Reply to Alex Morgan says youth soccer has gotten worse

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[quote=Anonymous]https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellore/2019/07/23/alex-morgan-says-us-youth-soccer-model-has-gotten-worse/#707641c46621  (fuil article)

From Alex:
“I’m not sure how to fix it but I think it needs to go back to looking at grassroots and seeing around the world soccer is not an expensive sport,” Morgan said. “It’s actually played barefoot in many countries and all you need is a ball and goal posts, and the goal posts can be trash cans or whatever is nearby.”
“Unfortunately the pay-to-play model, I believe, is getting worse in soccer than when I played competitive soccer (growing up),” said Morgan, a two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup winner with the USWNT. “It’s a very inexpensive sport and the fact that we’ve made youth soccer in the U.S. more of a business than a grassroots sport is, I think, detrimental to the growth of the sport in the U.S.”

I agree with her.  I was reading in another thread on this forum where parents were having a disagreement with one saying essentially that the sport has gotten out of hand and parents perpetuate this trend while the other pp (or coach) comes back with something along the lines of 'that's just because your kid sucks or 'you do you' or some other cr*p.

One poster summed up what I was thinking quite nicely with this:
"Normally I totally respect the decisions of others and truly make no judgments about what they are doing with their kids. But in this case, their decisions affect the quality of our decisions. So if fewer people were not caught up in these hamster wheels, we could have better and more competitive soccer without hours of commuting to practice in Loudoun or flights to South Carolina. But I do totally respect their freedom to be as dumb as they want to be.  The decision itself I cannot respect or recommend."

US Youth Soccer gets away with it precisely because elitist parents with $ will do whatever it is they come up with without questioning it as along as it is packaged in a manner that says 'your kid is one of the elite'.  They prey on the vast majority of soccer parents that are unfamiliar with the system and with zero grasp on the odds for their child.  They truly believe their kid is the next breakout National (or even International) name.  So, yes, it does take a collective body of sane people to start rebelling against this system.  But, the parents are pitted against one another and it is better in their eyes if talented little Jimmy's dad says "f*ck this, I am not going to S.Carolina for league games" because now Logan can step into the vacated 'star' spot all the while trashing Jimmy and his family for not being committed.  Even better, that the kid on the playground is better than all of the A team/DA/ECNL players does not have the $ to even play, much less get rides to all of these practices/games because his parents are working 2 jobs. Less competition.

We have Clubs 5 miles from each other that won't play against each other or be in one another's tournaments due to some type of pissing match.    We have enough competitive players in the DMV that kids do need to be getting on planes and charter buses for regular season games---or have their parents commute 45 minutes-1 hour for practices.  And, the other poster was spot on about DA just being the current fad.  It is on its way out, just like all the other equivalent hair-brained concoctions before it.  But, no fear, something else with a different name will replace it as the next bigger and better thing....with probably more travel and more $ on the backs of truly committed parents whose kids are truly the best we've yet to see.

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