Thierry Henry, Clint Dempsey and Charlie Davies discussing perception of American players in Europe
Read that a few years ago. Now, I’ve only been following football since '07 which is around the time time Dempsey made his move to Fulham. He was a thrill to watch and I’d reckon he def helped change some opinions around US players at the time with the likes of Pulisic or McKennie continuing to this day.
But just curious for a discussion, how prevalent are the stereotypes of US players today? Is it simply just banter or are there still managers who just don’t rate US players all that much.
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There’s stereotypes in the media for sure. Hard to say if there’s any active stereotypes or prejudice against US players in the management and coaching world since most people are not in it.
However, you have to think that if you’re good enough then you’ll play. Every player, regardless of nationality, has to fight for their place and the US just don’t produce world class players for the very top level.
I am a USSF coach- and I can firmly say how surprised I was to see the USSF revamp their youth ways - to emulate Europe.
We no longer focus on “do 29 laps and sprint everywhere”… no more “boot it up field and hope”
It’s “how well can you manage the ball under pressure” … “how well can you as a team technically play”…
There’s a huge change. It’s just began recently and hopefully in years to come it will produce talent.
May I ask how you got started as a USSF coach?
Still waiting for a really top US player. I thought we’d have seen one by now.
Here’s a link for those like me that don’t want to give the assholes at Daily Mail any clicks:
Rory Jennings or whatever his name is thinks Pulisic is shit, despite Pulisic pulling chelsea through both legs against real madrid in their UCL winning season…
So id say yea. Or he’s gaslighting.
I wouldn’t say much at all tbh. There’s a US International playing for Crystal Palace Today and most probably don’t even know that he is. Pulisic was considered decent when Chelsea signed him. Tyler Adams had interest in the Summer. Dempsey, McBride etc were always considered to be solid Premier League players. Not to mention the amount of quality GK’s we’ve seen.
Was there ever really much noise about players from the US to begin with though? I’d say it’s been more around owners and managers. The media have had digs at the likes of Lerner, Kroenke, Boehly etc and Bob Bradley had a lot surrounding him. The players? Not so much…
Ready for downvotes?
Yea we are bad, very bad. We don’t play well together, way to many back passes, horrible in front of goal, don’t put teams to the sword that we should, management and coaching is garbage, BUT we will get good at this sport, very good. Then we will dominate.
If there is a stereotype then I’d say it’s US goalkeepers can be very good, but we’ve yet to see anything other than a ‘decent’ outfield premier league level American.
There will be loads of nations where you could make similar comments about though. For example, if I think of Danes then again I can thing of a few good to great goalkeepers, but no amazing outfielders
Just can’t see them producing a top, top player as other sports are too popular there. Always groan when people say “if they just focused on ___ they’d be the best in the world” when it comes to US, China etc because it’s not that simple
All the infrastructure in the world won’t make kids want to play football, there’s more money in other sports in America and importantly they have no idols like the big footballing countries. Smaller places with less infrastructure like Uruguay will produce more top talents purely because football is part of their history and culture, they have legends to look up to and a reputation too - until US somehow gets that in football they will hit a ceiling no matter how much money they invest imo
Charlie Davies is a bellend
I don’t think anyone really cares tbh. There will be conflicting opinions on where the standard of the league lies but no one seriously attaches these stereotypes.
Where I think it could make a difference is in coaching. The MLS does just operate fairly differently and the dynamics seem like a different universe.
bob Bradley and more recently Jesse marsch got huge ridicule
Football has always had a limited fanbase in the US because of competition with baseball, basketball, hockey, and American football. As far as high school sports are concerned, it’s on par with volleyball and tennis and lacrosse and field hockey.
There will always be a perceived gap between European football and American (soccer). We don’t have professional sponsorship of youth clubs or academies dedicated to training players. We don’t have a nationally organized youth program. We are not set up on the top level to be capable of promotion/relegation. American born players don’t necessarily get worldwide exposure because our culture doesn’t promote the game as much as it could.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. Fans of soccer in the US are passionate. Rivalries are intense. But the general opinion of the American game is that we do it wrong. That stigma sometimes makes it difficult for a player with dual citizenship to choose the USMNT.
I’m just glad we don’t have the Pulisic nuthuggers polluting our sub anymore