World Cup 2026 Thread

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Brutal night. I was one of the suckers that flew out to SEA for the game. I wanted just to see a game with a home USA crowd, so I got to do that, and was fully resigned to losing this game, but the manner in which they did is the worst way it could have happened. It pretty much erased anything that happened prior, this is what their '26 team will be remembered for. They won a group that saw 3/4 advance and Paraguay went down swinging (perhaps literally). To make themselves a story with Balogun and then have him, and everyone, do nothing, was ouch. I am not so delusional to think him playing turned any kind of tide though. These squads weren't even close to each other. Our one goal was fortunate.

I think reality is somewhere between they are still a long way away from European standards, and they had a bad night. Not sure they are as terrible as they looked, but they definitely had some artificial wind going in the sails. I'm not sure the casuals who hopped on realize how much worse Pulisic is than the best Belgians. That Pulisic is who he is in the US says a lot about where our program is. And that's okay, because honestly, he's had a very solid overseas career. But De Bruyne is one of the best midfielders of the last couple decades - in the world - not just a guy who stars for his national team and scores a few goals in Serie A. Not hating on Pulisic, he's the best we've produced, but that's the reality.

And Belgium is a huge underdog against Spain.

The goalie and backline are in dire straits right now. They have a back who's older than I am and there's not much to say about the goalies. US Soccer lacks a development pyramid that weeds out bad players. And an MLS problem. I think this level of play is about as much as this current system is capable of achieving. They're just nowhere close to that top tier.

The crowd certainly did their part. Even though it was clearly going one way and we looked awful, they were still standing and screaming all the way through that 3rd embarrassing goal.

 

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

8 hours ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Brutal night. I was one of the suckers that flew out to SEA for the game. I wanted just to see a game with a home USA crowd, so I got to do that, and was fully resigned to losing this game, but the manner in which they did is the worst way it could have happened. It pretty much erased anything that happened prior, this is what their '26 team will be remembered for. They won a group that saw 3/4 advance and Paraguay went down swinging (perhaps literally). To make themselves a story with Balogun and then have him, and everyone, do nothing, was ouch. I am not so delusional to think him playing turned any kind of tide though. These squads weren't even close to each other. Our one goal was fortunate.

I think reality is somewhere between they are still a long way away from European standards, and they had a bad night. Not sure they are as terrible as they looked, but they definitely had some artificial wind going in the sails. I'm not sure the casuals who hopped on realize how much worse Pulisic is than the best Belgians. That Pulisic is who he is in the US says a lot about where our program is. And that's okay, because honestly, he's had a very solid overseas career. But De Bruyne is one of the best midfielders of the last couple decades - in the world - not just a guy who stars for his national team and scores a few goals in Serie A. Not hating on Pulisic, he's the best we've produced, but that's the reality.

And Belgium is a huge underdog against Spain.

The goalie and backline are in dire straits right now. They have a back who's older than I am and there's not much to say about the goalies. US Soccer lacks a development pyramid that weeds out bad players. And an MLS problem. I think this level of play is about as much as this current system is capable of achieving. They're just nowhere close to that top tier.

The crowd certainly did their part. Even though it was clearly going one way and we looked awful, they were still standing and screaming all the way through that 3rd embarrassing goal.

 

Good thoughts here and across this thread.

The Balogun controversy certainly impacted the vibes, but I think the biggest thing it did was make Belgium's plan quite easy. They just decided to not let Flo do anything, and the US was, somehow, not prepared to work in alternative ways. Had Flo remained suspended, I wonder if the team would have committed to a different approach, an approach I think might have been more successful. That's all hindsight obviously. I think Balogun in the starting XI ended up hurting them, but we'll never really know how things would have worked with Pepi.

I fully expect US Soccer to extend Poch and claim victory. And for 2030 to look similar, but you never know since so much can change during these four year cycles.

In any case, I hope @OldSchoolSnapperat least got to enjoy Seattle, despite the massive letdown on the pitch.

[Joseph Zarr]

I woke this morning in a stupor of "I truly can not believe how far the goalkeeping has fallen off." We used to be in the upper echelon of goalies. Meola, Friedel, Keller, Howard et al. Freese was just so egregiously bad last night. The errant misplay is its whole level of incompetent decision-making and skill in the moment, yes, but he was unsure of his positioning on the entirety of the first three goals by my eyes. He was not in a position to even make a play - he was shuffling feet and unsure of what he was seeing and how to respond in real time the entire duration. This looked like a player who wasn't ready to play under those lights or is just simply not remotely an international level player. I'll say it til the cows come Home: the USMNT will remain an afterthought until they learn how to recruit and develop a complete and cohesive unit in the back end. In the past we at least had the Goalie to make up for the Agooses of the world - yet another incompetent but somehow celebrated sub par veteran defenseman. Miles to go.

