Teams to potentially win a World Cup first time in the future

The USA is growing in talent at a remarkable clip. Part of that is the MLS is the fastest growing professional league in the USA. However, the one thing that the US still has issues in developing (as do most of the nations on the planet) is quality forwards. When Altidore is the best pure striker on the roster, that tells you just how bare the cupboard is at the position. Looking at the best strikers in the MLS. You have Bradley Wright Phillips (English), Dom Dwyer (English), Giles Barnes (English), Obefemi Martins (Nigerian), Robbie Keane (Irish). You have a few Americans that are good - Dempsey (though he's not a true striker in my opinion), Gyasi Zardes looks like he may already be the best striker in the country, and Chris Wondolowski. Then you have Jordan Morris who is still in college, but looks the part.

I think that what we are seeing in the U20s and the U23s, I think we are finally seeing Jurgon Klinnsmann's vision starting to take shape. It also doesn't help that he's turned a lot of guys that are eligible to play for other countries to tie to the US. So we are getting the guys like Bobby Woods, Aron Johannsson, and Julian Green, that under Bob Bradley would have never even been approached. While they aren't world greats, they provide the US with a different skillset that is normally developed in the US.

The thing is as you guys know, the World Cup is a different animal. There is a reason the same teams always seem to be in contention and that is a very tough level to crack. I don't know that I'll ever see a World Cup winner from the US, but I can see it really getting competitive. Historically the US wins on defense and fitness. Until we can do more than run everybody into the ground, we will be what we currently are which is a good team without real ambition for winning it all.
 
Pokes28 said:
The USA is growing in talent at a remarkable clip. Part of that is the MLS is the fastest growing professional league in the USA. However, the one thing that the US still has issues in developing (as do most of the nations on the planet) is quality forwards. When Altidore is the best pure striker on the roster, that tells you just how bare the cupboard is at the position. Looking at the best strikers in the MLS. You have Bradley Wright Phillips (English), Dom Dwyer (English), Giles Barnes (English), Obefemi Martins (Nigerian), Robbie Keane (Irish). You have a few Americans that are good - Dempsey (though he's not a true striker in my opinion), Gyasi Zardes looks like he may already be the best striker in the country, and Chris Wondolowski. Then you have Jordan Morris who is still in college, but looks the part.

I think that what we are seeing in the U20s and the U23s, I think we are finally seeing Jurgon Klinnsmann's vision starting to take shape. It also doesn't help that he's turned a lot of guys that are eligible to play for other countries to tie to the US. So we are getting the guys like Bobby Woods, Aron Johannsson, and Julian Green, that under Bob Bradley would have never even been approached. While they aren't world greats, they provide the US with a different skillset that is normally developed in the US.

The thing is as you guys know, the World Cup is a different animal. There is a reason the same teams always seem to be in contention and that is a very tough level to crack. I don't know that I'll ever see a World Cup winner from the US, but I can see it really getting competitive. Historically the US wins on defense and fitness. Until we can do more than run everybody into the ground, we will be what we currently are which is a good team without real ambition for winning it all.
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I'd also add that historically the US has never had the countries most talented athletes taking part in football. They have been shepherded into American Football, Basketball, Baseball, Hockey and then proper Football. That is the thing that I think will change over the next 15 years or so. We will for the first time ever have some of our better athletes in the system. People more capable of being the individual talents we have lacked in our team system. That's how I read it at any rate.
 
DalbeyINUK said:
I'd also add that historically the US has never had the countries most talented athletes taking part in football. They have been shepherded into American Football, Basketball, Baseball, Hockey and then proper Football. That is the thing that I think will change over the next 15 years or so. We will for the first time ever have some of our better athletes in the system. People more capable of being the individual talents we have lacked in our team system. That's how I read it at any rate.
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Yup, this is the thing for me. The whole concussion debate with the NFL will shepherd a lot of talent towards proper football. The growth of the game over here television wise will add to this. The Lebron James's will be ushered to the sport once people see that they can actually make money playing the game and that its not a sport that is only played in one country. American football is really only played in one country (ok Canada as well). In other words you have to be elite to make it in one of the 30+ teams that there are. Now with football, you have top leagues spread around the world. True, you now have to fight off other countries to get noticed, but the one thing that the US always tries to do is say that "we're the best at everything, and we have the best athletes." It will drive this country forward and I think in the next 50 years, we will win the World Cup.
 
While agree more talented athletes are increasingly attracted to soccer in the US, I think the path to the men winning the World Cup is decades away.

American boys have athletic choices that compete for their time and attention, sports like US football, basketball, baseball nationally; others regionally like hockey and even lacrosse. Lacrosse is growing much, much faster than soccer, by the way, at a youth level. Those choices will remain even if the big 3 sports are slowly dying on a professional level. They'll still be huge, and they'll still offer more money, more publicity, and more glory for a long time.

By contrast American girls have fewer choices (almost none professionally), and proper football was developed as a team sport concurrently with sports like volleyball and softball at the collegiate and high school levels. Women's footy programs have generally been late to bloom worldwide, so the USA is on a more even playing field, where its sheer numbers and money can be leveraged. Thus the women far outclass the men of the USA on a relative opportunity level. Title IX has a lot to do with it too.

I am guessing that in smaller nations -- population size-wise and in actual square mileage -- national team recruiters know a lot about nearly every single young up-and-coming talent in the nation. I'm guessing due to the sheer physical size of the nation and the budget of the scouting department in the men's program, that isn't close to true for US soccer. I'd postulate top prospects are more often missed, or mis-evaluated, and their development stalled. And of course as others have said, there is no professional academy system, and it will be a long, long time before there is one that can compete with other nations' leagues. In most other US team sports, pro academies are not nearly as important as the school system for coaching and training -- and even then, each school varies wildly in how it can develop kids athletically. Baseball is probably the exception here through the minor professional leagues and non-school affiliated youth team system, which is well-established.

