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FIFA World Cup - Qatar 2022

Real talk here.

The US is still 20 years away (at least) from threatening. If ever. Men's "soccer" is just not as a popular sport as American football, baseball, basketball or even hockey. Kids play soccer in grade or high school, then never pick up a ball again. Even I played soccer in high school. And that was it. No development of top players.

The women's team is better because they have less pro options - basketball is the other one, in the WNBA. So they stick with it, playing and developing through college. But the men just don't have the top athletes playing, they go to other sports.
 
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Rafterman said:
Real talk here.

The US is still 20 years away (at least) from threatening. If ever. Men's "soccer" is just not as a popular sport as American football, baseball, basketball or even hockey. Kids play soccer in grade or high school, then never pick up a ball again. Even I played soccer in high school. And that was it. No development of top players.

The women's team is better because they have less pro options - basketball is the other one, in the WNBA. So they stick with it, playing and developing through college. But the men just don't have the top athletes playing, they go to other sports.
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I’m not so sure, I saw a lot of positives if you compare this US team against previous sides. They are a good passing team, and deservedly made the knockout stages, but this Dutch side is still unbeaten and are hard to score against. Should be an interesting quarterfinal against Argentina (who should beat Australia).

Give the US team another four or eight years and they will be knocking on the doors of the semi’s. It helps to have a real domestic league, and I think if they do the same thing as they are doing in Europe with the academies there will be better player development.

In the end, the US has more than 300m citizens, which is a big talent pool. A lot of top European nations are between 17m (the Netherlands) and 80m (Germany) and that difference in numbers will make itself felt.
 
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The USA have a couple of very talented players thinking of Pulisic and Weah. Agreed with 300 million it must get better and now that more players are getting the chance to play and develop in Europe it will help. The Dutch came with a plan and the USA did not know how to deal with it.
 
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I found the USA team very positive, but of course they lack some competitive edge.
A few more years to mature and better results will show up.
 
With the people numbers in the US, I am sure there is enough talent for soccer but the money is just not there. No offence to US sports people but they go where the money is which is American football, basketball, baseball and hockey (no particular order).

In my opinion the US has one of the best, if not the best sports systems in the world for children to get into sports and to progress through their chosen sport through numerous education establishments and specialist sports education establishments. Soccer was always going to be difficult to get into because other sports have already been well established throughout the schools education system and these schools are not going to want talent taken away from well known US established sports.

To my knowledge there are many school aged sports people who play multiple sports and are very good at all the sports they participate in which attracts the eye of educators who want them for their school/university and they offer the child and their parents all sorts of incentives to drop all the other sports they play and just to concentrate on one sport, a sport that typically attracts a lot of money and other incentives. In my opinion Soccer can not offer the kind of incentives, financial and otherwise like Football (NFL), Baseball, Basketball and Hockey can. I have no doubt that the US has the next Pele, Ronaldo, Messi, Best but they are persuaded to drop soccer and move to one of the more financial rewarding established sports.
 
I mean, the Australians did alright, they haven't had many chances but they have contained Argentina really well so far in the game (besides the goal).

But now the first half is over, they will need to come up with something radical to score, wishful thinking?
 
Rafterman said:
But the men just don't have the top athletes playing, they go to other sports.
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I recently watched a discussion on that precise topic. The men follow the money and the money is in football, basketball, and baseball. One of the commentators said soccer is filed with our worst athletes. 😆
 
rain111 said:
I mean, the Australians did alright, they haven't had many chances but they have contained Argentina really well so far in the game (besides the goal).

