I think there is some merit to this. This weather is near perfect for soccer year round in Southern California. I grew up in a Football Feeder high school in Florida. The young men playing HS football worked hard and hit the weight room starting in 7th grade at middle school. There was a heavy emphasis placed on weight lifting, track and football... the kids that came out of my school in florida held a significant advantage over the kids in this region. Near year round competition, specialty clinics, institutional support and little need to worry about academics created extremely talented athletes. (It was a total environment that supported their development.) I look at the pockets of soccer support in Texas and California and they are at the next level. |
I’m watching Orlando Pride v Angel City. The crowd turnout at Orlando is sad.
I saw the same at NC Courage last weekend: Maybe SoCal values soccer a lot more? Wouldn’t be surprised if Bay FC brings out crowds, too. But probably not at the scale of SoCal. |
How did East do against the other regions? What made the West so dominant? Individual quality, style of play or both? |
When is the actual USYNT U14 Training Camp? Looks like IDs are still ongoing. |
Probably not until July/August ahead of U15 CONCACAF tournament. There will be a mix of 2010s and 2009s who are U15 eligble invited for that camp to play in that tournament |
ID Centers continue to happen at U14-U17 ages, even with actual domestic/international YNT camps happening at those ages.
it will be interesting to see what changes (if any) Emma Hayes brings to the WNT and the WYNT pipeline (coaching changes, etc.) |