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OT: We may win the World Cup in 2026

Fat Koko

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koleszar said:
Was just reading, there will be no parking in Metlife parking lots for the 8 games and only limited parking at American Dream (500 spaces) at $225 a pop. Everyone has to take mass transit to and from the games.

That sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen. NJ Transit says they can handle it based off a Taylor Swift concert where they shuttled 80,000 fans over 3 days. They'll now have to do that figure in just one day. Anyone see the problem?
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I agree. Mass transit World Cup could be a repeat of mass transit Super Bowl debacle.

NJ Transit's customer advocate is doing a Zoom call tomorrow morning. He is French and France is playing at MetLife so I might call in to ask Franck (pronounced FWUNK) Beaumin what are his tips for getting to a World Cup game.

I worked at NJT for a short time back when the agency was expanding service and attracting new customers. These days, I wouldn't be surprised if NJT makes global headlines by f'g up the World Cup like they f'd up the Super Bowl. I'm going to bring my three kids to a game and most likely will be in Philly or Foxboro for this reason.
 
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-RUFAN4LIFE-

-RUFAN4LIFE-

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The OP in this thread aged so poorly. They have no shot at advancing past the quarterfinals but I think they'll probably go out in the first knockout round.
 
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Anon1753410373

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Oh I think the overall talent from 2-11 is there (though gk has shifted to a weakness). To me these professionals lack the chip on their shoulder that defined the 2002 team - that was special indeed.

Hoping these guys don’t buckle under the pressure.
 
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LotusAggressor_rivals

LotusAggressor_rivals

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Colbert17! said:
You guys wait until all of these millions of kids around this country who are playing youth soccer grow up. We will be the dominant power in the world.
Oh wait....it's not 1980.
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Lather, rinse, repeat. The US will be a dominant power in the world of soccer when their best athletes stop playing basketball and football.
 
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Fat Koko

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Doctor Worm said:
Take off the tattooed part, and it describes Lalas' career as an MLS executive.
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Why the player hatin' on Rutgers grad and legend Alexi? He led Rutgers soccer to the final four in 1989 and national championship game in 1990. When in Rutgers history has a Scarlet Knight team done so much?

Alexi balled at Rutgers, as a pro in top leagues on three continents, played for the US in two World Cups, signed Beckham to MLS, and holds it down as the lead commentator for US soccer.

Alexi is way more Rutgers than Ace, Dylan, and Schiano. Ace and Dylan led Rutgers basketball to a losing season and Schiano (99-108) is the most expensive losing coach in the history of sports.

I met Alexi a few times. Great guy. He got fired from a job decades ago. Who cares. Stop the hate.

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RUChet

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Yes US soccer had made a lot of progress getting guys in foreign leagues but our national team has not made much progress. It is true.

we actually got to the quarters in 2002 and could have gotten to the semis with a break here or there- that team was quite good and played together. We lost 1-0 to Germany in the quarters but if you rewatch we gave them all they could handle.

US sports have an issue with developing talent in how we approach sports with such a focus on games and tourneys at the youth level vs skill development. This hurts us in soccer and partly why in hoops we
See so many multi skilled foreign guys.

go look at how other countries develop basketball and soccer talent and it’s quite different than here what the kids focus on.

Our inability to develop elite soccer players that score goals is mind boggling. We were arguably better 20 yrs ago when Dempsey and McBride were scoring goals in the premiership.

Now we rely on Balugun who is a naturalized citizen and Pepi/Wright who don’t play in a top 5 league. We can’t develop 1 top level striker from 330 million people?

And what happened to our GK pool? We had world class guys in Keller, Friedel and Howard back to back to back and now we rely on Freese who isn’t even considered one of the best in MLS?
 
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LotusAggressor_rivals

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RUChet said:
Yes US soccer had made a lot of progress getting guys in foreign leagues but our national team has not made much progress. It is true.

we actually got to the quarters in 2002 and could have gotten to the semis with a break here or there- that team was quite good and played together. We lost 1-0 to Germany in the quarters but if you rewatch we gave them all they could handle.

