Our talent pool is past the point of being happy about a draw at Honduras or El Salvador. And we should be beyond the point of having to hold on by the skin of our teeth against Iran. Iran are a well organized team with SOME talent, but I didn't see anyone out there with game-changing quality. And we played scared against them instead of going for the jugular
I know non-positive comments are often not well received so I say this with hesitation, but for me, as a total noob, but someone that could be brought into the fold, the words above are a big deal.
It's surprising, and a bit sad honestly, to put this much effort into soccer and we're at a point where we're thrilled to tie a country with 3 million people. Or to have to eke out a win against Iran. Is that American delusion or stupidity? Maybe. But my honest opinion is it seems frustrating we're still at the point of being happy with a draw at Honduras.
I want to add something else here that isn't really talked about by most of us because it's known, but it's definitely not something that is likely familiar to fans who don't watch regularly.
When we watch these international tournaments, these are teams that don't regularly play together. With the World Cup, for example, qualification happens over the course of 2-3 years for many countries, and a year plus for even the top countries. During that time, lineups can change substantially due to injuries, how well a player is playing, who is playing which position, etc. So, that's the first part. Specifically, for the US, we had a lot of injuries to deal with and we regularly were without some of our top players at different times. In fact, it's amazing that they've all gotten healthy at the right time and are taking the field for us. Except for maybe one guy (Miles Robinson), we have our top, preferred lineup. And this is the first time they've ALL played together. Which brings me to my second point, which goes along with this.
These players all play for different clubs across the world. The biggest leagues are in Europe (England, Spain, France, Italy, and Germany are the big 5). Most top players, even for countries like Brazil and Argentina, play in those leagues. For 10 months of the year, these guys play with their club team. In between those leagues/seasons, they break away for a week+ to come together and practice for their country and play qualifying games or friendlies (matches without tournament implications but practice to play together against other countries). This is the ONLY time the coach gets the players together, can work on strategy, and then they go back to their regular clubs. It is REALLY hard to get strategy/tactics and learn to play together over such a short time. It's even harder when guys are rotating in and out due to injuries.
So, the reality is that the quality of soccer you are watching in a tournament like this is going to be lower than what the top clubs in the world play. Reason is, those clubs practice week in and week out and play week in and week out with their same players AND with a total quality that is overall better than what one country can put together because it's not arbitrarily limited to nationality. A top club team like Real Madrid, will have players from Spain but will also have players from Germany or Italy or England or Brazil.....and they can fill in whatever void you need. For the World Cup, you have to fill 11 positions. And your country may not have a quality player at, for example, LB and you can't really do much about that. Or, if your starting LB gets hurt, there may be a huge dropoff to that next guy.
These World Cup competitions are basically like an All-Star game where players from various teams come together for short periods of time, work on strategy and playing together the best they can, and then have to go out and play. Except it's not an All-Star game because it's not necessarily the best of the best since it's limited to nationality. And it only takes a couple weak links to sabotage an entire team no matter how good the rest of the players are.
On top of that, some countries have an inherent advantage. A country like Germany has a lot of their players playing together on the same team and/or in the same league. There's SOME familiarity that carries over with that. Italy, for example, is one of those. So, while we have players that are all playing in Europe starting, it's still scattered across different teams and leagues. One advantage we have is that 2 of our defensive players play together every week for a club team (Fulham). It absolutely helps.
So, you have to understand, when you've got a bunch of young players playing for a country that is just starting to develop talent, it's an incredible challenge for a coach that has limited time with them to pick the right guys to work together AND develop a system that fits those needs AND do so with turnover due to form/injuries AND change it up from game to game with only a few days in between during the highest pressure situation there is. On top of that, the best managers/coaches are employed by clubs. They don't also do international duties. So, most of these coaches are not going to be the best of the best.
That's a long read but hopefully gives an understanding of what's going on behind the scenes. Before I watched soccer regularly and followed club teams, I always thought these countries played together a lot and didn't understand how much things change and how little time they actually get together. That they are able to put the kind of product on the field given those limitations is pretty amazing. It's like an All-Star game with lesser quality and significantly higher stakes.
