I think they're going to beat the Dutch to finish second in the group and then get absolutely crushed by Brazil.
Netherlands
College Football Team They Most Resemble: Oregon. Aside from the tandem neon uniforms, the Oranje also are known for a style of play, Total Football, much like the Ducks and the high speed Blur / Quack Attack. They've also reached the championship game of the World Cup several times without ever winning it. And last but not least, the hippie/hipster lifestyle, pot, and nature living bike riding...wait, was I talking about Oregon or the Dutch?
FIFA Ranking: 15, surprisingly low for the runners up from four years ago. Sadly, it will be justified after the tournament.
Official Bus Slogan: Real men wear orange
Hell yeah, they do! Generally as a nice, understated trim around #ALLMAROONEVERYTHING, and NEVER with blue.
What's the skinny? They are led by goal machine Robin Van Persie and twin bald dynamos Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben, who is the closest thing to NASCAR in soccer because he can only turn left. They are, of course, hampered by a highly suspect defense4, but employ a somewhat unconventional defensive tactic in midfield:
I hope he yelled out "JUDO KICK!" like Austin Powers when he did that
Player You Should Pay Attention To: Everybody loves Arjen Robben, but for me, if I'm going for a diminutive, bald Dutch winger, I'm going Wesley Sneijder. While Robben walks around looking like a total asshole, Sneijder looks like he's genuinely having fun, which is way more fun to watch than some angry, scrawny bald professional soccer player who can't kick with his right foot.
Chances of Winning the World Cup: Who knows. At their rate, we should probably pencil them in as most likely to LOSE the final since they're REAL good at that.
Will Most Likely: Since they wound up in a group with Spain, second is probably the most realistic shot to go through but by no means guaranteed with Chile in there. I'm going out on a limb and saying the Dutch play three games and go home.
Alright, that covers it! We actually managed to BS our way through all 32 countries, now go use your newly acquired knowledge to cheer appropriately! Remember, Brazil kicks off Thursday at 4:00 PM and I can guarantee there is no football on at that time so you've got nothing better to do.
1I may have been wrong.
2The Red Fury, only slightly better than The Red Menace or The Red Skull.
3Yes. Australia is now in Asia. Use that to taunt kids who think there are still seven continents.
4I should know, they'll start a defender from my club team, Aston Villa, who are terrible.
Comments
I'm glad you finally came around to my side
My second bracket in my slightly more educated than before, but still mostly wild guessing has the US making it out of group and losing to Spain in the Semifinals.
I can't tell if you're making fun of that FSU fan or not...but I'm just going to assume you are.
in that case, WELL DONE!! HAVE A LEG :D
Just a typo/failure to proof read
Spain will lose to Argentina? Bold, bold prediction. Also, where is Spain's FIFA ranking?
I'd go with watching Iniesta on Spain, too. He does for Spain what Messi does for Barcelona. It was clear early in the last World Cup that Iniesta was the best player in the tournament, and Spain uses him perfectly. A Spain vs Brazil final would be the most stylish game we've ever seen, and I'm hoping for it beyond all hope.
That's what I serve up here, sir; strong, bold taeks. That and feed bags of barley for our equine friends.
I don't think the Spanish defense can cope with what Argentina attacks with, although I'm not sure the Argentineans can keep a clean sheet. A Germany-Brazil, Spain-Argentina set of Semis would be both boringly predictable and incredibly exciting.
No doubt, Iniesta is fun to watch, but there's a certain joy in feeling like Ramos is turning a little green as his anger slowly slips out of his control...
And Spain are currently #1, good catch.
All you have to know about the US going into the World Cup is this... Altidore has his confidence back, and it couldn't have come at a more opportune moment. He's usually good for a decent 4 or 5 game stretch when he starts to hit the back of the net, and that 2nd goal against Nigeria was a thing of beauty. At the very least, we're going to be a tough out for Germany and Portugal.
Can't wait to see some of this goin on in Brazil.
That is truly wonderful
I want those uniforms back.
Honda's direct kicks: they'll get after ya
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YTuvcEjC_M&feature=kp
That keeper should be kicking himself for that one
...
I loathe Robben. He is probably the divey-est douche playing the game today.
He is supremely talented, but, yes, he is a LOLUVA student in the making.
I probably wouldn't dislike him so much if he wasn't so talented. It's one thing to dive because you can't compete with your opposition (still bad). But that's nothing compared to having the talent to actually outplay a guy, but choosing instead to fool the refs and get a penalty kick.
