Fun little run by the USMNT. I expected a Loss here, and I was shown said Loss.

They look to be showing positive forward strides, but there is so much more to improve on.

Hold your heads up high, guys. You made it just as far as Canada.

I cant see the country really caring about soccer without a league on the same level as premier league. No chance.

The USA result did raise an eyebrow this morning as I assumed it would be a closer affair. It turns out the Golden Generation of Belgium needed to feel slighted to show their talent and turn up - not that they will do much after this. Kind of a shame it wasn't more of a spectacle for the fans.

18 hours ago, vikas83 said:

This whole thing is so dumb. It is obvious a red card shouldn't have been issued, and the VAR review as done improperly. Balogun is a nice player, but he's not Ronaldo (who got his own 3 game suspension tolled and the Euro trash didn't cry). The appeal process makes no sense, but we landed in the fair outcome.

Plus, this:

When Ronaldo got away with the red card, there was a lot of complaining over here about how once again, he gets preferential treatment from FIFA. The bloke plays in Saudi Arabia and still get nominated for FIFA awards

14 hours ago, NCiggles said:

I thought the nature of the fould on the English player made it a red. It was a sliding tackle with his cleats up into his calf. I mean there was some homecooking in it but I didn't think it was egregious. I mean here is a similar tackle that was a straight red without VAR in the EPL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STQeJvxxEBE

It maybe gets a yellow if they were playing in London instead of Mexico City.

Yeah, It was a decision to suit the local crowd. The rules say players can't surround the Ref and yet he let Mexico do it all game. He was basically flipped off and let it go. Their bench got in a fist fight with ours and he did nothing but book an England player. Glad they are out

14 hours ago, TEW said:

Yeah, definitely. The biggest issue is that European "clubs” (their professional teams) have youth academies that train them up professionally as young children. Right now the South American teams who traditionally have that street ball culture aren’t really doing very well.

Compare that to the US, where most teams have been pay to play until recently. Like, I played for a pretty well regarded select team in my youth which produced a couple guys who played professionally in Europe, but it was still soccer moms driving their kids to practice after school, and the coaches were more concerned with winning than developing talent through training.

In Europe the kids are put in a structured environment to develop talent because the clubs are financially incentivized; youth players are often viewed as a source of revenue because players are bought and sold rather than traded. So a small club that develops a star can sell the kid at 18 years old for $50 million or more — sometimes a greater value than the club itself is worth!

The MLS just started building out academy systems relatively recently. The Philly Union actually have arguably the best academy in the country and their 16 year old Cavan Sullivan is probably the most promising young player we have in the US, and he was already sold to English giant Manchester City.

But we need more of this. We need a structured talent funnel that shapes raw athleticism into skill and gets them placed in MLS youth academies, because unlike in the NFL, you simply can’t get coached up in a few years like with Mailata. Once you are about 9 or 10 years old you are NEVER going to catch up to an equally athletic kid who has been playing his whole life with quality coaching.

Football has a long history over here, but the Academy system is giant mess skewed for Prem clubs benefit that has only really grown in the past 25 years or so. But there is an underlying culture of amateur kids football on Saturdays and Sundays, from smaller teams, to non-league clubs through to smaller professional clubs and upwards. This is our current structure for levels 1 to 8, but there are more levels...

There is competition for kids attention from Rugby, Cricket, etc, and of course, a smaller talent pool than the USA. But if you have a whiff of talent the Prem Teams come in with money to steal kids from local kids academies and then spit them out sometimes in under 12 months. And as you say, they are global now too, so we have players from Spain, etc in our academy system. The system is a meat market and pretty disgusting if you dig in to how shady some people are.

But it is producing technically focused players where it wasn't 20 years ago. I can't say for the MLS, but sometimes, it's a time and money thing to grow infrastructure, and a home WC will help a lot. It's not a quick win - we took a long time to produce a player like Bellingham from the academy system before he went to Germany

Never in the history of the NFL playoffs has the home team elected to open a retractable roof

15 hours ago, ToastJenkins said:

Has to be juicing at his age. T or hgh

I agree. Although I didn't want to say it.

