Ochoa not starting ahead of Romero is LOL. i mean im going to take your word for it, but that shouldnt even be close.

just checked wiki and if Franco Di Santo is getting called, then so can chicharito. all those strikers you named in first paragraph are all worse than chicharo.

Salcido is whatever. i needed a 4th person to put on this list and couldnt think of anything else.

The narrative that seems most correct at the moment has 2010 World Cup (ESPN as both presenter and feature participant) as the point where critical mass was reached.

Lol cruizn

I don't really count goalkeepers. Ochoa is good. Argentina's goalies are generally mediocre, although Orion (one of the Arg backups) is in spectacular form for Boca Juniors, especially at saving penalties. I might give you Ochoa, but I'd have to be counting goalies.

Salcido reminds me of David Luiz -- obviously good skills, but seems to not fit in any position. He's not disciplined enough to play defense.

Franco Di Santo is young (22?),technical, very highly regarded in Argentina and brings a different attacking option to the table (he's 6'4"). Also, Sabella picks certain people out because he thinks they'd work well with the way he wants to play.

I'm not saying Chicharito isn't world class. He is. Miles above anything the Americans have. But I highly doubt Sabella would pick him.

Imo the non-Darke espn coverage sucks but yeah I'm just talking about the overall commitment to the cause; having sportscenter lead with the occasional non-World Cup soccer item, giving more airtime to international highlights and storylines, etc. All ldo I guess, because hooray cable and internet and shrinking world, but ten years ago the median college sports bar guy could still bash soccer in mixed company, while now he knows something about Rooney and Messi and increasingly about Barca and Madrid, not to mention Chelsea and City. National acceptance of le football still lagging behind miscegnation but correlating nicely with weed / Will & Grace.

weed, gay marriage, and futbol.

Agree most ESPN soccer coverage in the context of SportsCenter, etc, is still iffy, but I still think they deserve a ton of credit for more than just "commitment to the cause". ESPN went out of their way as a conscious decision to get smart presenters and analysts in 2010, and the decision to use an exclusively British pbp team was huge. Presenting "football" instead of "soccer" to America was a huge step that imo shouldn't be overlooked; America's been more receptive to the former than the latter.

its too bad that these people dont have something to cheer for.


http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...ight-for-usmnt

Vital Draw Shows Future Is Bright for USMNT


LOL. how does that make the future bright? it was pathetic.

More like 5th or 6th among people who are actually able to play on the US National team.

Most states (US obv) I know of start 11v11 at U13 (some at U12). Youngest teams play 6v6 up until U10 or U11 and then 8v8 for a couple of years.

Americans way overrate American-style athleticism as regards soccer. Which sport would drag the 5'7 trio of Xavi/Messi/Iniesta away from futbol if they were born in America? The reason those same players born in America would be unlikely to reach the heights they've reached from Argentina and Spain has everything to do with insufficient player development resources and almost nothing to do with other-sport competition.

A is caused by B.

That's not really true. The world of sports is not at all zero-sum.

If he means what I think he means then he's largely correct.

99% of elite american athletes go pro in something other than futbol.

This. Even the shorter players will play basketball, baseball, football, and even tennis or golf before soccer.

People with no clue about what makes a top level soccer player itt

Baseball. Maybe football.

Feel free to explain it to us.

I would guess it takes

1) an incredibly high level of 'natural' athleticism / genetic gifts

2) a lifetime of intense/high level training and coaching

and anything else is likely to be over thinking it.

sure, there are some body types and gifts better suited for sport a over sport b, but the answer is basically nature + nurture.

I think Das Boot is saying 2) does not exist in the USA, at least not nearly to the extent it does in other countries. at the same time, small guys like Dustin Pedroia and Isiah Thomas and Theo Fleury can perform at extremely high levels in "american sports", so I don't think it's far fetched to say that if Xavi had been born in North Carolina, he would be a pro US athlete of some kind

Depends. Basketball, if that's what is played where you live. They may not hit the NBA (only a few have), but that's what they'll be playing.

I want to hear ikestoys explanation of what it takes to be a top level player.

Soccer simply isn't a sport where pure athleticism is the most desired attribute. It isn't football or basketball. It's far closer to baseball in that the ability to control a ball is a more important than raw athleticism. The only way to really develop this is to have a ball at your foot all day every day.

It's not a coincidence that the US produces quality GK after quality GK. That's the position that where pure athleticism is more important and being a GK your whole life isn't nearly as important.

Do we have to do the whole soccer isn't the main sport in the US thing again? Though I always do enjoy making a starting 11 out of non soccer players.

Youth development is the key. Soccer does not need to be the biggest sport in America for us to have a strong team. Would we have the best team if soccer was the big thing here? Uh, yes. But it doesn't have to be.

College soccer remains a problem, and as much as many of us would love to simply press the delete button on it, that probably isn't going to happen any time soon. In Furman we trust! Actually not really, a player I shall not speak of came from there. I refuse to say his name.

the problem is your definition of athleticism

or that a lifetime of high level coaching isn't as critical?

Yeah, I've said this before, but we seem to have a set of people itt who probably haven't read this so here goes.

College soccer is completely ******ed. First off, due to title ix, there are only 9.9 scholarships per team. Secondly, the substitution rules allow for re-entry, so games focus on running around everywhere (which you can only do because you can get a breather) instead of skill development.

uh, no.

Most elite American athletes would be best physically suited for CB, GK, and maybe CM, and -- would you look at that! -- those, despite the competition from other sports, are America's best-stocked positions. We don't produce, at all, the short technically-gifted-and-tactically-intelligent players/athletes that define the modern game, despite the fact that they're FAR less likely, proportionately, to be poached by other sports.

The reason 99% of "elite American athletes" don't play soccer is because we don't have the tools to consistently mold elite soccer athletes, not because the game is fundamentally lacking in core material to be molded. The American would-be Xavi probably just isn't playing professional sports.

Would the USMNT be better if every American was playing from birth? Well, of course. Choosing from the best of 150 million males is a luxury few other countries have. But when you look at the elite talent the Netherlands and Belgium produce, compared to the number of world-class players America produces with a dramatically larger amount of raw material, the "athletic talent drain" thesis that casual fans are so fond of just doesn't really hold up.

If anything, the focus on athleticism (which we are legitimately good at relative to our standing in the world game) rather than the technical and tactical ability that defines truly world-class players (uh, not so much) is actually counterproductive.

no it's not. Skill, ftmp, is more important than athleticism in soccer. I can't remember a game, ever, in any competition, where I thought, wow the USMNT was just slower and weaker than the team they were playing.


GK's rely on physical tools more than skill. You can't make a save unless you can get to the ball. If you have a 40 inch vertical, you can get to more balls.

Contracts for live sports are megahuge, American sports networks have a massive interest in cultivating interest in another major provider of that content