The5thElement: It still amazes me that a country with the population of the US, can't find 26 players who can make it past the round of 16. Also, nobody in MLS should be on the USMNT roster. The level of competition just isn't high enough to succeed long term at the international level. It's really saying something when European stars well past their prime come here to play and are still better than 90% of MLS players.

In previous generations, the best athletes did not choose soccer.  At all.  I remember starting to play in my mid-thirties and be faster than a lot of the college players.  Hell, our starting USMNT goalkeeper didn't even play soccer until he was a teenager.  That's slowly changing, but most of our lightning fast 5'9" guys still try to play point guard or cornerback.

And the unaffordability of soccer for most families has got to be addressed.  All the travel tournaments, clinics, etc.  It excludes a big swath of the population.