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I think the problem is too deep to fully work out. In Europe all the infrastructure, the culture is already here. For example, Liverpool announced this year that they're buying back Melwood, their old training grounds, and turning it into an academy and training complex for their women's team. This couldn't happen in the US where the NWSL is a collection of franchise based teams that fold and open up every few years and are rarely connected to the men's MLS teams, which means they can't secure the funding or use the infrastructure. And MLS is a poor league, quality-wise. There's also no CL equivalent in North America, so it's really difficult to find some strong club opponents to measure up to. Changing all of this would require a long term rebuild plan and a rational set of expectations. After watching Tobin Heath's podcast today where she cried and said that 'USNWT can't compare itself to any other team' I don't think much is going to change.
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Aug 8, 2023 21:14
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A different article on the Guardian: How the USWNT can improve for 2027 quote:
Shazback fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Aug 8, 2023 |
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Aug 8, 2023 21:59
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Terminally Bored posted:I think the problem is too deep to fully work out. In Europe all the infrastructure, the culture is already here. For example, Liverpool announced this year that they're buying back Melwood, their old training grounds, and turning it into an academy and training complex for their women's team. This couldn't happen in the US where the NWSL is a collection of franchise based teams that fold and open up every few years and are rarely connected to the men's MLS teams, which means they can't secure the funding or use the infrastructure. And MLS is a poor league, quality-wise. There's also no CL equivalent in North America, so it's really difficult to find some strong club opponents to measure up to. The NWSL and its players are going to have to embrace the fact that they're going to be a 2nd tier league and there's no shame in that. Canada and the US just don't have the same level of soccer/football culture that the rest of the world does and realistically never will.
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Aug 8, 2023 22:16
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MakaVillian posted:The NWSL and its players are going to have to embrace the fact that they're going to be a 2nd tier league and there's no shame in that. Canada and the US just don't have the same level of soccer/football culture that the rest of the world does and realistically never will. NWSL kept a lot of the Australian internationals for a long time because the season timing allowed players to go back and play in the at-the-time W-league. All the coaching scandals probably torpedoed the league more than a general apathy towards soccer.
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Aug 8, 2023 23:43
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We can only dream of someday enjoying the historic World Cup success level of a country with an established football culture, such as England.
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Aug 9, 2023 00:48
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Football fans are the wildest overcorrecters.The US women’s team had one bad tournament. They played a few bad games. This is not unusual. Italy literally did not qualify for the 2018 men’s World Cup before they won the 2020 Euro. Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia then eked out a victory against Australia before winning the 2022 men’s World Cup. The best measure of systemic success is performance over time. You don’t overhaul the system over one bad tournament.
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Aug 9, 2023 01:54
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1. Italy proceeded to also not qualify for the 2022 WC, so maybe not the best example. 2. The USWNT eked out a bronze medal at the last Olympics where they also finished 2nd in their group and had their first knockout game decided by penalties (beating Netherlands instead of losing to Sweden, although Sweden kicked the poo poo out of them in the opening game if the Olympics 3-0). It's definitely not a blip.
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Aug 9, 2023 02:07
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whypick1 posted:1. Italy proceeded to also not qualify for the 2022 WC, so maybe not the best example. idk #1 is kind of a good example of the volatility. but i would agree that its not a blip, there's a trend that the dominance is coming to a close. i think internally the correct move is to be aware and try to course correct, but also not to knee jerk it. although the latter part depends on how you feel about the college system being the primary farm source - if you really really do not believe in it being the method to develop talent going into the future, then yeah, right now is the time to get some european style football academies set up and invest in them and start the kids as young as possible and abandon the college system. if you dont, then... you dont. i'm saying this assuming that there are basically no football academies in the US for girls, and then maybe like 10 for boys
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Aug 9, 2023 03:10
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There's a bunch of low hanging fruit the US federation can change to make the USWNT a strong program again. Hiring a decent coach, making the squad selection process less focused on the NWSL and less political, and ending the goofy practice of packing the development pipeline with forwards to the point that half of them end up playing out of position in defence. I think creating a support structure for the best US prospects who skip college and go play in Europe would also get a really high return on investment.
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Aug 9, 2023 04:23
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slorb posted:There's a bunch of low hanging fruit the US federation can change to make the USWNT a strong program again. What do you mean by 'less political'?
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Aug 9, 2023 06:49
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I gotta say, its a lot more fun to watch these freakouts from the outside. All 4 olympic golds and 1 world cup won by the US included at least one game that went to extra time or pks. A bounce goes your way and you're dominant. A bounce goes against you and its time to burn it all to the ground.
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Aug 9, 2023 07:40
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Terminally Bored posted:What do you mean by 'less political'? From what I've heard they have a solid list of 50-60 names going into each competitive cycle, but the process of cutting that long list down to the final 23 player squad is murky as hell and not based on current club performance or performance in camps.
