Canada 2 US 0

[Unregistered]

Look, if you want to have fun, stick with the local clubs and get recruited to college.

Developing for the international competition is serious business and should be approached in a serious way. Fun and joy are not pillars if you want to get to that level.

The kids that choose to have fun and play with their peers and go to college will one day regret they did not get to pull on the jersey of their country.

Lmao. This is rot.

The US played joyless football of the sort that's pervasive in the DA. Good football should be fun to watch and fun to play. Take your fake idea of seriousness and shove it.

[Unregistered]

Soccer should not be fun!

Since it's such a bore (Soccer) our club decided to layer in year round travel, so it could be fun and expensive. We are dialed in!

[Unregistered]

The DA and GDA seem to take all the fun out of soccer. When you are performing microscopic surgery you want to take the fun out. Not when you are playing a game.

That’s too bad.

[Unregistered]

Since it's such a bore (Soccer) our club decided to layer in year round travel, so it could be fun and expensive. We are dialed in!

What a highly intelligent move. Kids love travel!

[Unregistered]

Lmao. This is rot.

The US played joyless football of the sort that's pervasive in the DA. Good football should be fun to watch and fun to play. Take your fake idea of seriousness and shove it.

A lot of this is nonsense.

The US looked terrible against Canada. They looked like world-beaters against Cuba (a much weaker side). How will they look at in their next game? Who knows?

But what does this have to do with DA? Some of the players (the younger ones, minus Pulisic who went overseas) likely played in DA in their youth. The older ones didn't. And the criticism of "DA"--that it's "joyless"--has to be one of the stupider things uttered here this month.

A frequent criticism of DA--that it's "just a patch", and the actual benefits of the program (at least as far as pay-to-pay youth clubs are concerned) are minimal, is far closer to correct. My DS plays for a club that was in DA last year, and is back in OYSA this year. There has been no change in the amount of "joy" he receives from training and playing--he loves the game, loved it last year, and loves it this year.

And were he to eventually wind up in TA, or some other professional training environment, he might find it far less "fun" as the intensity and rigor of the training (including drills which get boring, but for which repetition is essentially) increase dramatically. But that's true of academy programs worldwide--if you get to the level where a pro club is training you for free, it becomes a lot more work. The DA isn't unique in this regard.

No, the problems with the USMNT seem to be that Berhalter is repeating a major mistake of Klinsmann: he's trying to impose a style of play that the US isn't really good at. And the book on how to beat the US is getting obvious--press the hell out of them. They have some players who can possess the ball under pressure, but far too many who cannot, especially on the back line and in the defensive midfield. It doesn't matter how good Pulisic is if the ball doesn't get across midfield. (And in the Canada game, when it did get across midfield, he was often times the only player actively attacking the Canadian goal).

But teams who win look joyful. Those who lose do not. Sports 101.

[Unregistered]

Soccer should not be fun!

DA is doing one thing right. They are no fun to watch.

[Unregistered]

Imagine if the best players were the ones being developed.

[Unregistered]

But what does this have to do with DA?

The fake ass positional play that's pervasive throughout boys DA is what Berhalter is playing now. It's boring, anodyne, outdated, under-thought and under-implemented nonsense.

You're continuing to confuse "fun" being the opposite of "serious". You're doing it, I bet, because you don't actually know what pro environments should be like. They're deathly serious and, at their best, (no I'm not talking about results) outrageously fun. Parents with no experience in the game don't know the difference, so I won't begrudge you that, but at least stop spreading your bs.

TA should absolutely not go away. Portland desperately needs a pro academy, but it needs a good one.

[Unregistered]

The fake ass positional play that's pervasive throughout boys DA is what Berhalter is playing now. It's boring, anodyne, outdated, under-thought and under-implemented nonsense.

You're continuing to confuse "fun" being the opposite of "serious". You're doing it, I bet, because you don't actually know what pro environments should be like. They're deathly serious and, at their best, (no I'm not talking about results) outrageously fun. Parents with no experience in the game don't know the difference, so I won't begrudge you that, but at least stop spreading your bs.

TA should absolutely not go away. Portland desperately needs a pro academy, but it needs a good one.

Please create more pay to play kiddo clubs, more of their transcendent coaching methodologies and of course more cow bell.

Organic player development is nearly impossible these days with the emphasis on having only structured coach driven sessions using their impressive arsenal of teaching tools: cones, bibs, soccer clipboards, catch phrases, data points, boilerplate systems and useless accents to message esoteric philosophies that are useless to the American athlete psyche. Of course provide platforms with more nation wide travel and more labels for league activity.

How bout this instead: 2 goals and a ball. Players welcome. Winner stays.

[Unregistered]

MLS drones still blaming Klinsmann - it has been 3 years since he was the coach!

Apparently, Klinsmann hurt MLS apologists in a deep/dark place/way.