Thank you to both of you! He has bothered me for so long. He does the same thing every time. Dribbles to the edge of the box, cuts left and shoots. He never looks to pass. Makes me crazy.
(Cough) Brazil (cough)
Yep. And they weren't always like that. Sad times. I won't be cheering for them at all if this continues, though it probably will do no good because I'm not convinced that a referee will have the guts to go against them down there.
Why does Klinsmann keep saying the US cant win the world cup? The chances are slim but anything can happen.
I think his latest statement was pretty good actually. There's really nothing here I disagree with.
Well when your team doesn't even qualify for the last Olympics, it's hard to justify saying your team should win the World Cup. Anything could happen, but he has a better chance of being right and not looking like a fool by being realistic.
He's making sure the US is the anti-Colombia. Or Calvin
So since Watterson stopped drawing Calvin & Hobbs, Calvin has grown up and enrolled at LOLUVA??? Say it ain't so!!!
Leg for the greatest cartoon ever.
Eh. I agree with Klinsmann. We're light years away from a World Cup at this point.
I wouldn't say we're light years. Its not like we're Australia who is going in just happy to be there and will likely get slaughtered once we're there.
We're a lot closer right now than we were 15 years ago, and 15 years from now, we'll be a hell of a lot closer than we are currently. We're finally starting to take the sport seriously as a country, and we finally have people in charge that understand we need to develop the sport and our athletes from the ground up, and they're all going to be trained in a way that most benefits US international play. Hell, next World Cup I wouldn't be shocked to see us as a seeded team if we keep developing on the trajectory we're currently on. By the time 2022 and 2026 roll around, we very well could be a legitimate contender.
Another thing to note. American football is probably as popular as it will ever be right now, and with the added emphasis of concussions gaining serious storm, you're already seeing the lower developmental leagues taking a massive hit on participation, and eventually, that is going to impact all the way up, and leave a void, and absolutely do not be shocked if soccer starts to fill it. MLS has already established itself as a major league, and its popularity is growing more and more by the year. Within 20 years I am almost expecting MLS to be right up there with the other major leagues, perhaps surpassing the NHL and NBA in popularity, and as the MLS goes, so will the USMNT.
The MLS has already passed NHL and NBA in actual fan attendance, but I know that's not the same thing as popularity overall. Just saying it's pretty close as it is.
Well, thats not exactly shocking when you consider MLS stadiums on average hold about 3x as many fans as the average NHL or NBA stadium.
But in terms of sponsorships, TV deals, and player contracts, the MLS is still lagging pretty far behind the others. Now that we're seeing legitimate investment in the league from people with an incentive to make it grow and make it grow fast (like Beckham buying the Miami team and the Yankees/ManCity going in on the NYC team) you very easily could see the league get very serious very soon.
Within the next 10 years or so, I would also expect to see the USMNT strike an agreement with a city to make their stadium the official home field of the USMNT.
Actually most MLS stadiums (talking soccer-specific ones, not situations like where the Sounders play in the NFL stadium) seat about the same as an NHL or NBA arena, topping out around 20-ish thousand. Granted, Seattle's capacity of 38,000, which they do fill, edges the average up on its own.
For the rest of that, I don't think I disagree.
Soccer will never surpass football in popularity or entertainment not even if they ban football, because soccer is boring as hell, like watching grass grow.
#hottaeks #analysis #sprots
What really makes me laugh is how its inevitable every time there's an article about US soccer on a site that allows comments, there will eventually be someone in there telling everyone how much soccer sucks and how boring it is compared to the NFL. And I mean EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. The jokes being only surpassed by "oh goody, the World Cup, the only couple weeks every 4 when the US cares about the sport"... Yeah.. thats another great joke.
Are football fans really that insecure about the future of their own sport that they must always, without fail, make comments like this every time the USMNT is mentioned?
Never did he mention anything about the football. I think most of us here would agree football won't be surpassed as the most popular sport in America.
Soccer is more exciting than major league baseball.
Amen to that. The best part about baseball is knowing that you can leave your seat, wait in line for 15 minutes to get a hotdog and know you've probably only missed watching the left fielder scratch his balls.
