The Beautiful Game thread, season 2015/16

[wco81]

So they protest fascist in the federation by painting a swastika for one of the team's matches?

Counterintuitive.

[RobVarak]

So they protest fascist in the federation by painting a swastika for one of the team's matches?

Counterintuitive.

It is. Some fans have just gotten to the point, after multiple arrests of federation officials that went nowhere, that only public shame can force change. They think the only way to get a less criminal and more democratic and fair federation is to paint the current regime as indulgent of neo-fascists.

There's another good piece on it in the Guardian today. https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... h-republic

[10spro]

McGovern was absolutely a show stopper today vs the Germans as his squad just kept chasing the accurate machinery to exhaustion. As overwhelming as the Germans were they better execute better in the latter stages. Without the heroics of the keeper this one should have been a laugher.

[XXXIV]

How we looking tonight 10's?

[10spro]

How we looking tonight 10's?

You're the only guy living in the US that knows about copa America. Kick a$$ time. 3-0?

[XXXIV]

How we looking tonight 10's?

You're the only guy living in the US that knows about copa America. Kick a$$ time. 3-0?

Go for the throat.

[XXXIV]

Frantic and early for Argentina.

[XXXIV]

OMFG!

That was just fun to watch.

[10spro]

OMFG!

That was just fun to watch.

The Lavezzi fall?

[XXXIV]

Messi free kick.

So pretty.

[10spro]

Messi free kick.

So pretty.

Yeah, I am so used to his stuff that I take it for granted.m

[XXXIV]

Messi free kick.

So pretty.

Yeah, I am so used to his stuff that I take it for granted.m

Well done tonight.

Beautiful game.

[XXXIV]

That was sweet.

[10spro]

That was sweet.

Luv this type of footie, keep the ball on the ground, tic tac passes. None of the boring, mechanical air ball tactics that the EPL uses.

[XXXIV]

That was sweet.

Luv this type of footie, keep the ball on the ground, tic tac passes. None of the boring, mechanical air ball tactics that the EPL uses.

That was fun to watch.

Way to dismantle a vastly inferior opponent.

[10spro]

For those that missed the most prolific Argentinian scorer...evah!

[Zeppo]

I'm glad I didn't give in to foolish (and expensive) temptation and go to Houston. That was the kind of game that makes me want to give up on the whole thing. We are awful. We will never be any good. Messi's free kick was unstoppable, truky a thing of beauty. Otherwise, the US is jus awful.

[RobVarak]

I'm glad I didn't give in to foolish (and expensive) temptation and go to Houston. That was the kind of game that makes me want to give up on the whole thing. We are awful. We will never be any good. Messi's free kick was unstoppable, truky a thing of beauty. Otherwise, the US is jus awful.

Despondency is all I've got as well.

Let's take the mature approach and agree that a footballing nation isn't transformed overnight. What have all the changes over the last 20 years done for the USMNT? Development plans have come and gone. MLS has expanded wildly. Dual-citizenship players have been recruited aggressively.

But we still have a chasm of a talent gap between us and the elite.

We still have players that are technically challenged. We still have an NCAA that is a parasite on player development. Youth development is still being subsidized by the players' families, who pay more and more for programs geared more toward drawing more families into their web by winning meaningless trophies than developing talent.

People are going to say that the game has gotten better here over the last 20 years, but as a national team, in what way are we better than when Arena's boys were eliminated from the 2002 WC?

[XXXIV]

True on the talent gap with the elite but they did get to the semi final and they were fun to watch last World Cup.

Look what happened to Mexico.

[pk500]

I'm a parent of a 17-year-old, 15-year-old and 11-year-old who started in the AYSO system around age 5 and continue to play in very good scholastic programs and on travel teams.

Yet I'm unafraid to say the youth soccer system in America is killing our chances at becoming a global football powerhouse.

There are two reasons behind this.

One, the AYSO system is designed to reward participation, not achievement. So kids just use it as a gateway to more performance-oriented sports as they reach middle school age. Few parents moan about the "everybody gets a cookie" mentality of AYSO because nearly all of them -- at least 40 and older -- grew up playing 'Murican sports like football, basketball and baseball, not soccer. A change in mindset only will come when today's teens and 20-somethings -- who grew up playing footy -- start having kids and bringing them through the AYSO system.

The second problem is systemic to ALL American sports except for basketball: Our youth sports are FAR too organized. We don't let kids play. We don't encourage kids to play pickup or Sunday park games, which is where magicians like Messi and Ronaldo learned their tricks. Everything is done in a controlled environment with coaches, camps, off-season organized workouts, etc.

You see American kids, especially in urban centers, play pickup hoop games in parks all the time. That's why American players are the best, and most creative, in the world. How many times do you see middle-, upper-middle and upper-class white American kids getting together to play soccer at their local park or high school field? Almost never. Soccer only is played in a regimented, sanitzed environment that spawns ZERO creativity or ingenuity.

