Alexi Lalas blames U.S. Soccer’s struggles on ‘diversity’

Alexi Lalas recently blamed the U.S. Men Soccer’s struggles on “diversity,” following some disappointing games of late. The former Rutgers and Team USA standout chalked it up to 11 men representing the United States and all being on the same page is going to be difficult.

It’s certainly an interesting reason as to why the men’s team is struggling right now, at least according to Lalas. He argued being “exclusive” rather than “inclusive” would be key to the U.S’s success in the future.

With just a year to go before the FIFA World Cup is held on American, as well as Canadian and Mexican, soil, some fans are panicking. That was after a 4-0 loss to Switzerland ahead of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which the USA won 5-0 over Trinidad and Tobago in the opening group stage game. 

“We oftentimes talk about our diversity and we talk about it in the fact that it is one of the advantages we have, and of the great things about our country,” Lalas said on First Things First. “But with that diversity comes diversity of thought. If I go and ask a hundred soccer people out there, ‘What’s beautiful soccer?’ I’m going to get a hundred different answers. And it might be based on ethnicity, where you grew up, even geography. All of these different things.

“So I’ve argued that the homogenous nature of some other countries and cultures just in population in terms of size are much more manageable. And there is a collective understanding and, more importantly, an agreement in this is how we’re going to play. But getting 11 men to represent this great country of 350 million people, and all be on the same page, that is very, very difficult.”

Team USA isn’t helped by the fact that star player Christian Pulisic, who’s considered one of the best American soccer players in recent memory, isn’t playing in the Gold Cup. He decided not to play due to a grueling season with his club team AC Milan.

As Awful Announcing pointed out, France won the last World Cup with a very diverse group, so it’s hard to understand when Lalas is coming from, at least from that perspective. But Lalas, who initially bought into the melting pot argument, wants all players to be on the same page and develop more of an American style, so to speak.

“I’ve argued before that maybe our best route to actually being better from a men’s perspective in soccer is actually being more exclusive, not being as inclusive,” Lalas said. “In that if you went to the New York metropolitan area or Southern California and you just took players that all grew up in the same area, had all this shared experiences, maybe that would be better in terms of an understanding.

“This melting pot fallacy that I’ll be the first to admit, I bought into. And I’m not saying it can’t happen. It just takes a lot longer and with a lot more work. And especially when it comes to a national team, you don’t have time to be able to do that.”