These are the same crap excuses I hear from Americans constantly. The issue isn't the players but the coaching. The players are there right now and more and better players are coming through the pipeline. The coaching from the national team on down has to keep up. The players ARE there. They aren't Brazil, Holland Argentina or Spain but then again who else is???
Yeah, I was on Wiki, looking at the U17 and U20 teams. Can't really say I'm an expert on them. What's also disappointing is that I see little Mexican kids in their green or black I guess, Mexican Jerseys who were clearly born in America. Guess what kid, you're never playing for Mexico. (except FIFA has stupid rules, so you might)
Slight struggle but he was still better than a majority of goalkeepers in the EPL. He's not exactly Heurelho on the pitch(In terms of weak goalkeeping play). He is one player that US fans should always take pride in having.
Fifa needs to change the rules, if you are born in one country that is where you play, unless you are a citizen etc... DD
Not an excuse. Said many times Mexico was the better team, so not using an excuse. The fact is Americans are not as passionate about Soccer as these other countries. Kids like Lebron dream their whole life of playing in the NBA, and if the NBA wasn't an option he was a top rated TE prospect if I can recall correctly. A lot of guys going into college are two sport athletes and it is usually Basketball/American Football/Baseball. Dwight Howard if he had trained all his life for Soccer probably would have been a hell of a goalkeeper with his agility and reach and reaction time. Coaching is a HUGE factor but so is the popularity of the sport. It's just like Basketball, countries that have some passion for the sport like Greece do much better than those that don't like England.
It is an excuse (I meant one that's used by some to explain why other teams are better than the US not necessarily talking about tonights match) and it's used by many not just you. You bring up Dwight Howard and LeBron. Just because a player is phenomenally talented at one or two sports doesn't mean that they'd be just as talented in another if they focused on it. Coaching plays a huge part in it. Agility is not something that the US team lacks in spades. Reach and reaction time hasn't been a constant problem with US goalkeepers over the past 20 years. From Friedel to Keller and Howard. This is a decent article that sums up my feelings about that http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-...e/us/lebron-not-save-us-soccer&cc=5901?ver=us The popularity of the sports is not even close to as big a factor as the coaching the young players receive from an early age. You mention Basketball and compare Greece with England. Forget that. Let's talk Footy/Soccer. There is no sport more popular than Footy in England, yet guess what? The biggest problem there is still COACHING! Has been for years and still is. They're some solid and lovely talented English players but the problem is coaching. Coaching coaching coaching. Coaching from a young age.
Excellent question. As far as I know Edgar Castillo is the only one(US born played/plays for Mexico). Perhaps there are other who've done so in past decades. I think it's even rarer to find one born in Mexico that would play or has played for the US in recent memory.
Coaching is a major issue for sure. But when the majority of the kids in the USA turn on the TV they see baseball, basketball and football, and gravitate to those sports. I have 2 boys...12 and 8, both of them play sports.....and TV has influenced what they and their friends want to play or idolize. We are playing all star baseball right now, and I hate it...I would much rather have my boys in soccer but they have to have the interest...the oldest doesn't care for it, but the youngest, well, he has been the most dominant player in his age group for the last 3 years....and is attending a permiership camp in July......can't wait to see how he does there, he is my little Messi.....lol...well as much as an 8 year old that shoots and controls the ball with both feet can be......but even he is drawn towards other sports because his friends play them more... DD
Sigh. When we learn that Bradley just can't get it done on any big stage? It's been time to move on for a while now..
MEXICO!! MEXICO!! MEXICO!! Congrats to the US, for giving a great game to watch! Damn, I was so worried after the 2-0 against. But nice clutch performance by Mexico! Mexico - Clutch Country! hehe The one player I dont like in Mexico's team is Torrado, he was always giving horrible passes.
That's cool. What camp is it? Make sure he keeps watching FSC with you and if you live in Htown, make sure you take him to tons of Dynamo matches.
