World Cup 2006: Day 15 (Special Edition)
Over the past 24 hours, I've read various articles online about USA's failure to get past the group stages and all kinds of reactions to that ranging from slandering of USA coach Bruce Arena, to conspiracy theories involving George Bush, and disgust at the supposed "cheaters" in soccer (read Ghana forwards) who feign injury and manipulate referees to aid their team's cause. I'd just like to weigh in with my two cents on USA's World Cup performance as well.
Eric Wynalda has been particularly critical of Bruce Arena, his tactics, roster selection etc. and blamed him squarely for the USA's early exit from the World Cup. Admittedly, Arena didn't have the best of tournaments and especially blundered tactically against the Czechs in the first game. However, this is the same Eric Wynalda who, in a World Cup preview show about three weeks ago on ABC, predicted that USA had a good chance of making the World Cup final and even winning it!! For almost any soccer fan (excepting certain misguiding ones in America), this was clearly a case of overhype!! As I far as I can recall, only Alexi Lalas expressed that qualifying for the second round from their group would be a major success for the US.
Thanks to USA's rather remarkable run to the quarterfinals in 2002, expectations had just risen sky high for this year's tournament. Progress at the World Cup is never straightforward and we have seen several powerhouse nations drop out in the first round of the Cup, a la France in 2002! The Americans only needed to look at their roster to realize the true strength of their team. Whereas, almost all of the 23 players on the roster for the top teams like England, Spain, Brazil etc. ply their trade in one of the top professional leagues of the world. In stark contrast, almost half of the USA starting lineup and roster played in the MLS! Of course, individual players do not make a team, but it is just a case of exposure to top-level tactics and gameplay that eventually makes the difference in the World Cup. MLS players simply never encounter top-flight tactics employed by top international coaches, and rarely face the kind of quality they face at the World Cup. So, it does not make sense to expect them to world beaters, just because they happened to do so last time around!
The US has improved significantly in soccer over the last 5-7 years. There's no doubting that. However, for them to become a world power in soccer is going to take another 5-10 years of development. The MLS system needs to get better with quality management and players, and this will obviously take time to happen. The Americans cannot expect instant gratification in soccer, simply because the competition in the rest of the world is so strong. US Soccer needs to go back to the drawing board, revisit their expectations and goals for the near future, and focus on a plan that will enable them to compete on a regular basis against the likes of Italy, England, Spain and Brazil. Blaming Bruce Arena and his staff, even though they deserve a fair amount of criticism, is not going to help the US. And replacing Arena with a top coach like Guus Hiddink isn't going give them instant results either. They have 4 years in front of them now before their next shot at the World Cup, and hopefully, the next time around, we'll see a lot more US players playing for some of the top teams in Europe and/or South America. US soccer fans and the media need to clamour for the development of MLS and the young players in the US, instead of sulking and whining about the failures of 2006!
Eric Wynalda has been particularly critical of Bruce Arena, his tactics, roster selection etc. and blamed him squarely for the USA's early exit from the World Cup. Admittedly, Arena didn't have the best of tournaments and especially blundered tactically against the Czechs in the first game. However, this is the same Eric Wynalda who, in a World Cup preview show about three weeks ago on ABC, predicted that USA had a good chance of making the World Cup final and even winning it!! For almost any soccer fan (excepting certain misguiding ones in America), this was clearly a case of overhype!! As I far as I can recall, only Alexi Lalas expressed that qualifying for the second round from their group would be a major success for the US.
Thanks to USA's rather remarkable run to the quarterfinals in 2002, expectations had just risen sky high for this year's tournament. Progress at the World Cup is never straightforward and we have seen several powerhouse nations drop out in the first round of the Cup, a la France in 2002! The Americans only needed to look at their roster to realize the true strength of their team. Whereas, almost all of the 23 players on the roster for the top teams like England, Spain, Brazil etc. ply their trade in one of the top professional leagues of the world. In stark contrast, almost half of the USA starting lineup and roster played in the MLS! Of course, individual players do not make a team, but it is just a case of exposure to top-level tactics and gameplay that eventually makes the difference in the World Cup. MLS players simply never encounter top-flight tactics employed by top international coaches, and rarely face the kind of quality they face at the World Cup. So, it does not make sense to expect them to world beaters, just because they happened to do so last time around!
The US has improved significantly in soccer over the last 5-7 years. There's no doubting that. However, for them to become a world power in soccer is going to take another 5-10 years of development. The MLS system needs to get better with quality management and players, and this will obviously take time to happen. The Americans cannot expect instant gratification in soccer, simply because the competition in the rest of the world is so strong. US Soccer needs to go back to the drawing board, revisit their expectations and goals for the near future, and focus on a plan that will enable them to compete on a regular basis against the likes of Italy, England, Spain and Brazil. Blaming Bruce Arena and his staff, even though they deserve a fair amount of criticism, is not going to help the US. And replacing Arena with a top coach like Guus Hiddink isn't going give them instant results either. They have 4 years in front of them now before their next shot at the World Cup, and hopefully, the next time around, we'll see a lot more US players playing for some of the top teams in Europe and/or South America. US soccer fans and the media need to clamour for the development of MLS and the young players in the US, instead of sulking and whining about the failures of 2006!
posted by Manoj at
5:42 AM
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