Belgium 4, USA 1<\/p>\n
That kind of sucked.<\/p>\n
And was also totally expected, given our nation\u2019s history in the World Cup.<\/p>\n
It was certainly one of the biggest examples of Ball Don\u2019t Lie, karmic paybacks I can recall in sports.[1]<\/a> Don\u2019t need to say much more about that aspect of the game.<\/p>\n I\u2019m also not going to spend much time on the horrific performance by the Americans\u2019 back line, which we knew was an issue coming into the tournament and was responsible for the team\u2019s weakest moments over the past month. I texted the guy who coached L\u2019s soccer teams with me for several years and we agreed that the four sassy girls that anchored our defense eight years ago were more organized and communicated better than the US did last night.<\/p>\n Nope, rather the thing that struck me most as the Belgians methodically ripped apart the US was how much our opening game against Paraguay set unrealistic expectations for the rest of the tournament, making an understandable loss to Belgium feel like a surprise.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n After the US housed Paraguay 3\u20131 on June 12, we thought this team was destined for greatness. Quarterfinals at least, maybe even semifinals. Paraguay only gave up one goal in the run of play over their next four games, which made it seem like the US had done something historic in that opening round.<\/p>\n That was a legit offensive outburst, no diminishing it.<\/p>\n However what we missed was that Paraguay revamped both their formation and strategy after the US game to cover what had been exposed; we did not play against the same team that took out Germany and battled France deep into the game.<\/p>\n That Paraguay game also gave future opponents ideas on how to slow the US down. Australia did a little bit; the US was fully in control of that game but were much more contained. T\u00fcrkiye definitely slowed the US attack, primarily by being physical.<\/p>\n Belgium flat beat us last night. They controlled possession, forced mistakes by the US defense, and lured our offense into attacking their defense where they wanted to be attacked rather than in their weak spots. Only another gorgeous Malik Tillman free kick gave the US any hope.<\/p>\n An embarrassing 4\u20131 loss feels like an unjust end. This US team was better than I expected them to be before the tournament began. They gave us a fun month. Yet once again we lost to a European power, even one that is past its prime, and it seems like our correct place in the soccer world. US fans had hoped playing at home would give the team a boost to get over this perpetual obstacle.<\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t the right combination of talent to get over that hump, though. We have a few world class players, but no true game changers. We\u2019ve been on this treadmill since the 1994 World Cup, thinking a nation our size can crank out high level players if we just put enough planning, money, and attention into the project.<\/p>\n Once again we will kick the can four years down the road and hope the next class of young players that cycles in can be difference makers. However, we may be destined to always remain in this same place: good enough to win a weak group and then maybe one knockout game (in the expanded tournament), but doomed to always come up short when we face a top 10\u201315 team.<\/p>\n Thirty years ago I really cared about where US soccer was headed. I monitored the young players in the system, tracked where our senior team players were signing in Europe, watched random games in weird summer tournaments. I remember talking all kinds of shit on haters on America Online soccer message boards after the US beat a pretty good Nigeria squad in the 1995 US Cup. Or staying up late that same summer to follow the score via Headline News as the US upset Argentina 3\u20130.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t have near that level of interest in the national team anymore. I hope they do well, and support them. But these 30+ years of the same thing have dulled my enthusiasm and I\u2019m more waiting for the inevitable fall than hoping for the occasional success. Does that make me the soccer equivalent of a Browns fan? That\u2019s too much. Vikings fan?<\/p>\n In a weird way, many of the intentions of the early 1990s US soccer establishment have been met. The MLS gets decent crowds and is firmly established in the world hierarchy as a second-tier league. Soccer of all kinds is on TV all the time now. Go walk around anywhere where pre-teen kids are and you\u2019ll see countless ones wearing soccer jerseys. Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mbappe, and stars from all the biggest English teams are represented. Haaland jerseys will be the next wave.<\/p>\n In 1994 ABC and ESPN were trying to explain the rules of the game to us, and why we should care about Roberto Baggio<\/a> and Hristo Stoichkov<\/a> were. Your average American was probably surprised that Pel\u00e9 wasn\u2019t still on Brazil\u2019s squad. Now Messi is doing ads for Home Depot, and David Beckham has temporarily taken Peyton Manning\u2019s place as the Former Athlete Who Appears In Too Many Commercials.[3]<\/a> Go into any clothing retailer and there is some kind of USA Soccer or World Cup gear available.<\/p>\n And let\u2019s not forget the women\u2019s national team\u2019s success and popularity in their World Cup years.<\/p>\n Soccer has indeed exploded in the US. Our men\u2019s national team just hasn\u2019t kept up with that wave. Maybe Spain\/Portugal\/Morocco 2030 will be the year they break through\u2026<\/p>\n Belgium 4, USA 1 That kind of sucked. And was also totally expected, given our nation\u2019s history in the World Cup. It was certainly one of the biggest examples of Ball Don\u2019t Lie, karmic paybacks I can recall in sports.