I obviously am not as invested as others here, but I also would have felt satisfied if we advanced one more round.
It feels very American that we didn't just lose to end the excitement, we went out with a total thud.
🇺🇸 USA vs Belgium 🇧🇪
- Thread starter 1vagamecock
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It feels very American that we didn't just lose to end the excitement, we went out with a total thud.
I'm still watching the WC to the end. I've enjoyed it a lot but I am so tired of all the flopping and whining. You'd think everyone had a broken leg. Do they do that to get the attention of the referee or are they just a bunch of babies. How can you go from what looks like agonizing pain to playing full speed? And yes I did play soccer, but never acted like that. The game was tough, but so were we. There is no honor in this style of play.
Agree totally. As I've said a few times now, I was all state and conference in SC during H.S. in the early to mid 80's. I have shins that look and feel like washboards not to mention the ball was much heavier back then. Not 1 time did I or anyone on my team flop!
It is a sign of our times. Instead of adult baseball or soccer leagues now we have adult kickball and pickleball leagues.
I heard that he is currently drafting an executive order and placing a 200% tariff on all Belgium waffles and chocolates.''Satire Alert''
U.S. Back In World Cup After Trump Deports Belgian Team
U.S. — The United States Men's National Team was officially placed back in the World Cup after President Donald Trump ordered the deportation of the entire Belgian team.babylonbee.com
Some coaches i know are adamantly against the practice, others see it as a tool.
We scored are lone goal on a penalty just outside the box. If we flop 4 times and get 2 fouls and score even once off it, its worth it to some. Use every single advantage, etc.
I do get very annoyed at it though.
Only two continents have won the World Cup and that is Europe and South America. I believe for the United States to move forward they need to compete consistently with the strong teams. I really believe that somehow the United States needs join UEFA. Joining the UEFA the United States will be frequently competing against strong teams every summer or fall. Not only that, but it would also be a chance for United States to host the Euro Cup.
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It starts in youth soccer.
Folk are all over on X talking about how much it costs a family each year for a kid to play soccer. In Europe, it's basically free since pro clubs heavily fund youth soccer.
Turned it on just in time to see Argentina score 3 unanswered goals to send the terrorists home.
The United States made Belgium look good last night. Last night the United States looked like Luxembourg or Estonia or San Marino
I don't know. I don't follow soccer nearly close enough to have an opinion.
But it seems coincidental that we played our worst game against the best team we faced.
I think maybe the reason New Zealand made the World Cup is because the expanding to 32 to 48 teams. Belgium only win in group stage was against New Zealand the other three games Belgium struggled.
Cost a ton for baseball, volleyball and just about every other sport. We don't struggle in those sports. Excuses are for losers.
Cost a ton for baseball, volleyball and just about every other sport. We don't struggle in those sports. Excuses are for losers.
The reason we struggle is that our top athletes choose basketball,
I'm telling you, we pissed off Belgium. They were the better team regardless, but our great leader gave them extra, unwanted motivation.
So you don’t accept that we lag behind in soccer because of overall lower interest in American vs European countries. You don’t accept that we llag behind in soccer because of our youth sports structure.
What’s the reason then? We are the largest country of all the countries that were in the tournament. We should be able to put together a family competitive team based on population alone.
You took it so personally as though you invented the game
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I believe that European kids really do not have a lot to choose from when picking a sport to participate in. You may have a few that want to be play hockey and a few that want to play tennis, but majority play soccer. That gives the Europeans a lot of potential talent. Furthermore those professional soccer leagues in Europe means everything to them. It is a kids dream to play for country and professional ball.
The United States has many sports to choose from which reduces the chance of getting the best athletes to play soccer. Most kids dream would be playing in NFL, NBA, MLB rather than professional soccer. It is the American culture.
I don't know that Trump calling had much, if anything to do with FIFA's decision. I would be more inclined to think that if they hadn't recently overturned other suspensions. But I do think having the suspension overturned motivated Belgium to beat us badly. It worked in their favor that we apparently played quite poorly.