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Aug 9, 2023 07:42
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FIFA heard national federations and football associations were reneging on their qualification bonuses, so FIFA promised direct payment of bonuses to players. As a result of this, Nigeria Football Federaton are reneging on their qualification bonuses owed to the Super Falcons. https://global.espn.com/football/story/_/id/38155534/nigeria-pay-dispute-fa-world-cup-exit-fifpro
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Aug 9, 2023 09:13
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TDepressionEarl posted:FIFA heard national federations and football associations were reneging on their qualification bonuses, so FIFA promised direct payment of bonuses to players. As a result of this, Nigeria Football Federaton are reneging on their qualification bonuses owed to the Super Falcons. Imagine being scummier than FIFA in any capacity. Jesus Christ.
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Aug 9, 2023 13:05
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slorb posted:There's a bunch of low hanging fruit the US federation can change to make the USWNT a strong program again. I agree with almost all of this, with the sole addition that the top prospects can also go straight into the NWSL like Alyssa Thompson has. The NWSL is no longer the obvious gold standard in terms of pro leagues it was 3-4 years ago, but it's a better league than pretty much every Euro is giving it credit for. The NWSL has a high floor due to the way it's set up. You're not going compete against a Barca or Lyon level of opponent, you're also not going to play anyone as bad as Soyaux or Meppen or pretty much 50% of La Liga Feminil. Plus, the NWSL has much better attendance (an average of close to 8k a game, with San Diego and Angel City having ~20k a game) than any of their European counterparts, meaning that it hopefully will be able to pay competitive salaries for players. The American dominance of the sport wasn't/isn't going to last forever. Which is a good thing! It means more opportunity and support for players! But there's no reason America shouldn't be roughly equivalent to Germany or Brazil on the Men's side, a team with a massive tradition and usually in the mix of favorites. I'd end with a link to this article by Kim McCauley and Jeff Reuter from the Athletic on their takes about the US crashing out. The TL;DR for the short term is: * Vlatko out. * No locked in roster spots for star players. * Full review from the start of the player pool.
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Aug 9, 2023 13:08
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habeasdorkus posted:But there's no reason America shouldn't be roughly equivalent to Germany or Brazil on the Men's side, a team with a massive tradition and usually in the mix of favorites. Lol, lmao
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Aug 9, 2023 13:11
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lol
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Aug 9, 2023 14:01
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habeasdorkus posted:I agree with almost all of this, with the sole addition that the top prospects can also go straight into the NWSL like Alyssa Thompson has. NWSL average attendance figures are a joke when there are 4 teams that draw and massively inflate those numbers. I'm not sure what the revenue split is like in NWSL but I'm sure the Portland owners aren't thrilled if they're shipping a ton of their profit back to Chicago who can't get more than 2500 people at a game. NWSL also doesn't have a TV deal after this season and their big name players just ate a fat turd at the World Cup so we'll see what happens there.
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Aug 9, 2023 14:11
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Average Attendance Woman Super League 22/23 1 Arsenal 17,501 2 Manchester United 10,174 3 Manchester City 7,195 4 Chelsea 5,804 5 Liverpool 4,758 6 Aston Villa 4,199 7 Tottenham Hotspur 4,113 8 Brighton & Hove Albion 3,427 9 Everton 3,187 10 Leicester City 2,901 11 Reading 1,935 12 West Ham United 1,524 Average Attendance NWSL 2023 1 SD Wave FC 20,681 2 Angel City FC 19,401 3 Portland Thorns FC 17,318 4 KC Current 10,491 5 Washington Spirit 9,924 6 OL Reign 7,582 7 NJ/NY Gotham FC 6,255 8 Orlando Pride 6,001 9 Houston Dash 5,719 10 Racing Louisville FC 5,431 11 NC Courage 4,800 12 Chicago Red Stars 4,033
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Aug 9, 2023 14:17
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lomzus posted:Average Attendance Woman Super League 22/23 clearly a joke compared to the far superior Euro figures, pack in in usailures no one's gonna want to watch Kgatlana run circles around people in Louisville or see if Ari Borges can get another hat trick after this WC since the us national team didn't win obvs mycatscrimes fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 9, 2023 |
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Aug 9, 2023 14:27
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56 US born players in this World Cup.
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Aug 9, 2023 14:35
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Anyway, let's get back to talking about the non-loser countries that didn't fly home like losers because they didn't lose all of their important matches.... The quarter-finals are shaping up pretty nicely with some great matchups, and I honestly think all of the eight teams left have a decent shot at making the final. IMO the top half of the draw is slightly clearer, as I think Spain and Japan are pretty good bets to advance, and I think Japan will win that semi (though Spain seem to improve with every match). But I'm honestly struggling to pick any of the results from the other side of the draw. France-Australia feels very tight to me, even though I desperately want Australia to win. France looked great against Morocco, but some of Morocco's defensive work was pretty ordinary. Aside from the opening 20 minutes, Australia looked mostly comfortable against Denmark, and they were pretty dominant against Canada as well. I think on paper Australia have it (they also beat France 1-0 in their final pre-tournament warmup), but I think this one is razor-thin. England vs Colombia feels like it should be clear cut, but imo it's easy to underestimate Colombia. England were pretty wretched against Nigeria and realistically should have gone out, plus their biggest star of the tournament is banned. You'd imagine they will bounce back, but Colombia definitely feel like a strong underdog contender - I think they're probably the most likely chance of an upset this round (more than Netherlands over Spain or Sweden over Japan). But I'll probably get every prediction wrong 
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Aug 9, 2023 14:36
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I think that's basically right, but Sweden definitely has a chance against Japan. It wasn't solely US ineptitude that sunk us.
