Landon Donovan was right

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with soccer in our country is that coaches at "top" clubs think that they need big and tall kids to win. They remove all creativity from the players. Possession, possession is all they say. The minute the players dribble or get creative they are taken out only to be told not to do that again. I have seen this at Bethesda, Potomac, SYC, etc. We have the worse teachers of soccer coaching and suppressing all creativity and talent. They promote win win at all cost. Cost of development. Most directors of these clubs have been trained in the same ineffective soccer philosophy. It will take a long time to change this culture. Then, add the $$ component to travel $occer and there you have it.

Could have stopped at your first sentence.
The focus on winning at early ages.
Instead of teaching and developing.
Their egos come first for the 'W'

Granted, the majority don't have the knowledge and experience to teach development properly.

Coaches can’t teach possession properly because players do not have the technical skills to execute possession play properly. And based on the threads, many parents don’t really understand what possession is.

Possession is not only quick passes, it’s continuing to possess and move the ball (eg, dribble long, quick dribble and pass, 1 v 1) and frankly, there are not many players who can quickly decide to do something else and execute it under pressure. If a players go-to is to dribble all the time, telling that player to stop is not stifling their creativity, it’s forcing them to think of other options.

Because coaches and parents want to win, even players with the technical skills don’t have the opportunity to make mistakes and learn to use their skills under pressure. They always use their safest option (quick pass or boot) or their go to (like dribbling).

It’s maddening that parents keep their kids on winning teams when their players aren’t learning anything new or getting better.

It's not just parents and coaches that want to win. Players want to win too Being on a team that loses every game is demoralizing especially at 8 or 9. Most kids wont grasp the concept of its ok to lose as long as they are individually developing . By nature for most winning is important. Other wise they Will stop playing if all they do is lose but 'develop'

If the kids are developing, they aren't losing every game. Unless wrongly placed way out of their depth

They learn from the reactions of their coaches and parents to losses.

Haven't seen many kids that were playing by choice and not being forced to play like losing regardless of parents. I'm sure you have heard kids keeping score themselves during early rec years when games weren't officially scored and commenting about how they won or loss. At that stage and level most parents just want their kids to run around get tired then take a nap

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with soccer in our country is that coaches at "top" clubs think that they need big and tall kids to win. They remove all creativity from the players. Possession, possession is all they say. The minute the players dribble or get creative they are taken out only to be told not to do that again. I have seen this at Bethesda, Potomac, SYC, etc. We have the worse teachers of soccer coaching and suppressing all creativity and talent. They promote win win at all cost. Cost of development. Most directors of these clubs have been trained in the same ineffective soccer philosophy. It will take a long time to change this culture. Then, add the $$ component to travel $occer and there you have it.

Could have stopped at your first sentence.
The focus on winning at early ages.
Instead of teaching and developing.
Their egos come first for the 'W'

Granted, the majority don't have the knowledge and experience to teach development properly.

Coaches can’t teach possession properly because players do not have the technical skills to execute possession play properly. And based on the threads, many parents don’t really understand what possession is.

Possession is not only quick passes, it’s continuing to possess and move the ball (eg, dribble long, quick dribble and pass, 1 v 1) and frankly, there are not many players who can quickly decide to do something else and execute it under pressure. If a players go-to is to dribble all the time, telling that player to stop is not stifling their creativity, it’s forcing them to think of other options.

Because coaches and parents want to win, even players with the technical skills don’t have the opportunity to make mistakes and learn to use their skills under pressure. They always use their safest option (quick pass or boot) or their go to (like dribbling).

It’s maddening that parents keep their kids on winning teams when their players aren’t learning anything new or getting better.

It's not just parents and coaches that want to win. Players want to win too Being on a team that loses every game is demoralizing especially at 8 or 9. Most kids wont grasp the concept of its ok to lose as long as they are individually developing . By nature for most winning is important. Other wise they Will stop playing if all they do is lose but 'develop'

If the kids are developing, they aren't losing every game. Unless wrongly placed way out of their depth

They learn from the reactions of their coaches and parents to losses.

