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Soccer is a dumb sport. Not sure why the world loves it?


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I guess I was referring to starting players. Here is where I found the information.

 

As MLS grows, U.S.-born players face greater competition for roster spots

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Apr 14, 2017

Noah Davis

Editor's note: Just 10 of the top 30 of ESPN FC's #MLSRank list are eligible to play for the U.S. national team. This article originally published in April, but with so few U.S. internationals featuring in the U.S. and Canada's first division, the question was again raised about opportunities in Major League Soccer for U.S.-born players.

 

In the opening weeks of Major League Soccer's 2017 season, ESPN analyst Taylor Twellman alerted the viewing audience to a concerning set of numbers: 51.2 percent, 47.3 percent, 45.5 percent and 42.1 percent. Those figures, courtesy of Elias Sports Bureau, represent the percentage of opening-day starters who were born in the United States from 2014 to 2017.

 

Raw numbers tell a similar story. In 2014, 107 U.S.-born players started for Major League Soccer teams. In 2017, that number fell to 102, despite the total number of starting spots increasing by 33 through the addition of four expansion franchises and the closing of Chivas USA.

 

Seeking further detail, I asked Elias for figures about the number of U.S.-born players who played at least a single minute during a given season. The decline was about the same. In 2014, 260 of the 499 players (52.1 percent) were born in the U.S. In 2015: 253 out of 524 (48.3 percent). A year later, 230 out of 510 (45.1 percent). Through last week, the number was even lower for 2017: 181 out of 416, or just 43.5 percent.

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The development system in the USA sucks.  Our best players are guys that go to Europe.

 

That could be.  But it's not the main reason the US is not a world soccer power.

 

It's simple.  The best athletes in the US don't play soccer.  They play football, basketball, and baseball.  That may change in the near future.  But that's the main reason the US has been behind other top countries in the worlds most boring game.  Futbol. 

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The development system in the USA sucks.  Our best players are guys that go to Europe.

 

That's true for most of the world though. 

 

Think about where the development system was a generation ago, when all but the very top level players here were going to college and being limited to 20 hours/week to spend on soccer. 

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