This obviously isn’t the first, nor will it be the last, rant as to what’s wrong with American soccer, but it’s mine and it’s right now.  And I’m at a point where I don’t care about changing anyone’s minds or hearts.    I need to vent and don’t really care about detracting opinions. 

If you don’t want to read such a rant for five minutes, I don’t blame you, but you’ve been warned.  Thanks either way.

Well, so much for Project 2010.

Our United States soccer program can be likened to having sex with the ex-wife.  Sure, the sex is hot at first, but if the problems that caused the breakup in the first place weren’t fixed, the relationship will get worse.  We are expected to support a team “just because it’s OUR team” and be talked down to for daring to suggest anything is wrong.    Enough!  This was not a good soccer team that crashed against Ghana.  Just a lucky one who eventually got the result they deserved.  Maybe we should have made it a “revenge match.” 

Americans have this incredible stubbornness to tradition, especially when traditions don’t make sense.  France and Italy have bombed out of the World Cup, and at least their FA’s admit massive changes have to be made. 

You can bet promises of changes will be made from the loser of Germany vs. England.  Both of them won't be happy with losing in the round of 16.  All of them have won the World Cup and when things go wrong, they at least try to make serious changes.

So why is it that when America fails, there's no talk of serious fundamental change from the United States Soccer Federation, thinking a coaching change is all we need?

America was lucky to get out of our group (thanks Landon), a group that we were supposed to easily get by.  Coach Bob Bradley’s insane loyalty to players cost us what was the easiest path to the semifinals America will ever have.  Right now, it’s going to be tough to hope for anything past the round of 16 in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.  If you think South American countries are doing well now, just wait until 2014.  Unlike Africa, we are despised in South American countries and will be in a very hostile environment. 

The truth is we are only marginally better since the 2006 World Cup.  Yes, American soccer has grown.  But if you put in $1,000 for a savings bond, and someone else puts in $1,000,000 in a savings bond at a higher rate, who is going to get more?  The major soccer superpowers are growing more because they have better foundations.

While everyone is focusing on getting rid of Bob Bradley, we are missing a much bigger picture.  We could have had Jürgen Klinsmann as our manager four years ago.   From what everyone generally believes, he would have taken the job had he been given the power to do what he needed to do to improve American soccer, and the United States Soccer Federation (and President Sunil Gulati) wouldn’t give it to him. 

We can call for Gulati’s ouster, and I will, but conveniently, the USSF rules allow him to be reelected five months before the World Cup, not five months after, so he gets to stay in, knowing there is no real mechanism to get rid of him.  What country would allow their soccer leader to have a conflict of interest, working for a team in their top league?  That would be the United States.  That is how backwards our thinking in America is.

The arrogance of our soccer program is even better illustrated with Don Garber, Commissioner of “Major League Soccer,” itself a laughable name given it’s “major” in name only.  After not being seen until our fortunate win against Algeria, Garber was publicly stating that there will be no instant replay since FIFA doesn't want it, and then going on espn touting MLS.  By the way, how did MLS players do on our team?  Not really that well, except for Donovan who frankly is too good for MLS.  When you run a league with players on McDonalds wages, except for overpaid, oft-injured “Euro-divas,” this is what you get.     You can make an argument that any dependence on Major League Soccer in its current form is a liability to our national team.

And I don’t want to hear “MLS is still new.”  Bull.  Ultimate Fighting Championship was left for dead ten years ago.  Now it makes as much revenue as MLS all by itself and surely makes a profit.  Sports in this country can take off quickly with good management and infrastructure.  How many decades has soccer been on the cusp of being a major sport?  I played high school soccer in 1987 when it was brand new to our school.  The attendance for high school soccer today isn't much better.  We still get the players football coaches don't want because we insist on playing in the fall.

The point is many soccer fans know that except for a small number of really good players, the team is not really that good, and know that until there is a change of attitude that hey, maybe we need to at least admit we need to change like France and Italy, 2014 will actually be worse for us.

But we won’t change.  We’re so smug we think we’ll win the World Cup bid, just like we were convinced we would win the Olympics for Chicago.  While we’re the favorites for 2022 (Europe’s getting the 2018 bid), Australia at least claims they will develop a second tier and have promotion and relegation.  They never hosted, had a terror-free Olympics, and their youth program itself is nothing to sneeze at.   Everything FIFA is looking for when it comes to reaching out to new or young markets.  Meanwhile, we apparently didn't offer any proposed changes to our structure in our bid.

Just ask yourself:  If FIFA thought before giving us the 1994 World Cup that we would develop a league that has forced mediocrity and no credible second tier after 16 years, would they have given us the World Cup?  So why should they pick us against Australia?  Maybe if we offered major changes before the World Cup bids are announced this December we will win it without any doubt.

And before anyone wants to retort “promotion and relegation will never happen,” spare us.  The bigger point is there’s no second tier that’s credible in American soccer.  Please enlighten us as to how this smug organization fixes our second tier problem if we can’t do pro/rel.  The second tier is undeniably a disaster and a major problem with our player development.  MLS should be at least developing a second tier, one minor league team per MLS team, and nobody thinks they are looking into that.  And no, a reserve squad doesn’t count.  FIFA is already trying to reduce the number of teams in the top leagues in the world.  How are we going to get away with expanding past twenty teams?

So what to do?  Many of the suggestions here have probably been made before by others. Here's a few of mine.

Before the objection is made to any idea, let me give my retort: 

Do we want to win the World Cup or not?

1.  Get rid of Gulati.  He should do the honorable thing and resign.  The USSF should only have a placeholder President until a new election is done.  Let it be a truly public campaign, let’s see what people with actual soccer coaching or sports management backgrounds suggest we do to change.  Professors of economics won't cut it anymore.  Change the rules to have elections after the World Cup, not before. 

