My nephew is in the FC Dallas system right now. Maybe he will change it around for us in the future.

GigEm17J said:

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1876er said:

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LeonardSkinner said:

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GigEm17J said:

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Genuine question... What will it take to get to an elite level? Is it even possible here with all the other sports soaking up athletes?

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Genuine answer. I don't think we'll ever be elite. We'll hover around top ten, but that's all. Might make a semifinal if things fall the right way one year.

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When have we been legit top 10?

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I think they're saying that's the best we CAN get in theory

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Honestly, round of 16 is about as good as it gets for US Soccer.

TRM said:

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More skill development at a young age rather than focus on wins and losses.

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and legit coaches at those young ages.
and also just more fields around to play pick up soccer at.
some people are trying to make more of those, but not enough

1876er said:

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LeonardSkinner said:

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GigEm17J said:

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Genuine question... What will it take to get to an elite level? Is it even possible here with all the other sports soaking up athletes?

---

Genuine answer. I don't think we'll ever be elite. We'll hover around top ten, but that's all. Might make a semifinal if things fall the right way one year.

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When have we been legit top 10?

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Team going into World Cup 2006 was considered at Top 10 team. And they choked just as badly

I agree.

TXAggie2011 said:

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Who?mikejones! said:

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Frok said:

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Why is there no mens college soccer in America?

If we truly want to be good then promote the sport rather than eliminate it for title 9

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Actuslly a big part of the problem. It's pay to play, so dudes like dempsey get overlooked for lack of opportunity.

Then, without a strong college program, men's soccer is relegated to thr basement without a sufficient development program in its stead.
The reason we're sp dominate at Olympic sports is mostly due to our college sports and thr billions it pours into elite training.

Men's soccer misses out on that and there's no real alternate program. The MLS has tried. Useful has tried. But nothing can fill that void in the current landscape.

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We have 205 division 1 men's soccer teams each with the ability to hand out 28 scholarships each, including at many of the richest, biggest athletic departments in the country. Opportunity at the college level is almost certainly not our problem. The problem starts before college.

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How many of these D1 teams are filled with 22 year old foreigners

I spent most of the whole tournament glad that Freese wasnt proving to be the worst US world cup goalkeeper ever…

TXAggie2011 said:

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Who?mikejones! said:

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Frok said:

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Why is there no mens college soccer in America?

If we truly want to be good then promote the sport rather than eliminate it for title 9

---

Actuslly a big part of the problem. It's pay to play, so dudes like dempsey get overlooked for lack of opportunity.

Then, without a strong college program, men's soccer is relegated to thr basement without a sufficient development program in its stead.
The reason we're sp dominate at Olympic sports is mostly due to our college sports and thr billions it pours into elite training.

Men's soccer misses out on that and there's no real alternate program. The MLS has tried. Useful has tried. But nothing can fill that void in the current landscape.

---

We have 205 division 1 men's soccer teams each with the ability to hand out 28 scholarships each, including at many of the richest, biggest athletic departments in the country. Opportunity at the college level is almost certainly not our problem. The problem starts before college.

---

How many D1 programs in Texas

TRM said:

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More skill development at a young age rather than focus on wins and losses.

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It's a bunch of things. But this is a big one. I'm tired of my kids being on teams that just kick the ball down the field and try to run faster than the other kids.

1) true all star athlete kids are not choosing soccer in the US for a combination of exposure and lack of non-professional opportunities (no big name college programs). No kid or their parents gives two craps that UC Riverside has a program, they want to see A&M and LSU with a program. They want to see an SEC championship on TV.

2) 90% of the coaching is by Little League dads who want something to do other than baseball in the fall so they teach "kick and chase" soccer.

3) kids don't play it on a daily basis. No school programs, hell most PE teachers don't even know the rules.


I'm proud of this team. I'm proud of Poch and what they accomplished. I'm extremely disappointed in the ended because I think we did not play to our level. Complaining won't help us get there, so I've been working to grow our local rec/club league. I think this is more important.

We know this is the most social media driven national team we've ever had. They don't shy away from saying they see everything. I think the balogun ****, justified or not, ****ed us mentally. We just didn't get off the bus. I just wonder what would have been if balo never got the red card suspended and we just go all in with Pepi and Haji and don't have to hear or see all the negativity in the last 36 hours. It was my fear going in.

zgolfz85 said:

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We know this is the most social media driven national team we've ever had. They don't shy away from saying they see everything. I think the balogun ****, justified or not, ****ed us mentally. We just didn't get off the bus. I just wonder what would have been if balo never got the red card suspended and we just go all in with Pepi and Haji and don't have to hear or see all the negativity in the last 36 hours. It was my fear going in.

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it was definitely an unneeded distraction.
Not sure it would have magically made Pulisic and Dest avoid having awful games though

I lost power - no spoilers please

I'm not upset we lost to Belgium. They are a good team. But losing the way we did sucks.

