CONCACAF U-15 Boys Championship

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is must watch for parents with kids in the US soccer system, at any age really. PLEASE watch the US team and you will see on full display what is wrong with our system in the US and the way we both recruit and cultivate talent.

We have a team of players that have good physical attributes. That assessment can be reduced to either speed and/or size. Not size dependent totally as there are some smaller kids on the roster (we had the smallest player on the field at left back) but speed and power are clearly the priority. Against Saudi Arabia in the first match, we were not the better team in the first half against a smaller, slower, less physical but FAR more technical team. They had 3 or 4 really good chances on goal in the first half and it could easily have been 4-1 for them at half time. But the goals didn't drop for them. But they had the quality to get the opportunities. They combined and passed well. First touches were noticeably better than ours. Decision making was also better. They just didn't have the physical quality to withstand our dueling. We were up 1-0 at half time but it was a really dismal display for the US team.

We couldn't string together more than three passes in the first half and our striker LITERALLY didn't have one touch in the first half. Not one. Many errant giveaway passes, over dribbling, over faking and moves, just too much of all the wrong things. It looked like we didn't understand the game and how to move the ball from one end of the field to the other to score. We scored another goal in the second half on a good through ball and someone just outrunning the defense. The Saudi team got a red card and had someone sent off after the goal and we couldn't score when they had a man down. Largely because it would require better passing and control to beat a very low block. Something we couldn't execute technically. If you have a youth player in the US please take note of these issues and show your player.

What you clearly see with this US squad is a system that is failing these kids. They aren't learning how to actually play soccer. They learn how to run hard, tackle the ball (like American football) and dribble and shoot. The quality of their fundamentals is noticeably lower and almost none of them have quality on their non dominant foot. So much so that they were predicable even to the Saudi team. Decision making is also really poor. Chipping, trapping with all parts of body, shielding, off the ball movement both in and out of possession looked marginally better than what you see in regular MLS next games and that is not good enough for international football.

I would offer that there is absolutely no way this US squad will win this tournament and to be honest, I wouldn't be shocked if they lost to Costa Rica today. I write this because I was just shocked when I saw this game and the quality (or lack thereof) and thought to myself, something needs to dramatically change in our country. We have so many kids playing the sport in this country and you're telling me this is the best we can do?? Of course we could have a whole conversation about the politics of team selection and we all know it is political. Even still, it HAS to be better than this.

So which MLS academy did not take your DS?

My kids are grown a## adults. Go somewhere else with this BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soccer purists would object, but the game probably would become more popular, in the USA especially, IF they relaxed the offsides rule and enabled more offense to happen.

Basically you're saying dumb the game down for an American audience that can't understand the game outside of goals being scored.

It wouldn't take much to do better. What's crazy is an arm or a foot being offside is offsides to disallow a goal. With ALL the tech, they'd do a lot better to give a wider definition rather than what they enforce now. Make it the feet, not body part and that would be a vast improvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soccer is at best a 4th tier sport in the US. It’s probably a good deal lower than that. As a result it will never get the kind of attention (read: money) that attracts the best players and coaches. The problems you call out are symptoms. The root cause is that soccer is not very popular here especially on the boys side.

It doesn't help matters that the ecosystem is designed more to enrich investors/owners than develop top tier players/national teams.

True. It's about money first. Not developing players. Developing players is a desired byproduct of trying to make money, but not a given or the main goal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soccer purists would object, but the game probably would become more popular, in the USA especially, IF they relaxed the offsides rule and enabled more offense to happen.

No offsides in soccer but thanks for your input!

Not no offsides -- although that might be fun to see at least see how that type of game would be played -- but how about at least not call it so stupidly close. So many runs/attacks that are nullified by a finger or a toe. It's dumb and takes legitimate excitement out of the game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Soccer is at best a 4th tier sport in the US. It’s probably a good deal lower than that. As a result it will never get the kind of attention (read: money) that attracts the best players and coaches. The problems you call out are symptoms. The root cause is that soccer is not very popular here especially on the boys side.

Money isn't a soccer quality solution or the Middle East would own the World Cup

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Soccer is at best a 4th tier sport in the US. It’s probably a good deal lower than that. As a result it will never get the kind of attention (read: money) that attracts the best players and coaches. The problems you call out are symptoms. The root cause is that soccer is not very popular here especially on the boys side.

Which sports here has more young boys playing rec and travel combined more than soccer?
We have millions playing soccer, thats more than enough to produce high quality.

