Yup. You don't need to be the best athlete do be a center back. Just a really good one who learns proper technique and positioning.
Americans are owners or part of majority ownership in 11 of 20 EPL clubs.
I'm fine with this (for now), as going over there and playing with the other best players in the world makes them better. As long as they come back and play for us every 4 years. Our best players have been in Europe for a few years now and you can clearly see who is up to the competition (Pulisic, Richards, Adams, Robinson, McKennie, Balo) and who's not (Tim Ream).
There’s a massive audience over there and it’s the primary sport. It won’t be over here for our entire lifetimes. Great job solidifying the point I was trying to make.
To be fair, Tim Ream was a serviceable center back for Crystal Palace in the Premier for several years. He's 38 years old now and the fact he was even an option to make the roster, not to mention start, says a LOT about lack of player development in the USA.
I know, I'm sort of picking on him there. But that last game... WOOF.
Yep. It was just a matter of time, and finally facing a good opponent. The team is still generally pretty young and going forward the next 4 years we should be at least OK at the midfield and forward positions, and with Richards & Freeman in back. But someone else has to step up as CB and someone has to step up at GK.
Financial incentives, social incentives and perhaps the incentive mentioned in the above tweet are some factors
I didn't realize that he was at least partially responsible for every goal Belgium scored. Some guy on Instagram broke down where he was including getting posterized on the header or literally picking up his foot for the ball to go under. Truly horrible game by Ream.
Our women got a head start with Title IX and soccer dads and moms who invested in and traveled with their kids. Despite when some nitwits say, we have a society that really invests in women and benefits them in ways few are willing to acknowledge and in ways that other countries don't. Europe finally started to invest in soccer and they have caught up. Saying repeatedly "we have the best athletes in the world" and pointing to some random sport doesn't make it so. Speed helps but it's not like the best soccer players are all those who run the fastest over the shortest distance. Does running fast over short distances mean you have outstanding eye/foot coordination and stamina? Anyway, if you look at the actual medal count at the Olympics, Europe beats us and by far. So does the EU if you just look at that collection of countries. In the past decade, the NBA started looking to Europe and now we see what's going on. College basketball teams are now scouting Europe for players. We have enough athletic talent to be consistently in the Top 10 or Top 5. I don't even know if we have the best female athletes in the world but we have enough to be awesome in soccer on a regular basis.
I don't care about women sports. I like real football. We do have the best athletes in the world when it comes to men. When it comes to Track and Field which is the real measure of athletic ability in the Summer Olympic the United States have won 823 metals. Great Britan is number two with 211. I will let my statement ride on that.
823 metals??? It's not what your favorite sport is although that might explain some of your opinions. It's about the accuracy of your posts. We won 124 medals in the 2024 Olympics. The UK won 65 which is better per capita. EU countries won over 300 medals although their population is about 100 million more than ours. We have some of the best male and female athletes in the world. I suspect gymnastics is a greater measure of athletic ability than track and field. Basketball too. And soccer
I’ve run the numbers before. The rate of goals per hour in soccer is comparable to TDs per hour in nfl football.
Our wealthiest athletes can afford to play at the highest level. Parents pay so there is incentive to keep fat rosters and multi-tiered “highest level”. If players were seen as assets like they are in Europe and clubs paid for training and transfers and got a cut of players professional contract we would have a chance. At present less than 2% of US soccer youth players are from homes making less than $50k a year. Being expensive is the biggest impediment
I’ve always viewed a goal as the equivalent of a TD in American football. I.e. If Monday night were an American football game we got beat by 3 TD’s.
