Scholarship table
Hate to break it to ya buddy, but the Netherlands didn't qualify either.May I suggest Iceland? (Or of course Colombia too)
I'm pissed, but I'm saving the real outrage for when Sunil keeps his job and nothing changes.The rot goes deeper than Arena. Or Jurgen. It's a failure at all levels to establish any sort of footballing philosophy or style. Time to blow it all up.
The fact that players still have to pay to play in high level club levels is insane and part of the problem. The entire development program needs to be reworked. Additionally, someone needs to look at the senior team and find the heart that was at least a corner stone of the program...other than a few people, the passion just wasn't there.Taylor Twellmen is 100% correct, if Iceland can figure this out why can't we? I mean for god sake, CONCACAF is the easiest region to qualify from and it's not close. How are we out of the World Cup in 2018 and wasting at least one cycle of Pulisics WC prime is just awful.Lastly, we need to have courage to make big changes and be able to move on. You will not find a bigger fan of Tim Howard than me, the man is an absolute legend.....but when it's gone it's gone, we have to be able to acknowledge that and move on. Howard(and to a lesser extent Guzan) is directly responsible for this WC with some poor work in the net and bad goals surrendered.I think I'm even more mad this morning than I was last night. That may be because Sanil still has a job.
I don't follow soccer much but I have to believe this will result in a complete housekeeping of US soccer. Let's hope so at least.
I actually think Asia is easier to qualify in, but that's beside the point. This is such a complete embarrassment.On GK, I don't see how Sean Johnson did not receive one qualifier call-up. The guy has been in incredible form this season, much more so than Guzan or Howard.
Iceland qualifies in Europe and finished on top of a group with Croatia, Ukraine, and Turkey, but otherwise, sure.
I'm not following. What does Iceland have to do with my previous post?
Croatia is a realllly good soccer team. Modric, Rakitic, Perisic, and Mandzukic are all very good players.
I misread, I thought for some reason you thought Iceland qualified through Asia, and I was like wtf...
A few things lean out as reasons for this...MLS: While MLS has given us a much better league, it has done just as much to provide opportunity to other CONCACAF players. Many of the players involved in our downfall were also products of our own league. However the real MLS problem is that for a long time, we didn't see players coming through the system and matriculating successfully to the national team. Instead, MLS brought back our best European players (Dempsey, Bradley, Altidore, Howard) before their best days were done and had them playing at a lower level than they were capable of. The complacency allowed by competing at that level hurt their ability to turn it up to the next level. Instead of looking across the pitch at players from Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and other nations that couldn't get a kick in Europe but did well in MLS, they see peers and not players they are at a higher level than.Youth Failures: We missed out on two consecutive Olympics. The talent level just isn't there in the age groups that would've played in those Olympics. Look at the roster, then look for players aged 23-28. There are only 4 players in that age range, which is essentially the age a player is in their prime. Yedlin never played for the U23s, Jozy didn't in the 2012 run-up. Wood and Villafana only got 3 combined games for the 2012 U23s. That 2011-12 U23 team is a void. The 2015-16 team is doing a bit better, with Acosta, Arriola, and Morris in the mix, but it's largely another empty talent pool. I don't count Nagbe, who was never eligible as a USA U23. The upside is both the U-20 and U-17 teams this year have been impressive in their respective World Cups.Management Issues: Jurgen, Bruce, and Sunil all shoulder some blame. Had Jurgen got one point out of his two matches, we're in Russia. Sunil held on too long to a coach that lost his team shortly after WC 2014. The writing was screaming on the wall after Klinsmann's Gold Cup, but Gulati wouldn't listen. Instead, Klinsmann lost the first two crucial qualifiers against our two toughest rivals. It put Bruce behind the 8-ball, though he still should've qualified. Zero away wins when we played the likes of Panama, Honduras, and T&T? That's embarrassing.Age: Not only is the 24-28 age range bereft of talent, but we are very, very old. 14 of our 23 players on the roster last night were 30+. Now that we're out of 2018, how much of this current roster will still be involved when we next play a meaningful match at the 2019 Gold Cup? What about for 2022? Not only that, how is youth not being served? Guzan is our youngest keeper at age 33. Up front, both Dempsey and Wondo are still there at age 34.Disparate Culture: There's so much pay-to-play at the youth levels. As you go up, many of these kids are playing for college scholarships, which is a completely disorganized youth system compared to other countries. We're starting to develop better academies, but in a country so spread out, we need more of a concentrated effort from the top down. Each state should have programs to train and identify talent. Grassroots teams that can identify and funnel their best and brightest. This is the one place where Klinsmann might have really helped, sadly, he stuck around too long as manager, which led to his firing and prevented him from fully installing a German type system.It's hard to be optimistic right now. 2022 is so far away. I suppose the upside is that Pulisic will then be fully in his prime as a 24-year-old. Josh Sargent will likely have started to come of age. But it's so long off. What a complete and utter disaster. This should have never, ever happened. Total disgrace from the top down. It's time to start developing skill, running
So now who is everyone rooting for? I have my two Irish teams. Who do you all have?
the other CONCACAF teams.
I can't bring myself to do that. Costa Rica maybe. But I'd rather root for nobody than El Tri. And Honduras plays the dirtiest soccer in the region, and after the bush league hacking at Pulisic and others in the second half of the match on Friday, Panama can shove off as well.
Poland (heritage) and the other CONCACAF teams.