What USA Basketball Can Learn from US Soccer's Failure at the 2006 World Cup

I spent a solid hour in a Paris Internet cafe Tuesday trying to find a way to get to Nuremberg, Germany for the United States game against Ghana. I failed. So did the USA.

After watching the US play Italy and the Czech Republic and Ghana play the Czech Republic, it was hard to root for the US: it played boring, unimaginitive, slow soccer.

Much has been said and written about Bruce Arena's failures, and, while he did look like a stereotypical boorish American with his ruffled shirt and pathetic hand waves at the officials, individual player development failures do not fall on the National Team Head Coach. So, while disappointed at some curious decisions on Arena's part, this is not meant to fault the coach or call for his firing, though ESPN's Julie Foudy has a point when she argues that change is often necessary, even if nobody is to blame.

Instead, I blame the United States Soccer development system which has made great strides in closing the talent gap between the United States and the world, but which has yet to produce a true world class talent. While everyone was in full agreement that this was the United States best team ever, I'm unconvinced. Is Landon Donovan better than Ernie Stewart? DeMarcus Beasley more productive than Cobi Jones? Eddie Pope better than Marcel Balboa? Kasey Keller better than Brad Friedel? Sure more players play overseas and the depth of talent is much improved thanks to the MLS, but the US still lacks dynamic finishers and playmakers.

The United States' speed of play is sooooo slow. Every time a US player broke into open space in the Ghana game, the roar of anticipation grew in the stadium. And, then the attacking player passed backwards and the sighs were audible on television. As passionately as Sam's Army is, they sounded as if they were struggling with the US' uninspired play.

The United States lacks two vital qualities: speed and creativity. Clint Dempsey is one of the few players on the roster who consistently makes plays. While the United States banks on Landon Donovan, the team needs more Dempsey, more players willing to take on players and finish their chances.

Unlike others who are jumping off the US bandwagon, I think the United States is a squad filled with serviceable international players. Unfortunately, it lacks a midfielder with the creativity of Ronaldinho or Riquelme or a midfielder with the pace and work rate of Pavel Nedved or Michael Eissen or a striker with the finishing of Didier Drogba or Crespo or a player who is deadly on free kicks like a David Beckham.

During the Costa Rica game, commentators mentioned that Paolo Wanchope spent several childhood years living in the United States; if he was on the US roster, the US advances into the next round, as he is a proven finisher with speed and strength, an element the US lacks. The difference between the United States and other nations is that close; one or two supremely talented players alongside the current cast of serviceable support players and the United States is a dangerous team. A David Beckham taking free kicks instead of Donovan or a Riquelme distributing out of midfield rather than Claudio Reyna or a Wanchope up front rather than Brian McBride and suddenly the United States looks and finishes much better. Unfortunately, the United States has never developed these talents.

What is amazing is one of the most organized development systems in the world fails to produce players with world class ability, while the beachs and streets of barrios in Brasil, Argentina and elsewhere produce multiple teams worth of International playmakers.

The problem is similar to that afflicting basketball development: too much structure, organization and adult involvement stifles creative development and self-learning and players simply lack the feel, touch, vision and creativity of world class players. In basketball, the urban parks provided these learning environments to generations past, but today, kids have left the parks in favor of AAU Tournaments, free shoes and overcoaching; kids depend on coaching more and more and this dependence eliminates creativity, quick decision-making and feel. This is less evident in basketball, as more American athletes pursue basketball than soccer, but each suffers from the same affliction.

As Gary R. Allen, Director of Coaching: Virginia Youth Soccer Association writes:

"Our current method in the United States...mistakenly focuses almost exclusively on the extraordinary physical maturity and technical ability of players like Samba and Adu. This thinking ignores perhaps the most crucial element in the total development of a soccer player: the ability to read the game, the flow, and how to anticipate and adjust to individual opponents and teams. These are the intangible traits that make great players rise above others, and that players only develop over a long period of time with experience and experimentation.

We must focus on the long-term and intrinsic development of players, guiding them, but more importantly, allowing them, to think for themselves, to make their own decisions. This will enable them to have the tools to adjust and exploit a vast array of situations, in many cases, all in the same game. This is neither an easy nor a short-term learning process. The fact that we are dealing with pre-teens and teenagers further complicates the matter.

I remember when I was a freshman in college, playing varsity at a very successful Division 1 school. I was one of two Americans on the team. The rest were Brazilian, El Salvadoran, Israeli, and English. Some of the greatest learning experiences for me as a player that year did not occur in college training sessions. Instead, they occurred on Saturdays when many of us played small-sided pick-up games in a local park with Portuguese fishermen who were in port at the time. It is in this type of environment that players have the opportunity to truly learn how to play and adjust to many types of situations and players. Thinking and the ability to adjust take a long time to develop, with a lot of experimentation, and, yes, failure. But our culture won't allow the failure required to learn at any age or stage. We must always have immediate success."

The answer is not more coaching; it's less. Players need to play, to experiment and to learn on their own, whether on the hardwood or the pitch. Until we change the methods we use to develop players, the United States will never produce a Riquelme or a Pavel Nedved, and fewer and fewer Dwayne Wade's and LeBron James' will find their way to the Association.