US Men's National Team - what went wrong?

mirage said:
Landon Donovan Mulling Run for U.S. Soccer President

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...y-considering-running-for-us-soccer-president

"The nominations for U.S. Soccer presidential candidates are due on Dec. 12, and SI.com has learned that Landon Donovan is seriously considering running for U.S. Soccer president.

Donovan, who had no comment, has been asked by a number of respected figures in American soccer to contemplate running. They’re concerned about Sunil Gulati continuing to control decisions on the technical side—including hiring head coaches—and think Donovan is better qualified to handle the soccer aspects of the job.

If Donovan were to run, it would be a game-changer in the campaign to become the elected leader of U.S. Soccer.

Donovan, one of the most decorated players in the country's history, holds a share of the U.S. men's all-time scoring record with Clint Dempsey (57) and is the USA's all-time men's assist leader with 58."
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But does he know how to finance an MLS team?
 
jose said:
Pay to play is a popular buzz word. Nothing is free. In fact baseball/softball are the cheapest club teams then soccer. volleyball hockey, LAX basketball are all ridiculous amounts of money. Even AYSO cost a small fee but parents are lining fields and playing referee. Club is expensive but the reality the coaches don't make squat even at the expensive clubs until olders. That is why they have 3-4 teams hustling with privates or setting up pick up games and futsal. Ayso is great for the community but the guy coaching often times is just a dad doing his part being a good dad and member of the community. Many haven't played so are learning on the fly. as afar as the country club stuff the coaches are not dumb they go where the money is. The people with the money are often delusional. And gullible. They ruin it for their kids. Instead of going to watch their kid play then criticize on stuff they have no idea about they should just go and be grateful their kid can play. the silly quote isn't so silly "i just love to watch you play"
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Lol. That will never happen.
 
younothat said:
US Soccer scouting ignoring some key population centers

U.S. Soccer’s 10 full time scouts need to do more to find talent in all parts of the country.
https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/u...16501882/usa-usmnt-us-soccer-scouting-lacking
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They arent ignoring areas on purpose. They havent put the resources in. We are larger than other countries. Germany, for instance, has "thousands" of scouts, but how many are coaches & scouts from pro clubs? They have the financial incentive to find the talent as well. The other issue is MLS doesnt have teams in many areas and no club/academies in the areas. Would be hard for them to monitor them if they are not within the greater city area they are established in. That brings in the opportunity for 2nd/3rd tier clubs to establish themselves - but what incentive do they have? No pro/rel, so financial incentive to start-up, develop talent, sell talent or keep talent and hope to get promoted. So up to USSF to do things in those areas - which is a different how other countries' federations work. We are smart enough to figure it out, plenty of ideas out there, but almost sure to lose a battle with an establishment that has the power, resources and no financial incentive to change. You almost have to approach them talking dollars and lots of them. That is why Ricardo Silva (miami fc) came at MLS with $4Billion just to stir up the convo of pro/rel - otherwise he can never own an MLS team in the area since they just handed one to Becks.
 
Not_that_Serious said:
They arent ignoring areas on purpose. They havent put the resources in. We are larger than other countries. Germany, for instance, has "thousands" of scouts, but how many are coaches & scouts from pro clubs? They have the financial incentive to find the talent as well. The other issue is MLS doesnt have teams in many areas and no club/academies in the areas. Would be hard for them to monitor them if they are not within the greater city area they are established in. That brings in the opportunity for 2nd/3rd tier clubs to establish themselves - but what incentive do they have? No pro/rel, so financial incentive to start-up, develop talent, sell talent or keep talent and hope to get promoted. So up to USSF to do things in those areas - which is a different how other countries' federations work. We are smart enough to figure it out, plenty of ideas out there, but almost sure to lose a battle with an establishment that has the power, resources and no financial incentive to change. You almost have to approach them talking dollars and lots of them. That is why Ricardo Silva (miami fc) came at MLS with $4Billion just to stir up the convo of pro/rel - otherwise he can never own an MLS team in the area since they just handed one to Becks.
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$4Billion and it was a non-starter. That is how difficult of a road we have ahead of us. It won't be in our lifetime
 
