***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

[SolterraCyclone]

A friend sent me this and I thought it lays it out pretty well:

He makes some good points.

The question I’d ask him then, is why is America extremely successful in every other sport with the exact same youth development setup as soccer (including women’s soccer)? All American youth sports operate the same way as soccer.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

He makes some good points.

The question I’d ask him then, is why is America extremely successful in every other sport with the exact same youth development setup as soccer? All American youth sports operate the same way as soccer.

It’s easier to say an external factor, “the youth development program is the main issue”, than it is to admit an intrinsic factor, our culture, is the main thing holding American soccer back.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

Messi is great, but I hate rooting for favorites when I don't have a rooting interest. Spain? France? Argentina? Might as well root for the Yankees.

Give me the Swiss, Morocco, and whoever wins England/Norway.

Hell, maybe even Belgium, although I have some real resentment about the Third Partition of Luxembourg, those Walloonian bastages

lol. This legitimately caused issues while we were tracking some of my family's geneology

 

[AllInForISU]

He makes some good points.

The question I’d ask him then, is why is America extremely successful in every other sport with the exact same youth development setup as soccer (including women’s soccer)? All American youth sports operate the same way as soccer.

The head start we had in the other sports was significant, due to creating most of them. Women’s soccer is the outlier, but the rest of the world is catching up quickly on that now that they actually let their women participate.

 

[FinalFourCy]

He makes some good points.

The question I’d ask him then, is why is America extremely successful in every other sport with the exact same youth development setup as soccer (including women’s soccer)? All American youth sports operate the same way as soccer.

What other sports?
Football? Not played elsewhere
Basketball? Foreign talent is prevalent in NBA, and now even college

 

[AllInForISU]

What other sports?
Football? Not played elsewhere
Basketball? Foreign talent is prevalent in NBA, and now even college

Exactly. Baseball too.

It’s almost like given time, the youth programs of other countries will overtake the US in sports eventually. We are losing ground significantly in all sports

 

[aeroclone]

What other sports?
Football? Not played elsewhere
Basketball? Foreign talent is prevalent in NBA, and now even college

I would flip this and say, is there a sport in the US equally or more popular than soccer where we are less competitive internationally than we are in soccer?

Men's and women's hockey, men's and women's basketball, baseball or softball, all team sports where we are a legit title contender in international competition year in year out.

We also tend to have top tier talent in more individual sports like tennis, swimming, golf, track, gymnastics.

I really don't think there is a sport where the amount of investment and participation pays off less at the highest level than men's soccer.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

He makes some good points.

The question I’d ask him then, is why is America extremely successful in every other sport with the exact same youth development setup as soccer (including women’s soccer)? All American youth sports operate the same way as soccer.

We had a head start in all those other sports. This is also a “relatively” newer trend after the groundwork has been laid.

Football also is still mostly done through the schools without a paywall. Yeah there are camps and extra training but often those as well as basketball AAU have carve outs for scholarships to avoid those payments for top talent that soccer is just starting to do (mostly through the premier league clubs)

Women’s sports are easy as we are one of the only countries that have bee supporting women’s sports in any serious way for decades. Other countries have just started it’s why people have been talking about others catching up to the women’s national team

 

[SolterraCyclone]

What other sports?
Football? Not played elsewhere
Basketball? Foreign talent is prevalent in NBA, and now even college

Excluding football, the only sports invented in America are basketball and volleyball.

Basketball: men won 17 of the 21 golds in the Olympics including the last 4. Women have won 10 of 13. Neither team has not medaled in an Olympics.

Baseball: Has one gold and two runner-ups in the last 3 World Baseball Classics, second-most medals of any country. Tied for second-most medals of any nation in Olympic baseball, only behind Cuba

Golf: Have the best women’s and men’s golfers in the world. And probably the 5 of the 6 best golfers of all time

Hockey: Just swept men’s and women’s at the Olympics. Men’s and women’s hockey have the second-most medals of any nation in the olympics

Women’s Soccer: most medals and golds of any nation in the World Cup history including the last two

Women’s indoor volleyball: most medals of any nation in Olympic history, including medaling in the last 5 and gold in 2021 Tokyo

Men’s volleyball: tied for most medals and tied for most golds of any nation in Olympic history

Softball: Most medals and golds of any nation in Olympic history.

Track and Field: we have 860 Olympic medals in its history. The next closest nation is England with 219.

We have 2,765 total medals in the summer Olympics well over 2x the next nation (Soviet Union at 1,010). And 3x the amount of golds over them. We have the second-most golds and medals ever in the Winter Olympics,126 and 363, only behind Norway at 166 and 447.

