What SPORTS are you following?

How are the Golden Knights undefeated? That's crazy.

Luckily, the Blues are 4-0.

I grew up in an age when we basically didn't have a USMNT. So I'm excited for the WC regardless of our poor performance. At least I don't have to listen to hours of "will we get out of the group?" in pre-game. It can be about England instead.

I don't think pay-to-play is helping anyone (aside from shitbag "coaches" sucking money from parents), but I don't think it's the sole problem on the table. If the U17 squad is packed with talent, they made it through somehow. On the adult side, fucking Bradley is still starting. Worse yet, in a role where his old lazy ass is the only thing in front of the defenders. Brilliant ideas there.

When Bruce Arena V2.0 is the best choice of manager, the team is going nowhere. It didn't work before, but it's gotta work now! There's talent in the squad, but seniority is not the same as talent, and the US team needs to do some serious turnover.

True, the women's game is thriving, at least until our yuuuugely popular and high-ratings government guts Title IX. Then the pipeline will dry up just like the men's team.

Well so much for Cleveland's pennant defense. We'll hopefully choke deeper into the postseason next year.

Looks like Ohio State football for me. NBA is coming up soon too, we'll see how the Cavs do with the 2010 All-Stars.

@san - Old Geezer RobertB remembers John Cooper coaching the Buckeyes, who turned in a lot of 10-1 seasons, but couldn't Beat Michigan. By the time they fired him the townsfolk wanted to hang him from a lamppost.

As for USMNT failing to qualify, I bet a lot of folks besides soccer fans are pissed. Whoever is broadcasting the World Cup is taking it in the shorts, because I'd bet that the audience will now be half of what it would be if the US was playing.

RobertB wrote: @san - Old Geezer RobertB remembers John Cooper coaching the Buckeyes, who turned in a lot of 10-1 seasons, but couldn't Beat Michigan. By the time they fired him the townsfolk wanted to hang him from a lamppost.

Those were my high school years. Jim Tressel arrived during my freshman year of college, and my four-year roommate was a huge Michigan fan. That 2001 game where Ohio State went into Ann Arbor and beat a much stronger Michigan team is still just about my favorite win in that rivalry.

Fox Sports has the World Cup rights, and yeah I'm sure they are pretty upset about it. The failure to qualify is going to cost lots of people money in terms of sales, viewership, sponsorships, etc. Fox, Nike, US Soccer, MLS, et al are going to be smarting from this. I think the worst thing that will come from this will be from the average sportsman. US soccer fans were coming out of the woodwork for the 2014 World Cup, it was crazy. And now we have to wait another 4 years before we have another chance at playing in the tournament. Will those fans revert from "I believe we will win" back to "we suck at soccer, who care it's a dumb sport"?

I think there needs to be a lot of conversations among several groups about what changes need to be made for US soccer to recover and thrive. Pay-to-play is a problem, but there's also about how talent is identified and coached. How many capable youth soccer coaches do we have in this country? And then as the kids get older, what kind of meaningful competition is there for them to play in? It was only a few years ago that MLS made it a requirement for teams to have B-teams, which I think play in the USL. And then there's the whole mess of the league structure in the US, there's ULS, NASL, MLS, there's no promotion/relegation, so what are these minor league teams really playing for? They're not making any money and if their owners are they're pocketing pennies.

I'm not saying pro/rel and ending pay-to-play are the answers, but there are lots of conversations that need to take place and the US Soccer federation really need people who know what they are doing to get the right structures in place. And partners, they can't do it alone.

As much fun as pro/rel is, I don't think we'll _ever_ see it in the US. No owner or investor group is going to allow a situation where their team drops down. Particularly, since they bought/invested when this wasn't the situation.

Maybe I'm wrong. Again, I love it as a fan, so would love to see it...in all sports. Makes every game important.

metalface13 wrote: I think there needs to be a lot of conversations among several groups about what changes need to be made for US soccer to recover and thrive. Pay-to-play is a problem, but there's also about how talent is identified and coached. How many capable youth soccer coaches do we have in this country? And then as the kids get older, what kind of meaningful competition is there for them to play in? It was only a few years ago that MLS made it a requirement for teams to have B-teams, which I think play in the USL. And then there's the whole mess of the league structure in the US, there's ULS, NASL, MLS, there's no promotion/relegation, so what are these minor league teams really playing for? They're not making any money and if their owners are they're pocketing pennies.

