Mls embarrassing

[Unregistered]

The EPL is the "English" premiere league in name only. It is the top league in the world because of the players from Brazil, Argentina, Spain, France, Italy etc. England is not the country to look to for soccer inspiration.
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This is 100% correct.

[Unregistered]

Again what's your point? Nobody said USA soccer was great. Just like we know the England national team isn't any good and not any better than the USA team. Both are just average.

Ghana is better than both of those english speaking nations...

[Unregistered]

This is 100% correct.

all leagues have foreign players...look at La liga

Ronaldo, bale,Meymar, Marcello, Messi................


my post (number 2) was to highlight the lack of a decent feeder system in the US

[Unregistered]

The point is the English feeder system is not that good either. It does not develop world class players anymore and hence the English team gets bounced from the World cup and its league is full of foreigners.

At least in La Liga, their feeder teams develop world class players that won the last World Cup and make up a larger percentage of La Liga than Englishmen do of the EPL.

The English feeder system is not very good at developing top level players anymore. The US should look to other countries. English soccer has many problems to figure out as well.

[Unregistered]

The point is the English feeder system is not that good either. It does not develop world class players anymore and hence the English team gets bounced from the World cup and its league is full of foreigners.

At least in La Liga, their feeder teams develop world class players that won the last World Cup and make up a larger percentage of La Liga than Englishmen do of the EPL.

The English feeder system is not very good at developing top level players anymore. The US should look to other countries. English soccer has many problems to figure out as well.

Having said the above, I agree, the US pro system still is light years behind real soccer powers like Germany, Spain, France, Netherlands.

[Unregistered]

You should be careful what you wish for . If the MLS was to become commercially successful chances are like the EPL clubs would look to bring in overseas players rather than US nationals . Chelsea FC youth academy has been in around for 11 years and not one player has ever played for the senior team . It would be a shame if in the future the MLS academies were to suffer the same fate because of the financial success of the league .

[Unregistered]

I don't think anybody in the world anymore thinks that the English national team is better than the US national team. Even the English don't believe it, even though they won't say it. The English would not have gotten out of the last group we were in. The only thing that the English have over the US is the history of their league. The MLS is about 10 to 15 years away from being as good, if not better than the EPL. As more money flows into the MLS, where would you want to be as a player, dreary, Muslim infested England or Awesome, majestic, Entertainment and business capital of the world, kick ass US of A?

[Unregistered]

I don't think anybody in the world anymore thinks that the English national team is better than the US national team. Even the English don't believe it, even though they won't say it. The English would not have gotten out of the last group we were in. The only thing that the English have over the US is the history of their league. The MLS is about 10 to 15 years away from being as good, if not better than the EPL. As more money flows into the MLS, where would you want to be as a player, dreary, Muslim infested England or Awesome, majestic, Entertainment and business capital of the world, kick ass US of A?

In 10-15 years , China might own us or the Russians/Muslims will destroy us...just saying

[Unregistered]

I don't think anybody in the world anymore thinks that the English national team is better than the US national team. Even the English don't believe it, even though they won't say it. The English would not have gotten out of the last group we were in. The only thing that the English have over the US is the history of their league. The MLS is about 10 to 15 years away from being as good, if not better than the EPL. As more money flows into the MLS, where would you want to be as a player, dreary, Muslim infested England or Awesome, majestic, Entertainment and business capital of the world, kick ass US of A?

The EPL is only 20 years old .

[Unregistered]

Having said the above, I agree, the US pro system still is light years behind real soccer powers like Germany, Spain, France, Netherlands.

Speaking of Netherlands. They have a population of 16.8 million.
Their soccer history is about the same as the US. Made the 1934 World Cup and after that not again until 1974, when we saw total football for the first time. They struggled in the 80’s (did not make ’82 or ’86 World Cup) but have since turned it around.

My question is, how come a country so small can produce world class talent like Van Basten, Gullilt, Bergkamp, Van Persie, Robben, Overmars, Kluivert, etc…and we can’t produce a single world class player, except keepers.