Youth Soccer in the USA is 99% about MONEY, MONEY and MONEY! The scam is out of control! Lets get real we in the USA have almost 400 million people to choose from, world class athletic training facilities second to none in the world! And according to every single US club coach I have ever met the best youth clubs in the world! And yet they cant win a world title and now they cant even make the cut to play for a title!!! What does this say about the US club soccer programs??? It is yet another shining example of the pure greed and scam American club soccer truly is.
The women's team has done pretty good over the past 10-15 years but considering all the resources the American team has with the above mentioned examples they are not consistently cutting it to the caliber they should be. This all starts with the grass roots supposedly preparing club players for bigger and better things. Considering the time and money we have all handed these clubs obviously OUR KIDS ARE NOT getting the product we are being sold! The clubs are all the exact same with their chase to grab your wallet at all cost and almost zero care for the future of the players, the clubs treat the majority of players and families like sheep with nothing more than a # and a profile of how much profit they can use you and your family for. I would love to hear the line of pure BS excuses these clubs have about the sorry ass excuse for the US men's soccer team we all just witnessed being kicked out like some 3rd world country's attempt at playing with the big boys!
There is an upside to the scam, that is with all the money we as families are willing to let the clubs charge us is starting a huge influx of Euro coaches coming to America for their piece of the action! They love it, they have never seen such a easy way to make real money dealing with idiots willing to hand over their hard earned cash based on NOTHING more than cheap lip service!
 
@EricWynalda on running for President of @usaoccer and why @sunilgulati is doing it wrong.
https://art19.com/shows/the-leisure...episodes/406c7684-574b-49a0-9b3c-bc55e8110e4b

"When you really look and dig down at the professional level and see what’s going on a tiers 1, 2 and 3, it is the most disorganized professional outfit on the planet. Then you try to look at the youth organizations who are trying to develop the next superstars and they are even more fragmented than the pros. While we sit back and celebrate all this growth, it is almost that we have to remind people that cancer grows organically too.

“If you don’t have a vision and don’t have a means of getting everybody understanding exactly what their function is within the system, it is not going to work. We are celebrating it right now but the truth is it needs a lot of change, in a hurry, if soccer is going to make sense in this country because we are almost growing out of control. We have become a weed. We talk about grassroots but we have a lot of weeds. This is not the way it is supposed to be.”

“Is there talent? Absolutely. Absolutely. I would argue that there are 100 more Christian Pulisic’s out there. That is quite the statement. I’m coming from practice right now with a bunch of amateur guys that we discovered an 18-year-old Mexican-American boy in a Sunday league two weeks ago and he’s probably going to be the best guy on my team this year. These are the kind of things that are misunderstood.

“I went on the podium the other day and said we don’t have time for a president who has one foot in New York and one foot in Switzerland, we need a president that has boots on the ground now and starts solving some of the problems. That talent is out there. We just have to find them and make sure we take care of that.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/potential-president-wynalda-discusses-plans-144803221.html
 
younothat said:
@EricWynalda on running for President of @usaoccer and why @sunilgulati is doing it wrong.
https://art19.com/shows/the-leisure...episodes/406c7684-574b-49a0-9b3c-bc55e8110e4b

"When you really look and dig down at the professional level and see what’s going on a tiers 1, 2 and 3, it is the most disorganized professional outfit on the planet. Then you try to look at the youth organizations who are trying to develop the next superstars and they are even more fragmented than the pros. While we sit back and celebrate all this growth, it is almost that we have to remind people that cancer grows organically too.

“If you don’t have a vision and don’t have a means of getting everybody understanding exactly what their function is within the system, it is not going to work. We are celebrating it right now but the truth is it needs a lot of change, in a hurry, if soccer is going to make sense in this country because we are almost growing out of control. We have become a weed. We talk about grassroots but we have a lot of weeds. This is not the way it is supposed to be.”

“Is there talent? Absolutely. Absolutely. I would argue that there are 100 more Christian Pulisic’s out there. That is quite the statement. I’m coming from practice right now with a bunch of amateur guys that we discovered an 18-year-old Mexican-American boy in a Sunday league two weeks ago and he’s probably going to be the best guy on my team this year. These are the kind of things that are misunderstood.

