Best athletes just aren’t playing soccer in U.S.

By Doug Harris, Staff Writer 10:42 PM Monday, June 28, 2010

One word sums up my reaction to the U.S. soccer team’s ultimately disappointing effort in the World Cup this year: Ghana?

Seriously, how does a country that’s 15 times smaller than us become not only good enough to be competitive but actually knock us out of the tourney for the second time in a row?

Ghana?

That defeat was no fluke, either. We also struggled to get by a team from a country that few could find on a map — Slovenia.

A kiss-your-grandma tie with England almost generated a ticker-tape parade, which also is telling.

We’ve got 300 million people in this country. We’ve got an impressive youth soccer operation in place. We’ve obviously got the resources to run with the World Cup elite. But we invariably fall short.

The bottom line is, while soccer attracts the best athletes from other countries around the world, it’s somewhere about eighth in the pecking order for American youth.

From 1990 to 2000, soccer participation increased from 1.6 million kids to 3 million, which would seemingly pay dividends in the adult ranks right about now. But our teams are suffering because our top athletes are gravitating to mainstream sports.

Can you imagine Dwyane Wade as a midfielder? Or Reggie Bush as a striker? If guys like that were groomed to play soccer, I’m quite sure we’d never have to worry about being embarrassed by Ghana again.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2125 or dharris@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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