Travel soccer parents - you’re the reason US soccer is failing
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Anonymous
| Widening the talent pool is obviously a good thing all around but will not necessarily produce more superstars. The main effect will be to deepen the pool. I don't think the problem with our national teams is depth as much as it is the overall level of play. It is more of a training system issue than it is a recruitment issue. |
Anonymous
Yes. Look at a country like Germany where so many of their top players were from traditional Middle-class families. It’s akin to reverse racism to think the ethnicity is going to make all the difference. Pulisic is a white kid. There are plenty of Caucasian families like his with mom and dad college players a soccer culture in the home. Americans grasp at straws. This is their latest greatest thing— a future Neymar we just haven’t unearthed in a Miami barrio. It’s the system, dudes. If anything we are going to take away that future Meymar’s creativity And passion when he hits “the system”. They just can’t buy it’s our system-it’s gotta be the kids. Give me a break. |
Anonymous
| Something I have learned in years of coaching, is that it’s very rarely the kids, it’s the adult in the equation, as well as the system, who are usually at fault. |
Anonymous
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I think there is a little bit too much negativity about US soccer going on here. Most systems have their flaws. And I would love to see how American parents lamenting about the system here would react to the English system, where small kids are churned in and out of academies every year, cut so cruelly at times from teams that the newcomers and the one who depart are sometimes known to walk past each other along the same corridor. Yes, it's free when you get to that level, but it's also cutthroat, and there is a reason why many young English footballers are found playing college ball in the US. Every country also has a different system. A recent book I read, called Das Reboot, offers a really detailed and interesting take on the reinvention of the German soccer system. Bottom line, no system is perfect, systems have to adapt to the unique context of every country, and most systems have their strengths and weaknesses. Japan, which is producing a pretty regular flow of top footballers now, is another interesting case of a system that is quite different from most other soccer nations, because the Japanese are a very rich nation with a certain culture, where soccer also has to compete with other sports that the Japanese are crazy about.
From where I see it, as the parent of a child playing in the DA system, in spite of many, many flaws -the worst of which are probably the obsessive focus with results at an early age and the priority given to athleticism over instinct and tactical intelligence - it's not all doom and gloom with US soccer. A tournament this summer in Florida featuring some of the top U14 academy players of the world was an encouraging experience. The structure of the tournament meant that all combinations of teams, American and European, played each other before they were separated into 3 flights for the knockouts, based on where they finished in their groups. Bayern beat Chelsea in the finals of the top flight and I wouldn't be surprised to see many of these players wearing their senior club and national jerseys a few years from now. Bayern had 4 players from the German U15 national pool. Chelsea, Dortmund, Celtics, Liverpool and Atletico Madrid had some of the top prospects that scouts have already started tracking in Europe, according to some of their parents and coaches. https://www.internationalchampionscup.com/en/youth/futures/2018-futures-tournament. How did the American kids do? The scores tell the story - that barring one game (Atletico against a surprisingly poor NYCFC academy), the MLS academy teams and state "all-star" teams (which included many DA players from non-MLS academies) ran close to the European academies and in some cases, won. "Our" team lost by one late goal to one of the best European teams; Red Bulls and Sounders academies did really well and lost narrowly in the knockouts to the Bayern and Chelsea kids, respectively; and a few of the state teams also had good results, particularly against the English academies. With a little bit of luck, Red Bulls or Sounders could have made it to the finals. As an aside, the level of play was often astonishingly good, and the finals were so much fun to watch on ESPN (we were back here by then). What I saw in the games that our team played, and a few others featuring some of the better American teams, was that the best of the US kids were right up there with anyone else in skills, technique, vision and pace of play. Where they seemed to fall short a bit as a team, which led to a disproportionate number of narrow losses, is on the tactical front - that intangible "football brain", which I suspect is as much a product of living, breathing, watching, talking and following soccer as it is of coaching. The best of the European teams just knew when to slow down a game, when to press and where and probe for weaknesses, when to storm forward and when to hold, and when