My primary amusement in the whole disaster is that the Soccerheads around here always think that just around the corner will be our rise to preeminence th eglobal hierarchy. Fat chance. It pains them in the knowledge that Soccerball runs in about 8th place in sports popularity, just ahead of tennis.
Now there's plenty of athletes to go around so there is a slim chance with some sort of direction and purpose. but there's not. US Soccerball is composed of separate fiefdoms all engaged in petty turf battles. Now we were onto something in '02. that squad utilized speed and athleticism, an "American" trait in sports that can translate to soccerball. Think of wide receivers in football. that was post Claudio Reyna, who needed the game to be at a snail's pace to keep up. If they would have stayed on that path there was a chance.
but two things have occured since. 1) Everyone else has gotten bigger, faster, stronger and 2) thepowers that be decided that they pined for a more technical style of play and player just like the EUROPEANS!!!. We ain't got any, except those foreign born and raised players. So they hired Klinsmann who brought in a technical appproach, but also with no tactical sense in terms of what the players were actually capable of. He brought in a bunch of German army brats, thus creating a permanent divide in the squad. We should have NOT qualified for Brazil, but did and then got lucky in that tournament. Alas, it ws a false dawn and Arena was called in to pick up the pieces with a hopeles squad that he couldn't coach because they didn't buy in.
Now it's a shambles and truly back to square one. Serves them right.