Dan – Your ignorance is fascinating to me. To use the Copa America as a barometer of U.S. success shows just how much you researched this article.

Inherently in having a sports franchise, or on an even higher scale, a full league, is gaining more recognition through refinement, expansion, better settings (new stadiums), and quality play. That doesn’t happen overnight, or the MLS would have been great in year 1. We all know it was far from such. In the mid-90s when the MLS started, every team with maybe the exception of DC United would have lost to CSD Municipal 8-0, if not worse. The quality was much lower, and the talent that was there was short-fused and whiny (Eric Wynalda) or generally aloof because it was a hobby more than a job, kind of like the WNBA when its players make bigger bucks overseas.

Franchises have to build respect, credibility, and quality, and that takes the most important aspect: Money. Look at the MLS earnings reports and the player salaries. Some of the nobodies are probably still working Olympians’ Home Depot jobs in the off-season. Even the biggest nobody on Derby County or a Championship side isn’t worrying about that. MLS salaries are more akin to Minor League baseball than the EPL.

How that changes is with credibility, marketing, and recognition. Teams are doing alright, they’re getting notability for working with governments to open sparkling new stadiums, and spreading the game through community outreach. Similarly, it’s gaining recognition in Europe and the rest of the world, where maybe some young guys from South America hone their skills one final time trying to get into the European leagues, and European leagues are even interested in our players. Two teams even have direct collaboration agreements with major European stalwarts (Colorado Arsenal; Real Salt Lake Real Madrid). The league even has such a partnership with the Bundesliga.

Just like a draft, the MLS started with the “remaining” players that no one else wanted as well as US Talent from the World Cup team that couldn’t get overseas, and make it stick. No expansion leagues or teams ever go .500 the first few seasons. We’re not contracting the Devil Rays though. The MLS has developed substantially since it’s post-World Cup product, and that’s exactly what you have to hope for.

If you go to an Italian restaraunt, would you accept the “we’ve only been around a short time” reasoning or would you care more about its food and service as a whole?

BTW, Houston’s loss to Osaka was bad but the worst thing about it was that the J-League is itself a second tier level at best. Subsequent to that loss, Houston went to the glamorous Guatemala City and managed only a scoreless tie against CSD Municipal, which is arguably not even a 4th tier team. DC United likewise got a tie at Jamaica against Harbour View.

Harbour View’s claim to fame (according to Wikipedia)is that they were the first Jamaican club with a website.

As to being out of season,m maybe someone can ask Dick Advocaat how he did it with Zenit.

DL.

One advantage for them is pitch. Look at Arsene complaining about the turf at the JJB. Harrisburg and teams like that have such advantages, playing on high school and middle school grounds that aren’t anywhere near in the shape that an RFK stadium or artificial pitch might be. The real gap is the amateurs to the USL-2 and development league, because you regularly see 1 or 2 Open Cup first round ties going 10-0. If you can’t relegate/promote (even if it was just 1 team, which I think is economically feasible), at least expand the Open Cup — that generates more interest to the Amateurs who think they’ll get a shot against DC or NE or Red Bull, and it trickles down to the fans of those people like Reaganomics. It would generate some extra soccer buzz in the States, I suspect.

The MLS is constantly growing, and again for just over 10 years it has made astonishing strides. The quality, as much as so many people like to deride it, is on no worse a level than a 2nd tier European league (such as the Eredivisie in Holland). If you put any club in the EPL into the UEFA Cup, they would have a fighting chance, 3/4 or so for Spain (evidence of those two is Tottenham, Bolton, and Getafe), and probably near 1/2 for Italy, Germany, and France. The MLS is nearly identical to the Eredivisie in having 2 or 3 powerhouse teams and a couple that can’t compete.

On Houston’s results in the PPC, the equivalent comment can be made about them as was used as the “excuse” for Chelsea’s embarrassing (for whatever reason) defeat to the MLS All-Star team. This is the preseason for the MLS. When you have two sides of 2nd-tier quality and one isn’t match fit, you’re going to have goals. When that happened in All-Stars v. Chelsea, you saw just the 1 goal in it. That’s not the case when slightly less quality is out on the pitch and not in match fitness.

You also give a shockingly poor review of Bob Bradley in 2 sentences. The more the better — get his name out there! There is no reason that he cannot be a quality National Team coach. Would they have liked a Klinsmann or someone with that type of experience, sure. But Bob Bradley is in the same mold as a Bruce Arena (MLS manager –> US Team), who did achieve a World Cup quarterfinal berth.

Take a look at some recent performances of the full-strength US squad. Since Bradley has taken over as manager, the US has defeated 2006 World Cup participants in Ecuador, Mexico, Sweden, and the very underrated Switzerland (the last of which was played at St. Jakob Park in Basel). In addition, the team has defeated 2010 participant South Africa, Denmark, China, and drawn with Mexico, continuing an unbeaten run against the team formerly considered the far and away class of the region. Mixed in there is a hard-fought loss to Brazil in which the Yanks showed great spirit and effort against a side that featured some of the best in the business.

Too much is made about the Copa America. The tournament was effectively (if anything negative) a disgrace to our invite by sending a B-team for match experience, which may just prove useful in the long run. Add to that terrific youth development (look at the U-20 team in the Canada World Cup — disappointing result overall, but certainly one of the best teams fielded there).

For having only had a professional league (and still no relegation system, which I think would help quality immensely, truth be told) since the 1994 World Cup, the US has made terrific strides. Could they be making more? Probably. But England should have had the development and the quality to make Euro, and failed. Everyone has the little failures in the little battles. In the overall scheme of things, the US and the MLS are progressing nicely. Remember, British footballers can get their start in the EPL academics at 10 or 11, or if they’re not quite at that tier, hone their skills in one of the 27 LEVELS WORTH of Leagues in the country. Establish some pride competition by expanding the number of Amateur sides in the US Open Cup, discuss a relegation system with USL1/2, and keep expanding as is available and economically/logistically feasible. The US will be in great shape.

As to me being negative, I’d respond that the US soccer in general has been a horrendous underachiever and my description of it accounts for the improvement of its quality over the last 4-6 years.

Had this article been written back then, when the US was still struggling to beat the CONCACAF “powerhouses” – whereas now it only struggles to beat them on the U-23 level – my sentiment wouldn’t have been as nearly as kind.

As aside note, there’s an old golfing great Bobby Jones line about Jack Nicklaus “he plays the game with which I am not familiar”.

This line applies to the American soccer/football … except in the negative. Americans can often look as if they’ve invented a new game, not something most of us have grown up wth. There’s very little ebb&flow and skill to this “new football” but there’s certainly a lot of running involved.

Come to think of it, the Americans might be happier with the ball removed from the pitch entirely. It’s not like your average US born MLS player can dribble it, pass it or shoot it anyway.

PS. DaMarcus Beasley injured his knee in agame against Stuttgart in late November and has been unavailable to his club since then. So, while Rangers are still in the UEFA Cup in 2008, Beasley hadn’t been playing for them.

And Tim Howard is a goalkeeper, which the US seem to produce in droves.