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ECNL moving to school year not calendar
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Anonymous
And yet… The Greatest player to ever play the game is 5 foot 7 in…probably closer to 5 foot 5 in… |
Anonymous
Outliers aren’t the norm |
Anonymous
He’s also very technical, quick, fast, creative. He has the other attributes that matter. |
Anonymous
We have 330 million people, which is 5x - 6x more than the major European soccer powers. The American football excuse is weak. It has to do with play to play, the focus on physical attributes, and emphasis on winning. I live in TX. The Hispanic heavy teams here are BALLERS, but many of them don’t play at the “highest levels”. They don’t get noticed as much as they should, primarily for the three reasons noted above. |
Anonymous
This coach is right, because the focus is on winning. So the girls who develop early have a massive advantage in playing time and higher level coaching. Mine, at 14, is just now gaining muscle, but the years of less game time and 2nd tier (or worse) coaching have taken their toll. Her technical skills are fabulous but until they could be paired with strength and quickness, not just speed, they didn’t matter. If we cared less about winning at U13 and down, she would have had the coaching to help her reach the top level now, when her body has caught up to her peers. But it might be too late. That’s why the system stinks for kids like mine. And… girls don’t bioband so that’s not helpful either. |
Anonymous
The real truth is 99% of kids aren't going to be pro or college soccer players and we invent all sorts of excuses from coaching to RAE as to why our kid didn't "make it". It's a sport, a game. Have fun, learn teamwork. If your kid gets good, wins sometimes, maybe a tournament or 2, that's great. If they go to college OR somehow make it to the pros, all icing on the cake. |
Anonymous
It's also just our country. Soccer is popular but not the dominate part of the culture like in other nations. Besides, we have so many sports for kids and on top of that we even INVENT new sports all the time -- all of which puts a ceiling of sorts on soccer. |
Anonymous
This is really the only explanation. All of these problems - pay to play, physical attributes, emphasis on winning - exist in the other US sports. And yet we still manage to produce athletes and teams that are internationally competitive. Except just not in men’s soccer. The problem cannot be the US youth sports culture because then it would impact all of these other sports. What is specific to men’s soccer in this country? Maybe it’s that the types of boys who have the internal motivation plus the natural abilities to excel in sports choose other sports which are more lucrative and grant more social status in the US than soccer. |
Anonymous
That’s true. And not everyone is physically gifted. But it’s also true that as a soccer culture, we make that decision when kids are little, and SHOULD be playing a ton and having fun. And we don’t. My kid was only playing 10 minutes a game at AGE 9. I mean really? And they had the 2nd highest goal and highest assist numbers on the team. The coach just didn’t like small players, period. Obviously we switched clubs when we could but that’s the bias we have. Even when performing. Some kids, like mine, love soccer so much they will stick it out, but a lot will quit. It’s just silly. |
Anonymous
He is not an outlier. You look at the top 5 or even top 10 players of all time… on average they’re not very big or strong. They’re “quick”, but not really fast per se. Maradona was small. Pele was small. Messi is small. These are the three greatest players of all time. The reason the US sucks at soccer is that they think the physical attributes of the player are more important than their technical and tactical skills. The USNT is generally bigger and faster than most of its opponents. The best three teams in the world right now (for me, Spain, Argentina, and England) are not at the top because of their physical skills. |
Anonymous
Hardest anyone plays these other sports where we “dominate”. No one gives a damn about American football. Baseball is only played in LatAm (and Japan), and let’s be honest, the foreign players are just as good if not better than the American players. Basketball has opened up to the rest of the world… and foreign players are balling in the NBA. What team sport do we dominate that is widely played around the world? |
Anonymous
You think you gain credibility by saying you’re an ECNL coach? I assume you’re American? Listen, no one cares that there are highly ranked ECNL teams. What matters is what your players become when they’re 18. If you’re measuring stick is the ranking of the team, you’re focused on yourself, not your players. Does anyone know the ranking of CR7s teams when he was 13, 14, 15 years old? Or how many titles he won? No! The fact that you don’t think this is a technical sport shows how little you know. The Barca midfield three, Modric, Kroos, etc, are among the greatest midfielders of all time. All highly technical. None are athletic. |
Anonymous
Without issue club/coach lock on ranking kids at about age 8 blocks 90 percent of kids from ever having the chance to even think about rising up through the ranks and pushes them to other sports and out of soccer. It's weird to think about but clubs think they have too many kids so they weed out and weed out until all of the focus is on a few kids. And those kids may not grow into athletes, may have peaked early, don't want to dedicate themselves to only one sport and have a decent chance of getting hurt. Youth soccer offers so many more demotivators than motivators for kids along the way. Pay to play is a complete red herring. MSI classic is around $600 per year and MLSN academies are free. |
Anonymous
| This thread has really wandered. Good news is it is inching us closer to 1000! Keep up the good work girl dads! |
Anonymous
No one cares about American football? Actually, boys in America care A LOT. That’s why they don’t care about soccer and there is social pressure against playing a girl sport. Why would any country dominate a sport that is widely played? That’s a weird position. Compete sure but dominate? Do you think America has superior athletes to the rest of the world? |