Doesn't matter if more are playing basketball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soccer is at best a 4th tier sport in the US. It’s probably a good deal lower than that. As a result it will never get the kind of attention (read: money) that attracts the best players and coaches. The problems you call out are symptoms. The root cause is that soccer is not very popular here especially on the boys side.

Which sports here has more young boys playing rec and travel combined more than soccer?
We have millions playing soccer, thats more than enough to produce high quality.

Doesn't matter if more are playing basketball.

Basketball is too much about money, too, and the USA has lost ground to the rest of the world, in part because of this. IF we ever lose our economic/wealth advantage because of dumb political choices, we'll start losing out on our sports even more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is must watch for parents with kids in the US soccer system, at any age really. PLEASE watch the US team and you will see on full display what is wrong with our system in the US and the way we both recruit and cultivate talent.

We have a team of players that have good physical attributes. That assessment can be reduced to either speed and/or size. Not size dependent totally as there are some smaller kids on the roster (we had the smallest player on the field at left back) but speed and power are clearly the priority. Against Saudi Arabia in the first match, we were not the better team in the first half against a smaller, slower, less physical but FAR more technical team. They had 3 or 4 really good chances on goal in the first half and it could easily have been 4-1 for them at half time. But the goals didn't drop for them. But they had the quality to get the opportunities. They combined and passed well. First touches were noticeably better than ours. Decision making was also better. They just didn't have the physical quality to withstand our dueling. We were up 1-0 at half time but it was a really dismal display for the US team.

We couldn't string together more than three passes in the first half and our striker LITERALLY didn't have one touch in the first half. Not one. Many errant giveaway passes, over dribbling, over faking and moves, just too much of all the wrong things. It looked like we didn't understand the game and how to move the ball from one end of the field to the other to score. We scored another goal in the second half on a good through ball and someone just outrunning the defense. The Saudi team got a red card and had someone sent off after the goal and we couldn't score when they had a man down. Largely because it would require better passing and control to beat a very low block. Something we couldn't execute technically. If you have a youth player in the US please take note of these issues and show your player.

What you clearly see with this US squad is a system that is failing these kids. They aren't learning how to actually play soccer. They learn how to run hard, tackle the ball (like American football) and dribble and shoot. The quality of their fundamentals is noticeably lower and almost none of them have quality on their non dominant foot. So much so that they were predicable even to the Saudi team. Decision making is also really poor. Chipping, trapping with all parts of body, shielding, off the ball movement both in and out of possession looked marginally better than what you see in regular MLS next games and that is not good enough for international football.

I would offer that there is absolutely no way this US squad will win this tournament and to be honest, I wouldn't be shocked if they lost to Costa Rica today. I write this because I was just shocked when I saw this game and the quality (or lack thereof) and thought to myself, something needs to dramatically change in our country. We have so many kids playing the sport in this country and you're telling me this is the best we can do?? Of course we could have a whole conversation about the politics of team selection and we all know it is political. Even still, it HAS to be better than this.

Are they streaming matches?

Yes all of them

which platforms?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is must watch for parents with kids in the US soccer system, at any age really. PLEASE watch the US team and you will see on full display what is wrong with our system in the US and the way we both recruit and cultivate talent.

We have a team of players that have good physical attributes. That assessment can be reduced to either speed and/or size. Not size dependent totally as there are some smaller kids on the roster (we had the smallest player on the field at left back) but speed and power are clearly the priority. Against Saudi Arabia in the first match, we were not the better team in the first half against a smaller, slower, less physical but FAR more technical team. They had 3 or 4 really good chances on goal in the first half and it could easily have been 4-1 for them at half time. But the goals didn't drop for them. But they had the quality to get the opportunities. They combined and passed well. First touches were noticeably better than ours. Decision making was also better. They just didn't have the physical quality to withstand our dueling. We were up 1-0 at half time but it was a really dismal display for the US team.

We couldn't string together more than three passes in the first half and our striker LITERALLY didn't have one touch in the first half. Not one. Many errant giveaway passes, over dribbling, over faking and moves, just too much of all the wrong things. It looked like we didn't understand the game and how to move the ball from one end of the field to the other to score. We scored another goal in the second half on a good through ball and someone just outrunning the defense. The Saudi team got a red card and had someone sent off after the goal and we couldn't score when they had a man down. Largely because it would require better passing and control to beat a very low block. Something we couldn't execute technically. If you have a youth player in the US please take note of these issues and show your player.