We are one of the top 3 nations in most sports. Of the really popular ones, men’s soccer and tennis is where we aren’t. All of these sports have the same youth development structure as our soccer. So what’s different.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

I was kinda curious, so here's a quick breakdown of teams by continents for each round:

Group Stage
Europe - 16
Africa - 10
Asia - 9
North/Central America - 6
South America - 6
Oceania - 1

Knockouts
Europe - 14
Africa - 7
South America - 5
North/Central America - 4
Asia - 1
Oceania - 1

Round of 16
Europe - 7
South America - 4
North/Central America - 3
Africa - 2
Asia - 0
Oceania - 0

Quarter FInals
Europe - 6
South America - 1
Africa - 1
North/Central America - 0
Asia - 0
Oceania - 0

Semi Finals
Europe - TBD (will have at least 2, possibly 4)
South America - TBD
Africa - TBD

 

[cyfanbr]

I'm on the Norway train baby

It’s a boat, not a train, and you better start rowing pal!!!

 

[jmb]

I'm on the Norway train baby

 

[jmb]

He makes some good points.

The question I’d ask him then, is why is America extremely successful in every other sport with the exact same youth development setup as soccer (including women’s soccer)? All American youth sports operate the same way as soccer.

The reason is that futbol is a part of their culture just as football, basketball, and baseball are a part of our culture. The U.S. has no futbol culture. We have very successful systems here in the U.S. for our cultural sports...although nil etc is morphing those. U.S. women have first mover advantage in futbol. Many countries inckuding South America forbade women from playing until relative recent times.

 

[isufbcurt]

Nobody wants to say it, but Jurgen Klinsmann was right (for all of his faults) - our development system is holding us back from being true contenders on the world stage. And nobody - from all of the YMCA programs at the bottom all the way up to USSF at the top (I am pretty sure I spelled the acronym wrong) and everything in between has no motivation to change it because there is so much money to be made by keeping the status quo. It's kind of like Texas athletics - sure, they want to win NCAA championships, and they do compete for them, but so much money can be made from that racket that nobody wants to rock that cradle.

If USA truly wants to compete for the World Cup, it's going to be painful. People are going to have to give up on milking soccer in the US for every dollar they can get out of it and truly start investing in it, with the knowledge that it will probably take decades before there's a ROI - in fact, they'd be investing not for themselves, but for the next generation. But the odds of that happening are pretty much nil because humans by nature are greedy and that would take far too many people being benevolent for something like that to ever work here.

Yup just look at AAU BB, slimeballs see $$$ to be made and that's all they care about. Youth sports has proven to be a money making venture and that isn't going to be reversed.

 

[CychiatricWard]

Exactly. Baseball too.

It’s almost like given time, the youth programs of other countries will overtake the US in sports eventually. We are losing ground significantly in all sports

How are we losing ground significantly in basketball? Our u17 just won gold, again, and it wasn’t even close. Young American talent still absolute dwarfs other countries. Yes, there are some good international guys, but they are much fewer and far between, even with more coming to. The NBA.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

How are we losing ground significantly in basketball? Our u17 just won gold, again, and it wasn’t even close. Young American talent still absolute dwarfs other countries. Yes, there are some good international guys, but they are much fewer and far between, even with more coming to. The NBA.

We might be losing it in the super star race which gives the perception but from an overall standpoint the US is still light years ahead

 

[CascadeClone]

lol. This legitimately caused issues while we were tracking some of my family's geneology

Slightly OT, did you go try to get Lux citizenship? I am wanting to do it, but haven't had time to start.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

Slightly OT, did you go try to get Lux citizenship? I am wanting to do it, but haven't had time to start.

No, but now that you've mentioned it, I will probably do a deep dive into it instead of being productive at work

 

[aeroclone]

Nobody wants to say it, but Jurgen Klinsmann was right (for all of his faults) - our development system is holding us back from being true contenders on the world stage. And nobody - from all of the YMCA programs at the bottom all the way up to USSF at the top (I am pretty sure I spelled the acronym wrong) and everything in between has no motivation to change it because there is so much money to be made by keeping the status quo. It's kind of like Texas athletics - sure, they want to win NCAA championships, and they do compete for them, but so much money can be made from that racket that nobody wants to rock that cradle.

If USA truly wants to compete for the World Cup, it's going to be painful. People are going to have to give up on milking soccer in the US for every dollar they can get out of it and truly start investing in it, with the knowledge that it will probably take decades before there's a ROI - in fact, they'd be investing not for themselves, but for the next generation. But the odds of that happening are pretty much nil because humans by nature are greedy and that would take far too many people being benevolent for something like that to ever work here.

But if this is the case, why is it only impeding our success in soccer? Youth baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, hockey etc. is also just a cash sucking machine. We have structured youth sports across the board to maximize profit. We still compete and win at the highest level internationally in all those sports. Soccer is the lone outlier.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

But if this is the case, why is it only impeding our success in soccer? Youth baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, hockey etc. is also just a cash sucking machine. We have structured youth sports across the board to maximize profit. We still compete and win at the highest level internationally in all those sports. Soccer is the lone outlier.

Yep! Exactly what I’ve been saying. The real crux is what @jmb outlined above. Culturally, soccer is not important to us relative to Europe and SA.

It’s not how our youth development program is structured per se (although I agree across all sports it’s FUBAR). It’s that we don’t really care about the sport whereas other countries do. It’s because the best athletes we have play other sports than soccer.