For those of you that watch MLS (I watch very little), are any of the American play by play commentators any good? I kinda hated JP Dellacamera all tournament. (And pretty much all of the rest of the FS1 coverage but whatever.

I sort of have this theory that even if it's former players or coaches, soccer just isn't tailored to the American "style" of play by play/color commentary of the other major sports like football/basketball/hockey. Obv the Gus experiment failed. Calling the match like it's one of the above sports just doesn't work.

I think the British guys NBCSN/ESPN poached are so much better because they know how to talk about the narrative of the game, what was expected to happen vs what's happened, who and who isn't impacting the game, or even shutting the **** up and listening to the fans sing for a couple minutes; instead of just shouting who's passing to who all the time.

I think the easiest transition to soccer broadcasting from an "American" sport would actually be baseball. They know how to fill empty space with small talk that's relevant to the game, talk about broader themes like what pitches are or aren't working for the pitcher, manager tactics in fielding/hitting and whatnot. And baseball has some of the GOAT sportscasters. Sign a couple of em up!

Anyways I'm drinking and distracting myself and not even sure if this is the right thread for this, but there you go.

This is factually wrong. MLS has expanded youth football education drastically, creating programs like the academies that helped every american based player, even Pulisic. In my time in the youth system, academy based training was available only to the 25-30 players in the youth national team pool. I never got any training like that, and I would have since a very young age if I was playing youth ball now.

I'm struggling not to get extremely snarky with you.

When our lineup decision arguments are "which ****ty MLS player", we can surmise the real issue here.

oh and that doesn't even get into the list of players who got their first pro break in MLS and went on to better things. That list is very very long.

Ding ding ding. We simply do not have the talent to go up against the best team in the world right now.

JK didn't make things easier though.

IMO, Bradley should not be called up for the WCQs in September. We are basically a lock to move on and he needs to get back to his game or consider himself out of Russia. This goes way beyond MLS causing a player to drop off. You can debate all you want about MLS sucking or whatever, but he doesn't even play like a good MLS player right now.

no

I agree with this, he was really really glaringly terrible tonight.

He made that one fantastic turn.. and darted up field.. it was unreal considering his penchant to not do that and tonight's opponent.. one little token of unextinguished or returning passion

id love to be fit and play soccer again lol

Zardes: Get to Europe and refine. Galaxy have taken you as far as they're going to.

Zardes played his best match of the event.

Onto 3rd place on a foreign continent!


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Give the top 10 on the list. I'm curious.

Crowd was great yesterday. Sad it didn't get a US goal to cheer for even if it would've been meaningless

If you're playing in MLS in your mid to late 20s there is a real problem. And if your name is Chris Wondolowski you cannot wear a USMNT shirt.

This isn't a bad idea. I'm not ready to wipe Bradley out from the USMNT setup, but he desperately needs a wake up call. The problem is I don't think it's lack of effort. We can lol ikes all day but I think most people are smart enough to realize it's not 5 games in MLS that destroyed Bradley, but rather began a downward trajectory that has resulted in a significant regression on the international stage playing out right in front of us over 3 international competitions now. That's no longer variance, it's that he's blatantly regressed as a player.

He does things on the field that he clearly gets away with week in and week out in MLS because he is a very talented footballer. But he's developed so many lazy habits that you can't just flip a switch and undo. He's had so many give aways in short spaces, because the pace of MLS is so much slower and the players are so significantly less talented. The ones who are actually talented the Lampard's, Pirlo's, and Gerrard's of the world, can't be bothered to actually press and win a ball.

There was also a scenario last night where Bradley made a good play to win a ball and was driving into the Argentina half with someone (Zardes I think) on his right. He was there forever, but Bradley took one too many touches and waited just a little too long to play it out wide and lost possession. This is another example of something he easily gets away with in MLS. Steve Birnbaum doesn't close you down that fast and you can easily make that pass out wide and dictate the attack. It has destroyed him as a player over years not 5 games. What is the argument to the contrary? It's been plain to see. Obviously there's more to it than just the two examples above but those are two glaring examples from this game that are fresh in my mind.

Two huge matches coming up in early September btw. I know an away match at Antigua doesn't sound daunting and we did beat them 6-0 earlier in the cycle but their pitch is possibly the worst in the federation and we have a history of tough games down there. Really only need 4 points in the last two (home against group leader T&T) but getting 3 in that one unclenches the sphincter a bit.

you are grossly overstating the impact that MLS academies have had.

there have always been youth programs that are very strong, even before MLS existed.

the problem is a cultural one, our kids - starting at very young ages - don't play soccer until the sun goes down like they do in other countries, 7 days a week.

even if they go to europe at age 20-22, it's probably too late.

Arguably more crucial for us is for Trinidad to beat Guatemala. If Guatemala wins we have a serious cluster**** going into our last match day

So much this. Just a completely different culture.

I would disagree that those kids don't exist in large quantities in the states fwiw. They're mostly Latinos and they are underrepresented in the developmental system because they don't or can't pay.

this is true also. my youth club team always had 2-4 latino players that i'm pretty sure didn't pay. our parents subsidized them - and they were among the better players on the team. we all just kinda accepted that was the reality of the situation.

The one guy from my youth club that made it to MLS (played about 10 years, got a few national team caps) was the only player who was at the fields 4+ hours a day

Glad Pulisic got his run last night, and hopefully everyone came away seeing why you can't start a 17 year old in a competition that matters. He was not good.

He'll learn from it and get better, but US doesn't make the semi's if he's out there clowning around earlier in the tournament.

Also, current youth system with MLS academies is miles and miles and miles better than it used to be. Mexican teams have full time scouts living in SoCal poaching people from LA's (and previously Chivas's) academy. FC Dallas has homegrown a number of great players, including the future keeper for Mexico. USA has more < 21 year olds in foreign leagues than ever before, and it's 100% due to the growth of the youth infrastructure.

That's not to say it's perfect and can't continue to improve, but anyone acting like that's our biggest problem is falling back on tired old arguments.

Bundesliga?

No one was good

You don't know that with certainty

You're right, pretty much everyone was bad (Zardes probably the best, strangely enough)

But Pulisic was supposed to be this revelation according to some in here. And instead on one of his first touches he got bitchmade in the midfield and his turnover led to a goal, he over-dribbled a great through ball and went out of bounds, and he took the US's best chance of the game and made Wondo proud.

It was a bad, bad showing that was to be expected when he's suddenly not surrounded by players who outclass the opposition.

Again, this happens to 17 year olds. It's not a big deal, and I'm glad he got minutes against a good team when the result was essentially decided. He probably should've played against Costa Rica too for kinda the same reason. He's really really really good.

But people were wrong to clamor for him to play 90 minutes per game this tourney.