US Soccer Thoughts

US was up 2-0 at halftime against Brazil in the Confederations Cup on Sunday. In the first few minutes of the second half, Brazil scored a quick goal - it was a nice play, but ultimately a lucky goal. From there, it was just a matter of time before Brazil won the game. They completely owned possession, had many scoring opportunities and had it gone to overtime, surely would have won. The US played with heart, but ultimately, they are a much inferior team and will lose 9 out of 10 times to a team like Brazil. Maybe even 19 out of 20.

To put it into perspective, Landon Donovan is the best player on the US team and arguably the best field player in US soccer history. Donovan may start on the Brazilian team, but certainly would not be amongst their top players. In Germany, he is considered a bust, having tried to play professionally three times (although part of this has to do with home-sickness). In a sports illustrated article last week, they pointed out the US has not had a field player start for any of the top clubs in England, Italy, Spain, or Germany. We are simply not even close to putting together a world class team.

Let's put it another way. In terms of basketball, there are several foreign players amongst the NBA elite - Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Manu Ginolbi, Yao Ming, Hedo Turkoglu...I'm sure I'm missing some others. I don't think Landon Donovan - or any US soccer player - can be considered as good as say, Luis Scola on an NBA team. Donovan is probably equivalent to Shawn Marion, a good, respectable player who occasionally drops 20, but is not a guy you really fear on the field.

Soccer is a lot like basketball. On a given night, an inferior team can win. In soccer, goals are so rare a team can get a counter-attack or a set piece goal and hold down the fort and beat a superior team. In basketball, a shooting team can get hot or just play with a lot of intensity and win. We see it in the NCAA tournament every single year. In a single game, anything can happen. Which is what makes these soccer tournaments like world cup and european cup, etc, so exciting. The one and done aspect of it. But let's not confuse the US beating Spain and playing Brazil tough as ushering in a new era of soccer. We are still a long ways off and it's not clear to me we'll ever match the top countries in soccer. It's a cultural thing - it doesn't have to do with the physical skills or the effort or the money or anything like that. We have all those things. In Brazil, right now, it is lunchtime and the kids on the playground are juggling the soccer ball and showing off one on one skills to one another and fooling around. They are cheering for beautiful moves and clever, creative passes or touches or whatever. The US kids are playing football or basketball or maybe some are playing soccer, but they don't cheer for beautiful moves or great touches - they don't quite get it - they wouldn't know what to look for. Basketball is still an apt comparison - in the inner city - the kids are looking for jukes and awesome dunks and no look passes and get street cred for coming up with these things. I don't see that happening in the US - never on the scale as in Brazil or Argentina or Italy or England and so while we have many talented players with energy, dedication, and character - all the things one needs to succeed at anything in life - the cultural passion and communal, grassroots love for the game simply cannot be imported. Maybe it will spring up somewhere at some time organically and unexpectedly, but for now, it just doesn't seem to be here.