The veteran coach could not right the systemic failure within the game in America. Maybe it’s time to look at the structure itselfBruce Arena’s failure was not an individual failure. It’s a systemic failure that shows the United States does not yet have the soccer culture tens of millions of its citizens want.US Soccer could not be “fixed” in Arena’s 11-month stint as the men’s national team coach. The realistic hope was that he could do what he did at the 2002 World Cup – get the most out of a couple of exceptional talents, paper over the team’s weaknesses and hope for the best. Related: Six candidates who could succeed Bruce Arena as USA coach Continue reading...
From pre-season fringe player to MLB star, the rookie has taken the US by storm this summer in the Yankees’ march to unlikely post-season successOn Sunday night at Yankee Stadium, Francisco Lindor of the Cleveland Indians hit a baseball towards the right‑field stands that was clearly destined to be a two-run homer. And not just any home run: one that would demolish the New York Yankees and send the Indians to the edge of the World Series.Suddenly a great mitted hand rose from the depths, like the head of a sea monster, reached above the wall and snatched the ball from thin air. On its own, it was a superhuman catch: something more associated with the planet Krypton than the...
The worst defeat in the history of the US national team is a catastrophe for the sport’s growth in America, but should come as no surpriseThe worst defeat in the history of the United States national team, the record will show, played out over an hour and a half on a sweltering weeknight before a few hundred spectators at Ato Boldon Stadium, confines so modest even its namesake questioned why it was chosen for a World Cup qualifier, and ended with the Americans walking off in a soft parade of stunned silence and thousand-yard stares. But truthfully Tuesday night’s loss to Trinidad & Tobago was a failure years in the making, an outcome undeserving of the surprise it elicited. Not...
For a while the world’s most lucrative league supported its players in the face of hostility from Donald Trump. Then the NFL looked at its bottom lineSomehow this is where we find ourselves in America in 2017: the president of the United States uses race to drive a wedge between football players and their fans while the world’s most-lucrative sports league caves to his tweets.NFL players are sacrificing their brains for a league that will make at least $14bn off them this year. Many are shorting their memories, breaking their bodies and forgoing any hope of walking normally past the age of 45. The majority of them do not have guaranteed contracts and while the very best are paid well...
Bruce Arena’s team will not be at Russia 2018. It doesn’t take long to discover why they failed so badly in their bid to qualify for the tournamentThe shock is just now beginning to subside after the US men’s national team was eliminated from contention for the next summer’s World Cup in Russia. Every result that could have doomed them on Tuesday night came about, with Honduras and Panama’s respective wins combining with the US’s own 2-1 loss at already eliminated Trinidad & Tobago to knock Bruce Arena’s men out.The list of what didn’t doom the United States’ qualifying campaign is lengthy – vastly greater resources and spending power relative to the rest of the Concacaf region, first and foremost...