World Cup 2014 Thoughts

• That Belgium match was one of the most entertaining of the tournament, right up there with Costa Rica-Uruguay, US-Portugal, Ghana-Germany, and most Colombia matches.
• The future looks kind of bright? I would think that the best indication of that would be the performance of the U-23 (aka Olympic) team in the next cycle - those guys have not been great recently - and of the U-20 team, which has had some mixed success in recent years. If those teams aren't getting into at least the quarterfinals of their tournaments, I'm not sure it's realistic to expect that the Senior MNT will do better in Russia. The potential young stars - Yedlin, Green, Brooks - are already here, but those junior teams will provide the depth that we simply don't have right now.
• I could have added Altidore to the list above - he can get better, and even though he's seemingly been around forever, he'll turn 25 in November. I didn't add Johannsson because he showed very little in Brazil. And I think Diskerud is still on the team, but can't be too sure.
• I would agree with Klinsmann, college soccer may be retarding development here in the States; I wonder if the NCAA's upcoming legal losses will change this. If they have to end up paying athletes, are these 'new' employees going to be allowed to "major" in their sports, such that the practice restrictions are done away with - or at the very least, loosened up quite a bit - and college programs become more like lower-level clubs or academies? One would think that this model could then filter down to the high school level (eventually).
• I'm pulling for Costa Rica (I've been there, it's beautiful and friendly, they're on the same continent, et cetera) and Germany (my mom's family heritage, plus they're very tall and fast) from here on out.
• I know it's a dry heat in Qatar, and they're planning on adding A/C to their stadiums; let's hope it works. I can't imagine that extra time will look pretty in 120F heat, if the A/C goes down. Then again, maybe it won't be an issue because the 2022 competition will be closer to home.