Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from Casa Grande and my kid plays soccer here in NoVA for a local club team. Interesting to read about your son’s experience living and training at the Franny Granny. It blows me away that it’s thought of as a youth soccer destination. I can’t imagine what you thought as you rolled through town and pulled up there.

I had never heard of Casa Grande but you raise a good question — why put a “youth soccer destination” in the middle of nowhere? I guess because it’s a good combination of cheap + low rainfall?

It’s actually a great facility. Photos and information here.

https://www.grandesports.com/

Grande Sports Center was originally training grounds for the San Francisco Giants and opened in 1961. this article has some cool photos from those days: https://www.azcentral.com/picture-gallery/sports/mlb/cactus-league/2019/02/28/francisco-grande-resort-and-baseball-stadium-casa-grande-san-francisco-giants/3015150002/

The “dorm” is total 1960s hotel—most boys are in a two story cinder block building that’s more motel-like but some end up in the main hotel tower. There’s a restaurant and bar in the main hotel.

The city of Casa Grande (locals do NOT pronounce the e on the end—it’s just Grand) is largely a farming community that’s gained some industry and a lot of retirees—it’s on I-10 and close to I-8.

Not questioning that the soccer facilities are nice, only the decision to site it in the middle of nowhere.

Cheap land, lots of sunshine.

OP, this was really informative and interesting. Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:

Nova2Euro wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids played club and travel soccer all the way through high school. They stopped wearing them somewhere around middle school. I figured once they got kicked, they'd put them on, but it never happened. I thought it was bizarre but none of the kids wore them. And my youngest did take a really hard kick to the shin during a game once, his shin guard slid to the side and was not in the correct position. It was so bad he had to be carried off the field and we went straight to urgent care. He still stopped wearing them for practice.

Bigger story here is you took your kid to urgent care because he got kicked in this shins during a soccer game, this is funny. Moral of story, despite this he's fine and chooses to still not wear shin guards, is there anything else to say here about this topic?

He was smart. Lots of leg breaks happen from this. You don't know it until it happens to your kid.

No they don't. Very occasional leg breaks happen from this and the people that make shin guards paid a lot of money to a lot of people to get them mandated in as many places as possible because that's the sad way our society rolls these days.

You're not wrong in your general description of the corruption in our society. But every European club I've ever seen also mandates shinguards for training. I can't say whether it's due to an abundance of caution or, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, you might as well train with them because you'll need them for matches. But I don't understand why you're so strongly opposed to them--it's maybe $20 you spend once every 4 or 5 years...Maybe because the socks are a bit of a pain?

Edit: I should mention that at the senior level, training without shinguards is pretty common. But at the youth levels, I've never seen it allowed.

My DS has played on three of the top youth teams in this area. No-one wears shinguards to practice at any of them.

Sorry, should have clarified--when I said youth levels, I was referring to European academies, not the dumpster fires that pass for youth clubs in NOVA.

After all, you're paying thousands of dollars--why would the coaches enforce rules?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids played club and travel soccer all the way through high school. They stopped wearing them somewhere around middle school. I figured once they got kicked, they'd put them on, but it never happened. I thought it was bizarre but none of the kids wore them. And my youngest did take a really hard kick to the shin during a game once, his shin guard slid to the side and was not in the correct position. It was so bad he had to be carried off the field and we went straight to urgent care. He still stopped wearing them for practice.

Bigger story here is you took your kid to urgent care because he got kicked in this shins during a soccer game, this is funny. Moral of story, despite this he's fine and chooses to still not wear shin guards, is there anything else to say here about this topic?

He was smart. Lots of leg breaks happen from this. You don't know it until it happens to your kid.

No they don't. Very occasional leg breaks happen from this and the people that make shin guards paid a lot of money to a lot of people to get them mandated in as many places as possible because that's the sad way our society rolls these days.

You're not wrong in your general description of the corruption in our society. But every European club I've ever seen also mandates shinguards for training. I can't say whether it's due to an abundance of caution or, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, you might as well train with them because you'll need them for matches. But I don't understand why you're so strongly opposed to them--it's maybe $20 you spend once every 4 or 5 years...Maybe because the socks are a bit of a pain?

Edit: I should mention that at the senior level, training without shinguards is pretty common. But at the youth levels, I've never seen it allowed.

