US Men's Team Confederations Cup Recap

Listen to a OGN Minute+5 pod as Hannah discusses with me the Confederation Cups final from an undisclosed location. OGN

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US Soccer: The Rockets Red Glare

Another tournament comes through, a promising squad flatters to deceive and the supporters again wonder how such a major world power, so confident, excelling in so much, continues to flounder as an also-ran in the grand scheme of things in world football. It's a conspiracy, Fifa and UEFA jealousies, a web of Italian mob money, or South American strong-arm tactics, and if this were a World Cup year I'd probably be talking about England, but actually I'm talking about a sorrier state of affairs: my adoptive country, the United States.

Now I'm well aware of the most improbable scoreline the other day that dumped Italy out of the tournament and qualified the red, white and blue for a chance to get run through by Spain. Bob Bradley changed the setup, switched to a 4-4-2, motivated a less than emotional side and defeated the grand power of Egypt. Granted Egypt are African champions and they did run through the early part of the Cup with style and aplomb but they were missing their best player, actually three top players, but the reaction has been out of sorts. It's "the dawning of a new age, the grand entrance of a new world power, a rocket at the bow of the Fifa sailboat!" Blah, blah, blah.

I hate to break it to my American brethren, but the United States is still a second rate soccer super-power. One miracle on grass does not change the status-quo. It's a minor league set-up we have here; a system that ignores the best athletes in U.S. soccer because they don't qualify ethnically and socially for the soccer factories that feed U.S. Soccer. We have leadership that care more about maintaining their own influence over the sport than growing it in the places where it is already a dominant sport: the inner city. We care more about soccer Moms and suburban AYSO leagues that teach the sport as a safe-and-sane alternative to the rigors and competitiveness of other American sports. Bollocks. Soccer is the real sport of the people. Inclusive. A measure of diversity rather than exclusivity.

The problem is that we don't have a collective soccer identity. Are we about directness like the English or about ball-control like our neighbours the Central and South Americans. Do we train our players in the correct manner? Practically every other country has a youth team set-up tied to their National League. We on the other hand have a disjointed pyramid of player development; private soccer schools, clubs, colleges and private individuals feeding our professional league and our National Team. We have amateurish coaches learning their trade in a system that is millions of miles and millennia away from the pressurized ovens of World Soccer management. We have an FA that kowtows to Major League Baseball schedules, American Football stadia, and instead chooses to directly compete with regional sports like hockey, tennis, and golf.

The sport deserves better than this. It deserves a better supporter than this here. Be happy that we reached the semis of the Conferederations Cup. Mexico have won it in 1999, so why can't we? But don't take your eye off the ball. Keep the pressure on Sunil Gulati to reform US Soccer. Don't let the glare of the red rockets fade.

United States 1 - 3 Italy

Giuseppe Rossi got the first in the 58th minute followed by Daniele De Rossi in the 72nd. Giuseppe Rossi got his second in injury time.