The US....

[War Machine Dawg]

It’s about retaining the kids that play soccer when they are 5-6 years old but stop to play other sports as they get older. A lot of that has to do with the parents kinda pushing kids to other sports. I know I played soccer as a kid but In the 80s it wasn’t on tv, we didn’t have the internet to stream games, I watched baseball, football, and basketball with my dad, so that’s what I wanted to play. By the time soccer was on tv, mls became semi-relevant, the internet allows us to stream any game in the world, my generation was too old to start playing soccer with any skill. However people around my age are far more into soccer than our parents were, and a lot of them have kids <10 years old that play sports, and these parents have soccer on tv at home and they push their kids to keep playing, so I think you will see more participation all the way up through the ranks including junior high and high school, you are increasing the talent pool, which makes for more competition and better players. It just takes years to happen.

People say “oh people have claimed soccer is the next big thing for 30 years” like there should’ve been an overnight transition. But you have to wait 15+ years to see the fruits of planting a seed today. In 1994, guys like Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, and Tim Howard were kids watching the WC. And they formed the core of the most successful run of US soccer at the international level, but we had to wait years to see it. The problem was after the WC, we didn’t properly invest in growing the game from the ground up for the rest of the 90s, and now we have a lost generation. Between the old guys and the young guy, the generation that should be in their prime is shit. I think the younger generation (pulisic, yedlin, the U-17 team) is a result of MLS finding its footing and USA soccer doing a better (not great but better) job of developing talent in the 00s, and we are just starting to see the guys who were kids in the early and mid 00s start to get to the age of playing professionally and internationally.

Lots of good points here. I completely agree about the visibility of soccer now being a benefit. NBC & Fox have the EPL & Bundesliga respectively, which gives us a quality game virtually every weekend of the year. Then add the availability of streams on the internet and soccer is more visible than ever for kids. There's even talk of Facebook & Amazon bidding for the rights to stream soccer (likely the EPL). That's only going to help kids think of soccer as a viable alternative with the "Big 3."

Completely agree about it taking time and the gap in our talent pool right now. Like Taylor Twellman pointed out, the guys who are 24-28 that should be the core of this team were virtually non-existent. That said, we still should have seen a youth movement. Many of us were screaming for the program to get younger 2-3 years ago when Klinsmann was still in charge. There's no reason guys like Kellyn Acosta, Jordan Morris, Julian Green, Deandre Yedlin, etc. shouldn't have been the core of this group along with Pulisic. They might not have qualified either, but at least they'd be gaining real experience that would pay off down the road.

MLS is definitely improving. While it may still be seen as the "retirement league," the fact is that MLS has quietly frowned upon spending DP money to bring in the aging superstars, outside of special cases, for the last several years. They're encouraging teams to spend the money on young, promising talent. Some clubs like Atlanta United have embraced it. If MLS continues bringing in players like Josef Martinez, Miguel Almiron, Hector Villalba, the Dos Santos brothers in LA, etc., the league is going to really improve. Like many, I'd still love to see some form of relegation implemented, but I'm too cynical to think it happens any time soon. Too much money is against it, whether it's good for the league or not. Plus MLS themselves have been ruthless in stamping out any form of second tier "competitive" leagues like the NASL.

Agree about the pool of really young U-18 talent. I'm excited to see players like Cameron Carter-Vickers join the senior team. The thought of Matt Miazga/Carter-Vickers pairing John Brooks in the back should make all USMNT happy. That's potentially as good a combo as you'll see in the international game outside of the top European teams. The real issue is developing attacking talent. That's the big area we need improvement.