That's the biggest thing right there. The development pipeline is shit. I've coached youth soccer, and I was pretty bad at it. However, I was literally told "if nobody steps up to coach this team, the kids can't play". Boys soccer fucking disappears at U12, because the vast majority of kids go chase a sport where they have a pipeline. Girls are okay, because high school leads to college recruitment, since Title IX means scholarships are available for players there. But in the boys youth game, it's like watching the Colorado river disappear into the sand as the ages go up.

Pro/rel is a great joy to me, but it's never going to happen here, we have no culture for it. That's not a disaster, though. The lower league teams exist to provide playing time and development opportunities for younger talent, and to spread the game around to smaller markets. It's exactly the same for most other American sports. Baseball has farm teams and a whole raft of minor leagues, NHL has at least two lower leagues, even the NBA has the D-League. NFL is alone in delegating development purely to colleges, but fuck the NFL for a variety of reasons. My point is, even if the teams don't move between leagues, the players do, and the team affiliations see to that. I know not to get too attached to my local ECHL hockey players, because if they're any good they get shipped off to Texas to play a league up quite quickly.

It manages to keep the games tight at all league levels, and gives more opportunity for players and fans. The deeper the MLS/USL/NASL whatever system goes, the better for the game IMO, even without pro/rel.

The broken pipeline is a good point.

I work at one of the largest public universities in the country (University of Texas) and we have a women's soccer squad...but no men's.

I started watching Formula 1 and Formula E this year. I enjoy the racing and they have F1 in Baltimore now so there's a local race.

Formula E is tougher for me to catch, because I've excluded the sports channels from my cable package to save $28 per month. Formula 1 is running on one of the standard cable channels so I got a shot at all the races.

Mr. White wrote: The broken pipeline is a good point.

I work at one of the largest public universities in the country (University of Texas) and we have a women's soccer squad...but no men's.

That's actually not a problem. The college route for developing soccer players is an awful one. If you're playing your first professional matches at the age of 22-23, you're already years behind where you should be. European/South American/African players are playing pro matches from the time they're 16 years old. The arbitrary restrictions on practice laid down by the NCAA in the name of "amateurism" does nothing to further the development of young players. Becoming a pro via the NCAA route is probably the worst one you can take. But, of course, since there haven't been any real academies until recently (the one for the Dallas MLS team has been a standout in terms of recent development), the college route has been the only one open to a lot of players (like Bobby Wood.)

NotSure's point about the lack of coaching development is also extremely important. You can't develop players if there aren't enough trained people to teach and coach them. Again, the system is broken. It needs changing from top (Gulati) to bottom (youth clubs) if the US is ever going to seriously compete at the international level.

I wouldn't think a player would start the sport at the college level, but there are no male scolarships at UT for men's soccer. This goes to Not Sure's point of athletes switching or sticking with sports that provide the most opportunities.

Yeah, I wouldn't argue that college is the best development pipeline for soccer. But it's the way most US sports work (baseball is the notable exception). I have tons of problems with NCAA bullshit, but it serves as a landing point between traveling U19 and the USWNT now, but not so much for the men.

I'd love to see the MLS teams step up with academies, but the non-sports fan in me also worries about the effect of that given the differences in US school culture vs other countries. If you go to an academy and don't even earn a GED, how's that going to work out for the 80% washout rate? (guessing, probably higher)

Like I said above, deepening the leagues and spreading them around the country seems like the best thing to me. Portland's T2 and Swope Park Rangers played an exhibition at the high school across the street from my house, and packed the place. I think Boise is on the list for a USL team in a few years, and it can't come soon enough. So that's progress, but the 12-19 mens game is still a massive black hole. I don't have a great answer to that, but I don't feel alone in not knowing.

I have found myself watching the Cubs-Nationals game. Thanks to whomever recommend Channel Pear on the Roku many moons ago. Shellhead, I think.

I am not that much into baseball, especially since Vin Scully (the voice of my childhood, second only to Chick Hearn) retired, but damn I love the idea of baseball. One of my game nerd buddies is a huge Cubs fan; I got to watch them win the series last year with him and that was a great friendship bonding experience. He is occupied tonight, so I feel I have to hold it down for him. I am torn, because if they win then they play the Dodgers. My dad died over the summer and he was a hardcore Dodgers fan from the Brooklyn days. So I have fierce and really unexpected attachment to them going all the way this season.

Edit: I should start a twitter feed or something with nothing but out-of-context quotes from sports analysts. They sound so, so dumb. “Be that as it may, Jim, but at the end of the day he needs to throw strikes.”

Leagues start at the curling club next week. Curling Night in America started on NBCSN this week. It's a great time of year!