Except US and Mexico it's dragged everyone else up. It's kind of like how in college football more money made the normally crappy teams decent to good. Vanderbilt and Duke aren't automatic wins anymore. Depending on a particular fan's perspective that's a good thing or bad thing.
Tab Ramos somehow combines the worse aspects of Klinsmann (players forced out of their natural position) and Arena (tactical stubbornness)
MLS has done a great job of raising the level of play in CONCACAF, but its level of play is far below the top European leagues. USMNT players should strive to be in Europe not playing in Toronto. This should not even be up for debate.
That's a fair viewpoint. I guess you could argue MLS brings up nations like Costa Rica and brings down the US to some level in between. I disagree; we've been clearly worse than the Ticos for two cycles now.
Umm, who says it isn't? I don't totally buy the "it's all MLS' fault" argument, but the class of CONCACAF are Mexico and Costa Rica,
I added an edit to say that Arena was clearly not the answer.
A rant that is relegated to ESPN News because they are showing preseason NBA and poker on the main stations.
Yeah, he's taken flak from us the last year or two, and been a pretty good sport about it.
Well.. the US did have about four or five solid chances in the second half..or more. Losing 4-5 minutes more is a big deal (I know they'd never put up more than 7 probably). Has anyone seen an angle where the first panama goal went in?
Could you name more than 3 international teams who wouldn't be? That's an unfair standard. Shit, Toronto FC might beat the USMNT. Apples and oranges.
yeah it didn't.
Amen. The state of soccer in this country is in serious flux. Everything Twellman said was absolutely true. US soccer is worried about trying to be competitive with the Germans and and the Portugals of the soccer world and can't even beat T&T???? 90% of the country couldn't even watch the game on their TV tonight... being relegated to find a fucking stream to watch the game. It took me to the 25th minute to find one that worked at all let alone decently. It's a small thing but it represents a much larger problem here. How are people supposed to get into the sport when you can't even fucking watch it?
It was never about the coach. It is, and always will be, about the talent pool.
I posted about this a little while back and my friend Brian expanded on the idea in a recent article here:
I don't know how Tab Ramos' name gets occasionally floated for the NT job. He is not qualified.
Allerdyce isn't European enough, I would not accept it.
4 years ago, USA equalized in stoppage time and took us out of the playoffs. That was more painful to me than any Red Sox losa by far. Fair game and passed.
I'm actually all for a non-American coach, mostly because I think MLS has a growing number of decent coaches but nobody who jumps out as outstanding. There are a few guys who might take the next step over the next few years, but that's not a gamble the USSF should make. We need to come back strong from this.
I'm in the same boat man, but I'm thinking that I as a fan and they as a team believed they could just show up and get a result today.
Big Sam would have an ugly qualification sewn up early.
Congrats, and celebrate it. You've been a great sport considering you went through the equivalent of the Buckner play 4 years ago. Nobody here that's worth anything is going to begrudge you enjoying this moment.
And articulate. Some scared producer would have hooked me off stage hours ago after the first f-bomb.
This would be more helpful if MLS was responsible for youth development like club sides are in other countries. With us, the entire development system is flawed. Pay-to-play will never get us top athletes, only ones from affluent families.
It depends upon what the changes are. The very obvious difference is that fussbal in Germany is practically a religion and teams have the money to invest heavily in youth development. Up until very recently that was not the case in MLS. Now they are investing in academies to create team depth.
