The US Goes Down Again...
With today's 2-1 loss to the Black Stars of Ghana, the United States came up short in their bid to gain international football (soccer) respect. Coming into the World Cup ranked 5th in the world (somehow), the US was placed in the "Group of Death" and lost games to Ghana and the Czech Republic while playing to a draw against Italy. This year saw massive increases in the coverage and excitement over the Cup in our nation, but it was not nearly enough to keep from another embarassing showing on the international stage. Soccer is unique as there are many more superstars playing in European leagues than anywhere else, and the best American players strive to join a European level-A team. Unlike the other sports we've been humiliated in on the recent international stage, our Soccer team lacked that superstar mentality and egotism that cost us other international championships. So what's the deal? Why can't we win anything on the international stage anymore?
The World Baseball Classic was designed for the US to play in the Finals. They stacked the brackets so we wouldn't have to face the favored Dominican team until the finals, but it didn't matter once we lost to Canada, South Korea and Mexico. In fact, we ended up in 8th place, finishing behind such baseball superpowers as South Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. This in a sport we invented, in a tournament we created, playing our games in stadiums we've built. Think we would have lost this tournament in 1920 when only white Europeans were allowed to play?
Basketball is another sport we've invented only to give up our dominance to other nations. In 1992, the "Dream Team" changed basketball forever, putting together 12 professional superstars (well, 11 pros and a graduating senior named Christian Laettner, who was a god while at Duke) and utterly dominating international competition. It took only a decade for our pros to lose their dominance, as the international athletic community had learned how great of a game basketball is. We not only lost to Argentina and Yugoslavia, but Spain as well and finished in 6th place tied with Puerto Rico. But it was fitting to be just next to PR in the standings, because in our next international game we lost 92-73 to them. We also lost to Lithuania and Argentina, placing 3rd behind Italy and Argentina. Isn't it sad that we can't even win at our own sports?
How about the sport that the Canadians made famous, the Russians dominated and we profited off of? Despite the fact that we had one of the most professional rosters, we still couldn't advance beyond the first round of the tournament. You'd think that since all of the best players in the world come to the US to play, that we'd have a dominant team, but that's just not the case. But there's no reason that a team of professionals should ever lose to one filled with amateurs who aren't good enough or experienced enough to play with those very pros they are beating. We lost to Khazakhstan and tied Latvia, both of which were countries that weren't considered contenders and their performance proved that. Latvia tied us 3-3, yet they were outscored 29-11 in their 5 games (giving up 5.8 goals a game, horrendous). Our only victory was against Khazakhstan , a team we beat 2-1, but who got outscored 18-9 and found their only victory against Latvia. Simply pathetic...
So we officially suck at Soccer, Basketball, Hockey and Baseball. We're generally one of the largest nations competing (we're the largest at the World Cup, and are always the richest) and we're obsessed with sports, so why do we keep losing? Maybe it's because we're not good at being team players anymore, but I think it's more about the rest of the world surpassing us. As we grew complacent with our dominance, we allowed many nations to catch up with us. Think if we were in 1950 South Korea would have been able to beat the major league all-stars? But we're just too focused on too many sports, we don't have a national obsession anymore. Baseball has fallen off the map, and hockey never really made the map outside of New England and Minnesota/Michigan, basketball is the game of individuals (team play is rare nowadays, even the NBA champs rely on one star - Wade), so what do we have left? Golf isn't for teams and the world is already competitive with the US in the Ryder cup, ditto for Tennis and the Davis cup. Maybe we should start an international American Football Championships, competing against teams from Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. That way we could introduce another sport to the world so they can take it from us and continue our international athletic embarrassment. Or maybe we should just compete in international Dodgeball competitions...
The World Baseball Classic was designed for the US to play in the Finals. They stacked the brackets so we wouldn't have to face the favored Dominican team until the finals, but it didn't matter once we lost to Canada, South Korea and Mexico. In fact, we ended up in 8th place, finishing behind such baseball superpowers as South Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. This in a sport we invented, in a tournament we created, playing our games in stadiums we've built. Think we would have lost this tournament in 1920 when only white Europeans were allowed to play?
Basketball is another sport we've invented only to give up our dominance to other nations. In 1992, the "Dream Team" changed basketball forever, putting together 12 professional superstars (well, 11 pros and a graduating senior named Christian Laettner, who was a god while at Duke) and utterly dominating international competition. It took only a decade for our pros to lose their dominance, as the international athletic community had learned how great of a game basketball is. We not only lost to Argentina and Yugoslavia, but Spain as well and finished in 6th place tied with Puerto Rico. But it was fitting to be just next to PR in the standings, because in our next international game we lost 92-73 to them. We also lost to Lithuania and Argentina, placing 3rd behind Italy and Argentina. Isn't it sad that we can't even win at our own sports?
How about the sport that the Canadians made famous, the Russians dominated and we profited off of? Despite the fact that we had one of the most professional rosters, we still couldn't advance beyond the first round of the tournament. You'd think that since all of the best players in the world come to the US to play, that we'd have a dominant team, but that's just not the case. But there's no reason that a team of professionals should ever lose to one filled with amateurs who aren't good enough or experienced enough to play with those very pros they are beating. We lost to Khazakhstan and tied Latvia, both of which were countries that weren't considered contenders and their performance proved that. Latvia tied us 3-3, yet they were outscored 29-11 in their 5 games (giving up 5.8 goals a game, horrendous). Our only victory was against Khazakhstan , a team we beat 2-1, but who got outscored 18-9 and found their only victory against Latvia. Simply pathetic...
So we officially suck at Soccer, Basketball, Hockey and Baseball. We're generally one of the largest nations competing (we're the largest at the World Cup, and are always the richest) and we're obsessed with sports, so why do we keep losing? Maybe it's because we're not good at being team players anymore, but I think it's more about the rest of the world surpassing us. As we grew complacent with our dominance, we allowed many nations to catch up with us. Think if we were in 1950 South Korea would have been able to beat the major league all-stars? But we're just too focused on too many sports, we don't have a national obsession anymore. Baseball has fallen off the map, and hockey never really made the map outside of New England and Minnesota/Michigan, basketball is the game of individuals (team play is rare nowadays, even the NBA champs rely on one star - Wade), so what do we have left? Golf isn't for teams and the world is already competitive with the US in the Ryder cup, ditto for Tennis and the Davis cup. Maybe we should start an international American Football Championships, competing against teams from Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. That way we could introduce another sport to the world so they can take it from us and continue our international athletic embarrassment. Or maybe we should just compete in international Dodgeball competitions...
posted by Dan Pasternack at 3:44 PM
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