The USMNT Scandal Reflects the Incestuous Nature of American Soccer

January 10, 2023 5:39 PM

A small clique of elites runs U.S. Soccer, passing it on from fathers to sons, from mentors to mentees. In retrospect, it was inevitable that two prominent American soccer families would get caught up in a bubbling stew of conflicted interests and backstabbing.
posted by Etrigan (14 comments total)

Unfortunately, it seems to me that the insular nature of US Soccer dissuades actual outsiders like Zidane from coming in because they know their efforts to reform the organization will be met with unified opposition from the generational elites. I don't know how to get beyond that.
posted by mollweide at 6:12 PM on January 10, 2023

Doesn't the USSF have to stick with Berhalter now (assuming nothing else turns up in their investigation)? Unless they are able to get a bona fide star manager it's either stick with him or hand it all over to the Reynas.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 7:04 PM on January 10, 2023

Y'know, I just can't take on any more rich assholes doing rich asshole things.
posted by Servo5678 at 9:20 PM on January 10, 2023 [10 favorites]

> it's either stick with him or hand it all over to the Reynas.

idk, I'm sure we could get Bruce Arena to give it another go and see if third time's the charm for his innovative strategy of "winning tournaments is a secondary objective for the National Team, whose primary purpose is to serve as a marketing vehicle for MLS."
posted by 7segment at 9:33 PM on January 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm jaded enough to have immediately wanted to make the obvious joke about what a disappointment this is considering the integrity and transparency we have all come to expect from soccer/football governing bodies but screw the cynicism, I'm with Servo5678 on this..
posted by Nerd of the North at 11:37 PM on January 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

Doesn't the USSF have to stick with Berhalter now (assuming nothing else turns up in their investigation)?

Right now he’s not under contract so they can just move on and not renew if that want to. To be honest they probably should as coaches rarely do well in their second cycle.
posted by jmauro at 12:21 AM on January 11, 2023

How do you say welp in football.
posted by Atreides at 6:44 AM on January 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Nepotism?! In professional sports?!
posted by The River Ivel at 7:48 AM on January 11, 2023

The bigger problem with US Soccer is the pay-to-play at the development level. Unless they really fix that; 'fixing' anything at the top level is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, IMO.
posted by indianbadger1 at 8:53 AM on January 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

It does strike me that even the "outsiders" who make it to the USMNT would not be shocked by the culture of nightmarish insularity because they almost certainly started out playing travel soccer, a truly cursed thing. (From school, the only extracurricular I remember that required as much time was band, with the crucial difference that the band kids all seemed to be having fun.)
posted by grandiloquiet at 9:08 AM on January 11, 2023 [4 favorites]

...the band kids all seemed to be having fun.)

Well, I'm not aware of anybody ever starting a story with, "This one time at soccer camp..."
posted by COD at 10:35 AM on January 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

I did go to soccer camp and the wildest thing that happened was our counselor telling us how his girlfriend gymnast could suffocate him with her muscular legs.

Incidentally, this was the UVA soccer camp when Bruce Arena was still head coach.


The neatest thing was getting to play in the football stadium on the astroturf.
posted by Atreides at 10:57 AM on January 11, 2023

The bigger problem with US Soccer is the pay-to-play at the development level. Unless they really fix that; 'fixing' anything at the top level is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, IMO.

What's the alternative system for the US? I don't know how it works elsewhere either and how development is funded. In Europe and South America you have tons of local clubs that exist somewhere on the football pyramid and they'll do the youth development but do the kids have to pay anything to be on the team or do they use money from ticket sales and the like to fund the teams? Your top flight teams, sure if you make it to their youth teams they're probably giving you money but if it's really a local club in the 2nd tier or lower then they're pretty hand to mouth as is, are they able to still fund the kids teams? Are they getting funding from their local FA, which is in turn funded from the local pro leagues and the FIFA fat stacks of cash? Is the government kicking in money for community support?

There isn't a football pyramid in the US so fine the MLS teams will need to do it and work something out with the NCAA but there's only what, 29 teams, so they'd need to arrange lots of satellite offices and teams to reach all the kids that don't live in MLS cities.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:54 AM on January 11, 2023

For kids, we did FFPS. Their goal is to get kids out on the field and playing as quickly as possible. (Everyone rotates through every position, and there's no official scorekeeping.) Allison did it for a couple of years, and really enjoyed it.
posted by Spike Glee at 12:11 PM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]