October 10th, 2017 at 10:26 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:33 PM ^
Could say the same about the consistently shitty refereeing in football, or the cheating in college basketball, or the lack of defense in the NBA. Typical closed-minded American bro thinking to believe 3 billion people all over the rest of the world are bitches for liking a "fake sport" more than American football.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:56 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 11:56 PM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 12:01 AM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:24 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:24 PM ^
fire drevno
October 10th, 2017 at 10:25 PM ^
Maybe Michigan should start playing at Pioneer. The quiet of playing in front of 400 trinidadians seemed to be very intimidating tonight. How much time does Guzan have left? Seems like he's been around as long as Howard and Howard played the worst game I've seen him play tonight. Is there a young guy waiting in the wings? Goalie has been the one consistent position my whole life dating back to Keller.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:33 PM ^
There are a few good young keepers, but never gave them a shot. Horvath should have been called up from the start of WCQ.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:25 PM ^
First, the international organization will miss much $$$ from the USA. Advertisers have to be pissed. Second, do what most of the nation does -- ask what the hell is a sport that you can't use your hands while wearing underwear?
Jay Leno once pointed out that with 11 million or so illegals who come across the borders why can't someone find 11 who can play soccer. And why can't we find just one knockout QB?
October 10th, 2017 at 10:26 PM ^
ESPN page, Twellman's clip is up.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:43 PM ^
Impressive.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:43 PM ^
Loved the rant. Cracking up at the ending too lol.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:31 PM ^
losing to T&T because that doesn't happen to teams that qualify (except for Panama I guess), but man, it's 2017 and we can't get a replay on Panama's first goal?
https://deadspin.com/u-s-a-out-of-world-cup-on-phantom-goal-1819343176
Having said that, watching Panama's second goal to send them to their first world cup was super cool.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:38 PM ^
wtf... Takes me back to the pre-replay goal line call against Germany what.. 12 years ago now? Hosed again.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:47 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:32 PM ^
And Pep! Unacceptable. Somebody must be held accountable.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:59 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:32 PM ^
how the qualifying works becuase I thought the USMNT had a 93% chance of making it after beating Panama the other night. What happened?
October 10th, 2017 at 10:40 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 11:02 PM ^
the perfect storm and sounds like we needed to tie one of the worst teams in the grouping and didn't. Doesn't look good for anyone invovled.
October 10th, 2017 at 11:08 PM ^
you're exactly right
October 11th, 2017 at 12:00 PM ^
No. We needed a fucking tie to move on.
If one is expecting two other teams to lose or draw to back into the tourney, then you don't deserve to be there in the first place.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:45 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:34 PM ^
T&T was pretty clearly the better team tonight. Awful performance. Nobody on the team has any vision, except Pulisic and Dempsey (if he plays). Bradley was OK. Everyone was awful. Howard looks like a 60 year old man out there. No idea why he's still out there.
Hopefully the crop of youngsters pan out for the 2022 Qatar debacle. Seems like with soccer gaining significant momentum, that's maybe not a complete pipe dream anymore.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:42 PM ^
Congrats to Ace on taking over MGoBlog, since there is no way Brian survived this and the MSU game within four days.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:56 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:51 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:59 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:51 PM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 8:30 AM ^
The MLS is hurting the USMNT because of its style of play. Players are not comfortable playing with the ball at their feet in tight spaces and the tactics are elementary. You could see Pulisic shaking his head a few times in recent games when some idiot like Omar Gonzalez decided to smash the ball 30 yards down pitch hoping someone might get a head on it rather than giving the ball to a wide open Pulisic 15 feet away.
The USMNT should not be starting more than 2 MLS players in any signifcant match if they want to compete.