“I went on the podium the other day and said we don’t have time for a president who has one foot in New York and one foot in Switzerland, we need a president that has boots on the ground now and starts solving some of the problems. That talent is out there. We just have to find them and make sure we take care of that.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/potential-president-wynalda-discusses-plans-144803221.html
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Way to much money involved to really invest the time and effort needed to find the raw talent in the youth soccer world.
The revenue for these US youth soccer clubs is all based on quantity not quality. This system has taken on a life of its own and money always wins over everything.
The clubs are burning families and children out with their new fancy titles, tournaments and year around 4 days a week, 300 plus days a year training and traveling almost every weekend! They are ruining a great sport.
Greed ruins passion. Look at what has happened to some of the SD based clubs that went and became Devolomental clubs! Their wins and loses are horrible because the destroyed all the teams for profit!
It's emploding as we watch.
 
sandshark said:
Way to much money involved to really invest the time and effort needed to find the raw talent in the youth soccer world.
The revenue for these US youth soccer clubs is all based on quantity not quality. This system has taken on a life of its own and money always wins over everything.
The clubs are burning families and children out with their new fancy titles, tournaments and year around 4 days a week, 300 plus days a year training and traveling almost every weekend! They are ruining a great sport.
Greed ruins passion. Look at what has happened to some of the SD based clubs that went and became Devolomental clubs! Their wins and loses are horrible because the destroyed all the teams for profit!
It's emploding as we watch.
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True development at the youth level is not measured in wins and losses.
 
Winning is the measure 99% of every crazy soccer family chooses their next team and club by. And the clubs know this so they exaggerate, manipulate and promote winning in any form possible. It's a great tool for the clubs and a bad tool for young players to try and learn by.
 
I'm all for holding leadership accountable and improving coaching standards, but there is absolutely no way that will be enough to catch up to the rest of the world. There is not enough money or coaches to babysit kids through 10,000 hours.

We have to create a culture where kids go out and play on their own, get a lot of touches, and come to academies with their 1v1 game practically built. I would bet my house that if the kids in this country played as many hours of pickup soccer as they spent on their playstations or phones we would be one of the best in the world.
 
JJP said:
I'm all for holding leadership accountable and improving coaching standards, but there is absolutely no way that will be enough to catch up to the rest of the world. There is not enough money or coaches to babysit kids through 10,000 hours.

We have to create a culture where kids go out and play on their own, get a lot of touches, and come to academies with their 1v1 game practically built. I would bet my house that if the kids in this country played as many hours of pickup soccer as they spent on their playstations or phones we would be one of the best in the world.
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That is again BS coach talk!
If your child is training 4 days per week after school and playing out of town games almost every weekend while trying to do well in HS and maintain any type of life outside of soccer how the hell could they ever find time to play pick up games!
I guess if they had zero life out side of soccer they could play some more soccer. I think the issue is they are burnt out and being pushed threw a system that is based on the numbers / volume of players way above any kind of quality development system.
 
JJP said:
I'm all for holding leadership accountable and improving coaching standards, but there is absolutely no way that will be enough to catch up to the rest of the world. There is not enough money or coaches to babysit kids through 10,000 hours.....
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I've read the 10,000 hr stuff and my reaction was so what. It just doesn't fit our lifestyle in US.

BUT, here is post from another thread (2 quick things: My apology to the OP for using it outside of his thread as an example here, and is very typical comments by US coaches not just in DA but also in college soccer). My reaction to the statement was this is exactly the reason why the are where we are.

"Player has been shown interest by DA teams. First time in DA. Is it better to be one of the better players on a less successful DA team or a bottom player on one of the top DA teams? Looking for development. Physically - tall, strong and fast. Needs to develop positioning and ball skills."

Followed up by:

"DA Coaches are interested. Player is good enough for DA. If not DA , it is just another high level SCDSL or CSL team. - already there.
Positioning and ball skills are relative - They can always be better and improved.
Comment by coaches.... I can help with ball skills and positioning ....harder to make a player faster or taller or more competing -those are main strengths already has."

Without making judgement of the player in the example, the issue is the coach's reaction to the player's physical attributes and downplaying the importance of skills and field awareness (positioning).

Frankly, if you apply the American value of bigger, faster is better, then this is what you have. The skills of players are not relative but absolute in terms of what needs to be executed. Its only relative to the players around you on the field. And there's the problem. Vast majority of youth players have not developed adequate skills and by the time they are in HS then onto college age, its too hard for them to improve technical skills. Its an order of magnitude easier to learn technical skills at 8 yrs than at 12 yrs old. And another order of magnitude harder at 14 yrs when puberty has set in than at 12 yrs.

The notion of any coach saying something to the effect that skills and positioning is easier to teach than speed or height, as they relate to competitive soccer is nonsense and is one of the key underlying problem with our youth system. We've all seen it. Put the tallest, fastest kid at the top and kick the ball to him. Let him chase it and shoot it for a goal - score!!!!! Where's the skill in that?