I’ll assume it comes to the lack of quality coaches in this country compared to Netherlands and other small countries such as Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, etc…

Anyone want to chip in?

[Unregistered]

Speaking of Netherlands. They have a population of 16.8 million.
Their soccer history is about the same as the US. Made the 1934 World Cup and after that not again until 1974, when we saw total football for the first time. They struggled in the 80’s (did not make ’82 or ’86 World Cup) but have since turned it around.

My question is, how come a country so small can produce world class talent like Van Basten, Gullilt, Bergkamp, Van Persie, Robben, Overmars, Kluivert, etc…and we can’t produce a single world class player, except keepers.

I’ll assume it comes to the lack of quality coaches in this country compared to Netherlands and other small countries such as Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, etc…

Anyone want to chip in?

But their clubs can no longer compete against European competition because all of their better players play overseas .

[Unregistered]

Limey

[Unregistered]

But their clubs can no longer compete against European competition because all of their better players play overseas .

Come to think of it...aside a couple EPL teams, the 2 spanish powerhouses, the 2 german teams and and the two rich French teams, nobody in Europe has a chance anymore. Look at the Italian League....Juventus struggles when they leave Italy...

[Unregistered]

Speaking of Netherlands. They have a population of 16.8 million.
Their soccer history is about the same as the US. Made the 1934 World Cup and after that not again until 1974, when we saw total football for the first time. They struggled in the 80’s (did not make ’82 or ’86 World Cup) but have since turned it around.

My question is, how come a country so small can produce world class talent like Van Basten, Gullilt, Bergkamp, Van Persie, Robben, Overmars, Kluivert, etc…and we can’t produce a single world class player, except keepers.

I’ll assume it comes to the lack of quality coaches in this country compared to Netherlands and other small countries such as Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, etc…

Anyone want to chip in?

Unlike the rest of the world the best athletes in our country don't play soccer. They play sports that they can get paid more money and have more fame. Football, Basketball, Baseball. MLS has salary cap around 3million except for the couple designated players. Designated player getting paid over a 1 million playing next to player making 50-60 thousand. Until the average pay comes up it will be hard to draw top athletes.

It is slowly changing but a long ways off.

[Unregistered]

Unlike the rest of the world the best athletes in our country don't play soccer. They play sports that they can get paid more money and have more fame. Football, Basketball, Baseball. MLS has salary cap around 3million except for the couple designated players. Designated player getting paid over a 1 million playing next to player making 50-60 thousand. Until the average pay comes up it will be hard to draw top athletes.

It is slowly changing but a long ways off.

In the case of soccer, height and bulk are useful to an extent, but not nearly to the extent that those attributes are to a football or baseball player. So most American athletes are much, much bigger and heavier than any world-class soccer player. A soccer player runs more than three miles per game, usually a lot more, and soccer has one of the highest ratios of time spent in active game play to game time of any sport. In a normal game of officially 90 minutes, 60 minutes or more is spent with the ball and players in motion.

This is a big contrast to football, baseball, basketball and tennis where there are plenty of breaks in the action for a player to catch a breather. These guys would have to drop 20 to 80 pounds to sustain all that running, and that would take them out of the mode of what we think of America's "best athletes"

Think of the best players in the world and throughout history. Top of my head examples: Maradona is 5'4", Messi is 5'7", Wesley Sneijder is 5'7", Pelé is 5'8". Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Ronaldo the Elder, and Ronaldo the Younger are taller at 5'11", 5'11½, 6'0", and 6'1", respectively.

That's a crowd of guys who range from below average to a bit above average on the worldwide height scale. And most of these guys are a lot less bulky than your average professional football, baseball, or basketball player.

In the end, the real question to ask isn't about "best athletes" it's about "best soccer players". And in asking that question, you have to ask why isn't Michael Bradley (5'8") as good as Lionel Messi or Clint Dempsey (6'1") as good as Cristiano Ronaldo. The answers to those questions will show the path to realizing the US's soccer ambitions.