Haven't seen many kids that were playing by choice and not being forced to play like losing regardless of parents. I'm sure you have heard kids keeping score themselves during early rec years when games weren't officially scored and commenting about how they won or loss. At that stage and level most parents just want their kids to run around get tired then take a nap

2 and 3 years old?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the points people are making here are interesting, but I don't think they are realistic or constructive. Soccer and youth sports in the US are different than the rest of the world. That's a strength ! We should lean into our strengths and not try to imitate something we are not and will never be. The US formula can work in other sports. It works fairly well in women's soccer. Focus on what we can be great at and design our strategy, development, and rosters based on those strengths. Differentiate based on strengths, not a watered down version of somebody else.

Women's soccer works because of title ix. Now that pro leagues are starting to gain traction in europe, I doubt the US keeps its edge on the women's side

Who cares about an edge? That is not girls soccer in the US. It is about college not pro. Most do not care if we have some national edge. The product here is different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the points people are making here are interesting, but I don't think they are realistic or constructive. Soccer and youth sports in the US are different than the rest of the world. That's a strength ! We should lean into our strengths and not try to imitate something we are not and will never be. The US formula can work in other sports. It works fairly well in women's soccer. Focus on what we can be great at and design our strategy, development, and rosters based on those strengths. Differentiate based on strengths, not a watered down version of somebody else.

Women's soccer works because of title ix. Now that pro leagues are starting to gain traction in europe, I doubt the US keeps its edge on the women's side

Who cares about an edge? That is not girls soccer in the US. It is about college not pro. Most do not care if we have some national edge. The product here is different.

What product is different? How?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the points people are making here are interesting, but I don't think they are realistic or constructive. Soccer and youth sports in the US are different than the rest of the world. That's a strength ! We should lean into our strengths and not try to imitate something we are not and will never be. The US formula can work in other sports. It works fairly well in women's soccer. Focus on what we can be great at and design our strategy, development, and rosters based on those strengths. Differentiate based on strengths, not a watered down version of somebody else.

Women's soccer works because of title ix. Now that pro leagues are starting to gain traction in europe, I doubt the US keeps its edge on the women's side

Who cares about an edge? That is not girls soccer in the US. It is about college not pro. Most do not care if we have some national edge. The product here is different.

What product is different? How?

Women's soccer in the US is built on collegiate soccer being the end goal, if you have ever watched a college soccer match you would see that it is night and day different than what is needed to play internationally. Nobody cares about the national team. This will change however with all of these new rules coming out for collegiate sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with soccer in our country is that coaches at "top" clubs think that they need big and tall kids to win. They remove all creativity from the players. Possession, possession is all they say. The minute the players dribble or get creative they are taken out only to be told not to do that again. I have seen this at Bethesda, Potomac, SYC, etc. We have the worse teachers of soccer coaching and suppressing all creativity and talent. They promote win win at all cost. Cost of development. Most directors of these clubs have been trained in the same ineffective soccer philosophy. It will take a long time to change this culture. Then, add the $$ component to travel $occer and there you have it.

Could have stopped at your first sentence.
The focus on winning at early ages.
Instead of teaching and developing.
Their egos come first for the 'W'

Granted, the majority don't have the knowledge and experience to teach development properly.

Coaches can’t teach possession properly because players do not have the technical skills to execute possession play properly. And based on the threads, many parents don’t really understand what possession is.

Possession is not only quick passes, it’s continuing to possess and move the ball (eg, dribble long, quick dribble and pass, 1 v 1) and frankly, there are not many players who can quickly decide to do something else and execute it under pressure. If a players go-to is to dribble all the time, telling that player to stop is not stifling their creativity, it’s forcing them to think of other options.

Because coaches and parents want to win, even players with the technical skills don’t have the opportunity to make mistakes and learn to use their skills under pressure. They always use their safest option (quick pass or boot) or their go to (like dribbling).

It’s maddening that parents keep their kids on winning teams when their players aren’t learning anything new or getting better.

