USA's young players 3 - Colombia's young players 0

kikiortiz11 says on Mar 11, 2005, 15:19:

USA Soccer Of COurse US will get better in the future! why not? YOU guys have all the money in the world to become good in whatever you want! THis is the main reason I will never have the respect for the US soccer mens national team. On the other hand for countries like Colombia, it comes from the heart more than anything... I experienced playing in Colombia, with the Millonarios, to be exact and for the players, playing was what kept their life going.. They depended on their soccer, bc if didnt play well they would have no where to go... Now Colombia has many other players(also young) who were not present at the game against the US. This is really US's first victory against Colombia that we can call legitimate. Because the one in 1994 does not count. i am sorry, that was just bad luck on our part....

Kiki Ortiz-Matallana

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Antonio_4 says on Mar 11, 2005, 17:53:

I cant agree here with you for 100% World Cup Hero. And why?... well you answered that by yourself: "USA does not have to try really hard to do well in soccer...give it a little more time."
As a team you become better when you play stronger sides than you more often too. In general the football in Colombia has that more.

And about the last worldcup. You guys played good, but you passed the group stages because the favourites played out of form. We (Portuguese) played one of our worst matches ever on that worldcup edition. And the reason we did is because we praised ourselves champions even before the worldcup started. Also Poland, qualitative they had a better squad than Korea and USA, but tactically they had no team.
For the future. I do give the team USA credit. More and more potential talents are rising. And i believe Beasley will become a nice one too. But still honestly i think Colombia has a better chance than USA, and will always have too. Unless Costa Rica, Canada, Jamaica really become good.

More reasons:
1 - Colombian league is much stronger than MLS,
For example at the moment you see teams like America, Dep. Independiente Medellin, Once Caldas, Junior playing in the Copa Libertadores. Which is one of the biggest competitions in the world. The Champions League of South-America. (Or the Champions League is the Copa Libertadores of Europe hehe)
The Colombian teams play stronger sides, which makes them better too. MLS teams play limited matches against stronger sides.

2 - More Colombian national team players play in better leagues and stronger teams.
Juan Pablo Angel (Villa), Ivan Cordoba (Inter), Perea (Atl. Madrid), Yepes (PSG) and lots of others are starters for their team. Few others playing in Mexican and Argentinian league.
While USA has: Beasley (PSV, best American player at this moment in my opinion), Donovan (Leverkusen, but often not a starter), Gibbs (Feyenoord), Bocanegra & McBride (Fulham), Keller (Spurs, benched, not sure if hes still playing there though)

3 - History (always counts for a little bit)
Colombia has ofcourse: ..."El Pibe" & Asprilla
USA has: Wynalda? Ramos? Lalas? Mia Hamm maybe? hehe. (she would deserve it)
Anyway I cant really pick one.

4 - Future
"Rodagol" vs Adu, hard to tell, both are quality talenst, but i would put my money on Rodagol.
One thing he has in advantage is that he has to prove himself yet, while Adu is already been named as a star which is a risky thing to do with young players. At that age you have to keep both feet on the ground and give everything you got.

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gregshav says on Mar 11, 2005, 18:35:

Bad luck and playing out of form is part of the game. The teams who don't do it are generally the stronger teams. When is the last time Brazil had bad luck, or played out of form in a big game.

It's not bad luck or playing out of form, it's called CHOKING under the pressure of an important game.

And believe me Germany spends way more money on their soccer team than the US, most US citizens could care less about the sport. Does that mean you don't respect the Germans?

And the victory over Colombia in 1994 counts, because it was in the World Cup, if World Cup contests don't count, then nothing counts.

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World Cup Hero says on Mar 12, 2005, 02:38:

$$$...what does that have to do with it? Who has more money the USA or Brazil? What in the heck does money have to do with it? Either your players are good and can play as a team or they cannot...Saudi Arabia loves soccer, they have a lot of $$$ but they suck. Brazil is great, money or no money. The MLS is getting better...it is a young league (11 years old). The team that just beat Colombia 3-0 was made up of only MLS players so if the league is so bad they sure beat the heck out of Colombia's league players. Give MLS so time. SEE www.yanks-abroad.com and you can see player database on the left. We have lots of players playing in Europe...the world bashes US Soccer and gives the $$ excuse because they really know as we have more players playing in the best leagues and developing. Then we will improve on the world stage. People outside the USA cannot imagine that when the World Cup is on and the USA is in the quarter finals against Germany or beating the crap out of Portugal in the 1st round nobody in the country (USA) really cares. This too will take time, for the American public to get more involved. If the USA wants to be good at something, it will usually happen, because of work ethic. Check out www.yanks-abroad.com

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