Throwing The American Soccer “Hype Train” Off The Rails

Bear with me as I list some players, ok?

What do the names Freddy Adu, Brek Shea, Teal Bunbury, Juan Agudelo, Jordan Morris, Mix Diskerud, Julian Green, Sean Johnson, Bill Hamid, Gyasi Zardes, Luis Gil, Gale Agbossoumonde, Omar Salgado, Joseph Gyau, Marc Pelosi, Kellyn Acosta, Gedion Zelalem, Emerson Hyndman, Haji Wright, Andrew Carleton, Josh Perez, and Junior Flores all have in common?

They were all subjects of the “American Soccer Hype Train”.

I want to make one thing clear – none of the blame in this article is on the players. It is 100% on the fans and especially the media in this country that overrate and hype our players.

Let’s touch on:

1. How many players have been hyped but then underperformed (whether it was due to talent, injury, or other).
2. The influence of social media and the desire people have to be the first to “discover” the potential of a player.
3. The lack of expertise when it comes to evaluating a player. How many times have you heard something along the lines of “he’s such a great athlete; once he understands the soccer side more, he will be an elite talent” (wtf?!)?
4. The lack of global understanding – what were the players on this list doing at important development age “x” compared to the other top young players in the world? How many first team starts did they get? What was the quality of the team they played with? What was their transfer value?

The only player on the list where an argument could be made that they were once a “top” player at their age was Freddy Adu, and we unfortunately saw how that still turned out.

All 22 of the players listed underperformed, for various reasons.

Honestly, the list could be 50+. There is a consistent need in this country to look for “the next big thing” instead of being really honest about a player’s limitations.

Some of the reasons they underperformed? Lack of first team games, bad transfers, playing for clubs that didn’t suit their style as a player, injury problems, lack of form – there are many reasons.

To be honest though, here is the main reason:

So then why is there a hype train?

With the influence of social media and the internet, people are constantly looking to claim the next “star” of American Soccer. People want the credit for discovering him first. People want the validation of the “likes” and “RTs” when their star player does something well. People prefer the feeling of being “bought in” on a player rather than openly evaluating him each and every game.

Which leads to my second point; if people are already “bought in” to a player just imagine what happens when, on top of that, they don’t have the expertise to evaluate a player. The “incredible athlete will be great once he has the technical ability and soccer IQ” line is a slap in the face to people who actually develop soccer players.

Coaches who produce higher level players know if a player doesn’t already have a solid technical base and soccer intelligence by the age of 16, their global potential is completely toast. Here is another one, a bit more nuanced; just because a player isn’t strong or fast does not mean they are “technical, good in tight spaces, or have good soccer intelligence.” They too could just be an average, low ceiling, player.

Finally, and probably the most important one is the lack of global understanding.
Player “X” makes his MLS debut at 17. People are all aboard the hype train!

Player “Y” though has made 20 pro appearances in Ligue 1. Player “Y” plays on a better team than player “X” and has world class clubs chasing him, he has a transfer value 10x larger than player “X”. But we only focus on the growth of player “X”.

While not always the best indicator, the U-20 World Cup lets a lot of these people see that there are talented players being produced all around the globe.

You know what though? This is great for the players. The US U-20 World Cup team was probably the deepest US youth team ever, but still even those guys got to see there are higher levels. It’s better to see that than to just read what people say about you, hyping you up as the next big thing.

I challenge people to do their due diligence, and research. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to see your players succeed, it’s what we all want at the end of the day. But hyping a player based off of very little doesn’t just do a disservice to you as a talent evaluator, it does a disservice to that player (who now has to try and fulfill your hype despite it being unwarranted) and also to the few who actually are worthy of hyping.

Christian Pulisic has proven he’s worth getting excited about. Tyler Adams has demonstrated he’s worth some excitement. And understandably, maybe Weston McKennie. I’m not saying they will be top players, but being Bundesliga regulars by 20 at least provides a significant signal for people who aren’t professional talent assessors.

I think people do the hype train stuff because it gives them “hope”. To see young Americans who are fighting for their spot like Christian, Tyler, and Weston gives us “hope” each week.

All three have faced challenges.

Christian fell out of favor and has now changed clubs. Weston wasn’t brought back to youth national team residency when he was younger. Tyler has fought injuries but has come back stronger each time.

I talk these three up because they are examples of what global professionals look like. They have some talent. They are tough. They seem to learn with the challenges their young careers throw at them. They don’t need your hype. They’ve been handed nothing. I think they believed in the only thing they’ve had with them since day one: themselves.