Soccer is fluid. Even when it's "slow" things are developing. The ball can be in box and everyone is already moving to make the play happen. A striker drifting wide to pull a defender out of position is as important as how far the keeper can send the ball on a punt. And it's all in the hands of the players as a team. If something happens it's the result of multiple players making good decisions and thinking. How many players are involved in the typical baseball play? People get so excited when there's even a chance of more than two "defenders" touching the ball. "Oo a chance for a double play! Look how they work so well together" Please, that's happening continually on the pitch./rant by skinny guy who was always told he should play baseball growing up
hmmm define "defenders"?? Because two defenders touching the balls can be taken in a good way and a very very bad way.
I'd say someone defined as a "defender" touching balls means you're probably doing it wrong.
could be worse could be an offender touching balls...
Another strength of soccer: There is virtually no in-game coaching. Sure, a coach might call for a player to switch up a strategy, but those types of calls by the coach are few and far between. Almost all of the 'coaching' is developing the style of play, because once the game starts, everything happens spontaneously. There are no 'plays' during the run of play. It's all creative, artistic, and, dare I say it, expressive, emotional. It's why Brazilians call it the beautiful game. The best players 'feel' the game, they don't play it, and those that can 'create' the most for their teams are the best players. It's art, plus athleticism.
I find it funny that every time someone comments that soccer sucks, the soccer fan's response is that MLB sucks. Just wanted to point out the irony there.
Not a sermon, just a thought.
Edit: Before I get lambasted, I don't really care either way. I think it's rather weak and annoying that anytime a certain sport gets mentioned someone always has something negative to say, but turning around and bashing another doesn't make it better. Sports are like dating, everyone has a type but we don't all have the same type.
But...but...but what if your type sucks, don't I make the world a better place by pointing that out? I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU HERE.
Also as a side note, I filled out someone's bracket purely from your articles. The conversation started with me saying I didn't know much and then I did the whole damn thing. I felt smart and shizz. So thank you for that.
Soccer is more exciting than baseball in the same sense that a "Die Hard" movie is more exciting than a Hitchcock film.
I do think that we will continue to improve, but our World Cup with Bora Milutinovich was the best we've showed. Granted, that was at home, and everyone overachieves at home, but still.
Klinsmann has a plan, no doubt. He's revamped the youth development, and the first players to go through his system are now starting to show up on the USMNT. These are positive developments. But even a decade of development won't put us on the same plane as other countries: Countries whose best athletes are all going to soccer instead of football, countries whose population is in love with the sport from birth.
MLS is also improving. But I don't think it will be anywhere in the same league as the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, and the rest. Our developmental organizations aren't on par with Ajax, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Man U, etc, and they won't be anytime soon because the money for them to develop those systems just isn't there, and I think the money has to come first.
Our best players should follow the example set by the best Argentinians, Brazilians, Mexicans, Africans, and Asians. They all have their own leagues, but they go to Europe, and not just to warm the bench for a big team, or even start for a mid-level team. They need to go and be consistently strong as a regular contributor to the big teams in the big leagues.
As a long-time former player and one who loves the game, I'm happy to see that we're improving. But we're so far behind the rest of the world, with so much competition for the best athletes we produce, in sports that have leagues that are way better off financially, that I think we should eat our humble pie and understand that we may never be a serious threat. Even England, with the best top-to-bottom league in the world, can't field a threat in the World Cup.
Man Horse, I think you're consistently on point with your understanding of the football environment in the states. I think what has riddled us here is that until Klinsmann arrived, we just didn't understand the sport. The commitment required to build a competitive brand of football to rival the European powers would require a full and passionate commitment from the nation as a whole; and this probably requires at least a generation to develop.
Similar to the concept of trying to imagine a foreign country producing a better brand of basketball than the US anytime soon; the idea is somewhat absurd. Most people don't realize that the US has only won FOUR world cup matches since 1990. None against any major powers, unless you include Portugal when Christiano Ronaldo was still about 17.
The truth is no one really takes American soccer seriously even at this juncture. I've been living in France for the last two months and I have to hear it from these cheese eating snobs every time I step out on the pitch. The fact is we still have a long way to go and as you said, we need guys in first divisions making contributions (like Clint Dempsey). And it's also critical we're able to attract top players (while they're still in their prime).
So Klinsmann is right to taper expectations and continue building from the ground up.
Thank you, and agreed. The basketball analogy is very apt, and being on the other side of the equation in basketball can show us what it will take for us to be good in soccer. Spain, of note, has picked up basketball quickly with the support of their major clubs (Spain is also in their golden age of sporting achievement, though). It may happen easier over there, though, as the same clubs that have soccer teams are supporting basketball teams as well. Over here, we have had to build a separate silo of teams in a totally separate league, which I'd think is probably harder (just a guess). Germany is doing the same thing.