It's not just parents and coaches that want to win. Players want to win too Being on a team that loses every game is demoralizing especially at 8 or 9. Most kids wont grasp the concept of its ok to lose as long as they are individually developing . By nature for most winning is important. Other wise they Will stop playing if all they do is lose but 'develop'

If the kids are developing, they aren't losing every game. Unless wrongly placed way out of their depth

They learn from the reactions of their coaches and parents to losses.[/qu ote]

Haven't seen many kids that were playing by choice and not being forced to play like losing regardless of parents. I'm sure you have heard kids keeping score themselves during early rec years when games weren't officially scored and commenting about how they won or loss. At that stage and level most parents just want their kids to run around get tired then take a nap

2 and 3 years old?

Ha. Not quite but U6 ‐U8 when they were playing 5v5 and coaches still rolled the ball back into play

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the points people are making here are interesting, but I don't think they are realistic or constructive. Soccer and youth sports in the US are different than the rest of the world. That's a strength ! We should lean into our strengths and not try to imitate something we are not and will never be. The US formula can work in other sports. It works fairly well in women's soccer. Focus on what we can be great at and design our strategy, development, and rosters based on those strengths. Differentiate based on strengths, not a watered down version of somebody else.

Women's soccer works because of title ix. Now that pro leagues are starting to gain traction in europe, I doubt the US keeps its edge on the women's side

Who cares about an edge? That is not girls soccer in the US. It is about college not pro. Most do not care if we have some national edge. The product here is different.

What product is different? How?

Women's soccer in the US is built on collegiate soccer being the end goal, if you have ever watched a college soccer match you would see that it is night and day different than what is needed to play internationally. Nobody cares about the national team. This will change however with all of these new rules coming out for collegiate sports.

Based on the Hope Solo documentary on Netflix, didn't the Women's National team of 1999 really spearhead the big rise in popularity of girls soccer?
Also the world cup and Olympics success of the Women's team.

Not college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the points people are making here are interesting, but I don't think they are realistic or constructive. Soccer and youth sports in the US are different than the rest of the world. That's a strength ! We should lean into our strengths and not try to imitate something we are not and will never be. The US formula can work in other sports. It works fairly well in women's soccer. Focus on what we can be great at and design our strategy, development, and rosters based on those strengths. Differentiate based on strengths, not a watered down version of somebody else.

Women's soccer works because of title ix. Now that pro leagues are starting to gain traction in europe, I doubt the US keeps its edge on the women's side

Who cares about an edge? That is not girls soccer in the US. It is about college not pro. Most do not care if we have some national edge. The product here is different.

What product is different? How?

Women's soccer in the US is built on collegiate soccer being the end goal, if you have ever watched a college soccer match you would see that it is night and day different than what is needed to play internationally. Nobody cares about the national team. This will change however with all of these new rules coming out for collegiate sports.

Nobody cares about the national team? Hook me up with whatever cocktail you are taking to cloud reality, please.

[Anonymous]

Interesting that Donovan is just complaining and not actively doing something about it. He is one of the few Americans that could help change things based on their personal success. He said he wants to coach. He can start by coaching his own kids instead of a NWSL team. He can start a new club and only hire other coaches that share his philosophy. With his name recognition he can get plenty of sponsorships to keep player family costs down. Grow that program and after a couple of WC cycles, those first kids would be of age to be considered for USMNT by the time he is ready to coach there which is one of his stated goals. Other former players could do similar and if we are gauging success of American soccer based on how the USMNT performs like many post on this board say we are only talking about a pool off 100 players anway.

Problem solved 😌

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the points people are making here are interesting, but I don't think they are realistic or constructive. Soccer and youth sports in the US are different than the rest of the world. That's a strength ! We should lean into our strengths and not try to imitate something we are not and will never be. The US formula can work in other sports. It works fairly well in women's soccer. Focus on what we can be great at and design our strategy, development, and rosters based on those strengths. Differentiate based on strengths, not a watered down version of somebody else.

