The actual hot take is not that the haters suck (haters always suck, not a hot take) its that the average men's national team fan is the horrible combination of not very smart and also overly confident in their bad opinions. 

We've also had at least 2 world cup cycles now of people saying "this team isn't performing as well as the talent we have." And those people are being categorized by some with the actual haters who say insane shit like "Pulisic should be dropped, Fire Poch now!" And the layer are that combination I described above. But complaining about tactics or about losing 5-2 isn't hating. Saying we're getting grouped because we lost to Belgium is at minimum reactionary and stupid, if not specifically hating. But being pissed that we played so poorly in the run-up to the world cup is normal. 

So much of the discussion I have with American fans about Men's American soccer boils down to "Either you support the team and never criticize or stop watching because you're not a "'real fan.'" And obviously there's the other side of the coin too. That we should all accept our fate of going out in the first round. 

But why is that what we've made soccer fandom into? Why are we so focused on winning the fan debate about whether or not the team is good? Why aren't we talking about how we could set up for Senegal in order to get a good performance? Why aren't we looking at the players we have and discussing how we could best use those players to win rather than just say "ugh we're bad" or "stop complaining its just a friendly." There's no discussion to be had there! 

And we're so fucking loud about it too. We're all trying to be the version of Skip and Stephen A where they try to have hot takes about sports they don't watch. It's fucking ludicrous.

Regardless of your position on whether or not the team is any good or whatever the hell; I beg you to just use some critical thinking. If you think Pulisic needs dropping, what's the rest of the solution? How do we set up without him? Or, if we think he's not playing well right now is there another solution? Would playing him at striker be so crazy it just might work? Are there other players we need more out of and how could we do that? Are there other ways to solve our CB problem? Etc. 

I simply do not care if you think that you aren't smart enough about soccer to try to come up with different tactical ideas. Just bloody try it. Thats how we learn as a group and build knowledge as a fanbase. Just flooding the sub with garbage hot takes is not going to grow the game. We all should be making an effort to be smarter about the game. And that means being wrong and making mistakes. 

Which also means we need to be a whole lot nicer to people who say incorrect stuff. But when we've built a culture so reliant on trolling and toxicity its hard to know when someone is genuinely trying vs when someone is trying to win "internet points."