Soccer's path to professionalism will most likely be filled by middle-to-upper class white Coastal kids, and kids with a recent (1st/2nd generation) heritage from soccer-loving cultures, such as Latin America. That is a subset of America that shrinks down the true available talent pool. Again as noted, American football is the predominantly popular youth-level sport in the midwest and much of the south for basically every class and race -- there are high school American football stadiums in Texas bigger than 1/3rd of next year's Prem clubs. Basketball is an easy sport for those anywhere to play -- not only is it culturally popular, but it takes up so little room even on a professionally-sized court. It's an ideal sport for space-constrained urban areas. It also takes fewer players.

Major US sports aren't dying or disappearing fast enough (if they are even dying at all) compared to how soccer is growing for the US. And even if it was, the US men's program still has to compete on a national level with countries with fewer professional athletic options for youth, well-developed training systems and facilities staffed by more knowledgeable coaches and scouts, and decades-long traditions of a fanaticism about the sport that competes with little else for a fan's attention.
 
Thing is, it's not top down, it's ground up. It's all very well to import the Lampards, the Gerrards etc. for a bit of razamatazz, but it's not really about that.
Every English kid has played football in the park with sweaters put on the ground to make the goals, on winter evenings and those long summer evenings after school. With a very vague sense of where the touchline was. Alright, not every kid, but millions, for sure. And that's true in European countries, Latin American countries, and, increasingly, African ones. That's where you develop a basic culture of football, the more serious kids then get involved in school teams, and the best are quickly spotted by scouts. I think I'm right in saying that George Best was spotted playing in a park in Belfast, or in a schools team, at the most. The culture builds up from the bottom, and you end up with a Tevez. Or, as he describes himself very simply, "Lio from Rosario". I don't know if that culture is developing in the States, but if it is, then sooner or later the US will have eleven home grown players who will win the competition.
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Thing is, it's not top down, it's ground up. It's all very well to import the Lampards, the Gerrards etc. for a bit of razamatazz, but it's not really about that.
Every English kid has played football in the park with sweaters put on the ground to make the goals, on winter evenings and those long summer evenings after school. With a very vague sense of where the touchline was. Alright, not every kid, but millions, for sure. And that's true in European countries, Latin American countries, and, increasingly, African ones. That's where you develop a basic culture of football, the more serious kids then get involved in school teams, and the best are quickly spotted by scouts. I think I'm right in saying that George Best was spotted playing in a park in Belfast, or in a schools team, at the most. The culture builds up from the bottom, and you end up with a Tevez. Or, as he describes himself very simply, "Lio from Rosario". I don't know if that culture is developing in the States, but if it is, then sooner or later the US will have eleven home grown players who will win the competition.
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Actually football in the USA has always been strong at grass roots level. The main problem has always been the attraction of the scholarships for the traditional US sports once students are approaching University age.
Once the MLS kicks-in, and kids begin to see a career pathway, it will take off

Also, and this can't be ignored, the USA national team will always be above and beyond any club loyalties. In England we merely flirt with the idea whenever there's a big tournament.

Ironically, if there was a World Baseball Cup, the USA probably wouldn't take it seriously for the same club obsession that riddles English football.
 
CSKAFan said:
Hell, one of the smallest nations in Europe, Iceland have got an amazing team now, they are top of their European group, beating nations like Netherlands, Turkey, Czech easily. With all this being said, there's a whole kick to this. Big nations tend to always produce good players, they are able to replace their greats. They never disappear. Look at Czech Republic, tiny country in Eastern Europe who had great players once but now they are nobodies in football present because once their golden generation was over, it never came back.
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An accurate post except that:

The Czech Republic currently top their group, not Iceland.

The Czechs beat Iceland not the other way around.

As the Czechs currently top a group that also features Holland, they are hardly nobodies.

As for the golden generation never coming back, they reached the world cup final (as Czechoslovakia) in 1934 and 1962, won the European championship in 1976 and reached the final again in 1996. So there have been a few golden generations.

Finally the Czech Republic is not in Eastern Europe.

So actually not really an accurate post at all.
 
KnaresboroughBlue said:
An accurate post except that:

The Czech Republic currently top their group, not Iceland.

The Czechs beat Iceland not the other way around.

As the Czechs currently top a group that also features Holland, they are hardly nobodies.

As for the golden generation never coming back, they reached the world cup final (as Czechoslovakia) in 1934 and 1962, won the European championship in 1976 and reached the final again in 1996. So there have been a few golden generations.

Finally the Czech Republic is not in Eastern Europe.

So actually not really an accurate post at all.
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Ok Mr Perfect.

Well Czech Republic are slavic. We all know Slavic = Eastern Europe. What I was trying to get at here is that, Czech Republic have not produced any players recently. They've not got the stars they used to have, such as Nedved, Poborsky, Smicer, Baros, etc. If you asked me to name me a Czech player that plays now, I probably couldn't name you. Obviously, there's Rosicky and Cech, but those players are old now, they are the same players from 2004. My point is, Czech Republic have not been able to replace Nedved, Poborsky, Smicer, Baros, Berger, etc. They have not been relevant in World football since 2004. So yeah.....Now you may try telling me about their success this qualifying campaign, which admittedly, I haven't been following them much but are there new Czech players coming through now?

Czech Republic are a great footballing nation, as you so clearly list their achievements in world football, no doubt. It's just that they're not consistent enough. I'm not talking about consistency in tournaments but actually qualifying. I don't think Czech managed to qualify for the past 2 World cups. Their inconsistency is down to their small population, they're not able to replace their stars all the time.
 
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