I would rate Bradley as the 3rd best US player behind Donovan and Dempsey.

I would rate Bocanegra (who was at fault for the 2nd goal) as probably the worst player on the US starting team. He is woeful!

Is the 3rd best US soccer (football) player kind of like being the 3rd best Irish Basketball player?

That's kind of a dopey thing to say. More kids play soccer in the United States than any other sport. We have a top 15-ish ranked men's soccer program. We have players in Serie A, the EPL, the Bundesliga, and La Ligua. I know you're trying to be funny, but US Soccer has come an awfully long way.

It has a long way to go. It's currently geared towards middle-aged white parents. We'll never truly compete sticking with that demographic.

Golf has gone an awfully long way on that business model.

Soccer still only gets the 4th, maybe 5th level of elite athlete in the U.S.. So, if you consider that, top 16 isn't so bad.

out of 300 million people our 4th and 5th level athletes are still world class. If we had NBA, NFL, even some MLB guys want to play soccer than watch out. How awesome of a goalie would lebron be?

sorry to bust on your sport slotdirt, but not too many people care about it once they get out of high school. Shoot, a lot of good soccer players would rather kick field goals for football teams than continue soccer. My brother and I both grew up playing soccer.. along with baseball its probably the best sport to play as a kid. You dont get paid much playing soccer, and there isnt much fame to it, so all the top athletes move on to different sports. Coach is completely right. Plus, golf and soccer are apples and oranges.. you can play golf til you die.

Plus the argument that 4th or 5th best sport = lesser athletes is not true.

Soccer, for the most part, requires short people to attack the goal. Look at the greatest strikers...they're midgets. Midgets aren't giving up soccer to play football, baseball, basketball etc.

What great striker is a midget? That's not true anymore. You want big guys up front who can hold their men and distribute. There are still some relatively short guys up front, but the Altidores and Kloses are more the norm now when you consider that nearly every defender is 6'3" on the internation level.

Messi, Robinho etc.

Messi is more of a center-mid. Robinho is not that tall. I'd say that's more the exception today though. For every Robinho, there's a Crouch (6'7"), Vittek (6'2"), Altidore (6'1"), or Van Persie (6'2").

About the only sport those guys could excel in would be baseball. No way would any of them play basketball at a high level.

I just don't buy the excuse that our best athletes play other sports. Soccer is missing out on the inner-city kids. It's too much of a suburban sport.

Dont your last two sentences kind of prove the first sentence?

I happen to think that if LeBron or Kobe or Michael Vick or whomever played soccer full-time from a very young age instead of whatever sport they ended up in, that they would excel.

Vick probably would have been a much better soccer player than he is a football player. USA needs a guy with his speed. Vicks legs are great, his arm sucks.

LeBron would take too many shots from midfield...because he's retarded.

Have to be pulling for the Dutch this morning.

They'd better get their **** together. Brazil is all over them.

Wow, Wade Redden and Dan Girardi must be playing defense for the Dutch. That was ridiculous. One nil already and they also had one called back on an offsides.

Disappointing start for the CLockwork. Can't do that against Brazil and hope to advance. They need some Van der Vaart.