And don't even get me started on ASSH*OLE American parents who force their kids to specialize in one sport by age 10 on the futile chase for college scholarship money and the mirage of a pro career. F*cking idiots. Let the kids play as many sports as possible to develop multiple physical and mental skills.

[10spro]

Our youth sports are FAR too organized. We don't let kids play. We don't encourage kids to play pickup or Sunday park games, which is where magicians like Messi and Ronaldo learned their tricks. Everything is done in a controlled environment with coaches, camps, off-season organized workouts, etc.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying and that culture of American Football first, Hockey here in Canada will be hard to change if not impossible in NA. When it comes to skills, having a soccer ball in some parts of SA is hard to come by. And even when there's was a ball you would almost have to kill someone to have a chance at a casual game in the park. Every kid would glorify, idolize their favorite player to a point where they would even try to copy the way their hero would walk.

I remember growing up practicing kicking a top of a bottle of coca cola in those days. No coaches, it was a free environment where kids would use their imagination and tough upbringing in a beat up cobblestone street of Buenos Aires showing off their stuff. And that's exactly how those virtuoso players will always come first from that part of the world where soccer is absolute King.

[10spro]

What drama between Iceland and Austria. Classic counterattack in the last minute to give this tiny nation a pass into the knockout stages. And how about Hungary finishing first in that group. `Despite Ronaldo playing his best game it just wasn't enough to beat the Hungarians. Love that keeper who brings his jammies to play in every game.

[wco81]

Youth soccer is just an activity for middle or upper middle class families isn't it?

Then the best players get shuttled into one of the other team sports in high school?

It's probably going to take an American reaching the top levels of the EPL, winning the Ballon d'Or a couple of times, to inspire American kids to stick with the sport.

I mean, Dempsey is making like $6 million a year but that's not enough to inspire kids.

There probably needs to be a Lance Armstrong type of a figure, to go and dominate the Europeans at their own sport. It certainly raised American interest in cycling, before the proof of cheating came to surface.


One of the guys at ESPN was an Argentine player and he said yesterday that US team has athleticism, probably more than the Argentine team, but not technical ability. So what is going to get American kids to practice their dribbling and kicking skills all the time? Well you imagine the kids in South America and Europe do so because soccer dominates sports in those countries and they are inspired by the stars there.

Meanwhile, American kids look up all those Youtube videos of NBA and NFL stars highlights, long before they look at soccer highlights.

If you watch Friday Night Tykes, you see how in the hotbeds, the parents and the extended family are all about making their kids the next NFL stars, because often, the stars are cousins or uncles of the kids playing tykes football. Now maybe with head injuries being more publicized, more and more families, especially the more well-off families, will divert their kids from football to other sports.

But as long as the NFL and NBA are popular in the US, there's really not enough drive to become better in soccer. Americans may tune into WC, especially if the US gets out of group stage, but it will remain a diversion. Baseball is down in popularity but still offers lucrative careers to talented athletes.

[RobVarak]

There is definitely a need for a superstar to ignite the imagination.

The problem though isn't with player switching to other sports, it's the continued domination of the development process by travel clubs and the NCAA. It's just a function of money. Soccer desperately needs an AAU equivalent. Somewhere the most promising kids can play against high-level competition without a huge financial outlay by their family. And like AAU (which is certainly not without its flaws), it needs to be financed by third-parties, like the shoe companies.

We're the only nation in the world that depends on parents to subsidize their best football prospects. These parents are all focused on the wrong things. They want a club that wins (inherently placing this ahead of player development) so that their player gets more attention from college scouts.

A lot was invested in the MLS academies, but they simply can't compete with the NCAA suckhole. Moreover, they aren't doing anything to help shift the financial burden. For example, my middle daughter is good enough to start considering playing travel (something I really do despise, but accept as the only way for her to get better instruction). I looked into several local clubs and there is a Chicago Fire Junior travel team that is affiliated with the Fire Academy. It costs every bit as much, if not more, than unaffiliated private clubs in the area! The MLS teams should be subsidizing the hell out of these to expand the net for prospects. Instead, just like the private clubs, they can't see past the short-term revenue.

[wco81]

The local Comcast sports channel out here airs a program called Roma Now, put out by AC Roma.

It's a weekly show where they have highlights of their matches but also show their academy and developmental programs at work.

In one show, they talked about some tie-in with US academies. They didn't send the players but they did send coaches from their academies to the US.

Maybe it's more of a publicity stunt for the US academies and AC Roma.

The other thing is that their under-19 youth club is playing matches that shadow the big club. So they travel around and play not only against other Italian under-19 clubs but also against under 19 clubs of other Champions League clubs.

The skill level is great actually. You see these kids executing crosses that the US team still can't do. But I think they don't do any aggressive tackling at that level.