I didn't burn the world down at soccer, but I played ODP seriously and played D1 soccer in college. That ODP training is absolutely nothing close to serious training. ODP, if you actually took part of it, was about two weeks of training during the summer mixed in with a few random weekends in the winter. I was in a very good state at the time too. My favorite part was beating jonathan spector's Illinois during the region championship.

That was some of the best training I got, and it was a few weeks per year, despite being the best at my position in my year and state. Literally 20 players per year got full time residency training at Bradenton. That program now is 30-40 players, plus many other full/part time academy programs that I couldn't dream of having access to.

I don't think I have it all figured out. I just know you have ****ing idea what the hell is going on. You're just a floridaman mixed with a Stephen A Smith level of wrongness and hot takes. Feel free to go to your fellow business consultant bro Dave Brandon and tell him how easy it is for business consultants to fix sports.

I know ikes very well. I just assumed you were some kind of a new poster because I've never seen you before and so I just wanted ikes to be nicer. but if you two have history elsewhere in SE, then go ahead and continue your **** talking towards each other.

No worries - ikieboy is the little punk kid in the neighborhood that everyone knows, puts up with, but occasionally kids spit in his face to bring him back to reality. Pretty soon he will say he is done with me, will never respond, but he can't control himself. Again - he is too easy.

I truly hope that his assessment of the state of the US Soccer program is incorrect. Another 20-30 years of international ineptitude would suck.

[QUOTE=ikestoys;50306079]I didn't burn the world down at soccer, but I played ODP seriously and played D1 soccer in college. That ODP training is absolutely nothing close to serious training. ODP, if you actually took part of it, was about two weeks of training during the summer mixed in with a few random weekends in the winter. I was in a very good state at the time too. My favorite part was beating jonathan spector's Illinois during the region championship.

That was some of the best training I got, and it was a few weeks per year, despite being the best at my position in my year and state. Literally 20 players per year got full time residency training at Bradenton. That program now is 30-40 players, plus many other full/part time academy programs that I couldn't dream of having access to.

I don't think I have it all figured out. I just know you have ****ing idea what the hell is going on. You're just a floridaman mixed with a Stephen A Smith level of wrongness and hot takes. Feel free to go to your fellow business consultant bro Dave Brandon and tell him how easy it is for business consultants to fix sports.[/QUOT

Then find someone in Soccer that can change the culture. The path US soccer is on is not appealing. Again if you think it is then you are part of the problem. Excepting mediocrity breeds mediocrity.

You find the path US Soccer is on as unappealing, but you don't even know what path soccer is on. You started by claiming there's been no improvement in the past 30 years, then said some vaguely uninformed things about youth soccer, and now just want us to be good.

Thanks man, people much smarter and more informed than you are working on it.

i mean flabucki clearly doesn't know anything about the past or present state of soccer in this country and isn't interested in learning

yeah he's been pulling this garbage since feb/march of this year, which was when the 2010 reg date, big usmnt fan found this thread.

Check the history. I constantly admit to not knowing the details. I am simply a fan of the sport. Unlike others I don't profess to know everything. That said I can certainly have an opinion. But hearing how much progress is made is too funny. Again going from horrible to not so horrible is no way to go through ones sporting life. Especially in a country like ours witht he sport resources we have. The manager of the NT has, or should have, control of US Soccer development. He has been here long enough- we should have achieved better results.

BTW - note that I only respond negatively when ikieboy is involved. He is my internet playtoy. I argue with him even when I agree. It's fun.

thanks for the trolls then, time to gtfo though

Wait a minute - I just caught this...

So in the other threads when you say you played D1 College Football as a way to validate your "Football" knowledge you were talking about Soccer...or where you that special that you played both.

And yes Brandon did exactly what was needed at his last job. Couldn't have happened to a nicer fan base. And please you really don't want a list of non-athletes that hold significant roles in major sporting organizations do you. You can't be that naive can you?

No problem - anytime. Talk to you tomorrow.

I never told anyone I played d1 college football. Take your trolling elsewhere.

Please don't, you're bad and you should feel bad

getting the best athletes isn't the problem. In Soccer, the best pure athletes are rarely the best players. Someone like Gareth Bale is a complete freak, but he's not the norm by any mean.

The bigger issue is widening the scope of players in the general youth development and also creating a general shift in cultural attitudes about what it will actually take to create elite level footballers. That doesn't happen overnight.

While Soccer isn't as lucrative as American Football, Basketball, or Baseball yet, it can absolutely provide a higher quality of living for a lot of people in the US. The MLS has a ton more money in it than it ever has and it should continue to grow.

People keep acting like we are at a crisis point right now, when it couldn't be further from the truth. That's not to say that the US can't improve, it's just that if we really do a proper self assessment we will realize that we are actually in a much better spot now than we were even 6 years ago, much less 15, 20, 30 years ago and the sport will continue to grow at a sustainable pace.

Here's the thing, being beaten by Colombia twice and getting waxed by Argentina aren't necessarily bad things. The US just doesn't face real competition all too often and hopefully this will lead to the US playing in the Copa America more often and with real sides like they did this year.

It'd weird that sweep single, a hockey fan wouldn't realize that soccer is similar to hockey in that the best athletes rarely make the elite talents. Wayne Gretzky, Leo Messi etc didn't become GOATs because they're the most athletic.
Having 5x the player pool 20 years ago wouldn't have gotten better players because there was no structure.

Growing up I knew people who played with Jonathan toews and other nhl players. In the last five years I've played against people who have made mls development teams and a couple to get mls appearances. Ikes actually knows what he's talking about here, nothing really to add.

Obv the US is better now than they used to be. Obv they continue to need to get better.

FWIW, Jermaine came to the US side when Bradley was coach and unless you were worried Wood would play for Japan I don't think there was much issue because dude was born and raised in Hawaii.

Have never played soccer but I would think being able to run faster and jump higher would be a big advantage.

it's an advantage, but it's not a big advantage.

I'm aware of Wood but would another coach ever even call a Bundesliga 2 player into the side? I'm skeptical he would have ever been given a shot and he's been a revelation at ST over the past couple years.

It took Jermaine Jones until age 28 to be called into the side while he was playing with prominent clubs in a good league. That's unacceptable. I know he wanted to play for Germany, but JK seems to be getting these guys young

Without a brilliant individual performance from Lebron James the Cavs don't win the NBA title.

The Belgium narrative goes both ways. If Chris Wondolowski isn't on the field doesn't miss the sitter of a lifetime then we are in the quarterfinals

Of course he would have been given a run. Demerit was a starter for us for a long time. Wood was a successful youth player, we knew him.
Jones took until age 28 to be called into the side because he was playing for Germany dood. He declared himself free of Germany, and was immediately approached by Bob Bradley. What the **** else were we supposed to do?

fire kinslman. performance against argentina was embarrassing. zardes has always sucked. we want nagby and nguyen!

Can we make a list of the top 5 most fire-able things klinsman has ever done (as coach of the USMNT)?

Leave landon out of the WC squad
let wondo wear a US jersey
let beckerman wear a US jersey
let wondo wear a US training top
let beckerman wear a US training top

I know I am missing some others.

why is it obvious? you really think the current USMNT is better than 2002?

zardes