An excuse to me is something like "Well Altidore and Cherundolo were hurt..." The passion the country has for a sport plays a huge role in sports like these. That article makes a point in comparing two completely different skillsets... That makes little sense since Kobe is a athlete. I think Kobe is right when he says if he were kicking a ball more than bouncing one that he'd be a great soccer player. That is because to propel as a athlete takes a physical gift that some of these guys are born with AND also a mental drive that most people don't have. The passion of the sport has a lot to do with it. England may not be as good as they once were but their national soccer team is still a level or two above ours. USA produces no star players, when is the last time a Soccer phenom came out of USA? When is the last time a Bball phenom came out of USA, it's almost every year now, same with Baseball, and I won't count NFL since it's not a international sport. If passion has little to do with the success of national teams than when is the last time someone won a major competition and didn't care about the sport? Even Austrailia wins a lot of their swimming competitions in the Olympics. You can argue that Argentina winning Fiba a few years back but Basketball is such a new sport compared to Football and you see as the popularity grows now other countries are getting better and producing top prospects. This is not a coincidence. Again not saying Coaching is not a problem, but I think the popularity and passion for the game has a lot to do with it. As DD mentioned these kids grow up watching NBA/NFL/MLB. Watching these guys become superstars in this country. They see being a NBA/MLB/NFL athlete as something as glamorous, a tag that can't be associated with being a U.S Soccer player in the MLS. Also if the sport was more popular then losing like this would not be shrugged off like it already has. This type of coaching would not have been accepted for so long now. 'Fire Bradley..' would be a major topic on ESPN years ago IMO. Look at team USA Basketball again. We lose a Fiba competition and next thing you know the whole Program is being turned upside down because if it's not gold then it's not acceptable. Or just look what happens when major soccer nations lose, there is outrage about it and things must change. There is a sort of losers mentality here also when it comes to Soccer and this country.
Don't watch a lot a soccer and I'm bummed the USA didn't win, but that was one of the best matches I've seen.
Best player on the US' tonight is from Ghana. And a quarter of the team is Hispanic- American? Point? And no, Mexicans are not embarrassed that another country's team can put a competitive team on the field. You would think the US could actually put a better product on the pitch and they should.
Did you also mention how LeBron came from a poverish background? Did you mention that he lived in a "puny" little city like Akron?! GTFO
Right, a country with 300 million people can not put together 20 men to play against countries like Panama (3 million) , Paraguay ( 6 million). It's beyond lame to make such excuse.
What I don't get is why do people who live in this great counrty root for another country. Sure you have roots there but your counrty should come first and your roots come 2nd. You make your money to provide for your family here. Not in mexico. The thing that disgust me the most is to see illeagal alien marching down the street with mexico flag and face painted asking for u.s. citizenship. It's also funny how people cheers for mexico but when 4th of july comes around, they are out there celebrating too and it's not to celebrate our country but another reason to party hard and get drunk Smh
You've made this moronic statement before and it's still just as moronic. I quit other sports to the dismay of the coaches at my school to play soccer. There are many many others like me. Yeah, there were kids in the soccer program because they didn't want to do PE. Those were called our towel boys and the ones that saw only garbage time when we were beating the crap out of someone. Most of the people I know that played high school soccer played because they were soccer players and nothing else. You talk out of your ass when it comes to this game. Leave it to the adults, kiddo. Last night was definitely disappointing. When you go up 2-0, you have to change your tactics some. You have to be more concsious about getting numbers behind the ball. Even with that, though, Johnathan Bornstein was hell bent on being out of position time and time again. 3 goals were from his side and he was no where to be found...except on the last one where you can see him standing 5 yards from Dos Santos, watching him do his thing. He never made an effort to get in the way. This is why Bradley should be fired. He has no eye for talent. There's no skill in starting your best 11. It's when you have to go to the bench that you need to know what your doing. Anyone that would even call Bornstein into camp clearly doesn't have that. He's not a good player, period. The game changed when Cherundolo went down. That's not to say that Mexico wouldn't have made it a game. They are a very good team.
