USMNT story in Dig

Look at DIG getting more SB love. You guys are too sweet.

FIFA screws us a lot as well. Youth soccer in the USA isn't as good as a lot of the top countries but it's better than some of the 3rd world dumps that make a run at every WC.

2014 Costa Rica were Pk's away from at least a 4th place finish and they are the 3rd best team in CONCACAF.

2010 Ghana choked in the quarters or they would have been at least 4th place

2006 had Australia make the KO round during their last run in Oceania.

2002 South Korea was 4th. Turkey finished 3rd.

1998 was when Croatia made a deep run to the semifinal. I cant remember if they were 3rd or 4th. They had only been a nation at all for just a few years.

I'm not saying we are in shape to win this thing but FIFA never does us any favors.

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Youth soccer in the USA isn't as good as a lot of the top countries but it's better than some of the 3rd world dumps that make a run at every WC.

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The teams you mention all had golden generations or do have better youth systems.

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Costa Rica

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Consistently play us well at home and beat us at their place.

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Ghana

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Stocked with massive talent who play for the biggest clubs for Europe.

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Australia

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Team coached by Gus Hiddink, along with having their golden generation.

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South Korea

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Coached by Hiddink, who basically can work miracles with teams.

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Turkey

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Turkey also finished 3rd at the 2008 Euros. They aren't as deep as the US, but their best players play at the top level while ours don't.

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Croatia

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That Croatia team was really good. Better than any US team ever. Also Croatia consistently produces great players, along with the rest of the Balkans.

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However, if there is one real lesson that we can take away from the United States’ stay in Brazil, it is that we still have a ways to go in terms of legitimately competing with the best.

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Does this writer even JuJu Green?

And the USMNT can't have a golden generation?

Jurgen can't coach?

Costa Rica is a distant 3rd to USA and Mexico and there is no sugar coating it.

Ghana is good but we have a massive amount of resources and enough European club players to compete ourselves. We only need about 20 guys. We may not stack up against some teams but we should against Ghana. They dont even consistently dominate the CAF.

Australia wasnt really that good even in 2006 when they advanced. They finished 2nd to Brazil over a couple other teams when we got lumped in a group of death. Which seems to happen a lot (FIFA).

South Korea made a run as hosts but they aren't anything special.

So Turkey has 2 decent performances in nearly 20 years. Im sure they have guys that can play but so do we. Probably just as many EPL and other euro based players.

Croatia has talent as does the rest of the Balkans. It's just wierd they were a country for 5 minutes (sarc) and made a deep run in the WC.

These places have less resources. We have more talent than all of them except Croatia. Ghana has us beat in athleticism. Even Mexico can't seem to sniff the semifinal. It's more of a frick FIFA post since they don't hold these countries back the way they do us.


We had a run in 2002 that should have seen our game with eventual runner-up Germany go 1-1 into aet with them playing a man down. The USMNT is a regular in the WC, we are trying to become a regular in the KO round, which should provide us an opportunity to be a dark horse. I doubt FIFA ever allows that.