Women's soccer works because of title ix. Now that pro leagues are starting to gain traction in europe, I doubt the US keeps its edge on the women's side

Who cares about an edge? That is not girls soccer in the US. It is about college not pro. Most do not care if we have some national edge. The product here is different.

What product is different? How?

Women's soccer in the US is built on collegiate soccer being the end goal, if you have ever watched a college soccer match you would see that it is night and day different than what is needed to play internationally. Nobody cares about the national team. This will change however with all of these new rules coming out for collegiate sports.

Nobody cares about the national team? Hook me up with whatever cocktail you are taking to cloud reality, please.

You must be new around here, most parents on this board don't care about the successes of the national team, only if their kid can get into college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the points people are making here are interesting, but I don't think they are realistic or constructive. Soccer and youth sports in the US are different than the rest of the world. That's a strength ! We should lean into our strengths and not try to imitate something we are not and will never be. The US formula can work in other sports. It works fairly well in women's soccer. Focus on what we can be great at and design our strategy, development, and rosters based on those strengths. Differentiate based on strengths, not a watered down version of somebody else.

Women's soccer works because of title ix. Now that pro leagues are starting to gain traction in europe, I doubt the US keeps its edge on the women's side

Who cares about an edge? That is not girls soccer in the US. It is about college not pro. Most do not care if we have some national edge. The product here is different.

What product is different? How?

Women's soccer in the US is built on collegiate soccer being the end goal, if you have ever watched a college soccer match you would see that it is night and day different than what is needed to play internationally. Nobody cares about the national team. This will change however with all of these new rules coming out for collegiate sports.

Nobody cares about the national team? Hook me up with whatever cocktail you are taking to cloud reality, please.

You must be new around here, most parents on this board don't care about the successes of the national team, only if their kid can get into college.

What kind of low-brow board is this not to care about the national team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the points people are making here are interesting, but I don't think they are realistic or constructive. Soccer and youth sports in the US are different than the rest of the world. That's a strength ! We should lean into our strengths and not try to imitate something we are not and will never be. The US formula can work in other sports. It works fairly well in women's soccer. Focus on what we can be great at and design our strategy, development, and rosters based on those strengths. Differentiate based on strengths, not a watered down version of somebody else.

Women's soccer works because of title ix. Now that pro leagues are starting to gain traction in europe, I doubt the US keeps its edge on the women's side

Who cares about an edge? That is not girls soccer in the US. It is about college not pro. Most do not care if we have some national edge. The product here is different.

What product is different? How?

Women's soccer in the US is built on collegiate soccer being the end goal, if you have ever watched a college soccer match you would see that it is night and day different than what is needed to play internationally. Nobody cares about the national team. This will change however with all of these new rules coming out for collegiate sports.

Nobody cares about the national team? Hook me up with whatever cocktail you are taking to cloud reality, please.

You must be new around here, most parents on this board don't care about the successes of the national team, only if their kid can get into college.

What kind of low-brow board is this not to care about the national team?

You'll be surprised. You should dig into some of the old threads where people debate how collegiate soccer needs to change. It is the one part of the pyramid that doesn't make sense and doesn't prepare players for the international level or the pro level really. Collegiate soccer does not line up with FIFA, and when discussing the NT you're basically referencing a fraction of a percent of players, so most don't care. But to be competitive on a world stage, the game must be taught to be played the right way and players need to be developed in that manner, the way it is currently is geared toward collegiate play.

[Anonymous]

'Not care' may be much, players and parents probably pay attention to the national team but do they care enough to think there needs to be a change to build better teams going forward there? Not really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:'Not care' may be much, players and parents probably pay attention to the national team but do they care enough to think there needs to be a change to build better teams going forward there? Not really.

especially if changing means their kids have fewer opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Opportunities for what? Thought national team didnt matter? College soccer is waiting for all the mediocrity thats clawing to get there. Playing college soccer is not that hard, trust; and not being fixed, more likely to get eliminated so thats leaves NWSL and national team. See why it matters now..