Do we want to win the World Cup or not?

2.  Put instant replay in MLS.  No, instant replay itself isn’t going to revolutionize soccer in America, I haven’t lost my marbles.  But the IDEA that we tell FIFA to “shove it” and do what the serious soccer fans want for a change just might start that revolution. 

Do we want to win the World Cup or not?

3.  Futsal programs everywhere.   This should be priority 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for any new USSF boss.  We are too soft in this country.  We spend $millions of taxpayer dollars on perfectly manicured soccer pitches for third graders, but nobody wants to invest a dime for futsal programs in inner city recreation centers.   Meanwhile, South American kids play on streets and futsal courts. 

We need to find way to get futsal programs better funded and working together for once.  Have MLS teams set up promotion and relegation futsal leagues, with the winning team in each top flight a trip to the MLS Final for a “Champions League” style tournament.  A one-week tournament of these teams from different MLS cities would be great publicity for the MLS Final.

Every recreation center in America needs to have a futsal program if physically possible.  We need to get this game to young kids, especially African-American kids who can't afford the overpriced American soccer programs.  As it has been said before:  In the rest of the world, soccer is the poor kids' game, in America, it's the rich kids' game.  Until that mentality is broken we will never get the best talent from all parts of our country.

On top of this, stop worrying about perfectly manicured soccer fields in youth play.  Accept the realities of artificial turf up through high school.  Just focus on better technologies for turf.  The cooler field technologies from companies like Mondo and Tiger Turf are promising.  GeoTurfUSA uses an infill system of crushed coconut shells and cork for a much more stable, cooler field.  It sounds crazy but it works.  The technology will get better, so we should be embracing it.

Do we want to win the World Cup or not?

4.  Move all college and high school soccer to the spring.   Find a way to do this, it's even more critical for high schools than colleges.  We need to stop settling for the best athletes that didn’t play on the football team.  I bet there are a ton of good athletes who would gladly play football in the fall and soccer in the spring.  I bet a few of them would have been better defenders than Ricardo Clark.

Do we want to win the World Cup or not?

5.  High school soccer programs need revamping.   We have totally the wrong mentality for American soccer development.  First we depend on having kids in over-priced academies, and then inexplicably put our kids in high school programs that draw flies for attendance.  In high school football, the high school coach runs the entire program in his district basically, all the way down to pee-wee levels.  That networking is partially why football draws much better. 

Come on, soccer has been in high schools for decades now, there are no excuses for low attendance.  Having larger crowds does make a difference in recruiting kids to play.  Start networking better.  In the fall offseason, those kids who are not playing football in high school or middle school should be playing in futsal leagues.

Do we want to win the World Cup or not?

6.  Fix the second tier.   This is critical not only for player development, but in selling soccer in the United States.  In our country we accept that some cities get minor league teams.   (Why are we even considering a second New York team?  They can’t sell out Red Bull Arena.)   Having no teams in the southeast is unacceptable even with the failures in Tampa and Miami.  And sorry, not everyone in the southeast will root for an Atlanta team, they want their own team to root for.  Currently, the USSF has a patchwork solution to our problems that nobody thinks will be a permanent solution.  Again, FIFA has limits to how many teams a top-flight can have.  So there isn’t much more room to expand MLS anyway.

What MLS should do is start marketing the idea of minor league teams (one per MLS team) in the biggest markets where MLS is not currently playing.  For cities that actually need a stadium, use a template design for a modest venue of say 12,000 seats, but in open enough spaces to where it can be expanded in the future.  Keep the costs down.  Just get the foot in the door.

Now, twenty years after this there will be two developed flights of soccer teams.  Then finally we can have promotion and relegation.  And current MLS owners who wouldn't like the idea will have sold off their teams by then anyway.  The key is to announce a specific date for when there will be the switch.  It can be 2030 for all I care, just say it will happen for sure and watch how interested cities become all of a sudden.  All of a sudden there will be a television deal for the second tier. 

Do we want to win the World Cup or not?

7.  Sell league naming rights for MLS, use money for bonuses for team wins.   You don’t even have to change the collective bargaining agreement much.    Americans who are not soccer fans will understand like in NASCAR and golf, if someone wins, they get paid more.  No bonuses for ties.  Wins.  Any leftover money carries to MLS Final.  You will suddenly see more motivated play during the otherwise "dog days" of MLS because every game will literally matter to the players.

Do we want to win the World Cup or not?

8.  In fact, change the name of Major League Soccer.   Who are we kidding?  It’s not a “major” league.  Call it “North American Premier League” or something.  And if not, at least get the words “Major League Soccer” OFF the logo.  It’s so minor league….

Do we want to win the World Cup or not?

You will note not one of my suggestions involve hiring a specific person for head coach.  It won’t matter who the coach unless we have a complete change of atmosphere in American soccer leadership.  Right now, I don’t think even “The Special One” José Mourinho could improve American soccer.

I was listening late one night to Bob Valvano on espn radio (yeah, it was really late night), around the time when we thought that college football was about to implode.  He made the point that it was never an issue of how to do a college football playoff, but the willingness to do it.  Just like this essay, there are countless “how to fix American soccer” pieces out there.  All we can do is make suggestions.  If the powers that be won’t admit, like France and Italy have, that we have serious problems, nothing is going to change.

If we’re not determined to win the World Cup no matter what it takes, why exactly should our kids be playing soccer?

It's not one thing, but many things we need to do to change.  None will happen until, again, we respond to the question, "Do we want to win the World Cup or not?"

Read more MLS news on BleacherReport.com

Source: Click Here