World Cup

[atlantacowboy]

Unless they do like Europe and let 30 teams in, lol.

Europe has the best football but they also have more bad teams than any other region.
Moldova, Gilbraltor, Cyprus, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Macedonia....

South America may well be the toughest place to qualify. 90% of the teams are quality.

Any region where Italy isn't good enough to qualify is tough enough for me. lol

 

[atlantacowboy]

I disagree. Argentina and Brazil are consistently good, but every other South American country is hot and cold - SA WC qualifiers arent as difficult as Europeans. A pan American federation would likely have c.8 or 9 places in the WC. USA should be able to aim for this especially if playing at this level regularly.

They are hot and cold against each other. Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, and Columbia are consistently better than anyone in CONCAF except maybe Mexico. The South American's are much stronger sides than the central American and Carribean Islands. Our only competition right now should be Mexico.

 

[atlantacowboy]

No disagreement there. US should ALWAYS qualify.
But CONCACAF is very underrated, especially Costa Rica.
Road wins versus even fairly blah team are tougher than people think.
The Climate in Honduras/Costa Rica and altitude of Mexico City is a more unique challenge than those not familiar with CONCACAF understand.

But US playing in Brazil or Argentina regularly would be inhumane. lol

I think this is a "golden era" for costa rica but they are not to be taken seriously on an international stage. They don't have anyone that would be considered a star. I think they just sneak up on people b/c nobody takes them seriously. They beat Columbia a few years and the Columbians were so embarrassed at losing to Costa Rica that they changed all 9 of their starting players the next game.

 

[csirl]

They are hot and cold against each other. Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, and Columbia are consistently better than anyone in CONCAF except maybe Mexico. The South American's are much stronger sides than the central American and Carribean Islands. Our only competition right now should be Mexico.

USA has a growing player base, professional league, large population, good facilities, ability to hire good coaches. Surely it can aspire to compete with these countries?

 

[atlantacowboy]

USA has a growing player base, professional league, large population, good facilities, ability to hire good coaches. Surely it can aspire to compete with these countries?

I've been reading similar comments since about 1977. It hasn't happened yet in my lifetime, and I don't suspect it will. You get to be the best by playing against the best on a daily basis. Until the best US athletes consider soccer as a comparable option to baseball, football, and basketball and head to Europe to learn their craft, all the facilities money can buy won't matter.

 

[jterrell]

I think this is a "golden era" for costa rica but they are not to be taken seriously on an international stage. They don't have anyone that would be considered a star. I think they just sneak up on people b/c nobody takes them seriously. They beat Columbia a few years and the Columbians were so embarrassed at losing to Costa Rica that they changed all 9 of their starting players the next game.

CR has at least 3 really good players. GK Navas who plays for Real Madrid.... Joel Campbell at Arsenel (on loan) and Bryan Ruiz at Sporting CP.
They have a full dozen guys playing in Europe. More than the US did....

They've made 4 of the last 5 World Cups and finished in 8th place in Brazil.

Reality is CR is a very solid football country. But this may well be the golden generation. We will have to see what they have left after this World Cup when a lot of guys should cycle off. As more Tico kids see this is an easy way to have a career I expect them to continue to fare well. No pouting about Europe for these kids. But young CR teams haven't been very good.

 

[jterrell]

I've been reading similar comments since about 1977. It hasn't happened yet in my lifetime, and I don't suspect it will. You get to be the best by playing against the best on a daily basis. Until the best US athletes consider soccer as a comparable option to baseball, football, and basketball and head to Europe to learn their craft, all the facilities money can buy won't matter.

This.
Same way no basketball player outside Europe can reach his maximum potential without being in the NBA.
You have to train at the highest speed of the game.
You also need 10000 hours of skills practice much like you do in basketball and that is best driven by specialists in Europe Academies.

 

[csirl]

Wouldnt a combine north and south American federation where both the National Team and several clubs are playing in the same competitions as the Argentinian and Brazilians achieve the exposure to elite competition that US teams need.

In Europe, up to the 1990s Turkey was a joke. Their clubs werent competitive and they had one of those National teams everyone wanted to be drawn against in qualifiers. The Cleveland Browns of UEFA. They then started to place a big emphasis on playing in tournaments with the elite Europeans and in spite of having no soccer tradition, they became competitive.

 

[Londonboy]

I think this is a "golden era" for costa rica but they are not to be taken seriously on an international stage. They don't have anyone that would be considered a star. I think they just sneak up on people b/c nobody takes them seriously. They beat Columbia a few years and the Columbians were so embarrassed at losing to Costa Rica that they changed all 9 of their starting players the next game.

I think I've spotted why Colombia lost.

 

[atlantacowboy]

Wouldnt a combine north and south American federation where both the National Team and several clubs are playing in the same competitions as the Argentinian and Brazilians achieve the exposure to elite competition that US teams need.

In Europe, up to the 1990s Turkey was a joke. Their clubs werent competitive and they had one of those National teams everyone wanted to be drawn against in qualifiers. The Cleveland Browns of UEFA. They then started to place a big emphasis on playing in tournaments with the elite Europeans and in spite of having no soccer tradition, they became competitive.

The US national team is composed of individual players who are individually inferior to most of the Argentinian and Brazilian players. In fact, I would go so far as to say that we don't have a single player that could make their teams. So, it is not the competition at the international level that makes the US improve. Rather, it is the exposure of our individual players to the highest level of competition at the club level that matters more. Playing a great team every other year in a big competition isn't enough. You have to play and practice against the best on a daily basis.

