When I say this isn't good I mean this isn't good for the future of American soccer. I can officially say that we are the epitome of a luke warm team. The past 2 World Cups we lost in the round of 16 and we did so in extra time. We have the capability of leaving the group stages but we can't get over that round of 16 hump. And I need to delve into this further. We are BARELY missing the quarterfinals, I mean BARELY. It's not like we win easy groups and then get housed the next round. We barely miss out. I feel like we're the only team in the world who is like this. Like the teams that lost in the round of 16 this year the USA could have easily beaten (Mexico, Greece, Switzerland, Nigeria, Algeria). With the exception of maybe Uruguay and Chile I honestly think we could have beaten any of those other teams.
This pains me to say but I truly think American soccer is in a bad place. I'm not trying to be a pessimist but I think we've seriously regressed from our stellar run in 2002. That year we made the quarters and almost beat Germany. Then in 2006 we got smushed and then the past 2 World Cups were kind of underwhelming.
I hate to bring this up but your simply not gonna win over the casual soccer fan with performances like these. I love soccer and will watch this team any day but it's getting tough to defend them when they don't at least make a serious, deep run in this tournament. If we have legitimately come such a long way then we absolutely CANNOT be content with winning only 1 singular game in this World Cup. I mean I absolutely LOVE when people say that we were in the Group of Death. Hello! Did any of you dummies see Group B! I understand Spain was heinous but prior to the tournament that group had the two teams that played for the World Cup 4 years ago!! That was a much tougher group than ours. You guys gotta know that just because Portugal has Ronaldo it doesn't mean they are any good. Or how about Costa Rica having to play against Uruguay and Italy? Uruguay was in the semis 4 years ago and Italy were clicking on all cylinders prior to Brazil.
I'm not trying to sound like Pres over at Barstool but I agree with him in one respect: you can't seriously be happy or proud or even content with the American's performance here in Brazil. Especially if you claim that "we've come a long way as a soccer nation."
Every four years we hear from idiots like Twellman and Lalas that soccer is growing in America and that it's getting huge. Uhh, I've been hearing that since 2002. But here's the thing: it actually was growing and it made sense. Prior to 2002 there really wasn't much American soccer history. People my age have grown up with legends such as Donovan, Dempsey, McBride, Reyna, Keller and Howard.
The truth of the matter is that soccer is stagnant in this country. It's not regressing. I don't think it's popularity will ever significantly decrease but I'm not expecting it to increase sharply. At least not anytime soon and it's a damn shame.
Look, it may sound like I'm bashing my own sport but I'm just being a realist. Obviously I'll never go so far as to disliking the sport but it's growth is seriously concerning me.
PS- For all of those idiots out there who say "thank God it's over" or "finally, now all the bandwagoners can shut up." I want you to know that by saying that you were rooting against the United States. I'm not gonna make a patriotic joke or anything, just know that if you're happy that people in the USA will stop chirping about the World Cup then that means you literally did not want the United States of America to win in a competition. Food for thought, assholes.
PPS- Tim Howard is a top 3 goalie in the entire world. I've been saying it for 6 years now.
