False. It has EVERYTHING to do with the commentary on this board. Three factors at play: 1) we don’t have a culture. Most DCUM families did not plan their Saturday around watching Champions League last Saturday. You watch, you learn, you play officially outside of club, etc. Does your 9-11 year old child have a ball at their feet 2-4 hours daily? That is what is takes to be world class in futbol. People on this board are crucifying people for the heat in Super Y and bragging about being at the pool. You can have it all to be great at anything. 2) We are infatuated with athleticism, even in the MLS according to a poster here. The focus on this to win versus ball mastery in the crucial development ages of 8-13’means kids who can’t catch up once puberty hits. Those skills aren’t ingrained. It showed up once they are 14+ on the pitch. See SYC historically. 3) Poor development systems. We race to 11v11 when these countries focus on playing 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 and 5v5 when younger. Watch how quickly an international can operate in a rondo compared with an American. This is bred in futsal and training in tight spaces. Americans win the IG battles in pre-teen years with trophies and medals during b4 puberty and lose the war of developing our best talent. |
DP it also has to do with development from 15-18. This is an important phase in development. You have to have the coaching and high level competition(high speed of play, other technical players and high level defense play in practice and games). You do not have this in the US. Travel and college do not offer this level this level of competition. By 15/16 in Europe and South America the cuts have been made. The players you play against are the top 1-2% of players. In the US you are still playing against top 30-40% of players. |
He is no Messi. Messi signed at 13. By 22 he had his first Ballon d'Or. |
Noteworthy: Had the Spanish club not taken a risk / leap of faith in financing his hormone treatment that no other impoverished Argentinian club was willing to take we would’ve never ever heard of Messi |