Literally Lewis Hamilton posted:

Bringing on a half fit Kerr when you’re 2-0 up and looking comfortable seems like a bad decision tbh

slorb posted:

its coming home (to almost the furthest point from england)

Infinitum posted:

It's coming home

Digital Jedi posted:

As an American that rooted for AUS during the ashes, go Aus!

Hope they meet Eng in the quarter and trunce them

Paracausal posted:

STRAYA gently caress YEAH CUNTS

Fanatic posted:

I think we play the winner of France v Morocco

Infinitum posted:

mycatscrimes posted:

Morocco isn't gonna win but I still want them to.

Infinitum posted:

I mean Nigeriia wasn't gonna win, but it went to a shootout

Paracausal posted:

STRAYA gently caress YEAH CUNTS

quote:

Now, however, women’s soccer is considered one of the hottest properties in sports. Valuations of National Women’s Soccer League franchises have rocketed in the past three years. Investment is happening in the international game, too, where even non-traditional powers like Morocco have ploughed millions of dollars into their women’s teams. US Soccer valuing its women’s team is no longer an anomaly. (That, by the way, is a point that players and their federation embraced as a byproduct of their six-year equal-pay fight.)

More countries are developing players from young ages, unrestricted by the college system that exists in the United States. Spain has clearly been the emerging power of the last decade (if its federation leaders can get out of their own way). They’ve won multiple youth world and European titles over the past decade, and they’ve adopted the men’s system, where the best teenagers are developed within a professional environment.

That is not the case in the United States. The US have never won a U-17 World Cup; in fact, they’ve been wretched in the competition lately. Their last U-20 title was in 2012. Julie Ertz and Crystal Dunn are the last ones standing from that squad on this senior World Cup team. Youth tournaments are about development more than they are about winning, but USA’s performances at those tournaments have been a clear indictment of the player pipeline and the federation’s coaching philosophies.

Lindsey Horan moves to Europe as an 18-year-old in 2012. More recently forwards Alyssa Thompson and Jaedyn Shaw turned pro before finishing high school and had the benefit of landing with two of the more progressive NWSL teams in Angel City and the San Diego Wave, respectively. But those examples are the exceptions rather than the rule in the US, where most players go through the amateur college system – which varies widely in quality – before turning professional.

And the NWSL is still playing catch-up with big European clubs. Youth academies and reserve leagues have been talked about for years without action and are now supposedly high on the boardroom’s agenda. It’s all reactionary, which is a microcosm of the US soccer landscape at large. The fractured youth landscape is no less divided now than it was a decade ago, and that’s before we mention the unchecked abuses of power exposed by recent investigations. The college system that has long served as the development pipeline to the national team is being blown up in real time at the hands of men’s college football and greed, and teams from Europe to Mexico are offering pay and opportunities to attract top teenage players.

There is still plenty of talent in the US, but players need a better environment to improve their game. What does a USA player look like? How should a USA team play? Can anyone answer those questions with more substance than intangibles about “athleticism”, “grit” and “hard work”? And how can there be a unified vision in a country so vast that the answers to those questions vary from one town to another? None of these questions are new.

The Paris Olympics are less than a year away, and the 2027 World Cup looms large. There’s a strong chance that the next World Cup will be played in the US, which will present this generation with a new level of pressure as they carry the burden of atoning for this year’s failure.

It is not that the US are suddenly terrible, but they are no longer a sure bet to dominate. They can – and should – contend for titles going forward, but without addressing systemic flaws, they run the risk of mediocrity by their own high standards. An exit in the Round of 16 – even if it comes after a strong performance against a very good team – is an unmitigated disaster.

mycatscrimes posted:

Truly men's college football is the worst scourge in America

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

i feel like most USWNT watchers have been beating some of those various drums for a while. the last world cup felt like kind of the tipping point at the time.

there is definitely a "did you want it enough" piece that has to be addressed in the squad imo as most of the younger players look pedestrian and pretty far off of it, but it's not like addressing that will be sufficient to return to dominance.

Terminally Bored posted:

All the grieving Americans (OP especially) should read and quote this sober analysis as a counter to all the US-based talking heads saying how this team 'didn't want it enough' or stupid poo poo like that:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/aug/07/uswnt-womens-world-cup-2023-exit-reasons-soccer

vyelkin posted:

imo it doesn't take a 10,000 word postmortem to understand that the US had an advantage as long as nobody else in the world cared about women's football just because US sports infrastructure is set up so that some of the same player development opportunities that exist for men also have an equivalent for women, like college sports, which meant there was some investment in the women's game in the US at a time when there was no investment in the women's game anywhere else, but that's no longer the case and whoops turns out as soon as the places that know how to develop good footballers and build good teams start applying that knowledge to women as well as to men, the US's arcane sports structures and general lack of interest in the sport hold back women just like they hold back men

vyelkin posted:

imo it doesn't take a 10,000 word postmortem to understand that the US had an advantage as long as nobody else in the world cared about women's football just because US sports infrastructure is set up so that some of the same player development opportunities that exist for men also have an equivalent for women, like college sports, which meant there was some investment in the women's game in the US at a time when there was no investment in the women's game anywhere else, but that's no longer the case and whoops turns out as soon as the places that know how to develop good footballers and build good teams start applying that knowledge to women as well as to men, the US's arcane sports structures and general lack of interest in the sport hold back women just like they hold back men

Terminally Bored posted:

What I'm saying is: Rodman and Smith ARE good but they need to regularly play against really good teams, not learn that they can easily ship 6 past Chicago every time they meet.

mycatscrimes posted:

It was a huge victory for equal treatment in the US that got those college opportunities for women in place, it was fought for tooth and claw. So that was something worth being proud of for a lot of us women fans of our soccer teams. Tbh the general public and Fox News crowd just kind of... bandwagoned on that pride and made it more about 'America Best' than taking pride in having made a strong women's team and what it meant to women's sports. From the outside I imagine it quite reasonably all looks the same though.

Soccer seems to still be building momentum as a professional sport in the US, so there may be hope for the overall improvement you're talking about.

vyelkin posted:

don't think there's anything wrong with taking pride in your team when it's successful, Canada suffers from the same problems but with 1/10th the talent pool but that didn't stop me being happy when we won the Olympics and it's the same kinda deal where lots of people just assumed having a good team when 99% of the world didn't care meant we would be good forever

mycatscrimes posted:

We also need to catch up on tactics, having 11 strong players isn't enough if they aren't going in with a strong plan and some flexibility when plan A doesn't work.