re: United States v. Uruguay | Copa America, Group C | 8pm CT (FOX)

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That's the thing, if you're not picked up by 16 then you're likely not going anywhere.

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Which is why college is a good last chance route for the guys that maybe weren’t mature enough to hack it in academies at 16 or 17.

Point being, title IX neutering college soccer has nothing to do with us losing to Uruguay tonight

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Is that not pay for play? No poor kids that may be the next big thing are going to those camps.

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It’s usually a fee, but it’s maybe $100. Travel ball is thousands.

I’m not trying to argue more men’s college soccer programs is a cure to development in the U.S., but I also think it’s ignorant to act like more opportunities doesn’t benefit us. In the long run, more opportunities is a positive even if it’s not feeding guys directly to the national team.

And I don’t see any other avenue for players outside of major metros to realistically be identified other than pay-for-play. MLS isn’t gonna send scouts around to every youth league.

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Not directly,

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No, not indirectly either. It has no bearing on this

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the United States still has to get a little more serious about soccer.

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And focusing on college soccer would be the exact opposite of that

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don’t think he’s arguing for focusing on college soccer so much as saying there are benefits like talent ID for younger kids from those teams having outreach, camps, etc.

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Which are what the youth academies are for. Putting aside MLS, The USL has a whole youth network system across the country that is infinitely better than the college camps that are largely being run by assistant coaches and players to get a stipend

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Not enough Americans play soccer. Until that changes, the U.S. will never be able to truly compete.

Look at the current team. Many of the players are immigrants or had parents who were immigrants and were former soccer players themselves.

Until elite athletes start choosing to play soccer over football and basketball, the U.S. will not be able to get much better.

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Here we go again with this argument… we have 340m people, more than enough are playing soccer, we’re just worlds behind on development when it comes to getting the most out of those athletes.

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Did Weah decide to bunker for 45 minutes while tied 1-1?

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No, he decided to punch someone in the back of the head 18 minutes into the game. Berhalter blows, but nothing he did hurt the team worse than that stupid arse play by Weah.

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Wow long time no see I agree with basically everything you said though. Great post.

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Yeah, I often lurk on TigerDroppings, but don’t post that often these days. Life has been busy. But when I do post, it’s usually on this board, and occasionally the O-T or the Tiger Rant. I find this board to be one of the best USMNT boards these days.

I think the sheer size and population distribution of our country presents a unique challenge as we build our soccer infrastructure. A compact nation like Croatia or especially Uruguay is much less likely to see talent slip through the cracks. It’s honestly a miracle that Clint Dempsey developed into what he became, given where he grew up and his challenges getting to training as a kid.

We need every element we can possibly use to cast the widest net possible for homegrown players. MLS academies, USL academies, regional club team, youth national teams, and beyond. We don’t want college soccer for actually developing our future players, of course, but I still think that infrastructure could be very helpful for identifying late bloomers and guys who just weren’t picked up by the other elements of US Soccer. College camps could be useful in finding those kinds of kids and getting them opportunities to go pro. That’s why I want men’s college soccer to grow and succeed, instead of being gutted by Title IX.

If our next Clint Dempsey kind of kid grows up in Wyoming, maybe a college camp is his only viable path to get noticed and launch his eventual path to the senior USMNT.

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While that’s true, we still don’t have the talent to compete as most of our athletes are playing other sports.

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We have enough athletes to cover all sports.

Why the frick do you think we dominate in the Olympics? We always have the athletes and are on par or better development wise in pretty much every sport, except soccer. It’s the one mainstream sport, not including cricket, that never caught on here in the early 1900’s

It’s a shitty argument.

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Which are what the youth academies are for. Putting aside MLS, The USL has a whole youth network system across the country that is infinitely better than the college camps that are largely being run by assistant coaches and players to get a stipend

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I agree that academies are better for development, but it’s silly to suggest more opportunities for players will not benefit the game in this country.

Universities have the infrastructure and location to play a role in that. Realistically the U.S. is never going to have serious clubs in mid-size or small metros or towns like in Europe.

More teams leads to more exposure, more investment, more coaches, and more players which in the long run benefits the game nationwide.

I think you’re just sick of hearing people say stuff like, “Our best athletes don’t play soccer,” so you’re blanketing this in with people who think colleges should feed the national team.

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We have enough athletes to cover all sports.

Why the frick do you think we dominate in the Olympics? We always have the athletes and are on par or better development wise in pretty much every sport, except soccer. It’s the one mainstream sport, not including cricket, that never caught on here in the early 1900’s

It’s a shitty argument.

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We have enough athletes to cover all sports, but they’re not distributed evenly. Soccer does not attract 1st tier American athletes.

And we dominate the Olympics because we have strong swimming and track and field teams. And when it comes to more obscure sports like Olympic sports, population and money matters a lot.

But when it comes to a sport like soccer where it’s the #1 sport of most countries, you’re not going to be able to compete with your best athletes never really playing soccer.