A Look At The State Of U.S. Soccer After Poor World Cup

U.S. Soccer Criticized After World Cup Losses

The U.S. men’s national soccer team was eliminated from the World Cup on Thursday after losing to Ghana and posting an 0-2-1 record in group play. U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said, “There are going to be some very good teams that go home. I don’t think anyone’s asking about the fate of the sport in the U.S. It’s been a pretty good four-year period in qualifying and so on, but this is where the entire world is watching, this is where you measure yourself. That didn’t come out well” (L.A. TIMES, 6/23). More Gulati: “We’ve got a long way to go to be consistently competitive with the best teams in the world. We know that. We can play with anybody on a given day, but I don’t think anybody on our end would say we’d hold our own seven out of ten times against Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Holland, Italy or France” (Mult., 6/23). Gulati added that a decision on the future of U.S. coach Bruce Arena “will be part of a larger discussion about the future of the program.” Gulati: “It’s not just about Bruce” (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/23).

STATE OF U.S. SOCCER: In Houston, John Lopez writes since reaching the World Cup quarterfinals in ’02, U.S. soccer “has stagnated, both from a team and individual” standpoint (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 6/23). In Miami, Linda Robertson writes expectations “were high that the finest U.S. men’s team ever assembled would elevate the brand of American soccer. But the U.S. neither played up to its potential nor wowed the rest of the world” (MIAMI HERALD, 6/23). Dallas Morning News columnist Kevin Blackistone: “This is about as good as USA soccer is.” L.A. Times columnist Bill Plaschke: “You have to change the whole organization here because I’m watching this team and I’m looking around thinking, ‘This is the best we have?’” (“Around The Horn,” ESPN, 6/22).

Many Feel Arena Needs To Be Let Go

BLAME FOR ARENA: ESPN studio analyst Eric Wynalda immediately after the game said, “I’m going to be the first one to say that Bruce Arena screwed up this World Cup for the U.S. team. ... As much as it was touted as being the best American team, (it) was poorly managed.” Wynalda added, “You’ve got to give him credit for what he has accomplished, but it’s time for this country to understand one thing: if you’re trying to get to the next level you better have people in positions who actually know where that next level is” (ESPN, 6/22). In Ft. Worth, Tobias Xavier Lopez writes, “Arena’s performance was every bit as dreadful as Steve Sampson’s work in 1998 [when the U.S. finished last], after which he was dismissed immediately” (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 6/23).

ROLE OF MLS: In St. Louis, Jeff Gordon wrote the U.S. performance “raised questions about” MLS, which “falls well below the quality of the elite European leagues. ... MLS is clearly substandard. We’re not sure the U.S. will ever build a soccer program capable of defeating Brazil” (STLTODAY.com, 6/22). In San Jose, Ann Killion writes this “certainly wasn’t a step forward” for soccer in the U.S. America “witnessed the very public defrocking of ... the concept that one can become a world-class player” in MLS (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 6/23). ESPN’s Janusz Michallik: “MLS is good for depth but the core of this team should play abroad.” ESPN’s Allen Hopkins: “Here’s the biggest difference: it’s training day in and day out and that’s what you don’t get in (MLS). ... To really improve it’s all about competing everyday at the top-flight level, maybe it’s (MLS) in a couple of years but certainly more players need to put themselves in that environment to improve” (ESPNews, 6/22). Notably, the only U.S. player to score a goal in the World Cup, F Clint Dempsey, plays in MLS (THE DAILY).

STATE OF SOCCER IN AMERICA: In L.A., Grahame Jones writes U.S. soccer “suffers from more than only a lack of public attention. Most of America’s best athletes continue to head for” other sports, and “another problem is that in the four-year cycle between World Cups the U.S. team doesn’t play enough strong opponents” (L.A. TIMES, 6/23). In S.F., Ray Ratto: “America has to stop looking upon its international soccer contribution as a matter of proper saturation marketing, a tie-in for [MLS]” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 6/23). In N.Y., Filip Bondy writes if the “aim was to promote the U.S. team back in the States, Arena [did] his players no favors.” He allowed “minimal contact” with the press, resulting in “second-class, packaged coverage. Many U.S. reporters peeled off to focus on other countries” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/23). An ORLANDO SENTINEL editorial states the performance “deflated the momentum that was building to bring futbol into the mainstream” (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 6/23).

SIGNS OF LIFE? In DC, Camille Powell writes the World Cup off the field “could be considered a success for American soccer.” Gulati: “I said we would have more fans cheering for the U.S. than in the history of the World Cup combined, excluding ’94 when we were at home, and I think that’s true” (WASHINGTON POST, 6/23). A USA TODAY editorial: “Maybe, just maybe, the growing World Cup phenomenon — combined with Americans’ own experience in youth soccer and the technology revolution that is making league play throughout the world more accessible — will make big-time soccer more than a quadrennial event in the USA” (USA TODAY, 6/23).

U.S. Soccer Fans Watching World Cup Games In Record Numbers

FIXING: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Stefan Fatsis offers “five ideas to consider about soccer’s future” in the U.S.: “Think long term”; “Making world-class soccer players takes decades”; “Americans can join the world elite without becoming a traditional soccer nation”; “The soccer know-nothings will be extinct soon enough”; and “What the rest of the world thinks doesn’t matter.” Fatsis writes the U.S. “is still in the absolute infancy of its life as a soccer country.” Soccer will never become the “primary [object] of American sporting affections. That’s OK. In order to field steadily better international teams, it doesn’t need to.” Also, the “belief that soccer needs to be Americanized for it to succeed is outdated. ESPN executives talk about using more stats, graphics and ‘storytelling’ as ways to lure soccer-ambivalent fans. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. It only makes the U.S. look silly” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 6/23).

MORE THAN JUST SOCCER: GANNETT NEWS SERVICE’s Mike Lopresti lists numerous recent failures by U.S. teams in int’l competitions and writes, “The world seems to have improved in a lot of sports. Or we seem to have gotten worse” (GANNETT NEWS SERVICE, 6/23). In Denver, Mark Kiszla: “Team USA can now lose to anybody, anywhere in any sport. ... From the basketball court to the baseball diamond, from hockey rink to the soccer pitch, it is stitched inside the uniforms of Uncle Sam’s losing teams. ... Excuses” (DENVER POST, 6/23).