US sports have an issue with developing talent in how we approach sports with such a focus on games and tourneys at the youth level vs skill development. This hurts us in soccer and partly why in hoops we
See so many multi skilled foreign guys.

go look at how other countries develop basketball and soccer talent and it’s quite different than here what the kids focus on.

Our inability to develop elite soccer players that score goals is mind boggling. We were arguably better 20 yrs ago when Dempsey and McBride were scoring goals in the premiership.

Now we rely on Balugun who is a naturalized citizen and Pepi/Wright who don’t play in a top 5 league. We can’t develop 1 top level striker from 330 million people?

And what happened to our GK pool? We had world class guys in Keller, Friedel and Howard back to back to back and now we rely on Freese who isn’t even considered one of the best in MLS?
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Spot on. This is why the US is unlikely to win a World Cup and it's also why we need to send NBA Hall of Famers to win gold in the Olympics now.
 
Fat Koko

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RUChet said:
Yes US soccer had made a lot of progress getting guys in foreign leagues but our national team has not made much progress. It is true.

we actually got to the quarters in 2002 and could have gotten to the semis with a break here or there- that team was quite good and played together. We lost 1-0 to Germany in the quarters but if you rewatch we gave them all they could handle.

US sports have an issue with developing talent in how we approach sports with such a focus on games and tourneys at the youth level vs skill development. This hurts us in soccer and partly why in hoops we
See so many multi skilled foreign guys.

go look at how other countries develop basketball and soccer talent and it’s quite different than here what the kids focus on.

Our inability to develop elite soccer players that score goals is mind boggling. We were arguably better 20 yrs ago when Dempsey and McBride were scoring goals in the premiership.

Now we rely on Balugun who is a naturalized citizen and Pepi/Wright who don’t play in a top 5 league. We can’t develop 1 top level striker from 330 million people?

And what happened to our GK pool? We had world class guys in Keller, Friedel and Howard back to back to back and now we rely on Freese who isn’t even considered one of the best in MLS?
Click to expand...
1986 - US fails to qualify for World Cup, Canada qualifies
1990 - US qualifies for first time in 40 years because Mexico was banned and US upset T&T 1-0
1994 - US hosts, MLS launched
1998 - US qualifies again
2002 - US makes World Cup quarterfinals

Then, over the past 20+ years, then USMNT has been underwhelming. It happens in sports. Italy hasn't qualified for a soccer World Cup since 2014. I'm rooting for England win this year.
 
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RUChet

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LotusAggressor_rivals said:
Spot on. This is why the US is unlikely to win a World Cup and it's also why we need to send NBA Hall of Famers to win gold in the Olympics now.
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agree. 2028 hoops is going to be a problem. who is going to guard wemby? we barely beat france with all those all-time greats and wemby will be 4 yrs older. USA doesn't produce elite centers any more and it's embarrassingly bad.

Think about it - USA had to naturalize Embid to have a decent center! and Bam at 6-9 was our backup center?

who will be our center in 2028? Duren? he was benched for Paul Reed! Chet? yes he has talent but he can't be our starting center. who else are we going to put out there? Kessler if healthy? Clingan? we literally have no center talent left.

So for Soccer, if we can't score goals we can't win and USA has a big problem creating good scoring chances and actually getting goals. I don't know how we fix it although it seemed under Klinsmann we had made progress but other aspects of his coachign were lacking.

I also think if Poch stayed another cycle it would really help for continuity.
 
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LotusAggressor_rivals

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RUChet said:
agree. 2028 hoops is going to be a problem. who is going to guard wemby? we barely beat france with all those all-time greats and wemby will be 4 yrs older. USA doesn't produce elite centers any more and it's embarrassingly bad.

Think about it - USA had to naturalize Embid to have a decent center! and Bam at 6-9 was our backup center?

who will be our center in 2028? Duren? he was benched for Paul Reed! Chet? yes he has talent but he can't be our starting center. who else are we going to put out there? Kessler if healthy? Clingan? we literally have no center talent left.

