Well, that would explain some things.
The game was reminiscent of PSU football losses to UCLA and Northwestern -- made mistakes, came out flat, didn't come through at clutch moments.
2026 World Cup - USA team thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
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The game was reminiscent of PSU football losses to UCLA and Northwestern -- made mistakes, came out flat, didn't come through at clutch moments.
So does the keeper go down in history as someone like Bill Buckner?
No, not as consequential given this team was not going to play for a World Cup.
No--Buckner arguably cost them a ring
We weren't likely winning this round (definitely not the whole thing) even without that mistake
Just because you are paranoid, doesn’t mean they are Not out to get you!
Still, it was a moment of supreme clumsiness. Freese will likely never live this down.
FWIW, Rob Green, the English keeper made a similar bad mistake in the 2010 World Cup.
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How big of a reason for our poor soccer infrastructure is this? Feel like the ‘travel’ sports leagues are big in the soccer, lacrosse, and baseball communities. Little League tops out at 12 and after that you don’t have any options unless your school offers something. Obviously, this kind of pay to pay doesn’t exist in most other high performing countries; it’s one of the lowest barrier to enter sports for many.
Doesn’t come down to Billy Buck, if Rich Gedman does whiff on an unacceptable passed ball letting the Mets tie. It was over then, BB just became the caption
Well aware of this, one of our grandaughters plays high school and travel soccer. Very expensive. Also two grandsons in travel hockey. Even more expensive. Unfortunately that this is so prevalent, and it deters many young people from playing with the prohibitive costs that include travel, lodging, meals, and private lessons for those who can afford it. As a later post said, overpriced programs that fall short in skills development and preparation for the professional level.
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Perfect breakdown of a failed system in which I have a gradaughter participating at great expense ($).
Completely unfair comparison but to watch Messi and Argentina come back from two down late to beat Egypt with Messi scoring the tying goal I cannot help but think this is what #10 means in soccer. The USMNT #10 is on so many commercials, but on the field was invisible.
This is a fairly common opinion and hard to argue with.
I see time and again that most soccer players around the world at a high level were standouts by the time they were 13 and very few emerged when they were older than that.
I have seen a number of kids who played the sport here locally and were fine players at 7, 10 or 12. Usually those kids were among the best at baseball, football and basketball too. They ended up migrating to those other sports when they got to Middle School and were on varsity teams in those other sports by the time they were Ninth Graders. The pull of the traditional American games was simply too strong to maintain their attention in soccer.
Our best USA players often are the children of recent immigrants who push their kids to stay in soccer. Nothing wrong with that. I just point that out to stress that the cultural aspects of the game are just not present in our nation to generate the desire necessary for us to field elite world class depth in the sport.
I have seen a number of kids who played the sport here locally and were fine players at 7, 10 or 12. Usually those kids were among the best at baseball, football and basketball too. They ended up migrating to those other sports when they got to Middle School and were on varsity teams in those other sports by the time they were Ninth Graders. The pull of the traditional American games was simply too strong to maintain their attention in soccer.
Our best USA players often are the children of recent immigrants who push their kids to stay in soccer. Nothing wrong with that. I just point that out to stress that the cultural aspects of the game are just not present in our nation to generate the desire necessary for us to field elite world class depth in the sport.
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See 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973. It is what they do.
I'm not so sure about the "cultural" aspects. If elite athletes are migrating to football, baseball, and basketball, I would guess that it has more to do with potential earnings. Those contracts are more lucrative than MSL contracts. However, we have seen an increase in the number of US players playing in European premier leagues in the last 10 years or so. That is where the money is and that is where US players need to be (for now) if we are going to compete with the best.
While I agree with several parts of what he says, he also doesn't acknowledge the progress that's been made and many of his complaints that have already been addressed since he came up. Once upon a time, the National team was full of guys for this this applied - "From 18-22, some of the most important technical development years of your career, you are preparing for a 3-4 month season built largely around athleticism, direct play, set pieces, fitness, and survival."
But that's not true any more. We had a few guys that spent a year or two in college, but outside of Goalkeeper, there aren't more than a couple of guys in the entire player pool that spent any of their 20s in college. The 94 roster was full of guys that graduated college, while all of our core players today were playing in academies/professionally either here or abroad in their late teens.
There is also some element of luck to it all (if Pulisic was durable, if a Reyna/Musah/Weah kept on their trajectory, if we had a World Class goalie like we'd been used to for the past generation, etc) as well...I mean, do we think George Weah became one of the best players in the World because of the development system he had growing up in Liberia? But the more players you identify young and get in the right development system, the more lottery tickets to have to hit on the World Class guys.
We're not as far off as we looked last night...but we're also a big step below the world powers, and not in a position to bring players like Doku and Lukaku off the bench, leave De Bruyne on the bench, and have the leading scorer in our Domestic League (Cuypers) never even get a Cap for Belgium.
Most lopsided? The 1930 team would like a word.
we are lucky just to be playing.
It's really discouraging to see the numbers (~42 million when adding the Telemundo audience) and parallel that to the level of performance and mentality they showed. To say that this program dropped the ball is a massive understatement. But, it's still a sign of growth nonetheless.
How big an idiot am I this time? On July 4th, I was feeling all patriotic and enthused about our soccer team, so I bought two NIKE. 
USA caps themed after the soccer team. Seemed like a great idea at the time. Now? For f*ck’s sake. Who’s wearing USA stuff now? And NIKE. ? Jesus.
USA caps themed after the soccer team. Seemed like a great idea at the time. Now? For f*ck’s sake. Who’s wearing USA stuff now? And NIKE. ? Jesus.Jesus is not wearing the schit either.How big an idiot am I this time? On July 4th, I was feeling all patriotic and enthused about our soccer team, so I bought two NIKE.
That was before NIL.I saw NIKE.
Attaboy. Good to know your sense of humor hasn’t changed.
How big an idiot am I this time? On July 4th, I was feeling all patriotic and enthused about our soccer team, so I bought two NIKE.
Not really much of a story. Lalas believes that more trained/paid coaches will result in better talent. Jack thinks that forcing families to foot the bill weeds out kids that can't afford it. Both are probably correct. I think the big difference between the US and countries like England is that parents pay for the training in the US and clubs pay for scouting and training in England. English soccer clubs have way more money to throw around than US clubs.
That wasn’t my impression of Lalas’s take at all; it seemed to be this is a money making enterprise for people so let them earn as much as they can. He didn’t reference talent building or development at all.
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