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Paris Olympics

They made the quarterfinals.

And lost to a small North African team. Yay. Such an inspiring accomplishment.

Given the last 30 years of hype, when can we expect to have a chance to win? The talk was almost all about “growing the sport” as if *this* time making it this far will matter.

Or is US soccer just like fusion? Will get there in 10 years just like 10 years ago.
 
They've missed one World Cup since 1990. That's more than occasionally qualifying. They make it out of the Group Stage roughly 50% of the time. Relative to the rest of the world, that still puts them in the top 20 or so. That's nothing to sneeze at.

That also has nothing to do with the Olympics, seeing as it's not really the men's team but a bunch of college-aged kids with 3 token overage players who were allowed to go by their clubs.

One of those, they qualified by default. Just like the next one.

And seeing that they didn’t get past the group stage in the Copa, this youth team is still better than the old team.

This is the literal future of the US men’s team. I guess we should just be happy with the participation trophy?
 
They've missed 1 WC since 1990 - that's 7 for 8.

I don't think the problem is their presence in the WC but rather who is running US soccer at varying levels.

Because despite making the WC regularly, the share of kids 6 to 12 that participated in soccer fell from a peak of 10.9% in 2009 to a low of 6.2% in 2020, although it rebounded to 7.4% the next year.

For WCs, how many HC have they gone through? And of all of that churn, what was the most recent result?

They talk so much during the matches about inspiring players and fans. Your data suggests we may have hit saturation.
 
Btw, T&F isn’t massive spectator sport in the US, nor is swimming. Yet the US is one of the most dominant teams, and it alway has been.
 
For WCs, how many HC have they gone through? And of all of that churn, what was the most recent result?

They talk so much during the matches about inspiring players and fans. Your data suggests we may have hit saturation.

National teams even for the big fish (GER, FRA, ENG, BRA, ARG, etc) almost never have the same HC from 1 WC to the next, and their most recent WC result has nothing to do with the youth participation numbers I posted.

US men's soccer has accomplished more in the past 20 years on the international stage than during the previous 50 years combined.
 
US men's soccer has accomplished more in the past 20 years on the international stage than during the previous 50 years combined.


So is this all people can expect, then? Sounds like making it past the group stage is all that can be expected, and that's good enough....

I'll watch T&F, then. Reminds me how I'm bummed that both NBCSN and the Olympics channel no longer exists to watch that in the off years.
 
So is this all people can expect, then? Sounds like making it past the group stage is all that can be expected, and that's good enough....

I'll watch T&F, then. Reminds me how I'm bummed that both NBCSN and the Olympics channel no longer exists to watch that in the off years.

I guess I don't get your point. If the only reason to watch is to expect a title as a fan of MN sports I guess I should just shut it all down now.
 
It’s also important to note that youth results don’t always translate to future senior team success. Mali has dominated youth tournaments in Africa but never made the World Cup. Mexico won gold and bronze the last couple Olympics and that’s turned into an awful stretch for the senior team.
 
I guess I don't get your point. If the only reason to watch is to expect a title as a fan of MN sports I guess I should just shut it all down now.

The hype for US soccer is pretty strong, don't you think? If they expect to get more casual fans to spend their time watching, some success would be very helpful. Just like Michigan Hockey would get more FB fans if they won more.

If the US team is exactly where it will be, can the commentators at least stop with the "inspire" BS and just talk about the game?
 
The hype for US soccer is pretty strong, don't you think? If they expect to get more casual fans to spend their time watching, some success would be very helpful. Just like Michigan Hockey would get more FB fans if they won more.

If the US team is exactly where it will be, can the commentators at least stop with the "inspire" BS and just talk about the game?

I'm not bothered by announcers hyping the product as long as they honestly report what is taking place during the game. And really commentators aren't moving the needle on how many casual fans follow the team. It feels like your venn diagram on announcing, program success and fan support is misaligned. :)
 
Well, if you looked at my timestamp... LOL

Okay, I'll stop being a jerk. The first one. When I saw the replay again at halftime, I was more okay with it. But I still think the "kick" was mild, did not get in the way of any scoring chance (his own player knocked him over), and still think it's a "weak" call, but I can now see why it was called.

I had no problem with the hand ball. True, he didn't move his arm, but it was still out away from his body (even if the ball hit it, as opposed to the other way). I would have called it a PK as well.
Sorry I was sleeping (I’m reffing at my state championship soccer tournament) so I wasn’t sure.
 
It’s also important to note that youth results don’t always translate to future senior team success. Mali has dominated youth tournaments in Africa but never made the World Cup. Mexico won gold and bronze the last couple Olympics and that’s turned into an awful stretch for the senior team.
Former Olympic champions such as Nigeria and Cameroon.
 
And lost to a small North African team. Yay. Such an inspiring accomplishment.

Given the last 30 years of hype, when can we expect to have a chance to win? The talk was almost all about “growing the sport” as if *this* time making it this far will matter.

Or is US soccer just like fusion? Will get there in 10 years just like 10 years ago.
*Small North African country that finished 3rd at the last World Cup.
 
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