[washingtonismoney]

WIM: Wasn't Jordan Morris born in... 1994?  What does that say about our favorite former player?

He was! But he's not really a significant player -- behind (and justly so) Jozy Altidore and Bobby Wood. Of course there's time for Morris to develop and round out his game. He has a good work ethic and has visibly improved, though this year was handicapped by injuries. I'm always worried, though, by explosive players in soccer, especially when they start getting injured. The effects seem to get cumulative.

But, yes, if he gets healthy he should improve and therefore continue to factor in as a bench option. That's not unhelpful, of course; you could make the case that crummy bench options on defense basically doomed the team. But it doesn't really change the paradigm of the team in the same way a quality winger or central midfielder would.

Just for comparison sake, TnT has a slightly larger population than Maine and a little less that the former island nation of Hawaii. With so many kids across this country that play youth soccer, how can we be soooo bad?

Well, the U.S. isn't really *that* bad. T&T has a number of solid, though not overwhelming players in MLS. By contrast the U.S. has a sampling of elite MLS players, solid European and Mexican pros, and a budding superstar in Christian Pulisic. It's just that the U.S. played as if it thought it was entitled to the spot.

Our young teams are getting better but is that due to good USSF organization or just that the pool of players at youth level is so large?

Also beyond the national team head coach, is there a clear accountability mechanism? Who could fire Gulati if it were warranted, for example, and institute meaningful changes to how soccer is organized?

1) the pool of players at the youth level has always been large, and if anything is decreasing as of late. Various policy changes are the more likely cause, though who knows, it could just be random.

2) There's an election in the summer.

[washingtonismoney]

WIM: Wasn't Jordan Morris born in... 1994?  What does that say about our favorite former player?

He was! But he's not really a significant player -- behind (and justly so) Jozy Altidore and Bobby Wood. Of course there's time for Morris to develop and round out his game. He has a good work ethic and has visibly improved, though this year was handicapped by injuries. I'm always worried, though, by explosive players in soccer, especially when they start getting injured. The effects seem to get cumulative.

But, yes, if he gets healthy he should improve and therefore continue to factor in as a bench option. That's not unhelpful, of course; you could make the case that crummy bench options on defense basically doomed the team. But it doesn't really change the paradigm of the team in the same way a quality winger or central midfielder would.

Just for comparison sake, TnT has a slightly larger population than Maine and a little less that the former island nation of Hawaii. With so many kids across this country that play youth soccer, how can we be soooo bad?

Well, the U.S. isn't really *that* bad. T&T has a number of solid, though not overwhelming players in MLS. By contrast the U.S. has a sampling of elite MLS players, solid European and Mexican pros, and a budding superstar in Christian Pulisic. It's just that the U.S. played as if it thought it was entitled to the spot.

Our young teams are getting better but is that due to good USSF organization or just that the pool of players at youth level is so large?

Also beyond the national team head coach, is there a clear accountability mechanism? Who could fire Gulati if it were warranted, for example, and institute meaningful changes to how soccer is organized?

1) the pool of players at the youth level has always been large, and if anything is decreasing as of late. Various policy changes are the more likely cause, though who knows, it could just be random.

2) There's an election in the summer.