What's the future hold for the U.S. World Cup team? Serious answers only. No America bashing please.?

Question

Will they have a better team in 2010? Do they have any up and coming players besides Adu?

Answer 1

Well , hey USA played really worst this year & im doubt about their achievement in 2010 FIFA World Cup! If they want 2 perform excellent game in next FIFA W.C , they have 2 work hard from now!

Answer 2

I think the future looks good. I don't know if they'll have a better team, but if they have better luck and get an easier group they should progress.

They do have some young players as others have mentioned. I think the key is to get as many players playing in top-flight European competition. While MLS is a nice developmental league, it isn't close to a top Europe league and at some point it begins to hamper development of players.

The US soccer body, whatever it's called, should be actively trying to move players to Europe once they have progressed past the MLS level of play. Johnson was wanted by Benfica (Portugal) a couple of years ago and MLS nixed it. Johnson, Dempsey, Twellman, all need to get over to Europe. Somebody needs to tell Donovan togo to Europe too or there won't be a spot for him.

Somebody listed where Americans play, it doesn't matter who the play FOR, it matters who they play AGAINST. As long as Americans play in top-flight European competition, they will get better.

I also think Lavolpe would be a good replacement for Arena, plus stir up the Mexico rivalry.

For the record the World Cup will be played during winter in S. Africa and temps will be cooler than Germany.

Answer 3

Better? Guess we'll see. Lot of that depends on whether we qualify and then that we don't land in the "Group of Death" like we did this year with Italy, Ghana, and the Czech Republic. Alecko Eskandarian, Brian Carrol, Santino Quaranta, Eddie Gaven, Jose Luis Burciaga, David Testo, Eddie Johnson, and Danny Szetela have been playing with the US Youth National Teams and have been playing in the US National Youth teams and could be called upon on the road to 2010.

And to findizzle, if the popularity of a sport in this country is going to cause a team to fail in a major international tournament then how does one explain the dismal results incurred by US Baseball and Basketball teams at the World Championships and last Olympics? The NBA and MLB are not hurting for fans or press last time I checked!

Answer 4

Ok. I will give a serious answer and it is not bashing, but take some of the comments like a man please. Sometimes truth hurts.
First of all Adu is from Ghana. And he is yet to decide which side to suit up for. The US is making a great effort in this sense, offering millions of dollars to naturalize this athlete. When there is serious debates about immigration in this country it is quite ironic to see the distance they go to make sure that athletes that may bring glory to their nation are naturalized. Hakeem Olajuwan could barely speak English but was the captain of the dream team. Tomas Dooley in the world cup had a worse accent then me (I am Italian). Dont get me wrong Frenchies are the worse at this one so US is not the only one at fault.
Now. First thins the US has to the starting with the media and fans have realistic expectations of their team. FIFA World Rankings is not a true measure of the team. Because the US plays majority of its official matches against Canada, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Costa Rica etc. and get good results against team, that bolsters their points in the standing. The most formidable opponent they play against is Mexico which is a good team but their ranking is also bolstered for the same reasons. Teams in Europe fight for those rankings by playing the likes of France, Italy, Germany, Holland etc. day in day out.
Another issue is that some players are simply not that good. Landon Donovan was sent home packing after a 2 month stint in Italy cause he is not good. But he said "we came here to win the cup" givign unrealistic expectations to the fans. And he was the worst player on your team.
Also the US fans because this is a new passion in the US are simply not as educated about the sport. The players feel pressure once every 4 years first of all ins tead of day in and day out in quality leagues. There are no great players in the MLS, and the ones that play in the MLS would barely compete in 2nd divisions in Europe.
Now due to this lack of education about the sport when a player from the US team plays for a European team, they believe that they have taken strides and that their players are good enough to compete with Europeans or South Americans.
Tim Howard plays for MAN U. A great team and he is a good goalkeeper and was your best option for the cup but he was not selected to start
Kasey Keller: Plays for Monchengladbach. Which is a team that hangs on by a thread in the Bundesliga.
Hanneman and Convey plays for Reading that is a horrible team.
Bocanegraand McBride: Fulham. not a good team.
Cherundolo: Hannover (not a good team)
Eddie Lewis: Leeds (a mid range team)
Berthalter: 2nd division club in Germany.
Onyewu: Standar Liege (not a good team)
Reyna: Manchester City (mid range team)
As you can see that the only player that competes in a world class team is Tim Howard and he was not given a chance to play. the rest of the players play in 2nd tier teams and some barely get a chance to be on the pitch anyway. Remaining players play in the MLS which is less competitive then any league in Europe.
European players play an average of 50 top level competition matches a year. So when the world cup comes they are ready. Also they play against the worlds best constantly, they learn every different style of play.
Finally: Bruce Arena is not a good coach. Brian McBride is not a great forward and they want to play him by himself agains world class defenders and of course he goes home without a shot on goal. McBride is decent but not even close to the level of: Klose, Ronaldo, Koller.
Thats my take. I do not think that the Us will be succesful in the next world cup, if they qualify, because they dug their own grave. They overhyped their team, gave unrealistic expectations about their squad and as a result the fan excitement they have created will take a step back. The confidence will take a step back. And they will have to go to the drawing board and start all over. I think the US is about 8 years away from any possible success.

