Daniel Workman

Dream Big. Work Harder.

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

@GRANT_300 @TaylorTwellman Part of having all of the teams and clubs in the same unified system is having all of them on the same registration calendar

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

@DOBrienATL were you hacked?

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

@THEChrisKessell @ussoccer @sunilgulati 💯 Let’s do it!

[Chris Kessell @THEChrisKessell]

Hey @danielworkman you remember this process?

Clubs across America in 2019 were literally scared to sign on because of the fear of reprisal from @ussoccer and @sunilgulati.

We still got well over 100 to sign on.

Maybe it is time to do this again?

How many would do it now?

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

Fact

[Matt Danaher @mattdanaher]

We don’t celebrate tactical and technical ability even close to the same degree as the physical in the U.S.

Just look at how many colleges will celebrate their highest beep test score from preseason in the coming weeks.

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

@THEChrisKessell With the current coaching and scouting talent deficiencies, quite a while.

[GOLZ @golz_tv]

“I think this is personal. It's a real personal attack on this young man.”

Scottish legend and former Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley has come to USMNT star Christian Pulisic’s defense and hits out at pundits from FOX Sports. 😳

“I don't like it,” Burley said on ESPN FC about Pulisic’s critics.

“I get it, he's had a tough tournament because he started well, got injured, hasn't really found his flow again, ends the tournament the way he pretty much started and got injured.

“But the pile-on, the pile-on to an individual, is way over the top.

“It's like, if Christian Pulisic had a great tournament, the U.S. would have gone all the way. That's kind of how the talk is.

“And I get it, he has a responsibility, and he didn't come into this tournament to try and be under par or play badly.

“But to me, if I was Christian Pulisic, I would be big-time annoyed. In fact, if I was Christian Pulisic, I think I'd be digging some of these people out, personally.

“Because it seems to me it's almost a personal attack on an individual rather than an analysis of the football that's gone before.

“Because if it's an analysis of the football, you could go through pretty much the whole team and say, well, he had a bad game, he had a bad game, the goalkeeper made a mistake, you saw Sergiño Dest had a terrible game, letting balls bounce in the box, all that sort of stuff.

“But it seems that he has been painted up there as the poster boy, and now that some of them, who should know better by the way, some of them, because they've been in that position, want to kill him. They're absolutely killing him.

“It’s people from FOX. It's the same people that when Flo Balogun was told he could play, they were on that network, and they embarrassed the hell out of themselves for about half an hour.

“They all danced around the fact that it was wrong, and said, this is the greatest decision in the history of U.S. sports, Flo Balogun's going to play. That's how embarrassing these people are. They have no shame.

“You're criticizing a player for not carrying a team, no further than you yourself never carried a team.

“You know, it’s not like some of these past players got to the semifinal or whatever and they said, well, he had a disrupted tournament.

“Look, do I think he's perfect? No. But I'll tell you one thing about Christian Pulisic, and going back to [Landon] Donovan and one or two others, at least he's had the stomach to go to Europe over a long, long period of time and forge out a pretty good career for himself at Dortmund, at Chelsea, at Milan.

“He’s gone over there for a long period of time and he has produced some very good performances.

“Some of this lot sitting on their cozy sofas, they can't say that. Yeah, they can talk about what they did in MLS, they can talk about what they did now and again with the national team, but they didn't have the stomach, some of them, to go over there and train your butt off and play at elite level for years at a time.

“They dipped their toe in the water and they jumped back over the pond. But yeah, they want to sit here and kill him.

“And listen, they can analyze games all they want. I don't care. That's their job. But here, I think this is personal. It's a real personal attack on this young man.”

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

What an interview with @dpshow and @KevinFrazier ! Nice to hear the honesty. Need more of it.

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

@IHateSoccerPod Transition of funding will occur gradually as revenue streams grow, the dependence on fleecing families will decrease. It’s also important that the youth system be open as well rather than the current landscape so that you reduce the power of gatekeepers.

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

An open system where clubs are rewarded for development (solidarity payments & training compensation) & where their first teams are able to compete on sporting merit to reach the top. Competition is better for the market. Don’t need a better mousetrap. Just do what the rest of the world does.

[Alexi Lalas @AlexiLalas]

Youth soccer (youth sports) is a competitive market with businesses selling a product that obviously customers are willing to pay for. I’d love if soccer was free to all. But who is going to pay for all this free soccer?

[Nico Cantor @Nicocantor1]

USMNT players need to feel the wrath of the media and fans after this pathetic performance. Unworthy of a World Cup stage.

This is not the time for moral victories. This is not the time for kumbaya. This is not the time to celebrate how this team brought people together.

If you applaud this mediocrity, you only condone mediocrity. Call them out, from the president of the federation to the goalkeeper. And EVERYONE in this team.

Especially the poster boy of this group: Christian Pulisic. He never asked to be the face of it all so why are we making him be that? He doesn’t lead. It doesn’t look like he wants to. And then chronically injured. You can’t be Captain America if you can’t carry the weight of the shield.

And he’s not the only one, by the way. You can point to a lot of the guys yesterday who weren’t up to the task. Chose whoever. Pulisic just happened to be the face of it all.

Every World Cup elimination we sit with our head in our hands asking questions about pay-to-play, what if our best athletes, did we take the right players, when are we going to make it?

This is the main reason we’re being held back. It’s nothing you don’t know:

Football in the US is institutionalized and corporatized. It’s a business first and then comes soccer. ACROSS the board. From US Soccer who prices out fans for ugly friendlies. To MLS’s closed system that rewards mediocrity. To clubs and academies that make it difficult for families to have their kids play soccer.

It’s all wrong. It was great in 1994 when we needed something to get up and running. But now we’re on the wrong trajectory. And our complacency will never redirect course.

Be disappointed, be angry. Call them out. Don’t reward this. You shouldn’t be feeling anything else. If not, we’ll never progress.

[Tab Ramos @RamosTab]

🇺🇸 US v 🇧🇪 Belgium 1:4

It was never a game.
Back to where we were 4 years ago …

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

He’s not wrong.

[ettingermentum @ettingermentum]

I just watched England fucking DIE ON THE FIELD on the ROAD at the TOP OF A MOUNTAIN for their country only to see this team play like SCARED CHILDREN at HOME with a BRIBE ADVANTAGE

[Neil Cooper @NCHammer1980]

Belgium's technical and tactical superiority should absolutely put a stop to the "our best athletes need to play soccer nonsense"

All these people watching have to see that right?

Especially as their best player is Tillman, who is also comfortably their most technical player

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

@24x7soccerus Exactly. I watched this game in Atlanta this spring. They look the same.

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

It feels like Belgium were resting for the next match. They didn’t take the USMNT seriously… and we’ve proved them right. Come a long way but still miles off the elite level.

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

@UFGoonerAJ He will get a big club job off this performance.

[Daniel Workman @danielworkman]

@recap_david Newsletter