re: US Soccer's lack of stars

Thanks Rick Reilly.

Our biggest issue right now is talent identification. Look at our Olympic programs. We dominate Olympic sports that have far less committed fan bases than our emerging soccer market, simply because we can throw out enough resources (read: money) toward identifying, developing and fielding medal-winning athletes. Relatively nobody cares about speed skating, fencing or swimming unless its the Olympics, yet we found niche athletes to crowd out the medal stands. Some of these sports have way more fans in other countries, but those nations can't compete with our resources and advanced training.

Our soccer players don't "suck" compared to others around the world; just compared to our freak NBA/NFL depictions of athleticism. Jozy Altidore is probably stronger than most strikers in the Premier League. Doesn't make him better than most of them.

This is I think why Michael Bradley is the ideal construct of our unique soccer player. Bradley possesses the genes from a family of exceptional athletes, while also exhibiting the polished game of a modern European midfielder.

We just need a bunch of B-/C+ American athletes trained and scouted for soccer.