The world's embrace of basketball makes me think that basketball will become the next sport with a major international competition a la the World Cup, where the Olympics doesn't matter and the basketball tournament does, which I think is great. I don't really watch basketball, but I do think it is an incredible sport, full of all the excitement, strategy, and creativity that soccer shows.
Well you have to also consider (in regards to the premier league) that most of the players aren't English. Yes you want a good competitive league but a lot of the best countries in the world have their domestic squads ruled by their own domestic players as is the case with Spain and Germany. That's the trick to it, both a competitive and talented league with homegrown players. The MLS is a long ways off fersure but were definitely headed in the right direction. We've made leaps and strides in the last 20 years and you've gotta give us credit for makig the team more competitive and bringing in some very good coaches.
I hate it when people are like soccer sucks and USA soccer sucks! Were competitive were not a total joke, yeah were not gonna win the entire league, but were not a joke....
Yes, this is true (This article is from 2013).
But since the premier league is so good, even having 1/3 of the players from your home country is a great thing. Your domestic players can develop by playing the best international players in the world. MLS doesn't have as much quality from foreign players, and, if I recall correctly, there used to be an MLS rule regarding the number of foreign players you could have on the roster, which is keeping the quality of the league down, in my opinion.
We're built to win CONCACAF. We can beat Mexico pretty consistently, and since we can do that, we'll go to World Cups. It's like Wisconsin being built to win the Big Ten, but not winning a lot of big bowl games. One would think that after going to enough consecutive World Cups, we'd be better prepared to compete there.
True very good points, and the mls does need to get more competitive but I wouldn't be upset if we had the mls with some excellent academies that churned out athletes into the premier league.
Academies would be great. The USSF tried this a decade or two ago with Project 40, where they tried to identify the 40 best youth players in the country and brought them in to develop them. I think Bobby Convey was one of them, that was a disaster. Freddie Adu, maybe? Also a disaster.
Klinsmann noted once that we have academies, but they're paid for by the people who send their kids to them. This is totally backwards, he said, you shouldn't be paying to send your kids there, you should be paying the kids and their families to bring in the best talent, this is the cost of doing business in soccer. The big academies in Europe are built this way, but the money is being pulled from the end-need of generating a succession of great players, not pushed in through the bottom by parents who want their kids to have the best opportunity to become great players.
If we payed families to bring their kids into academies, I'd bet we'd see a whole lot more low-income families turning to soccer as an alternative to traditional schooling and high school teams, which could pull athletes in from other sports.
Thats because all the academies are full of politics. Its not the best 40 players or so, its the richest players that can pay to travel all over and the parents that can bribe the system.. Trust me I played academy for Columbus Crew for 4 years and saw some very good talent not get chosen due to political issues.
True unfortunately that happens a lot in the US.... At least from what I've noticed. A lot of the sports camps are if you can afford them which sucks. I played against a girl who had to play like D3 at a local college cuz she couldn't afford to play club or do camps and never got scouted and that just sucks. It just seems wrong to me
Klinsmann is working on it, as we have stated numerous times. You're right, in the past, the governing body of the USMNT resigned itself to never being able to legitimately compete in the World Cup, so we built ourselves solely for the purpose of winning CONCACAF and the Gold Cup. Klinsmann has come in and opened everyone's eyes that we're legitimately wasting a lot of resources on the fact that we're not doing anything serious to promote the game in our own country and we're really hurting us by not streamlining the development from the ground up.
I really do think we're not THAT far from being a world power in soccer. Give it 30 years or so, and allow a generation or 2 of kids grow through the developmental programs that Klinsmann is now putting into place, and I could very well see us as one of the top teams in the world. I mean heck, even right now, with disjointed development and a true jigsaw puzzling of the roster, we're a team that is playing at a level right around #10 in the world, the sky is the limit once we truly dedicate ourselves to the sport. All its really going to take for US soccer to grow exponentially is for major stateside investors to realize how much money there is to be made by growing the sport in the US and to start POURING money into the game (making the sport more attractive to the more talented youth athletes and to start siphoning off some of the kids who would go to football or basketball... of which I think within the next 30 years football will likely be a much different sport and possibly nowhere near as popular because of the long-term medical issues we're just now uncovering), and what you're seeing right now in MLS is the beginning of the realization of what is possible.
30 years, I can buy into the idea we'll be much more competitive.