Better reason to wear shin guards: they are required in every match and it will be enforced.

"Play like you practice"--it's different wearing shin guards, and sometimes you can pick out the kids who never wear them in training by clumsy touches.

Yep, I was wrong.

How many "free" MLS academies are there? 20 or so?

I don't think that any youth clubs/academies, even the MLS Academies, in the US are entitled to solidarity payments. Although it's a pain to register US kids in Europe even without the money involved. Took us about 4 months.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A foreign player choosing his team and getting paid by one of the league's television partners tells you just how far the MLS is from being a real league. It would be like Wemby deciding that whe wanted to be a Knick and that the supermax wasn't enough so TNT would have to throw in more and everyone just saying ok.

Can tell you do not understand how big Messi is. Name any player in any sport or any celebrity in the US and Messi is 5 to 10 times more popular.
There is no one in the world who comes close to his popularity.

Er...in literally every other sports league in the world players choose their teams. High draft picks are a reward for poor performance--hardly an argument for credibility as a "real league." Let me know the next time a team in one of our "professional" sports cartels actually has to win to stay in the league.

That being said...I think Messi will end up dragging ticket sales up, but the team down. I could be wrong, but I don't think he'll be a good fit in a very physical, athletic league.

Team managers will have a hundred thankless responsibilities and really are the glue that keeps the team together. If you're a good manager, everyone will have a good experience.

Jesus, all these people sniping about managers whose kids get a little more playing time than you, in your obviously expert opinions, think they deserve... LET THEM. That's literally the only possible reward for a manager after getting unceasingly griped at by parents. They take care of making sure that your kid gets to play--at least let the one parent who is actually doing work for the team see their own kid play.

Moving to the area for the second time. Coming from Europe, where my U11 plays in a club. Family won't arrive until mid-summer, so already missing tryouts. I'm thinking to wait until after he starts school so that he can meet some friends, find out where they play, and then go to that club/team.

Anyone else ever try doing this? If so, did you run into any particular issues?
We'll probably miss games for most of the autumn in any case--might take a while to get the player registration back to the US.

The whole "club-vs-club" league structure that exists in the area is set up to accommodate coaches who have multiple teams. It's common.

Please don't think that your son can't be on a "good" team. There are good teams at PAC, good teams at Alexandria, etc. To repeat what others have said, this is what's important:
1) to like the coach;
2) to like his teammates;
3) to enjoy going to training and matches.

I've been doing the soccer parent thing a long time and the intensity of my emotions has sometimes shocked me. The best thing you can do for your kid is dial back or hide those intense emotions and just let them be a kid playing soccer. If they want to improve, help them set goals for juggling/keep-ups and find some youtube videos on how to kick a ball against a wall. IF they want to.

Are the tryouts being held in lieu of regular training sessions? If so, and your kid has nowhere else to train, go to the tryouts.

Er...Benzema doesn't have a World Cup winner's medal because of his scandals.

This whole incestuously rotten core of US Soccer should be cleaned out

Blutarski wrote:

retiredref wrote:When a opponent is allowed to score the same goal twice in one match you have to look at the tactical approach and the management. Why were there no adjustments to the tactics to prevent from from scoring the same goal again? Even worse when considering the same play created a couple other chances just as good which were sent high or wide.

Not picking up the third or fourth man joining the attack isn't so much a matter of management or strategy as it is an individual responsibility. Semantics maybe, but I would lay that one at the feet of the players involved, not so much coaching.

This. Also...

Watching the match with NLD, I kept thinking back to all of the joy about how Sergino Dest "chose" the USMNT over NLD. No way he gets into that Netherlands team. Just not good enough.

3 or 4 times in this tournament, Weston McKinnie had big changes that were nearly identical to the ones that Depay and Blind scored on. I don't think he put a single one even on frame. Just not good enough.

The third NLD goal, with the man coming unmarked for a simple (if not necessarily easy) volley. Just not good enough.

In fairness, though, the round of 16 isn't bad. Better than Germany, lol.

Has anyone else noticed a marked decline in quality in adidas boots over the last few years?

My kids used to grow out of them. Now the seams are blowing out within 2-3 months. We've seen this multiple times with different models on the high end of the adidas spectrum.

It's kind of sad--we've been pretty loyal customers over the years, but it's time to find something else. 4 pairs of cleats in a year is just ridiculous.