Henry Vasquez 🌆

Full-Stack Product Manager, Founder, and Startup Investor. 3rd generation Angeleno.

[Henry Vasquez 🌆 @hvasquez]

The accidental gift of LA’s terrible urban plan is that if we ever wake up and decide to embrace good urbanism, we have so much public land just in the roads that you could actually use it for public spaces without displacing houses.

[Henry Vasquez 🌆 @hvasquez]

For maximum drama in the 2030 World Cup, they need to structure the knockouts so Spain, Portugal, and Morocco can't face each other until the quarterfinals at the earliest.

[Geronimo Morgans @GeronimoMorgans]

Football is healing. Awards are no longer decided purely by goals and assists but by the sheer effort and contribution throughout an entire tournament. Rodri is living proof of that. What he did at this World Cup will never be forgotten.

[Henry Vasquez 🌆 @hvasquez]

The bus that is parked is the bus that will be destroyed.

[Henry Vasquez 🌆 @hvasquez]

@Videos2Riles He’s the closest thing football has to Nikola Jokic

[Henry Vasquez 🌆 @hvasquez]

@FIFAWorldCup @MichelobULTRA Rodri. Controls the midfield. Quietly dominates once again.

[Kyle Sheldon ⚽️🇺🇸 @kylesheldon]

WOW 🤯

Sunday's Mexico vs. England World Cup match had more than 44 MILLION viewers:

• 23.1M on Telemundo
• 21.7M on FOX

It is now the most-watched soccer game in U.S. history, surpassing Monday's U.S. vs. Belgium match which had 42M viewers.

Incredible.

[Sam Mahmood @TheSammahmood_]

The U.S. soccer federation is a poor return on invested capital.

I played soccer for 20+ years.

Grassroots.
Academy.
D1 college.
Pursued professionally after.

And I’ll say the quiet part out loud:

The US soccer infrastructure is broken.

In America, we treat playing D1 soccer like it is the peak achievement.

For most families, clubs, coaches, and players, the entire youth soccer machine is built around one goal:

Get recruited.
Get a scholarship.
Play college soccer.

But if the objective is to produce world-class players, D1 soccer is a terrible development path.

From 18-22, some of the most important technical development years of your career, you are preparing for a 3-4 month season built largely around athleticism, direct play, set pieces, fitness, and survival.

Now compare that to an 18-year-old in Spain, Argentina, Morocco, Italy, England, or France.

That player has likely been in a professional environment for years.

Training daily.
Playing meaningful matches year-round.
Competing against grown professionals.
Getting thousands more touches.
Learning how to solve the game under pressure.

The gap is massive.

And it shows.

American players are usually athletic.
They are usually fit.
They usually compete hard.

But at the highest levels, that is not enough.

The biggest difference is technical comfort.

We do not move the ball like Spain.
We do not combine like Argentina.
We do not play with the same fluidity, rhythm, and confidence you see from countries where the game is embedded into the culture from childhood.

That comes down to volume.

Volume of touches.
Volume of street soccer.
Volume of futsal.
Volume of unstructured play.
Volume of high-level training environments.
Volume of meaningful games.

In the US, youth soccer is expensive, overly organized, overly coached, tournament-driven, and too often built around winning games at 13 instead of developing players for 23.

Parents spend thousands.
Clubs charge thousands.
Travel teams fly all over the country.
Showcases become the product.
Recruiting becomes the scoreboard.

But the return on invested capital is poor.

We probably spend more money on youth soccer than almost any country in the world, yet the technical output does not match the investment.

That is a broken operating model.

And like any business, if the output is weak, you do not blame the customer.

You inspect the system.

The US has talent.
The US has athletes.
The US has money.
The US has facilities.

But the foundation is wrong.

We built a pay-to-play, college-recruiting machine and confused it for a world-class player development system.

Those are not the same thing.

Until we fix the grassroots layer, increase meaningful touches, make development less dependent on family income, and stop treating college soccer as the top of the mountain, the US will keep underperforming relative to its resources.

I’m not saying this to trash US Soccer.

I’m saying it because I lived it.

And if we actually want to become a powerhouse, we have to be honest about the infrastructure first.

[FOX Sports @FOXSports]

JAPAN TAKES THE LEAD OVER BRAZIL 🇯🇵

Kaishu Sano with a beautiful finish

[DodgersMuse @LADodgersMuse]

DALTON RUSHING WALKS IT OFF

DODGERS WIN 6-5

[Democrats @TheDemocrats]

The Obamas unveil their first-ever commissioned portrait together, painted by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, in the lobby of the new Obama Presidential Library.

[Nico Cantor @Nicocantor1]

Yooo Koreatown in LA is absolutely a vibe 🇰🇷🎉

[KingmanSimp @JimboSamso]

Ohtani has the highest OPS and the lowest ERA in the NL.

I repeat, Ohtani has the highest OPS and the lowest ERA in the NL🚨🚨🚨

[Henry Vasquez 🌆 @hvasquez]

@lennysan If they just bail on whatever you made for them and resort to safe food, yes

[Henry Vasquez 🌆 @hvasquez]

For the first time in NFL history, the reigning MVP and reigning Defensive Player of the Year will be teammates.

[NFL @NFL]

Browns trading DE Myles Garrett to Rams in exchange for EDGE Jared Verse and a 2027 1st-round pick. (via @RapSheet, @TomPelissero, @AdamSchefter)

[Doug McKain @DMAC_LA]

Victor Wembanyama is officially the new face of the NBA.

Kareem won his first NBA title at 24. Jordan won his first at 28. LeBron won his first at 27. Wemby has a great chance to win his first at 22. He's on a GOAT trajectory.

[Henry Vasquez 🌆 @hvasquez]

@DKThomp Have you looked at getting Nithya Raman on your show? She seems appropriately technocratic for the audience.

[Henry Vasquez 🌆 @hvasquez]

SGA is the Floyd Mayweather Jr. of basketball.

[Henry Vasquez 🌆 @hvasquez]

@fortelabs @BillSeitz This is a refreshingly honest admission, unlike most of what we see here on X. Thank you for sharing this.

[Henry Vasquez 🌆 @hvasquez]

@DKThomp @jdcmedlock Yeah. Tankies always seem to have the worst framing.

[Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter]

Sean McVay told @KyleBrandt and @PSchrags that he wasn’t angry Thursday night after his team used the 13th overall selection on Ty Simpson; he was trying to be respectful to NFL MVP Matthew Stafford.