Keys to Continued Growth

Saturday was my daughter's first birthday. It was an amazing year with a lot of memories. Somehow they all took a backseat when the US lost to Ghana. It's sad to admit, but I spent the rest of the day and the rest of the weekend thinking about what went wrong and what could have been.

I'm done thinking about the past. From this point forward, I would rather think about the future. I think we have the potential to be even better in 2014 and beyond, but need a few things to happen.

First, we need our domestic league, MLS to continue to improve in quality. This goes for everyone - players, coaches, referees. We need to continue importing talent from outside the country to help develop our youth. The higher the quality of play, the more experienced and ready our youngsters will be to move abroad. It will take a lot of vision by owners and GM's to bring in the right guys; to avoid signing the likes of Raul and Denilson because of their previous feats. This also means changing the league structure to allow for larger rosters and a reserve league.

Second, transfers need to be agreed to if only the right situation presents itself. And when it does present itself, MLS needs to agree to let the player go. We need our players to play in the top leagues. This does not mean that our players have to play for the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid or AC Milan because the reality is that we don't have anyone good enough to do so. Transferring to one of those powerhouses means not dressing for games and action only in reserve games. This is not good enough. We need players to be in situations like Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Maurice Edu (Ranger) and Michael Bradley (Borussia Monchengladbach). Each have benefited from quality playing times at their clubs. With an impressive showing at the WC, each may be in line to move to a bigger club knowing that they will be able to get playing time. I think Stuart Holden's move to Bolton is great but have to say that Oguchi Onyewu's move to AC Milan was less than ideal.

Third, we need an Alpha Dog. This is a concept that Bill Simmons talks about all the time - teams need to know who their Alpha Dog is - who the guys is that demands the ball at the end of the game. In watching this current team, I get the sense this is an issue. I get the sense that Donovan is expected to be that guy from coaches and media, but I sense that Dempsey thinks he is that guy. So who will it be moving forward? I actually question whether it should be Donovan moving forward. Too many times I find myself underwhelmed by his play. Yes he set up and scored the big goal against Algeria, but if you take a critical look, you realize that the outlet by Tim Howard set up the play and that the goal was on an empty net from 6 yards out. Dempsey, while not scoring, created more chances and looked more dangerous. How will this play out moving forward? Will Michael Bradley step up and supplant both?

Fourth is a set of long term needs. We need ESPN to continue to promote soccer. MLS doesn't need to be covered like the World Cup. They don't need to have a special results show each week. Having anchors on SportsCenter not make fun of the game would be a welcome site. Hell, having highlights on SportsCenter would be great. We also need to start tapping into our Hispanic community. It is amazing that a country of our size and makeup has only one Hispanic player on their team. A lot of progress has been made in terms of African American involvement. We need more Hispanic players on our team. Let's use our nation's diversity as more of an asset. One way to increase the presence is to change the soccer system in the US to allow for more youth system and reserve teams that get the highest quality of training due to their relationship with MLS teams. Have more academies and stop making parents pay so much money to have their kids involved in the beautiful game.

I think these are key to our continued growth as a soccer power. With that being said, I don't think the future is dark at all. In fact, I think we are in great shape for 2014. Looking at the team, we can assume that Donovan, Dempsey, Bradley, Altidore, Howard, Edu and Torres will all be back. There are a lot of promising younger guys like Charlie Davies, Stuart Holden and Alejandro Bedoya who will also play a role. Finding defenders will be key, but I think always easier to find than creating midfielders and goal thirsty scorers. Like three days ago, the opportunity is there to take the next step. Now we just need to take the steps.