It will be interesting to see how much traction this gives to the women's version of the sport. I'm already hearing and reading that women's soccer has passed the point of no return, but it's the same thing people were saying in 1999 and if that U.S. team couldn't help sustain an American professional league, I have my doubts this one will.
You look at the demographic in the stands and it's teenage girls and their parents. That's nice, but teenage girls have a history of moving on to the next thing very quickly. And a lot of this has to do with Americans rooting for the American team to do well in an international competition. Carly Lloyd and Julie Johnston may have increased their respective profiles, but ask people who just finished watching the tournament to name five players from the other teams, and they can't. How many people would have watched a Japan-Germany final yesterday? Would the stadium have even sold out?

alz wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

I've only been watching soccer regularly for about a dozen years, but I've only once ever seen a team not win a game it was leading by four goals in the first half.

A great win by the ladies yesterday. I had to take my daughter home so I had it on DVR and was catching up. Carli Lloyd scored 3 and had 2 other very good chances that she could have put in. That game was dominant.

For the men, the only thing I'll add is that the US is at a severe disadvantage, because we have other options. Neymar was found when he was like 6 years old kicking around on a street. Some agent saw him, took him back to his parents, where they agreed to ship the little guy off to "Soccer School", where he learned the basics of education and got a figurative "double doctorate" in futbol. If American parents turned their children over to institutions like this, they'd almost certainly be looked at as jackasses. 

Neymar now makes about 25 million a season, and I'm sure everyone would agree it was the right move, but for every "Neymar" there's about 100 other kids who just never made it to the great stage. 

As a society, we aren't far from this.  Maybe not at age 6, but the US now has "schools" like the IMG Academy which is basically exactly what you're talking about.  Kids can get a degree in sports and a minor in education.  In 2015, the "school" had 3 of the top 250 college football recruits in the country.  In 2016, they have 8 of the top 250.

https://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1745431 
http://www.imgacademy.com/private-school 

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

Serious question. The U.S. Women have been fairly dominant in the brief history of the Women's World Cup. Is that because American women were ahead of the world when the event began, or is this what it would look like on the men's side of the World Cup is American men didn't have other athletic options like football and baseball that generally aren't played in other countries?

The American collegiate soccer system has always been a good pipeline for the U.S. Women's National Team (and other countries' teams), but I'm of the belief that if Kobe Bryant and LeBron James had been attacking midfielders on the USMNT for the past decade instead of in the NBA, the rest of the globe would be playing for second place in World Cups.
 

I was picturing more along the lines of someone like Adrian Peterson or a young Randy Moss. Could you picture someone like Calvin Johnson at 6'5, 4.3 speed and a 40 inch vertical playing in the middle on corner kicks?

Or Ed Reed playing central defense.
How about Kevin Garnett playing goalkeeper? Not only would he be able to cover alomst the entire net, no one from the other team would have the courage to go into the penalty area.
 

forsberg_us wrote:

Serious question. The U.S. Women have been fairly dominant in the brief history of the Women's World Cup. Is that because American women were ahead of the world when the event began, or is this what it would look like on the men's side of the World Cup is American men didn't have other athletic options like football and baseball that generally aren't played in other countries?

The American collegiate soccer system has always been a good pipeline for the U.S. Women's National Team (and other countries' teams), but I'm of the belief that if Kobe Bryant and LeBron James had been attacking midfielders on the USMNT for the past decade instead of in the NBA, the rest of the globe would be playing for second place in World Cups.
 

I've only been watching soccer regularly for about a dozen years, but I've only once ever seen a team not win a game it was leading by four goals in the first half.

forsberg_us wrote:

A little redemption for the English women.

You know what Ice noticed in the games I watched? The women don't flop nearly as much as the men do. Pretty funny.

They don't. In fact, one of the criticisms of the U.S. women's team back in the '90s was they didn't know how to flop, and it cost them free kicks. The South American men are the worst. The Copa America final looked like an Olympic diving competition sometimes.
 

It's hard to tell, but is that the really tall keeper who has since been relegated to backup duty? She of the lack of athleticism that the commentator unfortunately described during the Switzerland game as the "chink in her armor?"
"Howler" is perhaps the most appropriate term for one of these things. Usually, I see it applied to something Joe Hart has done.
(For the casual soccer fans, Joe Hart is the English men's team's starting keeper. Sort of the way Josh Collmenter was the Diamondbacks' opening day starter this season.)