Soccer Post...

[Shooter McGavin.sixpack]

Glad to see such a strong effort after the previous Guatemala debacle. Bradley's free kick to Cameron for that goal was a thing of beauty.

It's still pathetic to even be in this position but finish this one off and live to fight another day.

 

[Shamoan]

Klinsmann needed that one desperately, but the truth is, the USA isn't invested enough to make a real run at the cup, but we are getting there

 

[CochiseCowbell]

Will it happen during our lifetimes?

 

[patdog]

Yep. Haven't watched it, but this was a huge must-win game. Lose, and there's no hexagonal next year and no World Cup in 2018, and really no teams to play in friendlies those years since everyone halfway worth a damn is going to be playing qualification matches. Would have been a disaster of epic proportions.

 

[Shamoan]

That is a good question and it's hard to say. The money is what drives it, but it's cultural as well. Kids in other countries aspire to play soccer, while kids here do so for football, baseball, and basketball and with that comes training and moulding your body for the sport you play. If a generation or two started training it's athletes at the highest level to play soccer and a few other aspects were developed (like MLS) it would accelerate things dramatically enough to where I think we could produce a World Cup winning team, but I think football has to canabalize itself for that to happen.

 

[patdog]

The pay-to-play youth club system has been pretty bad for player development at a young age. It's starting to get better with MLS club academies, which are just now starting to produce some young players. Still 10-20 years away from being top-10 competitive worldwide, and that may be optimistic.