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Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss
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Anonymous
Yes. It's a tired excuse for 40+ years of crappy results on the men's side. Which World Cup contender has the most youth soccer players? Germany, the perennial power? Nope. Brazil? Guess again. How about the United States? According to a FIFA study, the U.S. has more youth soccer players than any of the countries that are real contenders to win the World Cup, and with 24.5 million players trails only China, which didn't qualify for the 2014 World Cup, in getting kids to play. Soccer is also the second most popular youth sport in the U.S. behind basketball, but ahead of baseball and well ahead of football. 24.5 million players and how many players like Pulisic do we produce each year??? |
Anonymous
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^^^ some truly depressing facts considering the amount of time and $ those households pour into the sport each year.
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Anonymous
With that many kids playing soccer and it being the 2nd most popular youth sport in the US behind basketball---you can't hide behind the excuse that we aren't a soccer nation. Our kids play the sport more than almost every.other.sport. |
Anonymous
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^^^A winter night the first day in February and I couldn't even get the SUV near the field because the switch over from 65+ kids every 90 minutes beginning at 4pm...and still coming in when I was driving me oldest home at 8pm. As the night went on, the kids got bigger. And, unlike the other sports, soccer is played just about year-round in most places in the US. It has fast eclipsed the all-American baseball and football for the sport kids play the most.
but, no, no, we aren't a soccer nation...the US soccer Federation needs a major overhaul. |
Anonymous
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^^^A winter night the first day in February and I couldn't even get the SUV near the field because the switch over from 65+ kids every 90 minutes beginning at 4pm...and still coming in when I was driving me oldest home at 8pm. As the night went on, the kids got bigger. And, unlike the other sports, soccer is played just about year-round in most places in the US. It has fast eclipsed the all-American baseball and football for the sport kids play the most.
but, no, no, we aren't a soccer nation...the US soccer Federation needs a major overhaul. |
Anonymous
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^^^A winter night the first day in February and I couldn't even get the SUV near the field because the switch over from 65+ kids every 90 minutes beginning at 4pm...and still coming in when I was driving me oldest home at 8pm. As the night went on, the kids got bigger. And, unlike the other sports, soccer is played just about year-round in most places in the US. It has fast eclipsed the all-American baseball and football for the sport kids play the most.
but, no, no, we aren't a soccer nation...the US soccer Federation needs a major overhaul. |
Anonymous
Iceland has only 325.000 people, only 20.000 football players and yet manage to outperform more than 150 bigger countries on the FIFA ranking list. US 24.5 million soccer players; Iceland 20,000 soccer players. They still outperform us. |
Anonymous
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Back to the subject at hand:
A FCV and Loudoun merger for girls DA would be so rich in talent that a substantial pool of talented ladies will be left off the roster and searching for new teams. The kids left over in Northern Loudoun might transfer over to McLean (Rt. 7). The kids in southern Loudoun might transfer over to VDA. Also remember, its not just about making the roster. Its about playing. Some kids will transfer from a stronger to a weaker team just to break the starting lineup. |
Anonymous
| Where is the information about the Arlington DA ID sessions? I see DCU, but not Arlington. Is it the same? Are kids invited to those? |
Anonymous
| the last 2 posts demonstrate why we still are so far behind... |
asksoccernova
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How many full-time professional youth academies that support U9-U19 does our country have (where school is secondary to soccer, not the other way around)?
