Im no soccer expert, never will be, but i do live in the US, and i do know our best athletes do not grow up playing soccer. In these other countries, they do. Thats a disadvantage we will never fully be able to overcome. Period. Its just how it is. Until we see a day when most of our kids grow up with dreams of leading our country to a gold in soccer (which will never happen) we'll never close the gap. Our kids grow up dreaming of playing real football, they grow up dreaming about playing hoops, or baseball. Its big in the suburbs with rich kids. Who played soccer growing up in your high school? The kids whos parents wouldn't allow them to play football, and the kids who sucked at hoops, largely because those kids were like 5'3" 115 lbs soaking wet. With how little people here care about this sport, its pretty cool that they could at least make the final 16. Our best athletes are chasing fame in the bigger and more popular sports. In these other countries, soccer is the popular sport

TMS wrote:if European, South American & Asian countries are able to bridge the gap & beat the US at their own games in hoops & baseball during international play, then the US should one day be able to do the same for soccer.

Sports like baseball are bigger in these south american countries as well as Japan than soccer is here. And basketball is more popular in many countries than soccer is here. Still though, we do remain dominant in hoops. Since we've gone to pros we've won gold in 4 of the 5 olympics, and finished with bronze in the one we didn't win (thanks Larry Brown). No country quite dominates soccer like that

TMS wrote:

KnicksSince88 wrote:

TMS wrote:if European, South American & Asian countries are able to bridge the gap & beat the US at their own games in hoops & baseball during international play, then the US should one day be able to do the same for soccer.

Sports like baseball are bigger in these south american countries as well as Japan than soccer is here. And basketball is more popular in many countries than soccer is here. Still though, we do remain dominant in hoops. Since we've gone to pros we've won gold in 4 of the 5 olympics, and finished with bronze in the one we didn't win (thanks Larry Brown). No country quite dominates soccer like that

the US also has a much larger pool of population to draw from than a lot of these smaller countries... i agree with u that baseball & hoops is a lot more popular in European, South American & Asian countries compared to soccer's popularity stateside, but all of those countries have had to start from a huge disadvantage yet were still able to develop the talent in those sports to compete with the US in international play today... those sports gaining in popularity in those countries have everything to do with marketing... kids see athletes celebrated by the media & grow up wanting to emulate them... soccer isn't popular in the States because sports marketers & corporate sponsors spend all of their money glamorizing athletes in other sports in this country.

& to anyone who wants to use the "soccer is largely a sport that requires monetary investment to develop young talent" excuse, that hasn't stopped young athletes in other more impoverished nations from growing into superstars in other sports.

usa has many sports entertainment options for fans, and routes to play diff things. when your best route to play elite soccer is to go out of the usa, that doesnt help.

TMS wrote:

when your best route to play elite soccer is to go out of the usa, that doesnt help.

you can say the same for baseball & hoops players in every other country.

as the exposure of american sports gets out (or perhaps the elite players), it seems to influence some of those folks... in terms of soccer, it has a long ways to go to get to that level here. there is no elite soccer league here. the exposure of top players just doesnt happen as it does in other parts of the world. elite soccer players can elicit quite a few "who dats" to various american sports fans. there isnt much room with the nfl pushing itself worldwide and year round, mlb having a long season, nba/nhl, etc... do you wanna be like mike? or do you wanna be like rooney/pele/henry/(pick your top guy)? id wager most american kids wont know who the soccer guy is, and will know the "local" talent.