[owbc]

I think all of the above is true to some extent. They are not as bad as they looked and could have won on a good day if the chips fell right. Belgium had a good game plan and exploited their flaws. The political stuff was absolutely a distraction and/or a motivator for Belgium. There is a talent ceiling that they were butting against. 

That blunder was just so bad. It robbed everyone of the chance to see them try to equalize. The storyline might be completely different if they had another 30+ minutes to try and make it 2-2, even if they ultimately lost. 

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

7 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

I woke this morning in a stupor of "I truly can not believe how far the goalkeeping has fallen off." We used to be in the upper echelon of goalies. Meola, Friedel, Keller, Howard et al. Freese was just so egregiously bad last night. The errant misplay is its whole level of incompetent decision-making and skill in the moment, yes, but he was unsure of his positioning on the entirety of the first three goals by my eyes. He was not in a position to even make a play - he was shuffling feet and unsure of what he was seeing and how to respond in real time the entire duration. This looked like a player who wasn't ready to play under those lights or is just simply not remotely an international level player. I'll say it til the cows come Home: the USMNT will remain an afterthought until they learn how to recruit and develop a complete and cohesive unit in the back end. In the past we at least had the Goalie to make up for the Agooses of the world - yet another incompetent but somehow celebrated sub par veteran defenseman. Miles to go.

Slonina needs to make a move somewhere he can play. Maybe the Championship. I have hopes for him if he can get actual minutes. The talent is there.

Chris Brady is also really young, and MLS isn't a bad spot, so maybe there's some opportunities there.

I think it's time to move on from the Matts.

What happens there and with Ream aging out will probably steer the ship. I think Balogun will be a huge weapon, so if they can be solid at the back, that's a great start.

[Fear The Chorizo]

The US needs better goalkeeping and needs to prioritize getting freak athletes with size to develop into defenders who are also terrors on set pieces in the penalty area.  I think they have enough quality and options in the midfield, wings, and striker positions to take the next step, but they continually ask too much of those positions to help with a weak back end.  The team this cycle really struggled to keep any opponent from scoring, so when the opponents get better and pressure ramps up, it winds up looking like this when they can't keep possession and control the game.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

There are a lot of problems in US Soccer but one is just America in general and the way we idolize a forward every WC. That's a very American thing. Pulisic, Donovan, etc. are ok. They're ok. These aren't even top 50 world players.

It's hard for me to get U13 players to even want to play defense. It's a cultural thing, our obsession with points and being the guy who scores, we would never glorify a player like van Dijk or Saliba in the US.

We've fallen off at GK because GK has changed. It's not about elite shot stoppers anymore. Not coincidentally, shot stopping isn't a skill you'd need to be in Spain to develop as a youth, and a lot of it can be trained in a solitary manner.  We were able to do that just fine because it was the one position very different from the others.

The best ones now have excellent foot skills, play 30 yards off the goal and are essentially part of the offense. All things that other places do better than we do.

[homer]

I think it's the fact that soccer is accessible everywhere else in the world and here you need to join a club/travel team. 

[Fear The Chorizo]

For anyone watching Argentina/Egypt....So VAR can be used to take a goal away due to a common foul not called during the game on the entire opposite side of the field roughly 45 seconds earlier in the match?  How is that a thing?  That's like taking a touchdown off the board at the end of a 6 play drive by going back to instant replay and having an offensive holding call retroactively imposed on the first 3rd and 5 conversion of the drive that wasn't even flagged by an official.

I'll say it again, soccer rules are stupid....and quite frankly they really need to rein in what VAR can be used for.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

5 minutes ago, homer said:

I think it's the fact that soccer is accessible everywhere else in the world and here you need to join a club/travel team. 

I think that's sort of myth. All these top guys overseas are plucked into elite academies at very young ages. Even the best Americans are. The old wives tale that they're learning on the streets of little towns is just not what's happening. Messi was undersized at 11 so Barca paid to relocate him to Spain and pay for his HGH treatments.

Plus, all these sports that America is great at have the same club situation going on. Bigger factor honestly is just losing our best athletes to those other sports.

If anything, honestly, I'd say the opposite is more the issue. In the US it is extremely accessible but you're coached by someone's dad until you're 13. France, Spain, Germany, England? The best kids are getting academy training at 6. By 10 they don't even really go to school. They board at a football academy.

[Fear The Chorizo]

11 minutes ago, homer said:

I think it's the fact that soccer is accessible everywhere else in the world and here you need to join a club/travel team. 

