As bad as the US loss was, Turkey (pop. 76 million) getting totally bossed at home to Iceland, a country with less than a quarter the population of Trinidad, is much more embarrassing.
You can only play soccer 6-7 months/yr in Russia, that's one big impediment. I would guess that Sweden and Finland have better indoor failities, though they're minor players and more geared towards hockey.
But Icrus is 100% right, the main problem for American soccer is American soccer culture. US soccer will never catch up with the European elite, for the same reason European basketball will never catch up with American hoops, which is driven by an intense gymrat/playground culture. Soccer mom and clueless suburban parents won't produce the kind of playground prodigies that countries like Argentina or France churn out by the dozen every year. Playdates, participation trophies, 6yr old in uniforms, 12yos who spend hours being driven in vans to games at the other side of town instead of spending every afternoon dribbling against older players in their neighborhood. That's not going to change anytime soon.
The elite countries in world football (Brazil, Germany, Argentina, France, Italy, Portugal,...) are those that combine that playground culture with a thriving youth system, you need both to build a football power.
Quote: (10-11-2017 09:57 AM)rottenapple Wrote:
As far as I know, football is also the nr.1 sport in Russia. They just have bad youth policy and teams buy too many foreigners. The same with Turkey for instance, one of the most football crazy countries in the world, but they have shitty policies.
Although the case of the US is different, I disagree that the main reason for them not to reach the WC or to achieve at a moderate level is culture. With the resources and population, they should easily compete with smaller countries, even though soccer is not even close to being the most popular sport. I imagine the problem is at the youth level and the formation of players. A guy like Pulisic is coming through well, why? Because Bayern Munchen is training him and not some US team.
You can only play soccer 6-7 months/yr in Russia, that's one big impediment. I would guess that Sweden and Finland have better indoor failities, though they're minor players and more geared towards hockey.
But Icrus is 100% right, the main problem for American soccer is American soccer culture. US soccer will never catch up with the European elite, for the same reason European basketball will never catch up with American hoops, which is driven by an intense gymrat/playground culture. Soccer mom and clueless suburban parents won't produce the kind of playground prodigies that countries like Argentina or France churn out by the dozen every year. Playdates, participation trophies, 6yr old in uniforms, 12yos who spend hours being driven in vans to games at the other side of town instead of spending every afternoon dribbling against older players in their neighborhood. That's not going to change anytime soon.
The elite countries in world football (Brazil, Germany, Argentina, France, Italy, Portugal,...) are those that combine that playground culture with a thriving youth system, you need both to build a football power.
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