Yea I agree. But don't you think this more of an exception to the norm than something that will happen more and more in the future?

I mean not every young American star is going to have european immigrants and a dad with Italian football ties. Isn't his grandfather a well known coach in Italy too or something?

And I'd like to hope that most will have enough national pride to play for their own country. Obviously the great young players from the states should try and get burn for in the European league.

Losing Rossi was real rough. There are a couple more young guys on the horizon too who could have a big impact going one way or the other. Edgar Castillo got capped for Mexico this year, which also sucked. Hopefully Neven Subotic sticks with the US and helps sure up the back line.

So Europe has a monopoly on producing world class talent?

And since when is Europe a country? I know its hard that England's national team is an afterthought nowadays, but its pretty laughable to compare the US to the combined talent of 49 countries.

Btw Conmebol has 9 world cups and UEFA has the same 9.

Btw fun idea for a pool.
You need 16 guys, you write each team on a piece of paper, and then each person gets randed a team. If you dont have 16 ppl, you can make it winner take all and leave 1 or 2 teams as an " everybody gets their money back". When we did it for the 2006 WC in my class everybody went wild ( 29 ppl played I ended up with Ecuador and Holland was an "everybody gets their money back" team)

Regarding TSC's 15 years down the road view, I think there will be a difference in the level of talent on the national squad. But it still won't be fair to expect them to be able to catch the world powers (not that anyone is really saying they will).

A much better question is will the US pass England in the next 10-15 years?

lol

I think its hard to say right now where we could be, with any certainty. However, if you compare to where we were in 1994, to now, the difference is stark. We now have academies around the country and pro teams at many levels.

I am really looking forward to the USMNT playing both England and Spain in the coming months. Maybe the US loses, but at least they are out there playing.

I think people are really sleeping on the US team. Bradley and Nowak have done a great job so far with the national team.


Finally, big FYI to everyone, the USMNT won the very first WC game way back in the day! Holla!

I'm not saying its likely, but you don't even think it can be argued as a possibility?

The amount of English players in the Prem is declining, and is going to continue to decline. You have no idea what the EPL will look like in 15 years. If English players as a whole aren't getting first team football for competitive teams than how are they going to have a quality national team?

Now lets look at the US. Obviously MLS isn't going to compete with the Prem, but it doesn't have to. What it is going to do is going to give more exposure to the sport to talented young athletes. Add that in with the fact that the next generation of teenagers are going to grow up with the ability to watch soccer from all around the world on their digital cable. This is something my generation didn't have, and we still have a handful of very talented young players.

Plus the MLS will give a chance for US players to play, and the more the league grows and improves, quality in players will coincide. The best players will go to Europe or wherever the money is highest, and that is fine, that needs to happen.

Why is it so hard to think that the US could catch England in terms of strength of a national squad in 10-15 years? The decline in England is apparent, and I don't see it magically stopping. Especially considering the explosion of foreigners playing in the EPL. If the US can slowly improve, and England continues to slowly decline than it can definitely happen.

Lets not forget that England isn't even in the Fifa top 10 at the moment, its not like we are talking about Brazil or Argentina.

Honestly, surpasing England wouldn't even be that big of an accomplishment IMO. However, they do have some good young players. Guys who are playing at the top level, which is something the US lacks.

Walcott
Agbonlahor
Young
Most of Tottenham and West Ham
Prolly some others I can't recall.

Anyway, the three I listed above are leaps and bounds beyond anything the US currently has.

However, England suffers greatly from a smaller population, and will likely continue to decline against their other Euro rivals.

So Spain/Italy/Germany have caps on the number of non-EU players on their domestic teams, whereas England doesn't have any restrictions, is this correct?

England is not necessarily declining against their other Euro rivals in the long run. They haven't exactly been dominating Europe in the past either.

There's variance between generations, and countries move up and down the rankings, but I think it's pretty safe bet that US won't be better than England in 15 years.

i don't know about that as a player like that can crop up, but as far as the US constantly producing top talent, yea, at least 15 years away


the funny thing is that he probably won't get that many senior caps for italy

little OT post but could interesting nonetheless..

ive seen the recent rumors of the big two from the SPL moving over to the EPL. this would be awesome iyam for many reasons.

the SPL is a two horse race consistently. no other teams with the exception of MAYBE hearts have the financial backing or support to compete constantly throughout the season with celtic and rangers. these teams are old rivals, and since the SPL is so small the entire season is weighted on the games against each other. The rest of the table this year with the exception of Gretna in the relegation zone is very tight..always good competition top-down. however, no one plays for the title as its almost out of the question anymore.