Answer 5

I think the U.S. has a lot of potential. Americans are disciplined, have great respect for tactics and the coaches are very good. However the MLS is a weak league. To do well in a World Cup at least half of the team needs to be playing in the big European clubs. Until then it will be very hard for the U.S. team to get pass quarter finals.

Answer 6

i was watchin a couple people talk about the us team and they brought up and good point! All these other people from other countries learned how to play soccer in the slums, dirty streets, tall grass fields not million dollar prep schools! Yes we know the basic of the game like no other but we arent flashy, and other then the italy game were not physical! I think we will be good for 2010 but it is going to take alot to become a world power!! Maybe some of players playing mor ein the europe leagues instaed of the MLS.

Answer 7

Not likely. You know the deal here in the Land of the Free...in every other nation in the world, their best male atheletes tend play futbol. Here, MAYBE our 4th or 5th best male atheletes in general play futbol, after football, basketball, & baseball. Translation: equivalent talent simply isn't available, and isn't Adu really an immigrant himself, if I have that right? No home-grown talent (at least, talent not equivalent to European/South American talent) means we continue to founder and look like fools on the pitch in 2010. Then again, we tend to cycle up and down (did well in '94; sucked in '98; did well again in '02; sucked again in '06), so it may be time for yet another good run, but I'm doubting it this time. Our top players now will be getting long in the tooth soon, and I don't see much new talent rising up to take over the reins. Also, Bruce Arena's under attack for our poor performance and I fear he won't be around by 2010 and I don't know of another American coach as good as he is. Unfortunately, it may be time for you to check up on your ancestry and find another nation to cheer for...

Answer 8

The future for US soccer will start to look better once Bruce Arena is not the coach. The US has mediocre talent and should at least be able to get out of their group, pending another no show by star players. However, the US will not be anywhere near the soccer powerhouses for a long time.

Answer 9

While I do agree with PANCHO on some levels, I choose to have a more positive outlook, probably because I am from/live in the United States. First of all, I think the main responsibility of this world cup goes to Bruce Arena. Some of his decisions just...were really, really awful. Playing one forward in the first game, maybe. But after it CLEARLY did not work, and he did it again, against Italy, and it STILL did not work (that goal was an own goal, and after that the red cards took over the match), and then you go into the Ghana game, needing to win to advance, and you are STILL only playing one forward, after having scored no goals, and then, at halftime, you are losing, and need to score two goals, and you STILL do not play two forwards, and you wait another 10-15 minutes before you do...that is just stupid. Why not start Eddie Johnson alongside McBride after the Czech Republic match? Now, as for the other things that could have hampered us: our group was very, very difficult; we have never played well in Europe, and our success at Korea/Japan 2002 came on a continent that the cup had never been played on before; our 'clutch players', our big stars, gave new meaning to the word choke. Landan Donovan did nothing. Brian McBride, all alone, did little. Damarcus Beasley did one thing. Convey did a few things, and yet Donovan got more minutes, presumably because of what Donovan had done BEFORE the tournament, not what he had done IN the tournament. Brian Ching never played. Reyna did little offensively, and fell down to help Ghana score. Eddie Johnson played decent, which is more than almost anyone else can say, but like Convey, others, who werent playing as well, played more. Clint Dempsey was the only person who was playing well and played a lot. Against Czech Republic and Italy, he was our bast player, running at defenses, taking people on, starting attacks. And, fittingly, he scored our only real goal of the tournament, in our final game against Ghana. But, on the whole, the team just had no sense of urgency when it needed to score. They just kept playing normally, as if it would happen without any work. If you watch the last twenty minutes of the Ghana game, people keep passing the ball off, because no one wanted have it. So, we know what we need to fix. We needa new coach. Bruce Arena did a lot for us, but after 8 years, he has done all he can do, it would seem. Whoever that new coach is will determine a lot about where our soccer program is heading. We need good, new players, it doesn't matter if they come from Ghana, as long as they live here and play for us, their goals will still count for us. Now, this was very likely the last world cup for: Pablo Mastroeni, John O'Brien, Eddie Lewis, Claudio Reyna, Gregg Berhalter, Kasey Keller, Brian McBride, and Eddie Pope. It was also probably the last for Ben Olsen and Josh Wolff. Thats ten players, a pretty large portion of the 23. I think we can count on some good talent coming in, it all comes back to the coaching to see how it will develop. Now, apart from those, we will need some luck. We were terribly unlucky in this tournament. The red card against Italy and Ghana's penalty kick were just bad calls that didnt go our way. Also, our draw was very unlucky. So we will need more luck in South Africa 2010. In that tournament, I would be surprised if we did not advance. After this tournament, the rest of the world is saying, "They were just a one-cup wonder. It was a fluke. We dont need to worry to much about them anymore." So again, we will have the element of surprise, something crucial to our success at Korea/Japan 2002. Also, like Korea/Japan 2002, it will be played on a continent where it has never been played before, and that continent is Africa. Surely, those conditions do not favor Europe at all, and if you compare it to Germany 2006, it is exactly the opposite. I would expect African and CONCACAF teams to do surprisingly well. Thats what I think.

Answer 10

im not bashing america, but seriously, i doubt the united states would ever get that far in the world cup. there are too many excellent teams around the world that have been considered among the best for soooo many years. no one ever considered america very good so i think thats the mentality that will stick for a while...unless a miracle happens.