Geoff Cameron does not have much confidence in the future of the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team.

Cameron blasted USMNT coach Bruce Arena in a post written for The Players' Tribune and said there is a "poisonous divide" between MLS and European-based players.

The Team USA defender, who also plays for Stoke City in the English Premier League, said some within the leadership of U.S. Soccer are critical of talented players who opt to play in superior leagues in Europe rather than remain in the U.S. to play for an MLS club.He said former Team USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann understood U.S. players can reach their potential in European league, but Arena does not and the U.S. national team is suffering because of it.

"After Jurgen Klinsmann was fired, and Bruce Arena took over, we got too comfortable," Cameron wrote. "We lost our ambition and sense of progress. But more than anything, we lost any sense of competitiveness."I had my differences with Jurgen over the years, but the one thing you cannot deny is that Jurgen and his staff brought a sense of true professional competitiveness and ambition to the national team. Under Jurgen, your spot was never guaranteed.

"The real difference was that Jurgen challenged guys to push themselves to the absolute limits. He encouraged them to go play abroad in the top leagues, even if they didn't speak the language, or were going to have to scratch and claw to get minutes."That was the whole point, actually. He created a mindset of never letting yourself get too comfortable. He held us to a higher standard."

Cameron criticized Arena for leaving Cameron on the bench in the October loss to Trinidad and Tobago that cost the U.S. a spot in the 2018 World Cup.
After playing collegiately at the University of Rhode Island, Cameron made his way to the Houston Dynamo of MLS. He said playing in Houston helped him get to the EPL. Cameron, a 32-year-old Massachusetts native, said we should be celebrating what 19-year-old star Christian Pulisic is doing in Germany with Borussia Dortmund.

"The powers that be in U.S. Soccer have created a poisonous divide between the MLS players and the so-called 'European' players, and until that culture is torn down, the USMNT will continue to slide backwards," Cameron wrote. "With U.S. Soccer’s presidential election coming up this weekend, and the coaching vacancy yet to be filled, this issue needs to be addressed right now. It’s time to learn from our mistakes — as players, coaches and as an organization. It’s time to look forward and get to the heart of the matter.

"Our best young players need to be playing in the top European leagues. Period. It shouldn’t be looked at as a negative thing. It should be a huge source of pride to send a 20-year-old American kid to play in the Bundesliga or the Premier League. Even better if they came up in MLS for a few years.
"Why is it seen as a negative for America to “lose” a player who goes to play abroad? Brazilians don’t think this way when Neymar goes to Barcelona. The Dutch don’t think this way when their Ajax academy kids go to Chelsea or Bayern. Why don’t we go the other way entirely? U.S. Soccer should take out ads with pictures of all the players, past and present, who have made a huge impact on the world stage...

"Listen, it should be very clear, after what happened in this qualifying cycle, that we are not Spain. We are not Germany. Right now, we are not even Costa Rica. But we are still the United States of America, and one of our very own is tearing it up in Germany for Borussia Dortmund right now. He’s a product of our system. We need to get that kid to Qatar in 2022. And we need to get a dozen other guys on that plane with him who are cut from the same cloth