Obviously Americans don't care about the soccer WC too much. Their sports are American football, basketball and baseball instead.
If they were to start caring about the soccer WC and if they wanted to get better, could they become good at it? Would they be capable of becoming a great team if they were to start caring about it?
There are 195 countries in the world. USA Men's FIFA ranking is currently 16. At times it's been higher. Even if it's not podium material it's still among the best in the world. That said, there isn't much incentive to be a professional soccer player in America. Many pro teams here in the MLS pay like $60-80K a year base salary. You have to work really herd to get to that level, for low pay. It's a lot easier to focuses on school and land a career that pays far better and has a lot more longevity in earning potential. Think about who plays soccer in America... It's mostly the middle class White/Hispanic population. That same population also goes onto college at very high rates and end up with more stable income. Why would they risk a good career, for a low paying short term one? It's a dumb play in a rich country. I was a good soccer players. So where a number of my friends and neighbors. Plenty of people I know played in college on scholarship to get their degree. One of my close friends played professionally in Turkey for a couple of years, but most of us just moved on. America of the land of opportunity, and being a soccer player isn't one of the best opportunities that presents itself to most Americans.
No. Hence why they divert so much to the only shitty sports they can play there.
Football development is not about money, athletes or talent - but competition. American "soccer" is just piss poor in providing good competition. It's why when you look at the USA world cup squad, most were US players in Europe. The US leagues just don't have the experience to play on the International level.
The American football teams are worth millions, have plenty of players and even some with talent. But just no real experience as there is no competitiveness there.
It's simply a numbers game, the more kids you get playing the more will go into local clubs and rise to the top. America might have thousands of world class players in their schools but we'll never know because most will never kick a ball.
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They certainly could, but the most talented players get diverted to the more popular sports. As you said, Americans overall just don't care about soccer much - even less than hockey.
It's all about (American) football, baseball, and basketball in the US. Everything else is a much lower priority, and has much lower funding, which means it's hard to attract the best talent.
The US is huge so the pool of talent is really big, that said I doubt they could become much better than they are now. Just no tradition makes it hard to ever compete with countries devoted to the game for generations
It wouldn't make a difference. Mexicans take it seriously and the Mexican team hasn't had World Cup success either
Absolutely. If you want an example of what happens when the U. S. focusses on a goal, check out "Ford vs Ferrari"... Spoiler, it didn't work out well for Ferrari.
we are getting better, we have only been taking it serious the last couple of generations, the rest of the world has taken it serious from its inception, it takes a while
No. They already tried decades ago. Also fuck baseball.
People take soccer seriously?
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