I don't care about (coulda, woulda, shoulda).... The problem is we give these kids participation trophies as encouragement vs dealing with life like reality. When we can't field a "respectable" team from 350 million people (of which, 75 million are hispanic - which love the sport even more than most).....vs 11 million from Belgium.... We need to quit wasting our time on this joke of a sport. GOD gave me two hands, and I plan to use them. What a waste of time. Clearly we are chumps in this sport.
I'm still glad we don't have to pretend to be interested in soccer anymore, whatever the reason is.
Youth soccer in the US has grown, mostly because overprotective mothers are afraid of "precious" getting hurt playing football. The very best athletes still gravitate towards football, basketball and baseball. Only 2 SEC schools have mens soccer, UK and South Carolina.
Youth soccer in the US has grown, mostly because overprotective mothers are afraid of "precious" getting hurt playing football. The very best athletes still gravitate towards football, basketball and baseball. Only 2 SEC schools have mens soccer, UK and South Carolina.
Landon Donovan disagrees. He probably knows a thing or two about youth soccer in America.
While football probably appeals to 90% of households that make less than $50,000.
Yeah, it doesn’t bother me. I don’t really see it as a problem that needs to be fixed. We just aren’t good at soccer. I am OK with that. There are reasons for it as I aim to discuss here, but again I don’t necessarily think it’s something we need to strive to fix. We go through this every four years. People kind of panic and start discussing why we’re not good and what we need to do to get good. I don’t think it really matters. We don’t need to be good at soccer.
I think what he means is that the money required reduces the pool of players we pull from.
So, we face the idea that the best athletes play football and basketball. That wont change. But when we take the pool of kids who want to play soccer, we are limiting that pool even further by limiting it to kids who want to play but can also afford it.
Donovan is wrong because he's operating under the incorrect assumption that there is that much interest in soccer. There just flat out isn't and soccer nerds can't come to grips with that reality.
my oldest played travel baseball, including a year at East Cobb Baseball here in Georgia. Travel baseball is very expensive.
Also, I have no clue why travel soccer is so expensive. Baseball has far more expenditures, plus so much more things a player has to have to even play. Donovan needs to send his kid to travel baseball where they play 90% wood bat tournaments. His mother sure wouldn't be able to afford a new bat 3+ times a year on top of a decent glove, sometimes two plus a Drop 3 composite bat for the non-wood bat tournaments plus spikes plus molded cleats for the artificial turf facilities, etc.
My son played soccer in college. I say he 'played', but he didn't really, he rode the pine while the students from Egypt, Africa, etc actually played. He was a big shot in high school, all-state, area POY, etc, but was not in the league of these guys, and to me it goes back to my perception of LaNorris
Sellers at QB, ie Sellers didn't grow up playing immersed in the game and paricularly the position, pretending he was Joe Montana or whoever like kids do. The players on the foreign teams GREW UP playing soccer in the streets, just like guys from my day grew up playing football and baseball in the streets; every day, 365. As noted in a post above, a good many of our guys get into the sport to keep them out of football and baseball where they can get hurt. A guy TAUGHT to play soccer can't beat a guy that LEARNS to play soccer by playing. Its like musicians if you've played in bands; you can have a keyboard player that knows written music pieces and scales backwards and forwards but put them in a band where they have to actually serve a song and they're lost.
Sellers at QB, ie Sellers didn't grow up playing immersed in the game and paricularly the position, pretending he was Joe Montana or whoever like kids do. The players on the foreign teams GREW UP playing soccer in the streets, just like guys from my day grew up playing football and baseball in the streets; every day, 365. As noted in a post above, a good many of our guys get into the sport to keep them out of football and baseball where they can get hurt. A guy TAUGHT to play soccer can't beat a guy that LEARNS to play soccer by playing. Its like musicians if you've played in bands; you can have a keyboard player that knows written music pieces and scales backwards and forwards but put them in a band where they have to actually serve a song and they're lost.
Median income in the US is $82,000 per household. 70% of households in the US make over $50,000 per year. Lack of money isn't holding back US soccer. Lack of interest in soccer is the reason.
I can assure you, any kid who wants to play soccer in the US, can play soccer.
They are not. I don't think there is any vast untapped population of kids in projects and ghettos who are clamoring to play soccer but don't have the money to play. Kids in the poorest slums in South America play soccer all the time with bundles of rags for a ball. Poor American kids find ways to play basketball and football despite not having any money.