What you clearly see with this US squad is a system that is failing these kids. They aren't learning how to actually play soccer. They learn how to run hard, tackle the ball (like American football) and dribble and shoot. The quality of their fundamentals is noticeably lower and almost none of them have quality on their non dominant foot. So much so that they were predicable even to the Saudi team. Decision making is also really poor. Chipping, trapping with all parts of body, shielding, off the ball movement both in and out of possession looked marginally better than what you see in regular MLS next games and that is not good enough for international football.

I would offer that there is absolutely no way this US squad will win this tournament and to be honest, I wouldn't be shocked if they lost to Costa Rica today. I write this because I was just shocked when I saw this game and the quality (or lack thereof) and thought to myself, something needs to dramatically change in our country. We have so many kids playing the sport in this country and you're telling me this is the best we can do?? Of course we could have a whole conversation about the politics of team selection and we all know it is political. Even still, it HAS to be better than this.

Are they streaming matches?

Yes all of them

which platforms?

All games are streamed live on YouTube and you can find the recordings there too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soccer is at best a 4th tier sport in the US. It’s probably a good deal lower than that. As a result it will never get the kind of attention (read: money) that attracts the best players and coaches. The problems you call out are symptoms. The root cause is that soccer is not very popular here especially on the boys side.

Money isn't a soccer quality solution or the Middle East would own the World Cup

I agree. I think the PP was saying that money isn't the solution but one of the ways to attract the best coaches and players in the system. Why the Saudi league went from literally nothing to having one of their teams tie Real Madrid in the FIFA club world cup.

[Anonymous]

AND Al-Hilal beat Man City...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soccer purists would object, but the game probably would become more popular, in the USA especially, IF they relaxed the offsides rule and enabled more offense to happen.

Basically you're saying dumb the game down for an American audience that can't understand the game outside of goals being scored.

It wouldn't take much to do better. What's crazy is an arm or a foot being offside is offsides to disallow a goal. With ALL the tech, they'd do a lot better to give a wider definition rather than what they enforce now. Make it the feet, not body part and that would be a vast improvement.

An arm being "offside" is not an offense. Neither is a "finger" as another poster mentioned, so, if you have seen this called, that is pretty crazy. Google Law 11 and read up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soccer purists would object, but the game probably would become more popular, in the USA especially, IF they relaxed the offsides rule and enabled more offense to happen.

Basically you're saying dumb the game down for an American audience that can't understand the game outside of goals being scored.

It wouldn't take much to do better. What's crazy is an arm or a foot being offside is offsides to disallow a goal. With ALL the tech, they'd do a lot better to give a wider definition rather than what they enforce now. Make it the feet, not body part and that would be a vast improvement.

An arm being "offside" is not an offense. Neither is a "finger" as another poster mentioned, so, if you have seen this called, that is pretty crazy. Google Law 11 and read up.

I guess you've never seen VAR.

[Anonymous]

I don't buy the best athletes and coaches play other sports. I think that's an extremely dumb statement. There are PLENTY of world class athletes in the US that play soccer. Just look at the size of the US compared to 90% of the other countries in the world. The number of kids we have playing soccer is probably more that most other countries total populations. Now why we can't find 20 kids to put together to beat all these other countries is absolutely bonkers to me. I just don't know. We should be able to find 20 kids in the DMV to beat any country in the Caribbean for Pete's sake. On a side note...I'm not sure big TV networks like soccer because there are no commercials so I don't think it's as lucrative as all the other sports that have time outs and big breaks every few minutes. This will keep the big money out of soccer in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soccer purists would object, but the game probably would become more popular, in the USA especially, IF they relaxed the offsides rule and enabled more offense to happen.

Basically you're saying dumb the game down for an American audience that can't understand the game outside of goals being scored.

It wouldn't take much to do better. What's crazy is an arm or a foot being offside is offsides to disallow a goal. With ALL the tech, they'd do a lot better to give a wider definition rather than what they enforce now. Make it the feet, not body part and that would be a vast improvement.

An arm being "offside" is not an offense. Neither is a "finger" as another poster mentioned, so, if you have seen this called, that is pretty crazy. Google Law 11 and read up.

I guess you've never seen VAR.

Can you post a YouTube clip of VAR calling offside for an arm?

Here you go if you were wondering...

A player is in an offside position if:
any part of the head, body or feet is in the opponents’ half (excluding the halfway line) and
any part of the head, body or feet is nearer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent

The hands and arms of all players, including the goalkeepers, are not considered. For the purposes of determining offside, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit.