Photo: Jessenia Martinez
The 2012 Summer Olympics in London will feature established stars like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, alongside many other soon-to-be household names, for what will undoubtedly be two weeks of sports at its finest.
While it may be too early to tell what new athletes will make their mark in London, we already know of some that won’t be in London this summer: the members of the United States soccer team.
On March 26, the United States was officially eliminated from Olympic contention following a 3-3 draw with El Salvador on U.S. soil. Per Olympic rules, soccer teams can only field players 23 years of age or younger. A maximum of three players can be over 23. So, no, it isn’t exactly our full national squad.
Debate has sprung up on whether or not this result really matters. Yet when our best young players can’t beat Canada and El Salvador on home soil, that’s a problem (no disrespect to El Salvador, I’m Salvadoran, but it what it is). More than anything, this result is another disappointing result for US soccer that makes you wonder if U.S. soccer will ever “get there” and become a realistic threat on the world stage.
Surely many countries would call six consecutive World Cup appearances a success, even if the U.S. hasn’t had the best results in World Cups. After all, the world’s “greatest” country can’t be great at everything can it? But, given the size of the U.S. population, and the amount of money invested into men’s soccer, results should follow.
There are plenty of reasons why the U.S. hasn’t had as much success in soccer as many would like. It is far from the national sport. Our domestic league, though much improved, isn’t exactly world class. And we’re probably the only country that doesn’t have a true home-field advantage (against El Salvador the crowd was evenly split, in Tennessee). Even when things seem like they’re looking up, it’s just not to be: our best player, Giuseppe Rossi, was born and raised in New Jersey, but chose to play internationally with Italy.
But there is something that I think can help change things for U.S. soccer: the expanding Latino population. It’s no secret that we love our fútbol (crap, this is my fifth soccer-related post). In fact television networks realized this long ago, which is a big reason why FOX outbid ESPN for the rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup. This will only lead to more exposure and national attention for US soccer.
Admittedly, I’m far from an expert, but would it be such a bad idea for US soccer brass to take a cue from the TV networks and invest in Latinos, or more specifically, young Latino players? It’s a pretty interesting thought that I think has legs. Not only will Latinos decide the next US President, we could be the key to changing the fortunes of US soccer.
About Cristopher Rubio
of course! latino = natural futbolistas!
Soccer?
You mean the game where players are diving everywhere to milk a penalty? They should call it Divegrass.
The quality of the game is improving here in the US, but I still watch a lot of Bundesliga and Premier League instead.
If you want to improve U.S. soccer – stop drafting players from colleges. Latin American and European clubs start looking at players very early on in their development (also have club INSTITUTIONS). Since this won’t change anytime soon (even though Latinos are enrolling at a higher rate in 4 year schools) – there must be a focus on getting Latinos (soccer players) into a 4 year college/university. Latinos are still not the largest “minority” group at 4 year colleges/universities.
Right as a Latino Englishman it amazes me the standard of MLS it’s seen as a cash cow for older players who may not cut it in europe Beckham Henry and Keane spring to mind although the may have a 7 week loan to europe to keep fit in January right they need to sort the league out have promotion to the MLS and relegation every season and set the up the league system up so any club no matter who small can reach the MLS. Also have youth academies not college picks as players can get an education at the academy but if the fail to make it pro (know that feeling at 16 sorry son we are letting you go) they could go to college and improve their chances in life this will apply to all nationals in USA do its fair for everyone
Thanks Bryan and Steven that grass is deadly nasty burns and am sure at 250k a week it can injure you
Thanks for your comments everyone. Salvatore you are exactly right, in every country football clubs have academies for kids 10, 11, 12 years old, so they grow up eating, sleeping, and obviously playing soccer, maybe at the expense of their education. I agree that I don’t see that happening here any time soon. But that doesn’t mean the US still can’t be successful, we don’t have “basketball academies” so to speak (while many other Latin American and European countries do) but we still have (arguably) the best national basketball team in the world. Granted we have more of a history with basketball, whereas basketball is newer in other parts of the world. But again, just saying it COULD happen. That said there are a ton of things that need to happen to make US Soccer a bigger force.
Salvatore, I knew you were going to pipe in.
the USA men aren’t going to London…