So for Soccer, if we can't score goals we can't win and USA has a big problem creating good scoring chances and actually getting goals. I don't know how we fix it although it seemed under Klinsmann we had made progress but other aspects of his coachign were lacking.

I also think if Poch stayed another cycle it would really help for continuity.
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It took a 36 year old Steph Curry shooting flame out of his @SS to beat France. If Wemby avoids major injury, he's going to be a big problem. He'll be even better than he is now. US high schools and colleges aren't exactly churning out skilled centers. Just like soccer programs aren't churning out skilled players either.
 
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Caliknight

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AAU is killing American basketball just as club soccer is killing any hope of fielding a legit soccer team.

I play golf with a US soccer board member. We simply don’t develop truly world class talent. Their goal is to make it out of the group. That’s the ceiling for this team.
 
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RUChet

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Caliknight said:
AAU is killing American basketball just as club soccer is killing any hope of fielding a legit soccer team.

I play golf with a US soccer board member. We simply don’t develop truly world class talent. Their goal is to make it out of the group. That’s the ceiling for this team.
Click to expand...
It is still true that our best athletes tend to go to football, basketball, and hockey.

but atill - a country of our size simply needs to develop Better talent

Czech Republic has more talent than we and the have 10M people.
 
Fat Koko

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Seems like some sports are woven into a country's DNA and other sports aren't.

US in basketball, DR in baseball, Brazil in soccer, New Zealand in rugby.

India is consistently at the top in cricket but terrible at everything else. Not a single MLS quality soccer player out of 1 billion plus people. The greatest ever Indian soccer players was cut by the KC Wizards before appearing in a game.

Wouldn't surprise me if more kids in US play organized soccer than any other country but national team has always struggled to break through.
 
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RUChet

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Fat Koko said:
Seems like some sports are woven into a country's DNA and other sports aren't.

US in basketball, DR in baseball, Brazil in soccer, New Zealand in rugby.

India is consistently at the top in cricket but terrible at everything else. Not a single MLS quality soccer player out of 1 billion plus people. The greatest ever Indian soccer players was cut by the KC Wizards before appearing in a game.

Wouldn't surprise me if more kids in US play organized soccer than any other country but national team has always struggled to break through.
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True but even Brazil who by far has the most soccer talent hasn’t won the wc in a while - they could field 5 teams that could win but they aren’t always a cohesive team like us in basketball sometimes

and the only reason we are so good in basketball is we had such a head start and our size
 
Fat Koko

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RUChet said:
True but even Brazil who by far has the most soccer talent hasn’t won the wc in a while - they could field 5 teams that could win but they aren’t always a cohesive team like us in basketball sometimes

and the only reason we are so good in basketball is we had such a head start and our size
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Nobody has figured out how to develop height. Weight rooms yes, height rooms no. Probably more 6'6" and taller people in US than any other country by far. Big advantage for USA. Explains why South Sudan is good at basketball. Very tall people there. Ranked above China. Interestingly, the country ranked last in basketball, Vanuatu, produced a 7'2" guy who I wanted Rutgers to get out of the portal. Anton Bonke landed at Michigan State.

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RUChet

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Fat Koko said:
Nobody has figured out how to develop height. Weight rooms yes, height rooms no. Probably more 6'6" and taller people in US than any other country by far. Big advantage for USA.
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Actually central and north Europeans are taller than Americans on average so there are considerably more taller people there than USA in total actually
 
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-RUFAN4LIFE-

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RUChet said:
True but even Brazil who by far has the most soccer talent hasn’t won the wc in a while - they could field 5 teams that could win but they aren’t always a cohesive team like us in basketball sometimes

and the only reason we are so good in basketball is we had such a head start and our size
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Brazil has lost it's competitive edge, they been slipping for quite awhile now on the international stage. Probably far worse than the US men's basketball team.
 
