I flip through ESPN and there it is. The USMNT let a goal by Costa Rica slide by. Will they qualify for the World Cup? Yes, because if they do not they need to fold the program. There is literally no excuse considering how big this country is and how many kids play soccer. Our women's team is the best in the world, and in a patriarchal society like this, you would think the boys would be a bit better. The soccer problem in America is purely a male one, and I think it is connected to how we manage sports in this country.
The team seems unthinking
The team seems as though it is not thinking because it has people on it that make mental mistakes. The women's team hardly does that, and I have to wonder if it is not a perception issue between how men view sports and how women view sports. Women will take an analytical and thorough approach, and that is how women's basketball looks. It is the reason why softball looks different from baseball. We forget this, and men perceive soccer as simple when it is not simple at all. Even if you play the game, you consume major professional sports which appear to be more difficult to prepare for. It is easy to subconsciously think soccer is a dawdle by comparison.
The USMNT needs to be faster
I find that there is a lack of speed on the screen when the USMNT is playing. You can see if a team is fast or not, and I feel as though they are not as fast as their international counterparts. Someone who is watching soccer and thinks it moves slowly is wrong. The field is huge, and you have to dart around a lot of the time if you are going to be effective at all.
You have to work twice as hard to stay in position, and I just do not see the team moving fast enough for my liking.
The team is in turmoil
They fired Jurgen Klinsmann because they were not happy with their results, and he was not able to turn his German attention to detail into success. We simply do not have our best athletes playing the sport because they are playing basketball and baseball for the guaranteed contracts or football for the spectacle of it all.
Imagine if LeBron James played soccer. Whoa boy, that would be unreal. Imagine Kevin Durant playing soccer. Heaven help us all. That would be amazing, but it is not the case, and that is why the best player on the team looks decidedly human.
There are many reasons why the USMNT seems a bit uneasy, and they are going to remain that way until they get faster, get more organized, and get more athletic.