Ok...on to REAL FOOTBALL!!!

18 hours ago, eagle45 said:

I understand the mentality from a media member that a political figure should not be allowed to intervene with a decision and get a result. And let them make that case.

But for a team...the team playing the USA...to whine about the availability of a player who fundamentally should be available...it's really weak.

It just goes to show that a weak loser mentality works in a sport where grown men roll around in agony after any physical contact on the field.

3 hours ago, UK Eagle said:

Football has a long history over here, but the Academy system is giant mess skewed for Prem clubs benefit that has only really grown in the past 25 years or so. But there is an underlying culture of amateur kids football on Saturdays and Sundays, from smaller teams, to non-league clubs through to smaller professional clubs and upwards. This is our current structure for levels 1 to 8, but there are more levels...

There is competition for kids attention from Rugby, Cricket, etc, and of course, a smaller talent pool than the USA. But if you have a whiff of talent the Prem Teams come in with money to steal kids from local kids academies and then spit them out sometimes in under 12 months. And as you say, they are global now too, so we have players from Spain, etc in our academy system. The system is a meat market and pretty disgusting if you dig in to how shady some people are.

But it is producing technically focused players where it wasn't 20 years ago. I can't say for the MLS, but sometimes, it's a time and money thing to grow infrastructure, and a home WC will help a lot. It's not a quick win - we took a long time to produce a player like Bellingham from the academy system before he went to Germany

I coached my son's rec soccer when he playing U8-U10 what was the largest club in NC. They have professional teams in the USL and NWSL. They self-scouted and have a system of pulling kids to higher levels and into their Academy system. We had one kid whose parents both ran track at the Division 1 level. He played with my son's team for one Fall season at U9 before they put him with their Academy for his age group. That was his first year playing organized soccer. His parents were knew he was going to be pushed to higher levels but initially were against doing it, in part, because of the cost. The club then made it free for them. It was the best thing for his development but if he was in Europe it would have happened sooner and probably more directly. My daughter played at a high level with that same club and they probably did a better job getting girls into their higher level teams. It still isn't until middle school that a lot of the girls really decide that's what they want to do. My impression is that Academy level play happens younger. It's also much more intensive in Europe. Kids are practicing 5 days a week like 3 hours a day plus games on the weekend Europe. Academy level in the US may be only 3 days a week at younger ages and only for 6 to 8 months out of the year. The coaching talent is better in Europe. The pathway for most of the kids isn't to a pro-Team in the US. It is towards playing collegiately. I think there are exceptions when talented boys get scouted but it's not like the club's goal is to have a player move out to a higher level club. I don't know that we need to get towards the European development model but I do think professional soccer needs to develop here significantly before we get close to the European level.

21 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

Academy level in the US may be only 3 days a week at younger ages and only for 6 to 8 months out of the year.

Clubs and academies around here are 10+ months. You get June and most of July off, then camps start in late July, practices in early August, pre-season scrimmages and tournaments mid to late August, then fall season second week of September. Usually a week or two break between fall and full field indoor winter season, another two week break for Christmas, boarded indoor or futsal is optional for Jan & Feb, usually a late March tournament, then a two week break before spring season. It's too much at the early ages, imo, but it's more manageable if it's your only sport.

The VAR system is a joke. Like the Brit announcer said, the system was never designed to overrule a goal on a supposed penalty 100 yards away after a brilliant run by Egypt the length of the pitch. This would be the equivalent of a 90 yard TD pass being nullified because replay saw the RG holding. The NFL replay system isn't perfect but it is 1000 times better than VAR. Egypt got jobbed. Argentina is the KC Chiefs of futbol.