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Fat Koko

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RUChet said:
Actually central and north Europeans are taller than Americans on average so there are considerably more taller people there than USA in total actually
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Those countries have smaller populations though. Let's say 2% of Russian guys are 6'6"+ and 1% of US guys are 6'6"+, the US has a lot more 6'6" guys.
 
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RUDiddy777

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Caliknight said:
AAU is killing American basketball just as club soccer is killing any hope of fielding a legit soccer team.

I play golf with a US soccer board member. We simply don’t develop truly world class talent. Their goal is to make it out of the group. That’s the ceiling for this team.
Click to expand...

This. The development system is mostly non-existent. There are a few MLS clubs that have decent academies, but no where near enough to meet demand or to get the players with the most potential. The 2 best US born players (Pulisic and Rossi) were able to move to Europe for development as teenagers. Club is focused on games when kids need touches on the ball to improve.
 
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RUDiddy777

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RUChet said:
True but even Brazil who by far has the most soccer talent hasn’t won the wc in a while - they could field 5 teams that could win but they aren’t always a cohesive team like us in basketball sometimes

and the only reason we are so good in basketball is we had such a head start and our size
Click to expand...

I don’t think that’s true. Basketball is embedded in our culture and there’s a lower barrier to entry. There’s hoops everywhere and you just need a ball.

Just paid for my kids club, it’s not an issue for us, but it would be prohibitive for many families to plop down a mortgage payment for club soccer.

One cause for optimism is the accessibility of watching European soccer to kids now - something us middle aged guys couldn’t do in the pre-YouTube world. It gives them something to emulate.
 
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RUChet

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Fat Koko said:
Those countries have smaller populations though. Let's say 2% of Russian guys are 6'6"+ and 1% of US guys are 6'6"+, the US has a lot more 6'6" guys.
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but it's russia + germany + sweden + denmark + netherlands + finland + norway + belarus + lativa + lithuania + estonia + poland + czech + serbia + croatia + bosnia + slovenia - you get the point
 
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RUChet

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RUDiddy777 said:
I don’t think that’s true. Basketball is embedded in our culture and there’s a lower barrier to entry. There’s hoops everywhere and you just need a ball.

Just paid for my kids club, it’s not an issue for us, but it would be prohibitive for many families to plop down a mortgage payment for club soccer.

One cause for optimism is the accessibility of watching European soccer to kids now - something us middle aged guys couldn’t do in the pre-YouTube world. It gives them something to emulate.
Click to expand...
but we no longer are dominant in basketball and we're slipping year over year. 6-10+ we are already behind the world. soccer is also very accessible as you only need a ball to kick and makeshift goal - it;s the structured youth soccer system, over emphasis on games and manicured fields that doesn't help us. inner city kids in Argentina, spain, portugal, etc grow up kicking the ball in the street. my in-laws are in austria/germany - they do not have youth fields/games/leagues the way we do. kids just play in skill based camps and only occasionally games. parents don't watch practice or games. it's just so different
 
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RUChet

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Big blow to USMNT - potentially. Chris Richards has to 2 ruptured ankle ligaments and he's by a MILE our best central defender and could start for a lot of WC teams. His club thinks he'll return to club action pre WC but it's a concern for USA. How well will he heal? how will his fitness be?

Cardoso already out of WC with an injury and Tessman is still recovering. We can't go down another guy as we don't have the depth.
 
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RUDiddy777

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RUChet said:
but we no longer are dominant in basketball and we're slipping year over year. 6-10+ we are already behind the world. soccer is also very accessible as you only need a ball to kick and makeshift goal - it;s the structured youth soccer system, over emphasis on games and manicured fields that doesn't help us. inner city kids in Argentina, spain, portugal, etc grow up kicking the ball in the street. my in-laws are in austria/germany - they do not have youth fields/games/leagues the way we do. kids just play in skill based camps and only occasionally games. parents don't watch practice or games. it's just so different
Click to expand...

In bball, I think everyone is just catching up - we’re not getting worse. We’ve seen poor man Lebrons and Jordan’s - but Wemby, don’t think we’ll ever see another guy at 7 4+ with PG handles and the ability to pull up for a logo 3 that’s not in desperation.

