Being dangerous & having elite level players are two different things. The USA doesn't possess the quality...yet...to be considered an elite level team.

No shit. The US team will never be good at soccer


That doesn't mean Mexico is good just because it has more talent on paper than the US team

We're not comparing USA to Mexico.

Deadman just basically did  

He's not determining Mexico's status based on the US.

Stinger8 wrote:

No shit. The US team will never be good at soccer

That's dumb. The quality of the American player is actually as good as its ever been. Given the resources we have in the country, the quality could be so much better. The coaching & the way we develop players here just needs to improve if we're ever going to close the gap w/ the elite countries. All of which are fixable, because this country has so much potential.

There's actually plenty of talent on the US side. The young Hispanics can make up the US team of the future. Can't remember when but I saw a Under 20 US team full of brown people.

He said nobody would want to face Mexico if everything is going right for them


I said you can say that about most teams


He said the US doesn't have enough quality players to be considered dangerous


How is that not a comparison?



And Deadman, the US isn't going to become elite when soccer is the 6th or 7th most popular sport in the country

He gave an example. That wasn't a comparison.

Stinger8 wrote:

He said the US doesn't have enough quality players to be considered dangerous

I didn't say that, I said "elite."

Stinger8 wrote:

And Deadman, the US isn't going to become elite when soccer is the 6th or 7th most popular sport in the country

Listen to this...Soccer is the third most team played sport in America. MLS is the 3rd most attended league in America. The USA outspends pretty much outspends any other country in the world for TV rights when it comes to the game. The USSF (United States Soccer Federation) is the 2nd richest federation - behind Spain's - in the world. The World Cup ratings will probably thrash both the World Series & the NBA finals. The popularity of the game here increases every year. Ever wonder why the big clubs --Manchester United, Real Madrid, Chelsea-- always come to the US for tours? And that is to increase their brand in a growing market. This wasn't happening 5-10 years ago.

Like I said, the game here has huge potential to be one of the best, we just screw kids w/ potential up over here when we're developing them, & that's due to coaching. You ever wonder why Uruguay are so good even though they only have a population of 7 million people? There is no excuse for the US not to become a major power in soccer one day considering how much money the federation (not MLS) are getting.

I could probably sit here all day & explain what's wrong w/ the development of our players, but at least it's getting better.

Anyways...here goes the pots for WC draw:



If this is accurate, the US will surely either get Argentina or Ghana drawn in the same group.

The teams they chose for Pot 1 are absolutely comical, Switzerland? Uruguay? Belgium? Colombia?

There'll be multiple "groups of death".

You cant compare the World Cup to those two, because the WC happens once EVERY FOUR YEARS! That's like saying swimming has potential in the US because it gets a lot of support during the Olympics.


TV ratings for MLS compared to other leagues? Not so good.

Stinger8 wrote:

You cant compare the World Cup to those two, because the WC happens once EVERY FOUR YEARS! That's like saying swimming has potential in the US because it gets a lot of support during the Olympics.


TV ratings for MLS compared to other leagues? Not so good.

The Olympics have multiple sports. World Cup is just soccer.

Stinger8 wrote:

You cant compare the World Cup to those two, because the WC happens once EVERY FOUR YEARS! That's like saying swimming has potential in the US because it gets a lot of support during the Olympics.


TV ratings for MLS compared to other leagues? Not so good.

Ratings for UCL, Liga MX, EPL, & international fixtures are actually pretty great in this country. People are watching soccer, just not MLS. I support & watch MLS to the fullest, but I'm not getting into the theories about why the ratings aren't good...because it's well...complicated. I save those arguments for Twitter

VAMOS MEXICO! wrote:

The teams they chose for Pot 1 are absolutely comical, Switzerland? Uruguay? Belgium? Colombia?

There'll be multiple "groups of death".

The USA is absolutely destined to be in one.

FIFA is stupid.

Jermaine Defoe joins Toronto FC. I feel like TFC fans feel ripped off right about now. Leiweke spent WEEKS hyping this move up as "the biggest signing in league history" and this is all we get?

Joke of a club with a joke of a coach & management. This kind of stuff is what's wrong with the league.

Defoe is his big hype?

IKR. This is also the same club who let Dempsey go to Seattle when they had a chance at signing him because they thought "that's what's best for the league." WTF?!

Now I've just read that they've been using Drake to recruit players.

Pot 1
Brazil
Argentina
Colombia
Uruguay
Belgium
Germany
Spain
Switzerland

Pot 2
Algeria
Cameroon
Côte d'Ivoire
Ghana
Nigeria
Chile
Ecuador

Pot 3
Australia
Iran
Japan
Korea Republic
Costa Rica
Honduras
Mexico
USA

Pot 4
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Croatia
England
France
Greece
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Russia

If the USA gets a group w/ Italy, Greece, & Japan, we can call that "The Group of Debt."

Nah, but hopefully we don't end up in a Group of Death.