But this issue starts with youth development. Kids in the US are thrown a ball at their hands...kids from other countries have the ball thrown at their feet. They are more comfortable with it. I used to live in Italy and a buddy's brother played on a youth AC MIlan team..these kids were like 8-10 years old. They had far better technique and understanding of the game than high school players in the US. Why? Because of coaching and development of skills. They aren;t tossed on a huge field to play when they are young..they primarily play five a side from a very young age, but more importantly are drilled in skill exercises and tactics. Games aren't important at that age in football/soccer..developing ball skills are. And developing ball skills with your feet is much harder than using your hands with a mit, shooting or throwing a ball. Touch and comfort with the ball is SO crucial. School kids in the US aren't juggling or playing alley soccer games at lunch. They are shooting hoops or tossing around a football...kids from around the world in soccer nations are messing around with the ball at their feet becoming more comfortable with it every day. By the time they are 10, US players are already a few years behind. By the time they are 17, they are WAY behind.
October 11th, 2017 at 9:40 AM ^
watch a premier league game and then a MLS game immediately after. Try not to throw up.
October 11th, 2017 at 10:54 AM ^
Watched Portugal/Switzerland in the afternoon; then watched the US.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:57 PM ^
Arena: "To make any kind of crazy changes would be foolish."
— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) October 11, 2017
October 10th, 2017 at 11:04 PM ^
Man, I wish I was as good as Arena at forgetting things that just happened an hour ago.
Earlier tonight I figured Arena would coach the team through the WC and then step aside, or be steered aside, for a more long-term guy. Now I hope he never coaches so much as another USMNT practice.
October 10th, 2017 at 11:10 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 11:10 PM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^
In context, it's much worse. It starts with "Nothing has to change."
Actually, no. It starts with "There's nothing wrong with what we're doing. Certainly as our league grows, it advances the national team program."
There it is, the federation's priorities in a nutshell. Arena's in charge because he's on board with it.
October 10th, 2017 at 11:01 PM ^
Has it been a good week in sports?
Nope!
October 10th, 2017 at 11:02 PM ^
They need to take a hard look starting at the top. Why did we fire Bradley again? Can anyone tell me this? A country of 330k qualifies and the US is watching from the couch.
Unbelievable
October 10th, 2017 at 11:07 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 11:22 PM ^
Dude... there are more US soccer players worldwide than there are people in Iceland.
Guess what? Iceland qualified... in Europe... the hardest region to qualify for.
October 10th, 2017 at 11:09 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 11:11 PM ^
Half of the current roster peaked five years ago, which is unacceptable in a country of 300+ million.
I mean, fucking Iceland, a country with a population half that of Detroit, qualified in Europe. CONCACAF should not be very hard!
October 10th, 2017 at 11:14 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 11:18 PM ^
Psst... Starts with M, ends with S.
MLS has become developing grounds for players from Central America instead of the US these days.
Gotta get our talent to Europe and KEEP THEM THERE (looks at Bradley)
October 11th, 2017 at 12:14 AM ^
Exactly look at the 2010 roster when US won their group. That starting roster had almost all Euro based players. I think the only mls player was Robbie Findley.
October 11th, 2017 at 2:41 PM ^
But that hardly affects your point; what a contrast to the current roster.
- Howard/Everton
- Spector/West Ham
- Bocanegra/Rennes
- Bradley/Mönchengladbach
- Onyewu/Milan
- Cherundelo/Hannover
- Beasley/Glasgow Rangers
- Dempsey/Fulham
- Gomez/Puebla
- Donovan/Everton
- Holden/Bolton
- Bornstein/Chivas USA
- Clark/Frankfurt
- Buddle/LA Galaxy
- DeMerit/Watford
- Torres/Pachuca
- Altidore/Hull City
- Guzan/Aston Villa
- Edu/Glasgow Rangers
- Findley/Real Salt Lake
- Goodson/Start
- Feilhaber/Aarhus
- Hahnemann/Wolverhampton
October 10th, 2017 at 11:14 PM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 6:34 AM ^
Never mind that more kids play soccer in the U.S. than in almost any other country in the world. Participation is not the problem. Coaching - at the youth level - is.