think this is the case as featured by the multitudes of talent that we have playing in the top leagues in Europe. The USA was one of the last developed countries on earth that had not really been fully mined of soccer talent and the European clubs have started to do just that. With American youth players more willing to go over to the academies in Europe as teens(or younger) than they were, they've thrived and we've seen some evidence of that.

The USMNT is another issue all together and this was the U-23's not the senior team and our best U-23's were with our senior team playing in a friendly. Lots to unpack there. First off, professional soccer clubs are required by FIFA to release players for duty on their senior national teams. They're not required to do it for U-23 games. So the same players that played against Northern Ireland for the USMNT would probably have not been released by their professional clubs for the U-23 games. I'd also guess that COVID travel restrictions played a part in a lot of this as travel between Europe and the USA is complicated(and the U-23 games were in Mexico). I don't know all the ins and outs but I doubt clubs would be thrilled having to quarantine their players on their return from the USA(or vice versa). So basically...we had a B team at best U-23 team out there playing for our Olympic lives. At the very least, the U-23 team coaches could have talked to the European professional teams and gauged whether they'd release the players to play in these critical matches. Having Gio Reyna, Sergino Dest, Pulisic, Sargent, Musah, and a number of other players would have made that team look more like a World Cup side than the one we saw yesterday and against Mexico.

The second major issue with US Soccer is coaching. Flat out, the USA does not currently have the best soccer coaches in the world. We really don't have a top 20 coach or probably a top 100 coach in the world. USMNT had a bad(or what it perceived to be as bad) experience with a German coach and went back to hiring Americans. We have what looks to be Golden Generation of talent from the 16 to 21 year old range playing in Europe professionally and we're hiring USMNT coaches that come from a professional league that MIGHT be a top 20 professional soccer league in the world. Maybe. In order for that Generation to make the leap in national team play we need to start hiring coaches that have been trained and coached in the best leagues on earth. We also need to not get so offended when the coach says that we really have no hope of winning the World Cup but hitting the QF or Semi finals would be a great result. That's just the plain truth currently. The USSF has its own major structural issues but the USMNT and U-23 teams and below will continue to lag what our professionals are able to accomplish in Europe so long as we're hiring sixth or seventh tier coaches and coaching staff. These kids are used to being coached by the best and to have to come back to the states and take orders from Jason Kreis? C'mon.

Rant over.