It would be good for the EPL to get two more solid 8-12 place teams which is where i think they would settle. there aren't any really consistent middle of the table finishers anymore in the last few years of the EPL. The major benefit would be to drop the teams that tend to be in limbo with the premier league and championship like watford, derby, charlton, and west brom permanently down. These teams kill the championship and get destroyed in the premier league due to lack of funds available for signings and stadium improvements, etc. Competition would be more intense top down and relegation battles would be better because there wouldn't be incredibly outmatched teams like derby locking up a relegation spot with 10 games left.

i think this would be a cool transfer, only downside is the SPL would lose almost all credibility that is has now.

Is this Celtic/Ranger thing a legit rumor?

Would they not be able to represent the FA in the champions league or eufa cup 2since they aren't English clubs? Wasn't there a run in with that issue when a club from Wales (?) was going for the FA Cup this year?

its probably a rumor at best now, but that does bring up an interesting point. i wonder how they would address that

If rangers and celtic want into the prem they need to earn their place. Logistically how would it work? Relegate 5 from the prem? Only promote one from the championship. All this to accommodate two teams from scotland. Bollocks to that. Stick them in league two and let them work their way up.

There have been rumours about the old firm moving to the Premiership almost my entire football watching life. I certainly don't see it happening any time soon.

First scorer pools are always fun. Best was during the Croatia game in 2004 where some guy picked out Gary Neville and Ashley Cole. Then we re-randed after we scored and he got Neville and Campbell. But the worst one is in the other pub I visit which doesn't take out keepers, someone's had a keeper three times in a row

Wat? 50 million people in England.

Only France, Germany, Italy and Russia have larger populations in Europe and in the case of France and Italy its not by much.

I found a link purporting to list EPL pitch dimensions, but its not official and there appears to maybe be some credibility questions. Pitch size link

Does this look accurate?

I've also read that in UEFA games, the pitch must have dimensions of 105 x 68 m, although I've also read elsewhere these are minimum dimensions. Anybody know which is true?

I'm assuming teams generally don't change their pitch size, perhaps because of stadium constraints and seating sight lines and such, is that true?

How about in MLS -- are the pitches similar in size to Europe?

Just trying to get a sense of how much pitch size varies. Thanks.

I think a good idea would be to make the Premier league be the UKPL. Then it could have the top teams from throughout the UK. Below that leagues could still keep their region. I don't think it makes much sense to just move Celtic and Rangers to England and leave Scottland with a greatly diminished league.

How to do Promotion and relegation? I suggest that the Winner of the Scottish league play a two game playoff with the last place scottish team in the Premier League.

This will never happen.

No team from NI is good enough and the best three teams from Wales already play in the English league system.

That leaves Scotland. Nobody in England wants Scottish clubs in their system and the scottish league is absolutely fine as it is. Everyone talks about the state of it being so bad but the truth is they are spoiled by the sheer size of both Rangers and Celtic as clubs. It blinds them to the reality. Is there another country the size of Scotland that has so many professional clubs? Is there another country the size of Scotland with two clubs bigger or better than Rangers or Celtic? A country the size of Scotland has no god given right to have two clubs of this magnitude and to think Scotland could then support other teams that are of a higher quality than what is currently there, its just madness.

Everything stays as it is imo, these other ideas are fanciful and ridiculous and nobody either side of the border wants them to happen.

I don't think rangers or celtic would be an 8-12 place team in the EPL. They would be higher, probably in the 4-8 range IMO.

Logisitically, re-arraging both countries leagues to accomodate this seems impossible. Probably won't ever happen either, but it would make the EPL far more interesting.


JR, AFAIK, FIFA just mandates a minumum and a maximum pitch size. A team just has to fit into those dimensions. For example, the Colorado Rapids new field has the biggest pitch in MLS, so that teams are run ragged at the higher altitude. Arsenals pitch at Highbury was narrower than what it is at the Emirates.