I don't keep up with the U17/U20 but I hope we continue to improve the talent level and one day maybe we can actually compete in a game like this.

wangus12 said:

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1876er said:

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LeonardSkinner said:

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GigEm17J said:

---

Genuine question... What will it take to get to an elite level? Is it even possible here with all the other sports soaking up athletes?

---

Genuine answer. I don't think we'll ever be elite. We'll hover around top ten, but that's all. Might make a semifinal if things fall the right way one year.

---

When have we been legit top 10?

---

Team going into World Cup 2006 was considered at Top 10 team. And they choked just as badly

---

That team has some pretty good talent. They choked way worse than this squad.

Many of our counties top athletes aren't going to soccer. It's viewed as boring and slow while other countries top athletes are growing up playing in the sport. Add in that, just like baseball, it isn't cheap to compete at high level club soccer which keeps some of the top athletes from competing at the sport. If we could figure out a way to push kids into playing soccer AND football once they reach 13/14 yrs old, you could see a lot more skilled players on the field.

PatAg said:

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zgolfz85 said:

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We know this is the most social media driven national team we've ever had. They don't shy away from saying they see everything. I think the balogun ****, justified or not, ****ed us mentally. We just didn't get off the bus. I just wonder what would have been if balo never got the red card suspended and we just go all in with Pepi and Haji and don't have to hear or see all the negativity in the last 36 hours. It was my fear going in.

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it was definitely an unneeded distraction.
Not sure it would have magically made Pulisic and Dest avoid having awful games though

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agreed mostly, but CP has always been a head case. All of our guys tend to be mental midgets. It's part of being the underdog, but good gosh we came out flat af. Freese though -- the game was lost in that moment. That completely deflated any hopes we had right then and there. I'm still in disbelief. That is going to haunt him for the rest of his life.

PatAg said:

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TXAggie2011 said:

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Who?mikejones! said:

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Frok said:

---

Why is there no mens college soccer in America?

If we truly want to be good then promote the sport rather than eliminate it for title 9

---

Actuslly a big part of the problem. It's pay to play, so dudes like dempsey get overlooked for lack of opportunity.

Then, without a strong college program, men's soccer is relegated to thr basement without a sufficient development program in its stead.
The reason we're sp dominate at Olympic sports is mostly due to our college sports and thr billions it pours into elite training.

Men's soccer misses out on that and there's no real alternate program. The MLS has tried. Useful has tried. But nothing can fill that void in the current landscape.

---

We have 205 division 1 men's soccer teams each with the ability to hand out 28 scholarships each, including at many of the richest, biggest athletic departments in the country. Opportunity at the college level is almost certainly not our problem. The problem starts before college.

---

How many D1 programs in Texas

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Not having men's soccer and women's gymnastics in D1 here is criminal. Texas is a hotbed for both.

Replace women's basketball with gymnastics and some other non Big 3 sport with men's soccer.

duck79 said:

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Many of our counties top athletes aren't going to soccer. It's viewed as boring and slow while other countries top athletes are growing up playing in the sport. Add in that, just like baseball, it isn't cheap to compete at high level club soccer which keeps some of the top athletes from competing at the sport. If we could figure out a way to push kids into playing soccer AND football once they reach 13/14 yrs old, you could see a lot more skilled players on the field.

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we can only hope that this WC changes some of that. We don't need much more -- just give us 5-10% more top line talent and that's enough. We are levels above where we've been, at least physically...mentally, not so much.

zgolfz85 said:

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We know this is the most social media driven national team we've ever had. They don't shy away from saying they see everything. I think the balogun ****, justified or not, ****ed us mentally. We just didn't get off the bus. I just wonder what would have been if balo never got the red card suspended and we just go all in with Pepi and Haji and don't have to hear or see all the negativity in the last 36 hours. It was my fear going in.

---

I'm not sure if that keeps Freese from embarrassing himself. Not sure if that keeps Dest from being a spectator. Not sure if that keeps Richards from not clearing. Not sure if that keeps Pulisic from turning the ball over and hurting himself. It was a loser mentality all around. I don't think the Balogun distraction was the reason.

JW said:

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How you don't play with the energy of playing on home soil is criminal. Just so soft of a team. No real leaders setting the tone.

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The problem is our captain America **** the bed the entire first half. And it wasn't even the non scoring type stuff, dude was a straight up turnover machine. Single handedly wrecked the offense entire first half.

100% agree. This was the first game where we clearly weren't more athletic. That hasn't happened before. We are just missing the depth and the technical skill across the field.

KDB didn't even play and we got destroyed like that. Ooof. But what's weird is in the send off friendly with Germany, we looked fine- without Richards

FTAG 2000 said:

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JW said:

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How you don't play with the energy of playing on home soil is criminal. Just so soft of a team. No real leaders setting the tone.

---

The problem is our captain America **** the bed the entire first half. And it wasn't even the non scoring type stuff, dude was a straight up turnover machine. Single handedly wrecked the offense entire first half.

