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No offense was taken. I am just tired of listening to people blame Arena and compare this cup to the 98 cup. Its my opinion that Balboa, wynalda, and lalas obviously forgot about that awful cup.

As far as Myernick and scouting Czech, do you think we lost that game because we did not scout them properly? Lets see, a header by the biggest guy on the pitch after being countered, a quality strike from 30 and a goal as we had pushed a few forward.

At some point, the players have to be responsible. Myernick was not responsible for the poor touches of Beasley, Donovan, Reyna, etc. what about the lack of motivation and effort? Part of that falls on Bruce, but these guys are professionals and it falls mostly on them.

I dont think that its that intimidating playing in front of large crowds. They do play in front of extremely hostile crowds in places like Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, and even sometimes at home. Like I said, it was not a factor in 02 and we were more experienced in this cup. it was overall just a bad result, but I guess one that was not totally unexpected. These are just some of my opinions.

Hammer,
Good find on the article. The comment about the kids seeing the can earn $35 million a year got me wondering, have any Brazilians that worked their way up from nothing, produced a son that has gone on to at least be a professional? It is obviously too early for American soccer players to have really done that but you see it in the other major sports. Does the fame and riches hinder the development of their offspring?

Hammer,
Good find on the article. The comment about the kids seeing they can earn $35 million a year got me wondering, have any Brazilians that worked their way up from nothing, produced a son that has gone on to at least be a professional? It is obviously too early for American soccer players to have really done that but you see it in the other major sports. Does the fame and riches hinder the development of their offspring?

Lowerstate4A - Absolutely right on with the players sharing the blame. I couldn't agree more. I too have laughed at the collective amnesia of Lalas, Wynalda, and Balboa. Good stuff.

When the Brasilian kid, who works very hard at improving his game in the Brasilian system, falls short and doesn't make it to the next level, he heads back to his "humble" existence (poverty).

When the US kid, who works very hard at improving his game through the current US system, comes up short and doesn't make it to the next level, he falls back on his degree and heads to Wall Street.

Who has the right system in place?

A goood comparison is made here in the sports economist article - US & Australia
"Before the World Cup, there was an article in the NY Times by George Vecsey, which had a telltale line from Arena about how the individual players were good enough to move around like chesspieces, and play in various systems. Arena overplayed his hand in this aspect, and the team just looked lost.
Australia, like the U.S., has no soccer history and the sport is third or fourth fiddle behind Australian football, rugby, and cricket. They had an easier (though not simple) group to move out of, but it was their style of play which posed the sharpest contrast to the Americans. The Aussies went after it, while the Yanks were trying to figure out what they should do. Arena's conservative approach was right for the match vs. Italy, but it snuffed out the team's spirit in the other two games."