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The US were able to set aside their national ego after some disappointing results in hockey in the not-so-distant past, if I recall they more or less copied what we were doing here in Canada, and became a very similar type of team, and subsequently had success.It seems the interest level just isn't very high. Also, the prospect building seems to be awful compared to the common European method. However, even that is not much of an excuse because countries like Iceland, with a very limited talent pool, are fielding decent teams, merely because of strategy.
I'd look at the coaching first of all, in Canadian and American soccer teams. You don't really need great players to play good soccer, you just need disciplined players who can execute a strategy, and a good coach who can put such a team together. You do need great players to actually win the tournaments, but you can hang in there with just a good, solid team that works together, without straying away from the plan.
Sweden, Denmark and Finland are tiny nations by comparison, but ultimately you're only putting 11 men on the field. 11 men out of tens of thousands of players, are going to be very good. In the US or Canada, they might have more options to choose from, but if they're not producing top-level talent, that advantage is not truly going to matter. If Americans or Canadians mostly take up soccer as a hobby, while the Swedes or the Danes see it as a serious career option, the sheer size of the talent pool won't matter if the culture around the sport is very lax and casual.
You'd think the US/Canada could figure something out. I've always heard that one issue in both countries is the sheer size prohibiting the best of the best from playing with/against one another. We've made major changes in Canadian soccer in the past couple of years from what I gather (I'll admit I don't follow extremely close) and seem to be on the right track at the moment. I think our plan has been to get younger and adopt a more aggressive, attacking approach. Attempt to score by sheer creation of chances against inferior opposition.
We've got some youth in our squad, including a guy who is 16 I think. The US are getting there with some more younger 20's players.
The culture thing would be an interesting discussion, but not one I am inclined to get into much detail on at 3am, haha.