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HEY, he and Dest shared the wreckage, lol

a top-10 most embarrassing goal in World Cup history?

what a view of this disaster pic.twitter.com/XwUSyt4tuM https://t.co/GPN4ci5f3a

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 7, 2026

This makes me sick

oh no said:

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KDB didn't even play and we got destroyed like that. Ooof. But what's weird is in the send off friendly with Germany, we looked fine- without Richards

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I hate to break it to you but Germany wasn't very good either.

YouBet said:

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PatAg said:

---

TXAggie2011 said:

---

Who?mikejones! said:

---

Frok said:

---

Why is there no mens college soccer in America?

If we truly want to be good then promote the sport rather than eliminate it for title 9

---

Actuslly a big part of the problem. It's pay to play, so dudes like dempsey get overlooked for lack of opportunity.

Then, without a strong college program, men's soccer is relegated to thr basement without a sufficient development program in its stead.
The reason we're sp dominate at Olympic sports is mostly due to our college sports and thr billions it pours into elite training.

Men's soccer misses out on that and there's no real alternate program. The MLS has tried. Useful has tried. But nothing can fill that void in the current landscape.

---

We have 205 division 1 men's soccer teams each with the ability to hand out 28 scholarships each, including at many of the richest, biggest athletic departments in the country. Opportunity at the college level is almost certainly not our problem. The problem starts before college.

---

How many D1 programs in Texas

---

Not having men's soccer and women's gymnastics in D1 here is criminal. Texas is a hotbed for both.

Replace women's basketball with gymnastics and some other non Big 3 sport with men's soccer.

---

I know that we need to keep improving our youth training, but I think I also agree that having more D1 options would likely get more players to choose soccer earlier (or stay with it).

Cuz right now you either have to be good enough to make it as a pro, or be ok with going to some crappy D2 or D3 college (or lower) to play soccer.
Im sure some kids (or parents) make some decisions earlier than we think

YouBet said:

---

PatAg said:

---

TXAggie2011 said:

---

Who?mikejones! said:

---

Frok said:

---

Why is there no mens college soccer in America?

If we truly want to be good then promote the sport rather than eliminate it for title 9

---

Actuslly a big part of the problem. It's pay to play, so dudes like dempsey get overlooked for lack of opportunity.

Then, without a strong college program, men's soccer is relegated to thr basement without a sufficient development program in its stead.
The reason we're sp dominate at Olympic sports is mostly due to our college sports and thr billions it pours into elite training.

Men's soccer misses out on that and there's no real alternate program. The MLS has tried. Useful has tried. But nothing can fill that void in the current landscape.

---

We have 205 division 1 men's soccer teams each with the ability to hand out 28 scholarships each, including at many of the richest, biggest athletic departments in the country. Opportunity at the college level is almost certainly not our problem. The problem starts before college.

---

How many D1 programs in Texas

---

Not having men's soccer and women's gymnastics in D1 here is criminal. Texas is a hotbed for both.

Replace women's basketball with gymnastics and some other non Big 3 sport with men's soccer.

---

100% agree.

We need to find a keeper and build our defense and squad from there. Maybe Kochen as he just went out on loan. Slonina development at Chelsea has been disappointing.

La Bamba said:

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a top-10 most embarrassing goal in World Cup history?

what a view of this disaster pic.twitter.com/XwUSyt4tuM https://t.co/GPN4ci5f3a

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 7, 2026

This makes me sick

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Probably top five most embarrassing, but that's only because I have to assume that in the long history of the tournament, there has to have been at least two or three that were worse.

Pulisic lost possession 11 times in 45 minutes.

Criminal. He is the coddled sleeve tatted millionaire Lalas warned us about

LeonardSkinner said:

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La Bamba said:

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a top-10 most embarrassing goal in World Cup history?

what a view of this disaster pic.twitter.com/XwUSyt4tuM https://t.co/GPN4ci5f3a

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 7, 2026

This makes me sick

---

Probably top five most embarrassing, but that's only because I have to assume that in the long history of the tournament, there has to have been at least two or three that were worse.

---

This is kicking the ground against app St.

TRM said:

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We need to find a keeper and build our defense and squad from there. Maybe Kochen as he just went out on loan. Slonina development at Chelsea has been disappointing.

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Ironically in the past, the only players we had regularly playing in Europe were GKers.

Now we have a team of field players in Europe and GKers that dont.

Same discussion we were having in 1994, only this time it's not on a listserve.

I'm not as informed on the younger players in the system. When qualifying starts back up again, who do we expect to be fighting for a spot in the top 11?

Ream-he will be done but what's behind him bc McKenzie isn't the answer

Freese?

Adams/Mckennie-will they have begun to age out and be pushed by younger

Pulisic-I feel this is the biggest question mark

This game reminded me of a concocaf friendly with a bunch of mls scrubs. We had zero shot to win from tge start