Obviously, these young players grow up and they become aware of how the rest of the world plays and tries to catchup but its simply too late. Besides, their successes came by playing with their strong and born with attribute and not highly developed skills and knowledge.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast a player is, he is still slower than the moving ball with an intent and no matter how tall he is, it won't matter if the ball is on the ground.
 
Academy doesn't start until u12, there's plenty of time before academy to play pickup. You guys who are arguing against pickup, with all due respect, are wrong and ignorant about the history of soccer. The greatest ever soccer players developed their skills playing pickup and street soccer and were then scouted into academies and were instant stars.

There is a series on YouTube about the games greatest players. When talking about the greatest ever to play, it sounds like a broken record. The names and faces change, but the words don't. "He always had a ball at his feet . . . Every day he would run out and play until the sun went down . . . He was the best player in the club from the moment he put on an academy uniform."

Even academies are playing futsal to give their players the experience of street soccer, where spaces are smaller and there are fewer players, so there's more touches in tight spaces.

The kid who plays pickup with all his free time loves soccer. The kid who does PlayStation in his free time and plays during scheduled, organized practices loves PlayStation. The kid who has to have a coach around to practice costs a lot of money to develop. The kid who plays on his own develops for free. If I'm in charge, I want to create programs in the US where I can select from a player pool of kids who love to play more than anything and have the self-initiative to become great on their own.

I'm not going to post anymore on the value of pickup soccer. I'm just just shaking my head.
 
JJP said:
Academy doesn't start until u12, there's plenty of time before academy to play pickup. You guys who are arguing against pickup, with all due respect, are wrong and ignorant about the history of soccer. The greatest ever soccer players developed their skills playing pickup and street soccer and were then scouted into academies and were instant stars.

There is a series on YouTube about the games greatest players. When talking about the greatest ever to play, it sounds like a broken record. The names and faces change, but the words don't. "He always had a ball at his feet . . . Every day he would run out and play until the sun went down . . . He was the best player in the club from the moment he put on an academy uniform."

Even academies are playing futsal to give their players the experience of street soccer, where spaces are smaller and there are fewer players, so there's more touches in tight spaces.

The kid who plays pickup with all his free time loves soccer. The kid who does PlayStation in his free time and plays during scheduled, organized practices loves PlayStation. The kid who has to have a coach around to practice costs a lot of money to develop. The kid who plays on his own develops for free. If I'm in charge, I want to create programs in the US where I can select from a player pool of kids who love to play more than anything and have the self-initiative to become great on their own.

I'm not going to post anymore on the value of pickup soccer. I'm just just shaking my head.
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100% agree the players that are stars in any sport play all day all night as a kid. they perfect their moves when there is no coach around to tell them to stop screwing around and do the drill he/ she set up. A parent on my sons team say he has to drag his boy out of the water from surfing. "he's in the from 6 am until 4 pm when i make him get out"......well guess where his passion lies? not on a soccer field.
 
MLS and U.S. Soccer need synergy, and changing the schedule is the key

The MLS schedule is holding us back, and it’s something that should be looked at fixing.
https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/2...s-soccer-mls-schedule-fifa-fall-spring-summer

"MLS ....needs to adopt the fall (late summer) to spring schedule that the rest of the top five leagues in the world play. It can keep the playoffs and hold onto MLS Cup, but adopting the scheduling norms of the best leagues in the world will help MLS and the USMNT. This issue, among many others, was discussed on a recent episode of the Total Soccer Show, and the entire podcast is worth a listen.
 
younothat said:
MLS and U.S. Soccer need synergy, and changing the schedule is the key

The MLS schedule is holding us back, and it’s something that should be looked at fixing.
https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/2...s-soccer-mls-schedule-fifa-fall-spring-summer

"MLS ....needs to adopt the fall (late summer) to spring schedule that the rest of the top five leagues in the world play. It can keep the playoffs and hold onto MLS Cup, but adopting the scheduling norms of the best leagues in the world will help MLS and the USMNT. This issue, among many others, was discussed on a recent episode of the Total Soccer Show, and the entire podcast is worth a listen.
Click to expand...

Heck, if they can adjust our youth age groups to match the rest of the world, then surely they can change the MLS season around. It's certainly got to be easier than changing registration and teams for a few million kids. Adding new field dimensions, goal sizes and roster sizes. And then throwing in a new competitive league for female players.
 
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