Is youth soccer afraid of competition?

[Anonymous]

Does anybody else believe that youth soccer in this country is afraid of competition?

It's one area where I believe that HS soccer is superior to club. I do know that there are some schools in the area that take HS more seriously and actually even are fortunate enough to attract coaches from the club level to their programs.

On the club level, competition and players are fragmented. Even to the point where you can avoid competition. This even trickles into the men's pro side with the open cup situation. The model of isolation is trickling even into the professional side of this game here and what it feels like, is that it just comes down to protecting the almighty dollar. Clubs, leagues, or teams need isolation when they're trying to protect their product. MLS doesn't want to participate into open cup because they appear as if don't want to subject themselves to matches against teams that they feel are inferior, but maybe the reality is that they're afraid of the fallout if an MLS team loses to a USL team or some amateur team. Similarly, there are so many leagues, tournaments, showcases, and clubs at the youth level that this can be done there too. Even in VA, there are what appears to be 2 state cups for club soccer. The USCS state cup and the USYS state/presidential cup. Then think about the fall and spring around here, there's always at least 2 if not 3 tournaments around the area going on simultaneously during certain weekends of the fall and spring every year, so depending on your team, you can absolutely find the level you need to be at or sandbag it or actually find the competition but sometimes there are barriers of entry to even do that if you wanted to. Now we get to the vast number of clubs in this area. Are clubs actually putting the best players together? I'd imagine they're trying to, but with so many clubs around and so many other factors that come into being able to put the best players together, it rarely happens. Teams/clubs can avoid competition and still try to claim that they are the best.

This has been covered before, and part of the reason why this area has a sense of success but after that full season and these clubs make their way to the national playoffs, they have a hard time against real competition.

With HS's around here you won't find that generally. There are some exceptions where players aren't bound geographically to be playing at the school they are zoned to, but usually it's the case. The feel is different than club. There are so many other factors that come into it when it comes to that kind of soccer. The team is tied to the area the school is in, it gives those players a sense that they're representing their school, being able to play in front of their peers, and often times there are what feel like real rivalries. There is no hiding from the big dog schools if they want to make it far in the post season for HS.

[Anonymous]

Having a nationally competitive team from this area is your goal. It is not the goal of a youth soccer club. Their goal just is to sustain and grow their own program. Why should clubs act against their own interests for the sake of having a nationally competitive team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having a nationally competitive team from this area is your goal. It is not the goal of a youth soccer club. Their goal just is to sustain and grow their own program. Why should clubs act against their own interests for the sake of having a nationally competitive team?

Not a goal of mine. Simply giving my opinion that youth soccer is afraid of competition. This also isn't isolated to this region, take a look at all the states and take the 'top 25' teams from YSR, some get to play each other, but a lot don't.

[Anonymous]

Big clubs have no incentive to play small clubs, especially when there is a risk of losing. They will never wholly support a league with promotion and relegation that is open to all because that risk them losing their position at the top

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having a nationally competitive team from this area is your goal. It is not the goal of a youth soccer club. Their goal just is to sustain and grow their own program. Why should clubs act against their own interests for the sake of having a nationally competitive team?

Just reinforces OP's thoughts on companies/organizations needing isolation to work. Why would clubs/teams/organizations/companies pit themselves against others if they know it's a 50/50 chance they lose and to the average consumer, look bad. When they can cherry pick their path or event and subject themselves to teams that they know have a higher percentage chance of winning and post their win on IG.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having a nationally competitive team from this area is your goal. It is not the goal of a youth soccer club. Their goal just is to sustain and grow their own program. Why should clubs act against their own interests for the sake of having a nationally competitive team?

Just reinforces OP's thoughts on companies/organizations needing isolation to work. Why would clubs/teams/organizations/companies pit themselves against others if they know it's a 50/50 chance they lose and to the average consumer, look bad. When they can cherry pick their path or event and subject themselves to teams that they know have a higher percentage chance of winning and post their win on IG.

We're talking about TopHat right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having a nationally competitive team from this area is your goal. It is not the goal of a youth soccer club. Their goal just is to sustain and grow their own program. Why should clubs act against their own interests for the sake of having a nationally competitive team?

Just reinforces OP's thoughts on companies/organizations needing isolation to work. Why would clubs/teams/organizations/companies pit themselves against others if they know it's a 50/50 chance they lose and to the average consumer, look bad. When they can cherry pick their path or event and subject themselves to teams that they know have a higher percentage chance of winning and post their win on IG.

