Klinsmenn is correct on criticism on Kobes contract

Prior to the US Men's National Team left to play in the Fifa World Cup in Brazil, USMN coach Jurgen Klinsmenn was assembling a younger roster and a team that was going to be the new identity for the US and its soccer program. Just prior to the start of the World Cup, Landon Donovan was acquired to join the team and cut shortly after making the roster. The USMN
coach had to answer to the media, who was very harsh on his decision to cut Landon and not let him on the roster and represent US in the World Cup. Landon Donovan would has been a staple in international soccer for the U.S. and could have brought leadership, experience and credibility instantly to the roster which lacked an identity and superstars that the other countries currently have.

Klinsmenn, on radio and nation media explained and defended his decision to part ways with U.S. soccer star Landon Donovan saying that he help build the U.S. soccer program, however you can't put people on the team because what their accomplishments in the past, the new identity of the U.S. needs to go forward and should rely and build our soccer team and develop new stars and not have them overshadowed by the giant shadow that is Landon Donovan.  Sticking by this principal Jurgen is finding a new identity for U.S. soccer as well as molding the future soccer teams and trusting that our farm system and player development can deliver world-class caliber players to compete at the highest level.

As the World Cup was progressing through the group stages , Dempsey emerged as the new face and leader of what USMNT soccer will become. Throughout the tournament, U.S. not only upset Ghana, but playing and competing with Portugal to advance itself to the knockout rounds of 16. America finally sees that we can not only excel in this sport and beat the best, we now belong on the biggest stage in the world along side Brazil, Germany and Argentina. As an early exit in the knockout rounds, the U.S. now has now showed the world that it can be a soccer powerhouse and we can compete with the great programs of Europe even without a transcendent start like Messi, Neymar and Ronaldo.

It had all came down to this, the Lakers paid Kobe a deal to stay with the team at a salary of twice his market value that any other franchise would had offer him this year. Kobe is iconic in Los Angeles and the NBA but the Lakers wanted the name recognition and felt that they owe him and has marketing value to the franchise if he remains a Laker. By investing in the future and not relying on the players of the past that are past their prime he forged a new identity and new stars emerged. As Tim Howard showed the world that he is one of the greats and also the surprise role players began to become a big part in the successes of this World Cup. Because we trusted our instincts and the system, eventhough we lost at the same place in the tournament as previous years; the USMNT doesn't have a dimming past, it has a brighter future filled with young stars.

Why this World Cup is Important and Why Should We Care

As the initial blog post of the part of Charlies Sportslist that I talk about a topic that is currently trending on the internet, the World Cup. Last match in the round of 16, the US Mens Nations Team got eliminated from the tournament by a more experienced soccer nation Belgium. However in a loss, it is always important to find the silver linings of things and get positives out of a bad situation, generally, it's being optimistic.

As America, we generally are built as a society to play the other Football, American Football and not Futbol. As early as 5 or 6 kids are in a Pop Warner System and throughout School our make up and popularity is based on how good your school is at Football. College Football funds all other sports because their isn't enoug revenue generated in eat sport to support it in itself, thus the Psychology 101.

Sidebar - Psyche 101 is a theory that every college student must take Psyche 101 and because of this requisite, the funding and the revenue can go toward teachers to teach other parts of the major which cannot self support its major. 

American culture does not like being bad at things, we are not a country of patience anymore due to the recent trends of technology giving us what we need instantly and right now. As our society is trending toward being a Popcorn culture, patience and development is something that is truly now a virtue and becoming great in a sport with a Major Professional history of 19 years as compared to 100+ years in other countries in Europe.

So what is important is that we made it into the Round of 16 for two consecutive World Cups, this shows that we do belong with the other majors of the sport, however we are not the favorite. As Football continues to get the bad press on concussions with their athletes and games, this is driving the parents to reconsider a sport that they signed their kids up to release their energy and run around. You can relate the rise in EDM music because it is a global niche genre of music to soccer and how that genre is producing mass concerts and revenues and people now want to experience an international beat in lieu of Rap, Hip Hop and Top 40. If you research Spotify, you can try and dig up any Top 40 domestic artist and see if if can trump Avicii, the European DJ who produced Wake Me Up which is the most streamed song on Spotify ever with over 250,000,000 streams.

In conclusion, this World Cup is important because it showed us that we belong in this tournament with the big boys of the world. If we want to dominate this sport like we want to dominate everything else I think the youth movement and the exposure of Fox and ESPN will only fuel the new generation into a growing sport domestically and we can make history in the World Cups to come. We have always prided ourselves as a nation to never be average and to outwork everyone so next World Cup I expect the US Men's National team to not only make the knockout rounds but to make some noise in the tournament!

Enjoy the Podcast!!!!
Charlies Checklist Episode 1

Thanks for reading!

Charlie Seanez