lionward2014

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Eh, a little bit of a letdown but they did show promise.

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Matt Freese Sept. 2, 1998 27
Tim Ream Oct. 5, 1987 38
Alex Freeman Aug. 9, 2004 21
Chris Richards Mar. 28, 2000 26
Sergiño Dest Nov. 3, 2000 25
Antonee Robinson Aug. 8, 1997 28
Christian Pulisic Sept. 18, 1998 27
Tyler Adams Feb. 14, 1999 27
Weston McKennie Aug. 28, 1998 27
Folarin Balogun July 3, 2001 25
Malik Tillman May 28, 2002 24
Summary
Average age: 27.7 years

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frick that, we are beyond the "showing promise" moral victory results. I'll give them that for the 2022 WC, especially based on coaching deficiencies, but this WC they are in their prime, playing at home, with a coach who has shown he can get tactics right (even though Broski on his soapbox is right that they were off last night). Not getting to the quarterfinals is a failure top to bottom.

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But the infuriating part is that Mexico played like their hair was on fire

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In the first half after going down 2-0 they did, but so did we for a few minutes and we tied it 1-1. In the 2nd half after going down a man England bunkered and let Mexico have the ball and they produced a .01 xG with like 90% possession. They played just as shitty as we did, except they had possession of the ball.

ETA: Talked to my Mexican friends, and they are as angry about their performance as we are about ours.

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Man except you see elite football players pop up at 14-15 all the time.

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You see elite players pop up in the NFL after having never played a down of football. Besides players like Jimmy Graham who come in and play TE or WR where you can cover a lot of technical deficiencies, Jordan Mailata became an all-pro LT where technique is majorly important.

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Soccer is super unique. It is so technical that the truly elite youth have to be plucked out and cultivated at a very young age.

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Spot on. Soccer is destined to always be a supplemental sport for the large majority of this country's elite to above average athletes, which will limit our upside. I hate it, but accept it. What we need to do is to make sure that the exceptions are given the right coaching and avenues to achieve maximum success. Even if 5% of the US population plays soccer as their first sport, that is roughly 15m people to develop from, which would be in the top 15 most populated countries in Europe, above counties like Belgium and Portugal and right behind Netherlands.

ETA: Richards and Freeman, and Weston to a lesser extent because he moved to Germany at a young age, are great examples of what SFP talked about. All of them are from football obsessed states (Alabama, Florida, and Texas respectfully) but went into soccer instead. All are roughly 6'1 to 6'2 and 180-200 pounds, and all have been recorded running 21 MPH or more in game which puts their estimated 40 yard dash times at 4.4-4.7. Not elite WR or safety numbers, but good enough to play FCS or G5 football.

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We have so many athletes of the typical soccer build playing college sports at relatively high levels. We see these kids every year in college football and college basketball. There are so many WRs, CBs, Ss, PGs, SGs, etc. playing for shitty football/basketball teams with no chance of going pro. Hell, even if we just limited the pool to 1AA and D2, we'd have an incredible assortment. Then add in all the amazing high school players who don't even get those shots for being 5-7 - 5-10.

These college players who are successful show you they have the proper mentality to develop as an athlete. The discipline, coachability, effort, etc. shows they can be trained.

Now the high school pool obviously doesn't show the same level, but that population is so large you'd probably get even more out of it.

And we wouldn't need all of them. 10% of that population being steered towards soccer probably sets us up as elite. 20-25% and we're France, capable of producing multiple elite squads.

It's a numbers game, and we have the potential numbers, sports culture, money, etc. to do something on a level soccer hasn't seen.

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This is a solid argument as opposed to "Lebron James would be better than Haaland!" I think I agree with you.

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Where the US is still behind is (oddly now) GK, CB and striker.

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My 3 year old has been loving watching games with me and wanted a net. He's been loving "scoring goals" since we got it. Might have to break his heart and convert him to a CB. Don't worry, we will be STOUT at CB in the 2042 World Cup!

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Only could US soccer manage to have all 11 of our guys play their worst game of the tournament in the most critical game of the tournament.

Was a collective embarrassment and collapse.

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Sad part is a lot of these guys have high pressure game experience. They've played in intense derbies, UCL finals, FA Cup finals, WC knockouts, etc. they should not have been so shaken by the moment.

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Adams and McKennie

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Didn't think about this until after, but this may have been the last time we got to watch these two be key pieces of a World Cup team for the USMNT.

Cavan Sullivan 2030 loading

GIO ABOUT TO FULFILL PROPHECY

Not sure that would have actually gone in, but Ronaldo almost had a banger

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But I didn’t think it was very good because it was not good.

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I agree.

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I think this match being in Seattle will benefit us greatly.

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I was thinking last night if we wanted to replicate as best we can the feel of Azteca for a USMNT game where would it be played, and I think Seattle or in Arrowhead would be my two best guesses.

In fantasy land, if we figured out a way to get all the coonasses in Louisiana to love soccer, a game in Tiger Stadium with the full GBFTL playing would be unmatched.