| The player selection system is corrupt. Both for men and women. We are not choosing the best players. Our best players are not choosing to play. Corrupt. |
Oh, someone’s kid and team didn’t do so hot with their quality of play! Quality of Play is not going to be game changer but it certainly is nice tool. |
I agree with this. Soccer culture is just not going to happen in the U.S. The best one can do is create that environment for an aspiring player and some people are just going to be lucky with lots of siblings and family to play with outside of training. If a player has dual citizenship, going abroad is an option but it’s very hard to get into an academy abroad too! I do believe clubs with connections are trying to support this but it’s still a lot of work on the family to get their player seen |
How'd you get to that conclusion from what they said? |
A team’s Quality of play score doesn’t take the game score into consideration at all. So some teams are not getting good quality of score rankings notwithstanding a better record than some other teams. |
| The only way for US soccer to be truly competitive on the international stage is to find ways for players trained abroad to play on the US team. Dual and naturalized citizens. The soccer culture in this country will not produce home grown players. |
Parents satisfaction with their young kid being on a winning team when their kid isn't contributing much or developing is fascinating They just posing in pictures |
| But the federation will figure out how to fix college soccer too! |
Pulisic Left at 16. The speed of play and defensive pressure in practice and games is at another level in Europe that is not match in the US. You can not develop in the US. The “las”t 2 years of development is very important. It is not polishing. The problem is the US does not understand professional soccer. From the tournament play(multiple games over a few days) to developmental goals at various age groups. 15-18 in Europe is a very select group of players. They are very technical and have been cut down to the top 1-2% of all player. In the US this age is the top 50-60% of the players and they are not close to the Europeans in terms of technical skills and playing under high level pressure. College is just more of the same. |
15 to 18? By that age in this country the game is down to well off kids and everybody else which is most kids are cut off. Is that how it is in Europe? How much money does a family have to invest in soccer up to the age of 15 in Europe? |
| The European model is all about having world class coaches at the youth level vs. the American system where most kids' first coaches are volunteers and dads. The academies in Europe scout the youth soccer clubs in their countries and take the best players early. The rest of the kids just play with their local club for a small fee. It is more relaxed at that point because everyone knows they're not going pro at this point and just play for fun. I know because I was stationed in Germany with my kids for three years. |
DP. Obviously the age group issue isn't at the core of our problems. However, for those of us with above-average but normal soccer obsessed kids whose lives and social networks got upended years ago because the powers that be deemed it vital to change age groups to promote talent identification, it's just more evidence that those making decisions for US soccer don't have any idea what they are doing. |
Pulisic was exposed to soccer in Europe way before he was 16 |
| All these are symptoms and not the cause. Soccer is not in the culture here which is why there is no money for real academies and why we have parent coaches at early ages and why skills are not developed early and it’s pay to play and so on. You can call out these symptoms all you want but none them can be solved without first solving the culture problem. No governing body rule change about birth year or league structure or coaching qualifications will magically fix anything until the culture changes. |
The soccer culture is definitely taking steps backwards rapidly as we speak If you think youth soccer was pay-to-play primarily for a certain demographic before |