How many soccer-only boarding schools where the club pays? The number of players doesn't matter without the infrastructure. Compare that to the amount of youth and professional baseball infrastructure we have in the US... and how many fathers can teach their kids how to play baseball vs. how many can really teach their kids soccer... There are a lot of kids playing youth basketball in china, but are they ever going to catch up to us? No. Why? Because its in the DNA of several generations already, passed down from grandfather to father to son on the driveway, the park, or the streets, not learned at a weekly skills clinic. Kids playing basketball non-stop form dawn till dusk nearly every day they can. The most naturally talented players actually come from Africa - heck, most kids aren't even in school and they play soccer all day long with and against teenagers or grown men (with EXTREME substandard equipment). Like the soccer they play would be an instant lawsuit here in the US (no shoes, no shin guards, using a clump of rags stitched together to make something round that resembles a soccer ball, dangerous field conditions, boys playing against men, no risk management forms, no player cards, way too many players on one field if you could even call it that, NOTHING). The harsher the playing environment/conditions, the more raw talent is produced. Pele, anyone? Didn't own soccer shoes, played barefoot, never had an actual coach until he was discovered (at 13? could be wrong), and had a soccer ball-like object that he would dribble everywhere he went.. The problem is that there are few people (relative to the tens of millions of kids playing soccer in Africa) who can coach them in decision-making and team / group play. For them, its soccer or nothing, so those that actually have a shot at making it to a higher level are playing as if their lives are on the line - because it is for many of them... a life of being an unskilled worker in Africa or getting the glory. Starting at age 11-12 when they are old enough to become aware of it. The very best among these millions of kids are plucked out every year and put into European youth academies... some of them make it, some don't. Good luck to the typical American kid competing against others that literally have no alternative in life except to become a professional soccer player or have a life of manual labor... Why are Cuban baseball players so good? same reason. No other way out. Many (not all of course) basketball and football players are as good as they are for the same reason - no alternative. Suburban soccer kids simply do not have the same survival-driven instinct even if they are "good / talented" players. Yes, there are european kids that will have education alternatives if they don't make it, but again, these kids are getting spoon-fed soccer 7 days a week from the time they can barely walk at 2... by the time they are 7, they have been kicking a ball around for 5 years already in some form or another.... and we are starting with mini kickers classes once a week for 8 week sessions in the spring and fall. God forbid that we let an 8 year old play soccer more than 6 hours of organized soccer per week (2-3 practices + 1 game on the weekend)!! |
Anonymous
| Well said. Please forward that to every local club's recreation director, all of which design these inane 4U, 5U, and 6U-8U programs, that all too often have nothing but a bunch of babysitting birthday party games and giant group drills that they sell to niave parents as curriculum that is so important to "making soccer fun in order that we retain these kids later at 13." Total garbage. As any soccer playing mom/dad knows, and who has raised kids at this age and who has wanted to pass on foot skills, technique, and ability on the ball, these youngers can have tons of fun learning the same skills as we see being introduced to 9U travel players. Want to know how clueless we are in this area? One of the local ECNL clubs mentioned a few posts back actually adopted a rec policy a few years ago trying to prevent/limit families and friends of youngers from getting together to play and train and learn these things on their own (the very things that none of these clubs are providing, and that the little kids desperately need and can have fun mastering if done right). Of course these clubs want you to pay extra money for their "skills sessions" taught by their staff in giant, and worthless, group settings. The $$ that we pay these directors for the crap programming that goes on at these young ages is just maddening. How many sessions of What Time is it Mr. Wolf do we need, when there are some kids that have been learning skills since almost 3, or there are kids at 5 who want to just play the game in a small sided soccer format with a knowledgeable coach who can use opportunities in the scrimmage to offer developmental coaching points, e.g., like not using your toe, or dribbling inatead of kicking? Instead, we cut into game time at 5U and even 6U, and force these kids to do boring group drills that offer some weak coaching point about using your laces. Then these rec. directors come up what seems like a brilliant idea to have coaches screen for these "advanced" kids, but instead all they end up with are programs that select fast and agressive 5 and 6 year olds, instead of ones that are bored out of their minds by the garbage curriculum in this area. These coaches in these programs NEVER talk to parents, and clubs work against them thinking they know what kids need better then knowledgeable, interested soccer parents. There is no hope for us in this area when the whole system has a mindset that is working against you and the curriculum is a bunch of baloney & cheese. There is absolutely nothing for our little kids in this area. |
Anonymous
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSelzI1HoU9WDHKdpFwsWvOkqCqccbUdl-vPOvSOr7F3fJpZdA/viewform |
Anonymous
And yet until now has viewing professional soccer leagues around the world has never been this accessible. |
Anonymous
BOOM! |