Totally agree with your point on other countries. Our system is just busted for soccer - and it’s why we’re not catching up. Parents just want to see their kid score and they’re constantly barking out orders as if they know anything about the game. It’s frustrating as hell watching their kids dribble into a mass of kids or just straight out of bounds without passing.

on a side note, have you had a chance to see the youngsters on RBNY? If not, enjoy em while they’re stateside.
 
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-RUFAN4LIFE-

-RUFAN4LIFE-

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RUDiddy777 said:
In bball, I think everyone is just catching up - we’re not getting worse. We’ve seen poor man Lebrons and Jordan’s - but Wemby, don’t think we’ll ever see another guy at 7 4+ with PG handles and the ability to pull up for a logo 3 that’s not in desperation.

Totally agree with your point on other countries. Our system is just busted for soccer - and it’s why we’re not catching up. Parents just want to see their kid score and they’re constantly barking out orders as if they know anything about the game. It’s frustrating as hell watching their kids dribble into a mass of kids or just straight out of bounds without passing.

on a side note, have you had a chance to see the youngsters on RBNY? If not, enjoy em while they’re stateside.
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I think the players representing USA basketball just don't care as much as the Birds, Johnsons, etc. did about representing the country.
 
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Caliknight

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RUDiddy777 said:
In bball, I think everyone is just catching up - we’re not getting worse. We’ve seen poor man Lebrons and Jordan’s - but Wemby, don’t think we’ll ever see another guy at 7 4+ with PG handles and the ability to pull up for a logo 3 that’s not in desperation.

Totally agree with your point on other countries. Our system is just busted for soccer - and it’s why we’re not catching up. Parents just want to see their kid score and they’re constantly barking out orders as if they know anything about the game. It’s frustrating as hell watching their kids dribble into a mass of kids or just straight out of bounds without passing.

on a side note, have you had a chance to see the youngsters on RBNY? If not, enjoy em while they’re stateside.
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They are more than catching up. They practice. AAU teams don't practice. All they do is play games. It's good from an individual skills perspective but terrible from a fundamental and team concept perspective.
 
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Caliknight

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RUDiddy777 said:
I don’t think that’s true. Basketball is embedded in our culture and there’s a lower barrier to entry. There’s hoops everywhere and you just need a ball.

Just paid for my kids club, it’s not an issue for us, but it would be prohibitive for many families to plop down a mortgage payment for club soccer.

One cause for optimism is the accessibility of watching European soccer to kids now - something us middle aged guys couldn’t do in the pre-YouTube world. It gives them something to emulate.
Click to expand...
But they don't go out and play unsupervised. It's all club related. Even basketball isn't a park game anymore. These kids just play AAU ball. Parks I used to see very active have no more motion now. They can watch soccer till the cows come home but if they aren't working on their skills and playing outside of structured games and practicing, it won't matter at all. The system is broken in both sports.
 
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RUChet

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-RUFAN4LIFE- said:
I think the players representing USA basketball just don't care as much as the Birds, Johnsons, etc. did about representing the country.
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I don't think that's true. the world is 1000% better than when the dream team played. so it's SO MUCH harder now to win. Our guys played really hard to win the last olympics and we tried hard to win the last world cup but our team wasn't big enough (Talk and bulky) and we were manhandled in the last few games. but our guys tried hard.

i just think it's easy to say the Dream Team wanted it more because they were so dominant and now our guys don't care because we barely win (or don't win).

The Dream Team would flat out not crush everyone now like they did. They'd have much closer games. that team was actually quite flawed and the best world teams would exploit now.

1) we had little outside shooting other than Mullin and a very slow/injured Bird
2) we had poor perimeter defense for the most part except when MJ/Pippen got out there
3) our bigs dominated but there was little competition back then. Now they'd have to go against NBA talent in the post on almost every team.
4) We had MJ so we'd still win but we'd have much closer games and we'd have to prepare much harder.
 
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