Everyone large club wants certainty. I don't even think they're wrong. If clubs were continually in danger of relegation, it would make investing in facilities and a professional staff pointless because a down year would lead to your best players leaving for teams in better leagues. Look at what happens to clubs when they lose positions in higher leagues, they end up bleeding talent and free falling

[Anonymous]

At professional levels, I agree that the competition needs to be opened up. I also agree that there should be more MLSnext clubs and that local clubs be allowed to continue through although I would prob start U16 and above.

I think U14 and below should be focused on development. It’s very easy to win games against young teams who are just learning to be confident in their ball mastery and playing possession under pressure.

Let’s not kid ourselves that all clubs are teaching technique and possession. We left a winning club bc we knew our DS was not going to develop much more there. We had many games against better teams but we won anyway although they had possession most of the time, bc we capitalized on their mistakes. No matter that our team could barely string more than a few passes when they had the ball.

FWIW, even if DS former team could not play possession, the kids themselves were solid players and most would have made it in on an MLSNext/ECNL team based on athleticism and ability to play creatively.

[Anonymous]

Everything being said here is absolutely true. It’s how the free market works whether it’s restaurants or retail stores or soccer clubs. If you don’t want participants acting in their own interests and customers having choices, then what alternative do you want? An all powerful governing body that dictates how soccer clubs need to operate? That doesn’t sound good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everything being said here is absolutely true. It’s how the free market works whether it’s restaurants or retail stores or soccer clubs. If you don’t want participants acting in their own interests and customers having choices, then what alternative do you want? An all powerful governing body that dictates how soccer clubs need to operate? That doesn’t sound good

Can't tell if you're being sarcastic but, what would be wrong with USSF operating at the top and everything else falling underneath accordingly? This would be assuming that USSF operates in a manner that has the sport in everybody's best interest and nothing else which would be hard to imagine considering how they reacted to MLS pulling out of open cup.

[Anonymous]

Clubs are a business. The less competition there is, the more they stand to make. They're just happy to have paying customers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anybody else believe that youth soccer in this country is afraid of competition?

It's one area where I believe that HS soccer is superior to club. I do know that there are some schools in the area that take HS more seriously and actually even are fortunate enough to attract coaches from the club level to their programs.

On the club level, competition and players are fragmented. Even to the point where you can avoid competition. This even trickles into the men's pro side with the open cup situation. The model of isolation is trickling even into the professional side of this game here and what it feels like, is that it just comes down to protecting the almighty dollar. Clubs, leagues, or teams need isolation when they're trying to protect their product. MLS doesn't want to participate into open cup because they appear as if don't want to subject themselves to matches against teams that they feel are inferior, but maybe the reality is that they're afraid of the fallout if an MLS team loses to a USL team or some amateur team. Similarly, there are so many leagues, tournaments, showcases, and clubs at the youth level that this can be done there too. Even in VA, there are what appears to be 2 state cups for club soccer. The USCS state cup and the USYS state/presidential cup. Then think about the fall and spring around here, there's always at least 2 if not 3 tournaments around the area going on simultaneously during certain weekends of the fall and spring every year, so depending on your team, you can absolutely find the level you need to be at or sandbag it or actually find the competition but sometimes there are barriers of entry to even do that if you wanted to. Now we get to the vast number of clubs in this area. Are clubs actually putting the best players together? I'd imagine they're trying to, but with so many clubs around and so many other factors that come into being able to put the best players together, it rarely happens. Teams/clubs can avoid competition and still try to claim that they are the best.

This has been covered before, and part of the reason why this area has a sense of success but after that full season and these clubs make their way to the national playoffs, they have a hard time against real competition.

With HS's around here you won't find that generally. There are some exceptions where players aren't bound geographically to be playing at the school they are zoned to, but usually it's the case. The feel is different than club. There are so many other factors that come into it when it comes to that kind of soccer. The team is tied to the area the school is in, it gives those players a sense that they're representing their school, being able to play in front of their peers, and often times there are what feel like real rivalries. There is no hiding from the big dog schools if they want to make it far in the post season for HS.

Youth soccer is more about money than anything else.
On the parents side, it's more about bragging rights than anything else.

Clubs focus on winning because that's what the checkbooks want.

HS is substandard soccer because most of the top tier players in the schools aren't playing.
There are also very view decent coaches.
So you have PE teachers coaching majority 'B' and 'C' team players