2 hours ago, NCiggles said:

I coached my son's rec soccer when he playing U8-U10 what was the largest club in NC. They have professional teams in the USL and NWSL. They self-scouted and have a system of pulling kids to higher levels and into their Academy system. We had one kid whose parents both ran track at the Division 1 level. He played with my son's team for one Fall season at U9 before they put him with their Academy for his age group. That was his first year playing organized soccer. His parents were knew he was going to be pushed to higher levels but initially were against doing it, in part, because of the cost. The club then made it free for them. It was the best thing for his development but if he was in Europe it would have happened sooner and probably more directly. My daughter played at a high level with that same club and they probably did a better job getting girls into their higher level teams. It still isn't until middle school that a lot of the girls really decide that's what they want to do. My impression is that Academy level play happens younger. It's also much more intensive in Europe. Kids are practicing 5 days a week like 3 hours a day plus games on the weekend Europe. Academy level in the US may be only 3 days a week at younger ages and only for 6 to 8 months out of the year. The coaching talent is better in Europe. The pathway for most of the kids isn't to a pro-Team in the US. It is towards playing collegiately. I think there are exceptions when talented boys get scouted but it's not like the club's goal is to have a player move out to a higher level club. I don't know that we need to get towards the European development model but I do think professional soccer needs to develop here significantly before we get close to the European level.

The system over here is more regularly getting the 10 and unders into the Academy system and has become very organised and focused on maximising talent than it was in the 80s/60s etc. Generally, kids play in the local leagues starting at 6 and 7, then scouted by local teams in their catchment area, and a player enter the Academies that way. One of my siblings did some coaching for a small local amateur club (unpaid at that level) over a few years and some kids drifted into and out of local pro academies as it's not for everyone. The older the kids get, the training requirements are more intense, so they can regularly travel 50-100 miles of an evening to train 2 or 3 times a week, then play on a Saturday and Sunday. The best kids at 16 can be placed under a contract so the teams that does the training can get some compensation when a higher level team comes sniping for talent. Its a decent business model if you get it right - Southampton are well known for their academy system.

There is no College athletics scene to speak of over here outside of Athletics. Its all orientated to professional sport and in football, educating and training at the same time is becoming a thing.

My team as an example, signed a kid from the local parks at 15 who had no ambition to be a pro and he's turning into quite the Academy player and one of our better players bounced around other local teams, and the penny dropped on his career being kicked about in the non-leagues. When the game has grown in England is investment in coaching at the low levels and the willingness for 16 and 17 year old to get pushed into pro training and playing in men's leagues.

3 hours ago, NCiggles said:

It just goes to show that a weak loser mentality works in a sport where grown men roll around in agony after any physical contact on the field.

Too much acting on the games. Amazingly, they got up moments later and kept playing.

59 minutes ago, UK Eagle said:

The system over here is more regularly getting the 10 and unders into the Academy system and has become very organised and focused on maximising talent than it was in the 80s/60s etc. Generally, kids play in the local leagues starting at 6 and 7, then scouted by local teams in their catchment area, and a player enter the Academies that way. One of my siblings did some coaching for a small local amateur club (unpaid at that level) over a few years and some kids drifted into and out of local pro academies as it's not for everyone. The older the kids get, the training requirements are more intense, so they can regularly travel 50-100 miles of an evening to train 2 or 3 times a week, then play on a Saturday and Sunday. The best kids at 16 can be placed under a contract so the teams that does the training can get some compensation when a higher level team comes sniping for talent. Its a decent business model if you get it right - Southampton are well known for their academy system.

There is no College athletics scene to speak of over here outside of Athletics. Its all orientated to professional sport and in football, educating and training at the same time is becoming a thing.

My team as an example, signed a kid from the local parks at 15 who had no ambition to be a pro and he's turning into quite the Academy player and one of our better players bounced around other local teams, and the penny dropped on his career being kicked about in the non-leagues. When the game has grown in England is investment in coaching at the low levels and the willingness for 16 and 17 year old to get pushed into pro training and playing in men's leagues.

This is why soccer will never be big in the US. Who has time for all that ish from age 6 when you could earn probably 10x more money playing baseball, basketball, or football and you only have to put a kid into high school sports?

33 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Clubs and academies around here are 10+ months. You get June and most of July off, then camps start in late July, practices in early August, pre-season scrimmages and tournaments mid to late August, then fall season second week of September. Usually a week or two break between fall and full field indoor winter season, another two week break for Christmas, boarded indoor or futsal is optional for Jan & Feb, usually a late March tournament, then a two week break before spring season. It's too much at the early ages, imo, but it's more manageable if it's your only sport.

It may differ now but it was 8 months in NC. They had breaks in the Summer and Winter. The teams in this club would have tryouts every year for the higher level teams. Even if a player is on a Academy Team they have to try out for the team.

1 hour ago, UK Eagle said:

The system over here is more regularly getting the 10 and unders into the Academy system and has become very organised and focused on maximising talent than it was in the 80s/60s etc. Generally, kids play in the local leagues starting at 6 and 7, then scouted by local teams in their catchment area, and a player enter the Academies that way. One of my siblings did some coaching for a small local amateur club (unpaid at that level) over a few years and some kids drifted into and out of local pro academies as it's not for everyone. The older the kids get, the training requirements are more intense, so they can regularly travel 50-100 miles of an evening to train 2 or 3 times a week, then play on a Saturday and Sunday. The best kids at 16 can be placed under a contract so the teams that does the training can get some compensation when a higher level team comes sniping for talent. Its a decent business model if you get it right - Southampton are well known for their academy system.

There is no College athletics scene to speak of over here outside of Athletics. Its all orientated to professional sport and in football, educating and training at the same time is becoming a thing.

My team as an example, signed a kid from the local parks at 15 who had no ambition to be a pro and he's turning into quite the Academy player and one of our better players bounced around other local teams, and the penny dropped on his career being kicked about in the non-leagues. When the game has grown in England is investment in coaching at the low levels and the willingness for 16 and 17 year old to get pushed into pro training and playing in men's leagues.

There's just not that kind of pro-opportunity here. USL and below players are more like semi-pro players here.

18 hours ago, EaglePhan1986 said:

Far better team won

18 hours ago, EaglePhan1986 said:

That’s what happens when you play not to lose against a better team. No chance.

18 hours ago, EaglePhan1986 said:

Soft ass fu€kers

Geez brother, did they run out of Tampax again at the grocery store?

Is soccer season over now?

13 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Is soccer season over now?

37 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Is soccer season over now?

I am rooting for Norway now so they don't come back and pillage my neighborhood.

5 hours ago, NCiggles said:

It just goes to show that a weak loser mentality works in a sport where grown men roll around in agony after any physical contact on the field.

Except that weak team, without its best player, made the US look like chumps. And that same team is on an 18 game unbeaten streak. So maybe weak in public statements, but not so much on the field. Heck, even the US goal was an own goal by Belgium. I'll watch again in 4 years if the US makes the World Cup.

This is not unrelated to the soccer debate: Are universities miscast as the infrastructure for sports in 18-22 year old Americans?

What was the retort to the sentimental, antiquated yearning for amateur student athletes you recognize from biology 101 singing your alma mater's fight song? Times change. Treat the athletes like the revenue generating professionals that they are.

So I ask the college football fans: why are you so attached to the professional football team owned and operated by your college? The universities are a barrier to efficiency and to linear development. From a purely developmental and operational standpoint, university athletics make sense for 2nd tier athletes who are actual students and part of the community to participate in intercollegiate athletics. For the professional level athletes, it's inefficient.

Historically, the US has prioritized sports where international competition is not a consideration. So developmental inefficiencies in gridiron football, baseball, and basketball haven't been under the microscope. Basketball and baseball, which do have growing international interest, have circumvented those inefficiencies by....naturally....increasingly circumventing college. The NFL hasn't done that simply because of how damn popular college football still is. So American sports have never really been forced to introspectively evaluate things like efficiency and development. It's been purely organic instead of strategic. That's a stark contrast to international soccer talent development. And that's why we, culturally, despite being simultaneously the largest economy in the world and the most sports invested country in the world, are at a developmental disadvantage compared to other countries.

That and I still buy the argument that our best athletes are funneled away from soccer, not towards it. But even 10% of the USA talent pool and athletics funding should be enough to match or exceed France/Spain/England/Brazil...and USA soccer is approaching those threshold off the field.

In summary, college is the problem.

31 minutes ago, Freshmilk said:

Heck, even the US goal was an own goal by Belgium.

Deflection =/= own goal