[1] Don\u2019t need to say much more about that aspect of the game. I\u2019m also not going to spend much time on the horrific performance by the Americans\u2019 back line, which we knew was an issue coming into the tournament and was responsible for the team\u2019s weakest moments over the past month. I texted the guy who coached L\u2019s soccer teams with me for several years and we agreed that the four sassy girls that anchored our defense eight years ago were more organized and communicated better than the US did last night. Nope, rather the thing that struck me most as the Belgians methodically ripped apart the US was how much our opening game against Paraguay set unrealistic expectations for the rest of the tournament, making an understandable loss to Belgium feel like a surprise.[2] After the US housed Paraguay 3\u20131 on June 12, we thought this team was destined for greatness. Quarterfinals at least, maybe even semifinals. Paraguay only gave up one goal in the run of play over their next four games, which made it seem like the US had done something historic in that opening round. That was a legit offensive outburst, no diminishing it. However what we missed was that Paraguay revamped both their formation and strategy after the US game to cover what had been exposed; we did not play against the same team that took out Germany and battled France deep into the game. That Paraguay game also gave future opponents ideas on how to slow the US down. Australia did a little bit; the US was fully in control of that game but were much more contained. T\u00fcrkiye definitely slowed the US attack, primarily by being physical. Belgium flat beat us last night. They controlled possession, forced mistakes by the US defense, and lured our offense into attacking their defense where they wanted to be attacked rather than in their weak spots. Only another gorgeous Malik Tillman free kick gave the US any hope. An embarrassing 4\u20131 loss feels like an unjust end. This US team was better than I expected them to be before the tournament began. They gave us a fun month. Yet once again we lost to a European power, even one that is past its prime, and it seems like our correct place in the soccer world. US fans had hoped playing at home would give the team a boost to get over this perpetual obstacle. This wasn\u2019t the right combination of talent to get over that hump, though. We have a few world class players, but no true game changers. We\u2019ve been on this treadmill since the 1994 World Cup, thinking a nation our size can crank out high level players if we just put enough planning, money, and attention into the project. Once again we will kick the can four years down the road and hope the next class of young players that cycles in can be difference makers. However, we may be destined to always remain in this same place: good enough to win a weak group and then maybe one knockout game (in the expanded tournament), but doomed to always come up short when we face a top 10\u201315 team. Thirty years ago I really cared about where US soccer was headed. I monitored the young players in the system, tracked where our senior team players were signing in Europe, watched random games in weird summer tournaments. I remember talking all kinds of shit on haters on America Online soccer message boards after the US beat a pretty good Nigeria squad in the 1995 US Cup. Or staying up late that same summer to follow the score via Headline News as the US upset Argentina 3\u20130. I don\u2019t have near that level of interest in the national team anymore. I hope they do well, and support them. But these 30+ years of the same thing have dulled my enthusiasm and I\u2019m more waiting for the inevitable fall than hoping for the occasional success. Does that make me the soccer equivalent of a Browns fan? That\u2019s too much. Vikings fan? In a weird way, many of the intentions of the early 1990s US soccer establishment have been met. The MLS gets decent crowds and is firmly established in the world hierarchy as a second-tier league. Soccer of all kinds is on TV all the time now. Go walk around anywhere where pre-teen kids are and you\u2019ll see countless ones wearing soccer jerseys. Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mbappe, and stars from all the biggest English teams are represented. Haaland jerseys will be the next wave. In 1994 ABC and ESPN were trying to explain the rules of the game to us, and why we should care about Roberto Baggio and Hristo Stoichkov were. Your average American was probably surprised that Pel\u00e9 wasn\u2019t still on Brazil\u2019s squad. Now Messi is doing ads for Home Depot, and David Beckham has temporarily taken Peyton Manning\u2019s place as the Former Athlete Who Appears In Too Many Commercials.[3] Go into any clothing retailer and there is some kind of USA Soccer or World Cup gear available. And let\u2019s not forget the women\u2019s national team\u2019s success and popularity in their World Cup years. Soccer has indeed exploded in the US. Our men\u2019s national team just hasn\u2019t kept up with that wave. Maybe Spain\/Portugal\/Morocco 2030 will be the year they break through\u2026 Losing Christian Pulisic because he kicked a defender\u2019s leg instead of the ball seems like a heaping helping of karma. \u00a0\u21a9 Adding insult to injury, Belgium did not start three of their best, if aging, players. Was their coach so confident he was looking to rest\/rehab them for Spain? \u00a0\u21a9 Peyton has still found a way to represent yet another new company, giving him approximately 75% market share. Someone throw some cold water on his agent. \u00a0\u21a9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37,93],"class_list":["post-17418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-soccer","tag-world-cup"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17418"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17420,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17418\/revisions\/17420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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