(11-21-2022 05:52 PM)Dukes94 Wrote: (11-21-2022 04:32 PM)ODUMONARCHZ1 Wrote: (11-21-2022 04:30 PM)Dukes94 Wrote: WALES. Wales has approximately 1/100th the population of 'Murica and they just played us to a draw.
I'm sure you know that doesn't matter, especially being a lot of their players are probably premier league players, but I assume you said that tongue in cheek lol
I support Man City and I’m sure some of Wales’ players play in the top leagues in Europe. Definitely tongue in cheek, although I am a little fatigued with the US team. We need to admit we’ll never be as good as the top teams, because we’re just not a football country. Our players aren’t born with footballs at their feet and don’t join the club teams’ youth programs at age 7. Basketball? Absolutely. Birth to retirement. But football is just not in our culture, unless you mean the oblong ball that you throw with your hands.
Disagree on this. I think things are finally changing. Not just in roster makeup and talent, but in playing a more enjoyable, technical style. Despite the draw today, we were light years better than in the past. 8 years ago we would have been wales and sat back hoping for a lucky penalty or counter to win. Today, we dictated the play for the large majority of the game.
Does that mean we will beat Brazil, Germany, France? Probably not. But not many do.
Can we be like croatia or South Korea or Uruguay and make the semi finals? Absolutely. In fact, I’d bank on that happening soon.
Look at the 2014 roster. We had one guy on a champions league type roster. Julian green at Bayern, where he never played. The squad was mostly MLS guys still.
Look at this years roster and the clubs they are at, or have played at. And this is significant minutes, not just “being there”:
Juventus, Barcelona, Chelsea, Dortmund, Leipzig, gladbach, psg, Arsenal, Leeds, Valencia, Celtic.
Some of the biggest clubs in Europe. That is a marketable improvement and bodes will for what we are building. The mls type guys have been relegated the bench now.
Those are big clubs we got guys playing at. and they are playing at these clubs. Not jus there. And are all just getting started, most 24 or younger with more young star guys coming through the pipeline at big clubs.
By the time the WC comes to the USA in four years, we will have a star studded roster of guys in their prime. I think we can make a real run at the semi finals then. With the talent and added help of home soil, look out.
