Listen, I agree with a lot of what you said. We are making great progress in a lot of areas. I mean to think that 15 years ago, we were a country that hadn't qualified for the WC in decades to now...well now its expected not only that we qualify every year but that we progress to the knockout round. However, I disagree emphatically with a few things:
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We now have the type of depth, where we can play what is essentially a B team, and dominate other countries, and our A team is finally loaded with world class talent.
Dominate what countries? Panama? Trinidad and Tobago? Whoopty-do. They are hardly the elite teams in our weak region (probably the weakest outside of Oceania) let alone the world. Besides, when we do play elite teams with our A team (or close to it) we hang in there but we don't dominate. A few examples come to mind...
England's D team vs. USA's A/B team (2005): We had good spells but they controlled much of the play.
Netherland's A team vs. USA's A team (2004): Our last lost (before Mexico in March). The score was 1-0 but we were pretty much dominated the entire game.
Brazil's U-23 team vs USA's A team (2003): Last Gold Cup two years ago. We got a fluke 1-0 lead completely against the run of play and ended up losing 2-1 in ET. It could have been 5-1.
I know some of those examples are going back a way's but that's because we don't play elite teams that often. Mostly we're stuck with CONCACAF teams and when we do play European teams in friendlies, its typically teams like Poland and Wales as opposed to England or France.
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Our style of play has just changed so much, even since the last world cup. Not just at the international level, but in the MLS as well. F.C. Dallas could compete well in teh EPL if they had to. We have a much more controlled, passing, creative attack now.
Again, I agree that our style of play has improved. Even in the 2002 WC, a lot of offense was built around the counter attack...compact in defense and then look for breaks on the counter. We have since gotten a lot better at possession soccer. However, I don't think we are near the level of elite yet as we still don't have many creative/technically gifted players. Example: Who's gonna step up in the midfield when Reyna leaves? O'Brien is a good candidate if he stays healthy but other than that, there isn't anyone in the player pool who can control the midfield and shows the creativity and timing to make the right pace at the right time. Elite teams don't have this problem. There are elite creative players all over the place in England/Itlay/Spain etc pool. Our techical ability has imroved for sure but there are still a lot of players who are better athletes than they are soccer players (if that makes sense).
Lastly, I don't really have any evidence to back it up but I think FC Dallas would be relegated in a heartbeat if they were in the Premiership. They could probably hang in the Championship.
Sorry about that...that post went a little longer than I expected.
