This is only anecdotal, thus not conclusive.

Players that come to mind from the Premiership that had a good World Cup: Carlos Tevez, Ryan Nelson, Kolo Toure(?).

You go over the cliched reasons why the Premiership would hurt a national team, and things do become cliched for a reason, but I’m not sure if it’s all true. I haven’t seen any empirical evidence that referees in the Premiership let more go than, say, referees in Seire A. I haven’t seen any statistics showing a player is more likely to get hurt in the EPL than, say, the Bundesliga. These things might be true, but often perception doesn’t match reality. (If anyone knows if anyone has done actual research on these subjects, I’d love to see it.)

How many players from the Premier League had good world cups? (De Jong, Kuyt, perhaps) The list of those who had a poor World Cup is long.

I think the biggest issue for England is the backwards, low skill way they play with Stephen Gerrard being poster child for its failings. He is an absolute god at Anfield, and truly mortal internationally. He is the quintessential English player full of piss and vinegar, flying into tackles and running until he pukes, but not doing nearly enough thinking. The English value hard tackling, not smart defending, and the referees oblige them domestically. As a result their skills in the international version of the game are dull in comparison to Germany, Italy and Spain. (Note: Even though Italy was poor, players from Serie A did well.)

What does the Premier League lack that hurts England:
1) Rest
2) A pace of play that minimizes the importance of tactical subtlety and thoughtful play
3) Referee standards that maximize physical contact, which
a. Lowers the value of skill
b. Maximizes injury
c. Produces fewer send-offs and cautions
d. Minimizes stoppages in play
4) A side-effect of the physical play is to penalize skill, or at least allow physical play to neutralize it. It is the basis of a number of truly crap team’s ability to stay in the Premier League for years (Blackburn and Stoke come to mind as shit teams that compete using brutality).
5) The money in the league allows the purchase of talent from around the world, which diminishes the ability of the English to play at that level. It also exposes the fact that they are not good enough.

Is it better than other forms of the game? It is debatable, but its clear that the Premier League is an outgrowth of English culture, specifically the working class roots of the fanbase.

The Premier League makes great TV, the competition is grand, but it is a breed apart from the game played in the rest of Europe and Internationally. The English cannot have their cake and eat it too.

It is an issue for the United States to the extent that we try to copy elements of the Premier League in our own game, often to the detriment of our success.

Basically you’re correct, the media has failed us. I think the reasons are complicated.

The system here in the United States lacks fundamental accountability, and the media shares the blame for failing to shine a light onto the topic. Because Gulati lacks accountability for the success of the game, he has granted Bradley a similar gift. In any other nation contesting the World Cup finals both men would have been looking for new jobs after we crashed out, and for the manner of our undoing. Our media acts like our performance at the tournament was a stunning success rather than a colossal missed opportunity.

Gulati is not asked tough questions about where the game is going, or what his plan for improving our fortunes are. I would say its not even clear what his priorities are for improving the lot of Soccer in the United States. He is not asked to explain Bradley’s choices with personnel or tactics. He is not held to account. Bradley too gets off easy by the same token. The USMNT was held back by Bradley’s ineptness rather than enabled by his skill. With a better coach, the USA could have reasonably made it to the semis with the scenario offered in South Africa. In fact, Bradley was a liability. This alone should have warranted his dismissal.

The game in the United States needs to be shaken up to continue its momentum forward. Neither Gulati nor Bradley offers the USA what it needs, innovation and modernization. The press is responsible for looking the other way and taking a pass a looking more deeply at what the game needs in the United States.

While all of this points on the negative side of the ledger, its important to acknowledge some good things: the World Cup was watched in record numbers, and ESPN’s presentation of the games has improved, access to club soccer is better than ever, and the quality of play in the MLS continues to improve. The youth game is improving in terms of participation and quality. Bradley himself has contributed to the tactics of the game in devising the only recipe for defeating Spain (copied by Switzerland in South Africa), and that is a first of US Soccer. The only problem is that the blueprint to beat Spain is unremittingly negative. Soccer in the USA will have arrived when we provide a tactical innovation in attacking soccer!

Perhaps that gets at the core of my discontent with Bradley. Under his reign the USA will continue to play dull, boring, negative soccer. The USA needs an infusion of attractive soccer, which we have at our fingertips with our large Latin population. Instead we play the game in a largely British fashion that is a decade or more out of date. Skill and tactical sophistication are the exception rather than the rule.

Thankfully we’re not England where the press is part of the problem for other reasons. In England the press puts the team under such pressure that their performance is adversely impacted. The press holds the traditional British game in such regard that progress toward modern football is stymied. The attitudes associated with playing in the British manner hold the players back from reaching their true potential (its why Gerrard is a living god at Anfield, and a goat internationally!).

You are absolutely right about Gulati. It seems to me that the USSF is becoming a Clown College headed by the main Clown.