The State of US Soccer

Sporting Goods

Four big moments for US Soccer in the last couple of weeks. And I'm excited. Probably overly so, similar to how I felt about the 1997 Red Sox. The team was good but not great, but appeared to be in striking distance of the best teams despite sitting squarely one tier below them. But they showed flashes of brilliance, and had a young star who appeared capable of leading them to the promised land, if only they could add another star or two. So as long as Landon Donovan can stay healthy, unlike Nomar, my optimism will remain. Here are the four moments, in chronological order.

-US reaches all time high ranking with FIFA (6th):
OK, so the rankings are actually too scientific, but to give a basis for my optimism, USA is putting up the results to be mentioned in the same article as the best teams in the world. I realize that in actuality, the US is not better than France, England, and Spain, but I honestly believe they are on the next tier with Portugal, Italy, and Turkey (and Mexico, currently ranked 5th). So they look like one of the best 12 teams in the world. Put another way, there are probably only about 12 teams in the world that can say it would be a true disappointment if they did not reach the final 8 in the World Cup. I think the USA is on that list, and rising, with one year until the World Cup.

-USA wins Gold Cup
First the bad news. Columbia took out Mexico, and then lost to Panama, meaning the US had a pretty easy road to the Gold Cup championship. And in their games, they often had to come from behind, and got outplayed by an inferior Panama team (at Giants Stadium) in the finals. But the good news is, the reason they were still able to win these matches is that Kasey Keller is playing like one of the best goalies in the world right now. The team showed resolve in coming from behind when necessary, and throughout the tournament, and particularly at the end, the team played without a lot of its best players. Young players (whom I had never even heard of) played important roles, and old players who are past their prime played key minutes. The team was able to raise the trophy at the end. Good teams win matches under any circumstances, and the USA won.

-EPL squares off with MLS, part 1
The motivation for this post was really my sitting down to watch the English champions Chelsea take on the MLS champions DC United. I expected a shellacking, or at least for Chelsea to just toy with the DC squad. Chelsea is probably one of the best 3 teams in the world, while DC is probably one of the best 3 teams in the US. But from the first minute it was evident that both teams were playing to win, and I can honestly say that DC played evenly with Chelsea through the first 25 minutes. Having played evenly through that time, they were then able to take a 1-0 lead on a well-executed goal. Chelsea scored 4 minutes later on a gorgeous one-timer. At half-time, you could say the score really reflected the way the teams had played. The second half showed the difference between the two, as Chelsea put in basically a second squad, that was nearly as good as their starting squad, and with fresh legs was able to outplay DC United, who are clearly not as deep. Despite a strong surge from DC at the end, Chelsea held on to win.

MLS naysayers could say that Chelsea was in pre-season form, while DC is in mid-season form. But what I saw is that DC United played as well with Chelsea as really any mid-table team in the EPL could expect to do. So if the MLS's 3rd best team is as good as the 12th best team in England, well then I think that is something that I wouldn't have even considered saying 2-3 years ago. This feeling was backed up by seeing the Chicago Fire really hang tough with AC Milan, last year's Champions League runner-up. The Fire really played well enough to win (or at least tie), and were a bit unlucky.

-EPL squares off with MLS, part 2
OK, so Fulham is probably a mid-table quality team like I just "disparaged" by comparing to DC United. But the fact is, that the MLS all-star team, playing with the issue that many of the players have never played together before, and that they are playing for pride only, had no trouble defeating Fulham this weekend, winning 4-1. Fulham may end up being no good this year, and the MLS squad certainly made them look bad. But I think this result, combined with DC hanging with Chelsea, suggests that the MLS level of play is slowly creeping up to world-class status. It is definitely not there yet, but it is on the way. And it is from a world-class league that we can generate world-class players.

As those players continue to emerge, creating a feeder system for a deeper squad, and a better squad, USA should be able to pile up those minor trophies, while beginning to really believe that the big trophy is only a hot goalie and 2 minor upsets away. I can't wait for 2006.