 

[jterrell]

Wouldnt a combine north and south American federation where both the National Team and several clubs are playing in the same competitions as the Argentinian and Brazilians achieve the exposure to elite competition that US teams need.

In Europe, up to the 1990s Turkey was a joke. Their clubs werent competitive and they had one of those National teams everyone wanted to be drawn against in qualifiers. The Cleveland Browns of UEFA. They then started to place a big emphasis on playing in tournaments with the elite Europeans and in spite of having no soccer tradition, they became competitive.

I get what you are saying but it doesn't work that way.
A combined Americas federation would simply be tougher to qualify.
The team may improve moderately but would face far more issues with distance and such.
This isn't Europe with a ton of countries clustered on each other's door steps.
This is stretching from 1 arctic pole to the other.

Climate from very cold and dry to very hot and wet.

The USMNT plays friendlies versus Germany, Belgium, France.
They get competition.

 

[BermyStar]

I'm a Brazil fan so I'm pulling for them first and foremost. I'd love to see Belgium win if Brazil fall short. my underdog is Uruguay. I think golden boot will be between Neymar and Suarez.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Right then! Now I'm properly ready for the World Cup on here lol.

 

[jterrell]

Any region where Italy isn't good enough to qualify is tough enough for me. lol

Europe is plenty tough with the most top teams of anywhere but the point remains you do not need to play the best teams game in game out and Europe does not.
That Italy side was a shambles and drew with Macedonia... yuck.
And the beating Spain put on them was hard to watch.
They truly missed Antonio Conte.
But also it was just that their most recent golden age had ended and they just lacked talent.

 

[atlantacowboy]

Europe is plenty tough with the most top teams of anywhere but the point remains you do not need to play the best teams game in game out and Europe does not.
That Italy side was a shambles and drew with Macedonia... yuck.
And the beating Spain put on them was hard to watch.
They truly missed Antonio Conte.
But also it was just that their most recent golden age had ended and they just lacked talent.

They'd win CONCAF.

 

[jterrell]

They'd win CONCAF.

No, I don't think that Italy team would have. Especially not playing in those countries stadiums.

Concacaf put 3 teams into round of 32 last world cup.
That group is very under-rated at the top.
Keep in mind Mexico squeaked in when the US scored late meaningless goal in last match of the qualifying.

Costa Rica was in a group with England and Italy. CR won the group NEITHER Italy nor England advanced.

The US tied with Portugal then advanced over them.

Mexico beat Croatia 3-1 to advance over them.

The ONLY CONCACAF loss to Europe in round of 64 was US 1-0 to Germany.

 

[daschoo]

But also it was just that their most recent golden age had ended and they just lacked talent.

Florenzi, el Sheraawy, Veratti, de Sciglio, Rugani, Chiesa, Pellegrini, Cristante, Belotti, Jorginho, Donnaruma, Immoble, Insigne and even Baloteli if you can deal with the crazy are all mid 20s or younger. That's plenty of talent to supplement the old guard.

Totally agree with the shambles, Spain and Conte comments

 

[jterrell]

Florenzi, el Sheraawy, Veratti, de Sciglio, Rugani, Chiesa, Pellegrini, Cristante, Belotti, Jorginho, Donnaruma, Immoble, Insigne and even Baloteli if you can deal with the crazy are all mid 20s or younger. That's plenty of talent to supplement the old guard.

Totally agree with the shambles, Spain and Conte comments

Those players are a mixed bag. Many are simply not World Class at least yet.
Those guys aren't Pirlo.
They aren't prime Buffon.
They aren't Cannavaro (sp?)
Those guys had perhaps the best defense in the history of the world when they won the WC.

And the 22-25 year olds simply weren't ready.
In 4 years they will be.
Roberto Mancini is a very good coach.

 

[atlantacowboy]

No, I don't think that Italy team would have. Especially not playing in those countries stadiums.

Concacaf put 3 teams into round of 32 last world cup.
That group is very under-rated at the top.
Keep in mind Mexico squeaked in when the US scored late meaningless goal in last match of the qualifying.

Costa Rica was in a group with England and Italy. CR won the group NEITHER Italy nor England advanced.

The US tied with Portugal then advanced over them.

Mexico beat Croatia 3-1 to advance over them.

The ONLY CONCACAF loss to Europe in round of 64 was US 1-0 to Germany.

Your talking about 4 years ago. Why limit it to just that? Historically, CR isn't even a blip on the international scene and CONCAF is regarded as weak. Most South American countries consider it a badge of shame to lose to any CONCAF team.

The best team doesn't always win in soccer as we witnessed in T&T. A hot goalie or a penalty can completely change the game. A 1-0 score can be a closely played match or a total domination as in Germany's victory over the US where they dominated the ball and could have just as easily won 5-0. The US often resorts to crowding the box with defenders to stymie more talented teams and play for a draw or a close result. A 1-0 result against Germany does not fool most seasoned football fans into thinking the 2 sides are evenly matched. But most Americans don't know what their watching anyway so it had great optics here and seems to have fooled folks like you who may not realize that we don't have a single player who could even make the German national team.

 

[Ranched]

I am bummed that the US did not make but I am pulling for Germany since it is my heritage.

It's a disgrace that the US didn't make it.

It sure is. But remember this, US is untouchable when it comes to basketball.