Especially with that new New York MLS team. I think they are going to be that aggressively spending team we need to start causing competition with other clubs to start bringing in talent.
With their joint ownership by the Yankees and Man City, they certainly have the financial backing to throw a bit of money around over the coming years. Should MLS really start to take off, I am curious over how this will go down, though. NYY and MC have an incentive to make that franchise profitable, but waaaay down the line, should MLS become massively popular and a legit elite league (granted that could be WAAAAY out there in the future) how willing would Man City be to having one of their subsidiaries potentially getting into bidding wars with players Man City could potentially want?
Maybe they're setting up MLS to be Minor League Soccer to Premier League
Maybe... but at the same time, I don't see the Yankees putting serious money into something they expect to just be a feeder program to someone else, and that entity not be the Yankees.
***Idk man they need a replacement for Derek Jeter.. you know maybe a Midfielder or GK could fill that position.***
SARCASTICA.. but I lol'd
They'd be about as equally good as Jeter at fielding the ball.
*drops mic
"With their joint ownership by the Yankees and ..."
Can I hate a team I just found out existed? Yes, I think I can.
Completely off-topic, but damnit I love Publix.
Excellent series of work, TheFifthFuller!
As a Hokie who is from South Florida (don't worry I absolutely hate the canes) I too miss Publix and their delicious subs.
The US has a soccer team?
If you don't like soccer, be like the rest of us and just don't comment on a soccer thread.
Look if you're gonna donkey punch the game where only a person called a goalie can use hands you've got to use more clever, disguised & veiled insults.
Now wait just a goddamn minute TheFifthFuller. My grandparents live in Swindon Town and are anything but rednecks. Quaint and proper. I expect a formal apology.
Oh, SWINDON is nice, even the Magic Roundabout which my dad got stuck in and I was convinced we were all going to die. I've got family that hailed from Brinkworth (longest village in Britain, WHAT) which is about 20 min west. But the general tone that I've seen is Wiltshire as a whole is agrarian and the city folk (Londoners) act like it's the ass end of the earth populated by country bumpkins. But Swindon was fun, drank some Arkells, watched the locals yell at the cops after the game, it was great.
Apology accepted.
I'll be honest, I used to be the typical soccer hating American, but then I fell in love with it while I was stationed in Germany. The thing that sucks is I missed out on going to any World Cup games when it was there in 2006. Uncle Sam thought it was a good time for me to vacation in the wonderful Middle East. Germany is like my second home and as long as the U.S. isn't playing them, I cheer for them. Sad thing is, in 2010 I knew more players on their team than ours. I wish the U.S. would fall in love with the game as much as the rest of the world. It really is an awesome game. Minus the flops that is.
I love your name haha
Not unlike a horned frog...that analogy works on so many levels.
A horned frog is a spiked lizard that shoots blood out of its eyes. It it badass enough that it doesn't need to hop.
Ah yes, I am quite familiar these guys; I have been shot with their eye blood more than once. I guess I was hoping there was an outside chance TCU's mascot was an actual frog. Probably not, though.
After staring at that damn thing's eyes for 10 minutes...why is it wearing a collar?
You don't ask Hypnotoad questions. Hypnotoad just does Hypnotoad.
Can't...stop...staring...
I just checked the bracket and realized two things:
1. There's no scoring until we get to the knockout round. So no fun until we get halfway through the tournament.
2. Somebody double check my math, but from my count, more people picked the U.S. to win the World Cup (10, including me) than the defending world and two-time defending European champion, Spain (9). While I'm guessing most of those U.S. brackets were second entries, MURICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
USA! USA! USA! USA!
After the evidence that I've seen in these first games, only Argentina or USA has a chance to be right.
Damn Spain is shitting the bed
My prediction that they wouldn't contend seriously this year is looking good if this is how their tournament goes.
Hell they may not make it out of the group.
They could really have some issues with Chile, too. Chile presses high and attacks quickly. That's a perfect recipe for Spain's second loss.
If they play like that, they will absolutely lose to Chile. And I'll enjoy that. A lot more than I enjoyed today's spectacle. I'm just not a big fan of a large portion of the Dutch team.
I didn't think Spain would win, hell I've been saying it for a while but Jesus....5-1?! Who saw that coming?! Let alone to a Netherlands team that has its fair share of issues in the back. Buy kudos to the Netherlands they played a really entertaining game and the mighty Spaniards looked lost. Go Chile! Shock the world!