Soccer is accessible here, too - it's simply that there's more money stateside in other sports and the USMNT rostering model within the US is far too reliant on collegiate programs who get their players from suburbia and not develop athletes starting at young ages.  That's also part of the reason so many players on the USMNT happen to be dual citizens or were part of military families stationed overseas, because they benefitted from European training academies.

[homer]

If only someone would start a US training academy.

 

https://www.imgacademy.com/boarding-school/soccer

 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

4 minutes ago, homer said:

If only someone would start a US training academy.

 

https://www.imgacademy.com/boarding-school/soccer

 

Yeah, this illustrates the problem almost exactly.

Starts at age 13 and is geared entirely towards getting your kid an athletic scholarship to play college soccer, not funnel to the USMNT exclusively.

La Masia is taking 7 year olds who they find, there is no "applying." In these powerhouse soccer countries, everything funnels to the national team. Everything.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I get it, Argentina is great at soccer....

They're also the benefactor of an outrageous amount of favorable calls and reversals in a sport where just one can determine the outcome of a match.

In a way it's sickening to watch - Egypt deserved to win and advance

[OldSchoolSnapper]

4 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

I get it, Argentina is great at soccer....

They're also the benefactor of an outrageous amount of favorable calls and reversals in a sport where just one can determine the outcome of a match.

In a way it's sickening to watch - Egypt deserved to win and advance

Idk. Hard for me to feel bad for anyone giving up 3 goals in 15 minutes. Can't do that and blame refs.

[Fear The Chorizo]

3 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

Idk. Hard for me to feel bad for anyone giving up 3 goals in 15 minutes. Can't do that and blame refs.

Hard for me to not see the air go out of Egypt's sails after getting robbed of one of their own goals scored...understanding that they did post a 2nd goal not long after that couldn't be stolen from them after the fact.  Once Argentina got rolling Egypt wasn't going to slow them down and they mentally fell apart.

[GAME05]

There's no real wonder why the US isn't better at soccer when the thread for the biggest tournament in the world which only happens every four years is a mere six pages long. 

[CheezWizHed]

1 hour ago, GAME05 said:

There's no real wonder why the US isn't better at soccer when the thread for the biggest tournament in the world which only happens every four years is a mere six pages long. 

When does Football's training camp kick off? 😉

[Samurai Bucky]

1 hour ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I think that's sort of myth. All these top guys overseas are plucked into elite academies at very young ages. Even the best Americans are. The old wives tale that they're learning on the streets of little towns is just not what's happening. Messi was undersized at 11 so Barca paid to relocate him to Spain and pay for his HGH treatments.

Plus, all these sports that America is great at have the same club situation going on. Bigger factor honestly is just losing our best athletes to those other sports.

If anything, honestly, I'd say the opposite is more the issue. In the US it is extremely accessible but you're coached by someone's dad until you're 13. France, Spain, Germany, England? The best kids are getting academy training at 6. By 10 they don't even really go to school. They board at a football academy.

The one thing that is different is that Messi didn't have to pay to go to Barca.  Barca paid for him to be there.  In the US, if you are selected to be part of a team (select, academy, regional select) requires money to be paid by a third party.  This almost always falls on the parent.

The entirety of this video is very good, but I copied it to a point to discuss the main difference between Barca and US "academies" (go to 10:10 if it doesn't take you to the direct point in the video):

Speaking of Landon -- here is a video where he talks about "privilege".  There are some interesting points there, too.
 

 

[yourout]

58 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

When does Football's training camp kick off? 😉

You mean REAL football. 😁

Actually Aussie rules football just started their season. I usually watch some in the middle of the night when I get up on the weekends.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Good discussion. Lots of great ideas here. I think @OldSchoolSnapperis right on about scoring and US culture.

A lot of our system is also geared to games. Games, games, games. This is a huge problem in youth sports in general. You don't need kids under 12 (maybe even 14) playing games. They need reps. 3v3. Triangles. Maybe 7v7 in tight spaces. That's what the European countries do, by and large, and it's what creates elite skill development. We spend so much time traveling to tournaments, and it's truly a nightmare. Why? IMO it's mostly so grown-ups can brag and get in arguments. I'd rather have skills training or skills competitions, and I think the same is true about basketball. You can see the Euro system making gains in that sport too.

[madbad2000]

4 hours ago, yourout said:

You mean REAL football. 😁

Actually Aussie rules football just started their season. I usually watch some in the middle of the night when I get up on the weekends.

AFL is actually in week 18 of 24 weeks. I follow the Roos and it's been an interesting season for sure.  Highly recommend the sport to anyone. Got the boy hooked on it now.