to do the little things to disrupt the rhythm of an opponent who is playing well. They were also ever so slightly better - but that is enough to make the difference at the margin - at decision-making and movement off the ball. I don't know if anyone kept stats, but in every game I saw, the American kids attempted more dribbles and impatient forward passes than their European opponents. Most US teams were trying to play possession-based soccer with high pressing when out of possession, at times rather bravely against the likes of Bayern and Dortmund. But the tactical naivete sometimes meant that they would not be able to adjust when they needed to. As an aside, it's quite amazing how tactically savvy the 14 yo Europeans are, and it's also obvious that no academy is wedded to a rigid style or philosophy. The main difference was thus in the tactical intangibles, or as Paolo Maldini (one of the greatest Italian players ever), who was at the tournament called it, in "knowledge". He asked for coaches in the US to focus on "giving the kids knowledge". I felt that should not just be up to the coaches; should be as much the parents' job to create that environment for kids to imbibe soccer knowledge. |
Anonymous
| ^ and how will the US fill in those tactical gaps? I see some of the European academies that have set up shop in the US running sessions that capitalize and are teaching those brain skills. They also have the foreign connections to get the players over there more frequently. It’s interesting to watch over time how the DA players that left for the US based euro academies around the US do over the US DA teams. |
Anonymous
| We need to define, apply, and stick to, a defined style of play or philosophy. |
Anonymous
| Something resembling the Marcelo Bielsa school of thought would be ideal for American players and our culture as a nation. |
Anonymous
I want PEP! To the pp on this thread that told me great leaders don't swear to get their point across---ha, ha! https://www.givemesport.com/1374542-pep-guardiola-delivered-a-fascinating-speech-to-man-city-players-before-10-chelsea-win Man City had a 16-point lead mind you… “We are tired? F*ck you!” Notice he even flips the finger at them while telling them they are not tired. “You are not tired if you want to be champions.” The man creates winners wherever he goes-...Barca, Bayern, Man City.... |
Anonymous
Pep has said on many occasions that he considers Bielsa to be the best coach in the world, especially when it comes to bringing through young players and maximizing their potential. When he was still on the fence about becoming a coach, Pep went to Argentina and had an 11 hour meeting/barbecue with Bielsa to pick his brain, etc. As for the cursing, there is nothing wrong with inherently cursing per se. He’s a passionate guy, this is what he loves the most and lives for. You expect that passion not to manifest itself in the occcasional profanity. The fact refs here in the states will card you for swearing, but will look away on a leg-crunching tackle, is a farce. |
Anonymous
| Biesla isn’t even mentioned in the top 20. Leave it to a bald guy: Zidane or Pep. |
Anonymous
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what is taught in top european or south american soccer academies is not rocket science and can be taught anywhere.
The difference is that they are starting off with super-advanced U8/U9 players who grow up soaking in a soccer culture 24/7 where social status of being a pro soccer player is the best thing that can happen to you. So parents, friends, family, is all pushing and encouraging them from age 6 to make it into an academy by age 8 or 9. Plus they have to compete against thousands of other kids, but the rewards are there. Here we have no such environment for soccer. We do for football/baseball/basketball, though. |
Anonymous
Nope. Travel soccer segregates kids whose parents can afford to pay for it. It has little or nothing to do with athletic ability, as proved out by poor kids from marginal countries who put US in the shade. |
Anonymous
Are you suggesting that US Soccer should be a Socialist System where travel parents with money have to subsidize the poor so they can play soccer? In other countries, youth soccer is heavily subsidized by Professional Teams with very deep pockets. MLS & NWSL are poor due to low public interest, game attendance and TV deals. Move to Venezuela if your kid has talent and you don’t want to pay for travel soccer. They have a great socialist system. |
Anonymous
RSD, sometimes you say the dumbest things. The current system is pay to play, so obviously those who cannot pay, do not play. Advantage, paying players. On the second point, you're basically saying that somehow underserved communities house either more gifted athletes, or more trainable athletes... diamonds in the rough so to speak. Superstars who will eclipse the current talent pool? Rubbish. There are stars in wait there for sure, but if they train in the US system, they will be no more prolific than the rest. What is added when you expand to include more players, is more depth. |
Anonymous
The average income tax in Denmark is 60%. NO THANK YOU! Sorry, but no one is going to pay $10,000 a year for travel soccer to subsidize others. |