World Cup losses will continue until America fixes its youth soccer system - ESPN

After every uninspiring World Cup result, the most typical answer to the question of why the United States can't ever get great at soccer (at least on the men's side) is that our best athletes play other sports.

If only LeBron James were out there.

It's a hackneyed excuse. Yes, soccer fights in a crowded market of sporting possibilities in America, but that's true almost everywhere. A lack of athletic ability wasn't the cause of the USMNT's failure to advance past the round of 16 for the sixth consecutive World Cup courtesy of a dispiriting 4-1 loss to Belgium on Monday.

Our players can run, cut and jump as well as almost any of those on advancing teams. This is a nation of nearly 350 million, with untold millions more available through various citizenship tentacles allowed by FIFA.

Belgium has just 12 million residents. Norway has 5.6 million (the size of South Carolina) and is not only through to the quarterfinals but is obsessed with enough different sports that it just won the total medal count at the Winter Olympics.

We have enough athletes and enough athletes with the requisite technical skills.

Do we have enough competitors, though? Do we have enough players who don't just want to win but need to win? Guys who want more than just to appear in a Michelob Ultra commercial.

More troublingly, how do we get them in a country where the developmental system is powered by travel soccer that requires ever-increasing pay-to-play?

The Belgians didn't just outclass the Americans; they outworked and outhustled them, too. They were tougher, physically yes, but mostly mentally. The U.S. too often looked soft, weak and overwhelmed.

«I felt like they lost the game before they stepped out onto the pitch,» said Carli Lloyd, who