Tuesday's Column: The U.S. National Team from a Global Perspective
At least that's the context I attempted to place the U.S. National Team's World Cup qualifying effort in.
Read the column here.
Agree? Disagree? Unduly harsh? Or just realistic?
Updated:
Just ran across this blog post and thought it relevant given today's column. Now we know what the hardcore American soccer fan really watches.
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About 100 Percent Soccer
Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005 for the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles area newspapers. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook and follow him on Twitter.
Your comments about the lack of a soccer culture are old school thinking. That's not because here in SoCal we have more soccer playing youth in Coast Soccer League than probably any other place in the country or that more new club teams registered than ever before for this season, but rather because you are picturing white, mainstream, America as the definition of our "culture." Given the influx and growth of a largely hispanic immigrant population, we have more than enough passionate soccer fans to field an outstanding team. We have lots of kids playing soccer every recess throughout LAUSD. What we lack, though, is a feeder system that finds and nurtures that talent and energizes that base of support. Our college system still dominates the ODP pipeline and shuts out lots of promising prospects and our club system is prohibitively expensive.
Nick replies: I agree with your point to an extent and in fact I edited out something similar in my column (for space reasons). The growing Latino population I expect will eventually change the face of American soccer culture. The fact Chivas USA, for instance, is developing that talent base is encouraging. And as immigrants from south of the border stay longer in the U.S. hopefully they will cheer for their adopted nation rather than their homeland. But, as yet, American soccer culture at key junctures such as the college level and elite youth levels as you point out does not or cannot fully tap that talent base. Thanks for your thoughtful observations.
Agree with Anon that more needs to be done to integrate youth development with MLS. At the same time that Beckham Rule was instituted, MLS started the reserve and youth team system, and I felt that those developments would be much more important for MLS down the road than big name signings. Unfortunately, each team looks at their reserves and youth squads differently, with some seeming not to care at all (hello, Galaxy).
If you look at AYSO and other youth teams, I don't think there's a country in the world that has anything to match the giant pool of prospective talent here in the US. But US Soccer needs to do a better job reaching out to players, and like Anon said, Latino youth soccer is still criminally ignored.
About the column Nick, there isn't really anything I can disagree with. I think Dempsey could be a great player, but he seems to lose mental focus easily.