USA Men's Soccer Thread

The Sandbox Sports
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Official reveal is happening for some reason, with fans and all that. in NYC, so, I guess that is something to do there.
OMG, they are doing it one player at a time?!?
An e-mail would have sufficed.

Still some fans there hoping for Diego Luna to be included. Well, maybe someone gets injured and needs to be replaced. Hopefully before the first match and not during it (Jozy).

I’ll find out in 30 minutes or so, when the full squad is officially announced (probably the same as the one in AI’s post from The Guardian).

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There are fans???

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About ten times as many as there are American-Rules Football fans.

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Dang… immigration really is out of control!

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And the final team… same as the one a week ago (ordered alphabetically):

Goalkeepers:
Chris Brady
Matt Freese,
Matt Turner,

Defenders:
Max Arfsten,
Sergiño Dest,
Alex Freeman,
Mark McKenzie,
Tim Ream,
Chris Richards,
Antonee Robinson,
Miles Robinson,
Joe Scally
Auston Trusty,

Midfielders:
Brendan Aaronson,
Tyler Adams,
Sebastian Berhalter,
Weston McKennie,
Cristian Roldan,
Malik Tillman,
Alejandro Zendejas

Forwards:
Folarin Balogun,
Ricardo Pepi,
Christian Pulisic,
Gio Reyna,
Tim Weah
Haji Wright,

Last week, from The Guardian (order different cuz different):

Goalkeepers (3):
Chris Brady* (Chicago Fire, 0 caps/0 goals),
Matt Freese* (New York City, 14/0),
Matt Turner (New England Revolution, 53/0)

Defenders (10):
Max Arfsten* (Columbus Crew, 18/1),
Sergiño Dest (PSV, 37/2),
Alex Freeman* (Villarreal, 15/2),
Mark McKenzie* (Toulouse, 27/0),
Tim Ream (Charlotte FC, 80/1),
Chris Richards* (Crystal Palace, 36/3),
Antonee Robinson (Fulham, 52/4),
Miles Robinson* (FC Cincinnati, 38/3),
Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach, 24/0),
Auston Trusty* (Celtic, 6/0)

Midfielders (4):
Tyler Adams (AFC Bournemouth, 52/2),
Sebastian Berhalter* (Vancouver Whitecaps, 11/1),
Weston McKennie (Juventus, 64/12),
Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders, 45/0)

Attacking midfielders/wingers (6):
Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United, 57/9),
Christian Pulisic (Milan, 84/32),
Gio Reyna (Borussia Mönchengladbach, 36/9),
Malik Tillman* (Bayer Leverkusen, 28/3),
Tim Weah (Marseille, 49/7),
Alejandro Zendejas* (Club América, 13/2)

Strikers (3):
Folarin Balogun* (AS Monaco, 25/8),
Ricardo Pepi* (PSV, 35/13),
Haji Wright (Coventry City, 20/7)

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That’s what I will get for the Canadian team announcement on Friday. No pomp and ceremony.

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Heat exhaustion will be a legitimate risk at some venues in a few weeks.

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True, but equal to both teams.

Squeaked by Sadio Mané and the rest of Senegal yesterday. With wholesale changes at halftime, we’ll have to see what Poch finalizes as a lineup. Some of these poorer guys will have to play top-level for 20 minutes as substitutes as we all suck in and hope time will run faster (if leading), cuz some starters will get tired and need to be rested for future matches.

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Nice Doubleheader on Saturday Men at 2:30PM EDT, Women at 8:30 PM EDT. Both friendlies, but both versus top teams. Both on TBS. On HBOMax as well. And two Spanish stations and Peacock.
Men: GER is 10th on FIFA, 5th on ESPN. on TBS
Women: BRA is 6th on FIFA.

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Dest surprised at the US crowd:
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/48958053/sergino-dest-world-cup-stadiums-full-usa-fans-special
Well, it was Senegal, not a CONCACAF team, most of which have big fan bases in the USA.
Also, maybe the tickets weren’t $600 a pop.

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Who thinks there is still a stigma for individual USMNT players?
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/48992935/american-soccer-stigma-usmnt-world-cup-change-it

People who don’t matter, that’s who.
I mean, is there a stigma regarding Colombian players? I mean, sure the country has played soccer a long time, but they don’t do so well in the WC, and how many of their players are on top Euro League teams? what about Turkey? what about any African country?

Most important observation in this article:

“For me, it’s a lot bigger than just ourselves and our performance,” Adams said. “It’s about how can the next kid that’s looking up to us be inspired and want to play soccer instead of basketball, football, whatever it is. So for me, yeah, it’s a huge opportunity.”

Yes, it is getting those kids destined to be great athletes – genetically and/or hereditarily – to choose soccer.
I saw this when my kids were playing. There were some kids who were great at soccer relative to the rest, but they (their midwest-bred parents, mainly) had other sports in mind, cuz soccer was just something to do in the fall before baseball and soccer seasons.

Meanwhile on ESPN, someone ranks the best 50 players in the WC, and none of them are American:
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/48991846/world-cup-rank-50-best-players-2026-tournament

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“It resulted in me finally having enough and throwing one of my teammates to the ground and telling him that if he calls me that one more time, he’s going to the dentist,”

DAY-UM… Them’s fightin’ words! (for non-hockey players, at least)

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While reading about Diana Ross at The Athletic, found this interesting article:

Sure, it is the culture. It is the culture of “Other Sports Are More Important to #Murica.”

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Exactly, we don’t have time for kids sports

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Everyone has known what the problem is with men’s soccer in the U.S. It’s been written about several times over the last few decades.

It’s not culture, and it’s not “other sports are more important.” It’ ... there' rea$on$ why $occer ha$n’t $een a$cended to $upreme port tatu in the United tate over the la$t number of year$, but … I can’t $eem to $ort through all the ing that $how up to $ignal an an$wer for thi$ $ituation. Maybe it’ll come to me later on.

Well, that and as alluded to above, we don’t encourage kids to learn how to play sports. We put adults who are more focused on winning and losing like every game is championship-level and they’re playing for a world title and a multi-million dollar, multi-year coaching job in charge of kids teams even at a young age, and talent development is shoved into a dark corner and then buried underneath piles of dirt and entombed in concrete.

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Baseball and basketball are the similar with club/travel teams Football is channeled through high schools.
All have a draft, so that lowers the pro teams’ need to develop the talent. So, it is left to these separate, profit-driven entities.
And, with no pro/rel, MLS teams have even less incentive to develop talent.

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