[Unregistered]

Please create more pay to play kiddo clubs, more of their transcendent coaching methodologies and of course more cow bell.

Organic player development is nearly impossible these days with the emphasis on having only structured coach driven sessions using their impressive arsenal of teaching tools: cones, bibs, soccer clipboards, catch phrases, data points, boilerplate systems and useless accents to message esoteric philosophies that are useless to the American athlete psyche. Of course provide platforms with more nation wide travel and more labels for league activity.

How bout this instead: 2 goals and a ball. Players welcome. Winner stays.

Yes, more Cow bell. Please!

[Unregistered]

The fake ass positional play that's pervasive throughout boys DA is what Berhalter is playing now. It's boring, anodyne, outdated, under-thought and under-implemented nonsense.

You're continuing to confuse "fun" being the opposite of "serious". You're doing it, I bet, because you don't actually know what pro environments should be like. They're deathly serious and, at their best, (no I'm not talking about results) outrageously fun. Parents with no experience in the game don't know the difference, so I won't begrudge you that, but at least stop spreading your bs.

TA should absolutely not go away. Portland desperately needs a pro academy, but it needs a good one.

I can't think of any local youth clubs, DA or otherwise, playing Berhalters bizzaro scheme, which seems to be designed to allow him to keep Michael Bradley on the field, a man who has revolutionized the position of defensive midfielder by not actually playing any defense. (And it depends on Tyler Adams being healthy and able to guard two positions).

Your criticism, to be frank, reeks of BS--you've said a lot, but you've said nothing. (What would "real positional play" look like, as opposed to the fake-ass variety?)

What soccer should the local clubs play? Strict out-of-the-back? Route One? The hacky-sack style a lot of the local Latino clubs seem to favor (lots of short passing through the air, the better to bypass the feet of defenders)?

[Unregistered]

MLS drones still blaming Klinsmann - it has been 3 years since he was the coach!

Apparently, Klinsmann hurt MLS apologists in a deep/dark place/way.

Since I brought up Klinsmann, I will note that his criticisms of MLS (and many of its players) were spot-on.

The trouble is, many of the German army brats he tried to bring onto the team weren't much better; there's a reason that Die Mannschaft wouldn't give guys like Julian Green the time of day.

And rather than come up with a system his player pool COULD handle, Klinsmann tried to do ridiculous things like turning Bradley into an attacking midfielder. At his best, he's a second-rate Andrea Pirlo, able to spray passes all over the field and hit the occasional banger, but without the Maestro's effort on defense and skill with the ball at his feet. But as a #10, he was utterly useless. But rather than coming up with a different system (the US has the horses to be a dangerous pressing team), Klinsmann stuck to his guns, repeatedly threw his players under the bus when they failed to execute, and lost the locker room. Arena, trying to mend the locker room, essentially told all of Klinsmann's foreign imports to get lost, and tried to finish qualification with a bunch of geriatric players that were of borderline international quality when at peak playing age, and deprived of their pace, were terrible. (That plus Christian Pulisic).

Berhalter is more politically astute than Klinsmann; and you won't hear him attack a player in the media as Klinsmann like to do. But his system is no better, and like JK, it doesn't suit his players. And it is starting to feel like Berhalter might lose HIS locker room.

[Unregistered]

Since I brought up Klinsmann, I will note that his criticisms of MLS (and many of its players) were spot-on.

The trouble is, many of the German army brats he tried to bring onto the team weren't much better; there's a reason that Die Mannschaft wouldn't give guys like Julian Green the time of day.

And rather than come up with a system his player pool COULD handle, Klinsmann tried to do ridiculous things like turning Bradley into an attacking midfielder. At his best, he's a second-rate Andrea Pirlo, able to spray passes all over the field and hit the occasional banger, but without the Maestro's effort on defense and skill with the ball at his feet. But as a #10, he was utterly useless. But rather than coming up with a different system (the US has the horses to be a dangerous pressing team), Klinsmann stuck to his guns, repeatedly threw his players under the bus when they failed to execute, and lost the locker room. Arena, trying to mend the locker room, essentially told all of Klinsmann's foreign imports to get lost, and tried to finish qualification with a bunch of geriatric players that were of borderline international quality when at peak playing age, and deprived of their pace, were terrible. (That plus Christian Pulisic).

Berhalter is more politically astute than Klinsmann; and you won't hear him attack a player in the media as Klinsmann like to do. But his system is no better, and like JK, it doesn't suit his players. And it is starting to feel like Berhalter might lose HIS locker room.

Funny you mention 'locker room'. US Soccer doesn't even have enough of a sporting culture or the critical mass of American players to even claim to have a 'locker room' (mls) All we have in the states is a locker room full of 2nd/3rd level imports and faux coaches in the MLS socialist structure. More like a boiler room, now there's a culture.

[Unregistered]

The US men's team is really bad. Just to summarize all the posts here.