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Aug 9, 2023 14:40
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Japan imo Surely it won't be another hilarious blowout if Spain have learned anything, but I do think they'll also beat Spain again if it comes to that
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Aug 9, 2023 14:44
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joepinetree posted:I gotta say, its a lot more fun to watch these freakouts from the outside. All 4 olympic golds and 1 world cup won by the US included at least one game that went to extra time or pks. A bounce goes your way and you're dominant. A bounce goes against you and its time to burn it all to the ground. Kinda like Brazil on the men's side? It really is silly.
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Aug 9, 2023 14:46
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habeasdorkus posted:I think that's basically right, but Sweden definitely has a chance against Japan. It wasn't solely US ineptitude that sunk us. The U.S. dominated the 3rd ranked team in the world, Sweden, who played a negative game start to finnish. Their 2 best strikers, and arguably best winger still at 35, Heath, were all out injured. Maybe you should stfu about ineptitude. it's your posts, oh the ineptitude
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Aug 9, 2023 14:48
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Spain v. Netherlands is the only game that's primetime for me the rest of the way. The rest are 2-5 a.m. from there. 
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Aug 9, 2023 14:52
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Mr. Mambold posted:The U.S. dominated the 3rd ranked team in the world, Sweden, who played a negative game start to finnish. Their 2 best strikers, and arguably best winger still at 35, Heath, were all out injured. Maybe you should stfu about ineptitude. it's your posts, oh the ineptitude I think you're swinging at someone who is basically on your side
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Aug 9, 2023 14:53
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Mr. Mambold posted:The U.S. dominated the 3rd ranked team in the world, Sweden, who played a negative game start to finnish. Their 2 best strikers, and arguably best winger still at 35, Heath, were all out injured. Maybe you should stfu about ineptitude. it's your posts, oh the ineptitude no they played a negative game from start to swedish
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Aug 9, 2023 15:15
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vyelkin posted:no they played a negative game from start to swedish I can't believe my dad is on the something awful forums
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Aug 9, 2023 15:44
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I feel like France are finally finding their groove at the right time under the International Dreamboat Hervé Renard. Australia looked good but Denmark also looked very pedestrian - tons of possession but no threat at all. France can actually score. Not sure that Australia can cope with chasing a game from behind. Should be a good one though.
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Aug 9, 2023 15:52
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Call me ABE Anyone But England
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Aug 9, 2023 15:58
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Mr. Mambold posted:The U.S. dominated the 3rd ranked team in the world, Sweden, who played a negative game start to finnish. Their 2 best strikers, and arguably best winger still at 35, Heath, were all out injured. Maybe you should stfu about ineptitude. it's your posts, oh the ineptitude Hey, all of what you said is also true! Thanks for agreeing that the USWNT is fantastic, actually. I'm fine with being called inept because you haven't been paying attention to anything I've posted on the topic.
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Aug 9, 2023 16:01
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Shrapnig posted:Call me ABE 
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Aug 9, 2023 16:02
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Shrapnig posted:Call me ABE Currently on the Japan bandwagon.
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Aug 9, 2023 16:12
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Fun teams, such as Japan, should win and boring teams, such as Spain, should not
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Aug 9, 2023 16:13
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Mr. Mambold posted:The U.S. dominated the 3rd ranked team in the world, Sweden, who played a negative game start to finnish. Their 2 best strikers, and arguably best winger still at 35, Heath, were all out injured. Maybe you should stfu about ineptitude. it's your posts, oh the ineptitude
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Aug 9, 2023 16:37
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PostNouveau posted:Spain v. Netherlands is the only game that's primetime for me the rest of the way. The rest are 2-5 a.m. from there. usa not winning their group screwed up the schedual for both usa and the netherlands
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Aug 9, 2023 16:48
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Mr. Mambold posted:The U.S. dominated the 3rd ranked team in the world, Sweden, who played a negative game start to finnish. Their 2 best strikers, and arguably best winger still at 35, Heath, were all out injured. Maybe you should stfu about ineptitude. it's your posts, oh the ineptitude This is like someone flailing about the Patriots 18-1
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Aug 9, 2023 17:25
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It should be bannable to talk about American football in this subforum
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Aug 9, 2023 17:27
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