How America Can Become A World Cup Contender

If the US is serious about one day challenging to win the World Cup beyond some type of miracle, and on the women’s side, staying among the top teams, we MUST focus more on creativity, technical skill, ball control etc, NOT speed, strength etc. I am not the only one who recognizes this, and I am very happy so many in the US Soccer community are understanding this. The problems US Soccer has are manyfold; obviously the fact that soccer is not a top sport in the US is a challenge. But that in and of itself is not even the biggest problem. Maybe the bigger problems are a BYPRODUCT of this fact, but the fact is not intrinsically the cause of our mediocre level. 

The US does not have a proper soccer culture. This is because for over 120 years of American sporting history, our top sports focused more on speed, strength, physicality. Now, these traits are not mutually exclusive from great soccer players. In fact, when harnessed, IN TANDEM with a high base of technical skill and soccer IQ, can lead to extremely good players, although this is usually at either end of the pitch; defenders, strikers etc. Generally, the middle of the field is where you need highly technical players. 

But the US sporting culture has focused on speed, strength etc. So when we approach soccer, we approach it through the very basic level in terms of skill, and put more emphasis on runs, formations, making plays etc. Again, these things are helpful in soccer, but more as the TOPPING that you add to the already high level of skill, not the foundation itself. What needs to be developed in the US is a skill/technique level that cannot be taught exclusively through drills (though of course it can be nurtured in practice practicing step overs, body feigns two touch drills, dribbling in tight spaces). It needs to happen ORGANICALLY through street soccer/futsal type culture. 

This is difficult because, in addition to American sports culture being oriented towards physicality, it is also oriented towards your coach mentoring you and helping you drill in/hone skills through practice and repetition. What I have just mentioned cannot be done to create a player as skillful as Luka Modric or Neymar, or Andres Iniesta, never mind Messi. This makes it a bit difficult for American soccer/sports people to grasp. And it does put a certain amount of responsibility on the Americans playing soccer. 

An additional impediment towards creating the technical players the US needs just to be IN THE CONVERSATION of winning the World Cup, is the fact that the US has a pay to play system. The most obvious problem is it by definition excludes many poorer people who cannot afford it. We see how detrimental this is. Sure, there are good upper middle class athletes. But a disproportionate amount of them in all countries, including the US (in the sports that we love and understand) come from the lower classes. And this is the point. The top basketball and American football players often come from lower middle class to even poor backgrounds. This tells me that the US isn’t doomed to having soccer be an upper middle class sport. And it also tells me that if soccer had always been the top sport in the USA like most countries, a huge amount of our top soccer players would have been from the lower classes, as they have historically been in our top sports. 

But beyond the huge amount of talented but not as well of prospective American soccer players slipping through the cracks, the pay to play system created a self reinforcing of the negative aspects of American sports that we start with; the focus on physicality. Because parents are paying good money for their kid to be on these teams, they want to see a return; they want to win. When you are young, honestly at any age before fully professionalizing, physicality helps you win much more than at the top level. When you are 14, never mind 12, 9 or 7, you simply are not going to be as crisp in your passes. You are not physically fully developed. This makes it easier for teams with extremely strong, quick players, to win. You simply wait for a bad pass, latch onto it and bolt through the team, or play long balls for speedy wingers to catch up to. 

This works for a while. Heck, it even works at the u17 and sometimes u20 level. There have been teams that have won the u17/u20 World Cups, whose players go on to not be close to contending to win the senior World Cup. Why? Because they were good finishers, strong and fast, and capitalized on mistakes that just aren’t made at the highest level. Once you get to the top level, no amount of simple speed is going to win you games. You might be able to beat Argentina’s u17 team by having a long ball miscontrolled by their defense, pick up the second ball and then score. You will not be able to repeat the process against Argentina’s senior team. 

The US is competing with nations so entrenched in soccer culture, the sport, the elements of the game. It is in their blood. It’s evident if you ever go to these countries and play pickup. I once went to England, a nation that I think lags behind the top European nations they should be at level with (Spain, France, Germany, Italy etc) in terms of skill. And when I played with local English players, their intrinsic understanding of skill and technique was so much higher than the average pickup in the US. And of course these nations have amazing academies, from legendary clubs, to funnel talent. 

This is to say that the baseline level of skill/technique just to stay competitive with the top nations is so high, that if the US doesn’t make this fundamental change, in 40 years, we will still be liable to get knocked out of World Cups by second and third tier nations. If you are not perpetually churning out world class talent, then you will be in a dogfight to just make the round of 16. Barring random chance, there is a ceiling the US will get to if we do not implement this focus on technique. 

And even if/when we do, we will be starting from an over 100 year disadvantage. Even if we started TODAY we should expect it to take AT LEAST 15-20 years before we MIGHT have a team that could compete with the top 10 teams in the world. After that, winning the World Cup will still be a monumental task. In the 36 years between Argentina’s 1986 and 2022 World Cup wins, Argentina brought a team to every World Cup with a baseline skill level that the US would need AT LEAST 15-20 years to get to if we started a nationwide focus on skill/technique NOW. So the best case scenario of starting NOW means the 2042/2046 World Cup is the EARLIEST we MIGHT START having a top level team (honestly, it could take longer), and THEN we would have to KEEP that level perpetually, AND THEN it could take another 20 years of randomness. 

Now of course, luckily, because the World Cup is a knockout format, not a league format, the US could theoretically win with a team that is GREAT but just below world class quality. But that then is more leaving it up to chance, luck, and random specific actions in these games. Horrendous Russia in 2018, which was lower quality than the US will be in 2026, were penalties away from the semis. So anything could happen when we host in 2026, and we could go on a fairy tale run. But beyond THAT, if we seriously want to contend to win the World Cup, we need to do what I have outlined. 

It is good that so many in the US Soccer community are recognizing this. But we CANNOT allow those who run US Soccer to get away with not addressing it. We need to see that these people are made aware of this need, and pledge that they will WORK TOWARDS implementing these changes. We need to hold them to account and have yearly, monthly, weekly checkins and ask them WHAT THEY ARE DOING to make sure these aforementioned problems are being slowly addressed and fixed at the local, state, regional, and national level. 

I understand that this is a very complicated and difficult thing to IMPLEMENT. I just said that in a way, it cannot be DRILLED IN. Yes, much of this has to come from our players. But what US Soccer CAN do, is end pay to play; I understand that the logistics of the US, being more spread out than Europe and adding costs to travel, can lead to a NEED for money to fund competition. We must study what Europeans and South Americans do, ask them what they would do. We must end conditioning focused stuff, especially for younger players, who will in due time get up to fitness level. We must have them ALWAYS dribbling a soccer ball, encouraging precise passing and creativity over winning. Have more possession based practices. Honestly, look at what La Masia does, or what the academies of ANY top European clubs do, and take their ideas. Ask them for help. 

This CANNOT be something that we just gripe about. America has unlimited potential. We have seen that ANY sport the US cares about we are great in, including sports that aren’t even that big in this country. It would be a travesty to CONTINUE (as we’ve done this for decades) to let our potential go to waste. Let’s stop robbing ourselves of having an AMAZING soccer team. Let’s understand that skill and technique that can’t be drilled into you are the keys to giving us a chance to compete a World Cup. Let’s make it so the greatest country in the world starts to reach our potential in the greatest sport in the world.