Originally posted by Dolfan02
Here's my thoughts..
I'm GLAD that USA did not qualify for the Olympics in soccer. First of all, I personally believe that soccer should not be one of the held games at the Olympics. Soccer has far succeeded apart from the Olympic games, the FIFA World Cup, Euro Championship, Champions League, Copa Libertadores, African Nations Cup, even the WC qualifying stages is much more honored and acclaimed by the international community than the soccer tourney at the Games. FIFA should be sole responsible for international soccer matches, and the Olympics should be sole responsible for the other games. Have you ever seen a soccer match at the Olympics? Its a joke, you can see the ghost-town dustballs blowing through the stands. Did you know that the European zone qualifying for the Olympics is a tournament of U-21? They send their whole U-21 teams to play against our U-23 + 3 seniors. How lame is that? I'm a huge soccer fan, but I wouldn't be able to tell you the last 2 soccer winners at the Olympics. If you're asking for WC or Euro champs? I can tell you every winner in order, back to when those tourneys began.
With that being said, I'm glad they have not qualified for the Olympics because it will allow our overseas players such as Bocanegra, Mathis, McBride, Reyna, etc to take a breather after their domestic tourneys by coming home for a bit (Mexicans wouldn't understand because they don't play abroad). Then, after taking a rest, they usually jump back into the MLS in its progress. And the MLS could definitely use the MNT players in its teams to bring some more excitement. If we would have qualified for the Olympics, then many of the exciting upcoming players (U-23) and 3 senior players would not have participated in many of the upcoming 2004 international friendlies nor in many MLS games. Our NT players needed this break for once. They'll come back super strong for WC qualifying once it begins for us in the summer. This is exactly what I long-awaited for!