But now the first half is over, they will need to come up with something radical to score, wishful thinking?
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The knockout stages have always led to upsets where teams not known for their soccer/footballing prowess just go for it. Once teams get into the last 16, this is when you start to see the established footballing nations step up a gear (they are expected to, doesn't always happen though). Argentina should beat Australia, not because of their 'established footballing nation' status but because Argentina just so happen to be a better team than Australia. But we always like footballing upsets though so who knows, maybe the Aussies can do it :)
 
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laptech said:
The knockout stages have always led to upsets where teams not known for their soccer/footballing prowess just go for it. Once teams get into the last 16, this is when you start to see the established footballing nations step up a gear (they are expected to, doesn't always happen though). Argentina should beat Australia, not because of their 'established footballing nation' status but because Argentina just so happen to be a better team than Australia. But we always like footballing upsets though so who knows, maybe the Aussies can do it :)
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I am having a wide-open view in this WC, we have seen games and teams surprise us this year.

If the Austrians lose the game, at least they gave it their best.
 
SnappleRumors said:
I recently watched a discussion on that precise topic. The men follow the money and the money is in football, basketball, and baseball. One of the commentators said soccer is filed with our worst athletes. 😆
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One important factor that gets overlooked with regards to football (soccer) is that if you want to earn the kind of money that sports stars do in the US do they have to move to Europe because that is where the footballing (soccer) money is and not everyone wants to or is willing to move away from home. Thus, why move away from home in the US when they can stay home and do an established US sport that can earn them the same kind of money.
 
What the hell is wrong with Ryan? what a massive mistake from him, you cannot do that. That was massively poor to be caught out like that so easily.
 
With what we are seeing so far, Argentina against the Netherlands on Friday will be an epic game.
 
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Such intense gameplay in the extra time! well done Australia, you did well.

Congrats to Argentina for going through.
 
Rafterman said:
Real talk here.

The US is still 20 years away (at least) from threatening. If ever. Men's "soccer" is just not as a popular sport as American football,
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Soccer is quite popular in England; they won only once. Soccer is quite popular in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia etc; they never won.

Rafterman said:
The women's team is better because they have less pro options
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No; they are better because 1) they’re good 2) none of the other countries really care about women’s soccer so the player’s development and funding sucks. I challenge any non-American to name three players of their respective women’s soccer team; most people will barely know that there is a women’s World Cup, while in the US they get attention and sponsorship (a good thing).

The USMNT has to fight against teams that developed for 100+ years, getting to the top 16 ain’t easy.
 
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SnappleRumors said:
I recently watched a discussion on that precise topic. The men follow the money and the money is in football, basketball, and baseball. One of the commentators said soccer is filed with our worst athletes. 😆
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Worst athletes? I wouldn't go that far. Soccer (and hockey) are the too most stamina-challenging sports. Hauling your butt up and down that huge field for 90 minutes is not easy :)
 
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yaxomoxay said:
Soccer is quite popular in England; they won only once. Soccer is quite popular in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia etc; they never won.



No; they are better because 1) they’re good 2) none of the other countries really care about women’s soccer so the player’s development and funding sucks. I challenge any non-American to name three players of their respective women’s soccer team; most people will barely know that there is a women’s World Cup, while in the US they get attention and sponsorship (a good thing).

The USMNT has to fight against teams that developed for 100+ years, getting to the top 16 ain’t easy.
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Without cheating I thought I would give this challenge a go and you know what?, I am upset with myself because I did watch the womens European championship which England won which meant it was impossible to not see all the media postings about the game but can I remember any of the female players from ANY of the teams I watched? can i heck :( and I watched the games!!!!. But give me men's national teams and I can name a number of players from different nations!!!.

Challenge failed lol
 
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rain111 said:
Are we

Are we seeing a turnaround for the Australian? :oops:, an impressive shotl!
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They made the Argentines sweat right up until the end… very exciting extra time… but those chances Lautaro Martinez especially missed, outrageous. Just think, without that blunder by the goalkeeper the Australians would have taken them to over time and maybe penalties.

Looking forward to the Netherlands v Argentina on Friday 9th Dec.
 
Here is a little snippet from the BBC website which was following the game

'The Netherlands have beaten African champions Senegal, Asian champions Qatar and North American champions USA at this World Cup.

Next up, South American champions Argentina.'

a very interesting observation made by the BBC :)
 
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