Us soccer fans, what went wrong?

@Burnley123 US MLS players average salaries are equivalent to England's second tier "Football" League. The NFL (what we call football) viewership is down, but that has nothing to do with Trump, and more with our changing demographics. So, that will drive up MLS attendance, and with it salaries.

The college recruitment system works well for football, because most of our NFL players are home grown. With soccer, we're still in this phase, where we're importing most of our players, so it's a mixed bag, between home-grown college recruitment, and imported non-college players. This will balance out over time, and I think we will mirror the NFL.

It's a bottom up process. I started helping out with the girls team about a decade ago, when the girls were 5. I help out by writing software to collect and analyse data from practices and games. They are 15 now, and all of them plan on going to college. This is where it gets tricky for us, because they may not necessarily want to play professionally, but definitely want to play college and see what happens. In the meanwhile, some of them want to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. So, the college recruitment process, remains key to their athletic development. This is especially true for women, because they make only a fraction of what men make, professionally.

As far as national team vs professional teams, this is a bit new for us. Discounting Basketball, we've never had to face this issue. The Baseball "World Series" (happening now), is not a world series, and the NFL is purely domestic.

My girls' team is going into the playoffs. Game 1 on Monday. I'm predicting we'll be eliminated in round 1. But, I am also forecasting that 10% of the players will end up in medical school, with a scholarship to a division 2 undergrad program, and at least 25% will be writing software when they're done with undergrad school, also with scholarships to division 2 undergrad programs.

@Northwest Thanks for sharing. I think the college system is great at giving athletes an education and should be defended on those merits. My point is that it is an inefficient way of educating elite men's soccer players. In Europe, the best youngsters are playing in professional leagues by the age of twenty. American men's soccer players only get the chance to when they are 22 and even then it might take a couple of years to get first team football. Your best player has come up through the Dortmund acadamisation but had he stayed in America, he might still be playing in college.

median MLS salaries are the same as the English third tier, though your designated player rule gives inflates the top end. It's probably a good thing for your league to attract big names.

Us soccer will continue to grow and this is a blip. More players are being developed through MLS acadamisation though you should keep the college game too.

I wish your team good luck and its good of you to contribute to the community.

@Burnley123 [quote]median MLS salaries are the same as the English third tier[/quote]

Worse than what I thought. The salary cap loophole, was put into place to give the league some wiggle space, because we knew we had to import players, but they have a limit.

It's the same thing with Baseball, where players can go straight from high school into the minors, and can be playing in the majors by the time they're 20. For women soccer, it's a different story. The Seattle Women's pro team, plays its home games at a high school stadium. Players are barely making enough money to survive, so college is a key element.

The Seattle Sounders, for the first time, is almost 50% US players.

@HoraceGreenley a lot of people pick fights over sports 😅 I don't understand either

its international tho.. just saying :)

We r just decades ahead. It's ok. U guys will catch up and then we will invite the new greatest sports of all time.

It's just how it goes.

@anotheruser In England we invent sports that the world plays. In America, you have a world series in a sport that nobody else cares about. There is one team from Toronto but f***ing seriously; World Series?

@Freefun74 I'm English and we have plenty of problems. In a sense its a sign of how far you have come that you are surprised not to qualify. USA has beaten us before and it's our national sport. For a long time, you have been a tough competitive team that will give anyone a game. It seems that your high standards have slipped and I am interested as to why.

@xRedx The T&T thing was a huge shock. I know it is not your main sport but you have enough players and fully 200 times their population.

@Burnley123 That's true but people don't play or even watch football that much here in the states.

@SW-User American adults play it too apparently, just not very well.

@Burnley123 They should stick to what they know. Soccer is globalism any way so boo.

@SW-User Pfff. Trying to political troll me on sports post ain't gonna work. You are mostly on the left anyway.

Anne Coulter said it was a 'socialist' sport. Who am I to argue. 😂

@PrincessVelvet LOL. An England fan would agree. But surely its good to qualify for a world cup. I think the USMNT will get better in the long run. This is just a blip.

@Burnley123 Inconceivable. The United States has some of the best athletes in the word and it shows every Olympics, but you put us in a soccer match against like Cameroon and we'll get killed. It's just not our thing.

@PrincessVelvet Cameroon are crap these days actually. The sport is growing in your country which is why failure to qualify for the World Cup is a surprise.

@thatscottishguy That was embarrassing but at least we qualify for tournaments. Scotland would be proud to lose to Iceland in a knockout game of a major tournament.

Not at all actually. We'd be proud to make it but we wouldn't accept a very poor showing.

@humongous I read that he was doing a crap job though. He pissed people off by criticising the MLS and his results were crap.

@TheOneyouwerewarnedabout I know you are an Aussie. Which state are you from and which team do you support. I'm a Burnley FC fan.

NSW.
Rugby league - Newcastle knights.
Rugby union - the Waratahs
Football - tottingham..

@TheOneyouwerewarnedabout Thanks for that.

I am a big sports fan and I have a lot of opinions so forgive me.

I know Newcastle Knights are a well-supported team and that Andrew Johns was a legend. I know Australian Rugby union is struggling even though you did just get an impressive win over the All Blacks. Expansion to five teams was a huge mistake.

I like Tottenham and I went to see Burnley play there last season cos I live in London and someone at work got me tickets. we played quite well but Spurs were too good. I also saw Harry Kane play for England under 20s before he was famous.

@SW-User I know. I was translating into American for them. 😂