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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]our population is almost 10x that of most European countries that are soccer powerhouses.  So if they have 1 mega-star (Messi, Mbappe, Klose, Ronaldo, Bellingham, Haaland etc.) per 30M people, the law of averages would mean that we should have 10 mega-stars, i don't think our best player(s) crack the top 100 in the world right now.

So something is severely broken in the transition between youth and men's soccer in the US.[/quote]

The problem starts at grass-youth soccer. 
Coaches not knowledgeable or properly certified or doing ongoing education in youth development.
Parents not knowledgeable, don't really care, didn't come from soccer culture.
K[b]ids don't know what they don't know.[/b]
Terms like 'elite' acceptedly misused and abused
Parents with money and corporate influence but dunce to high level soccer calling the shots 
Clubs happily accepting mediocre as long as the right pockets get lined. Repeat for the next batch

By the time physicality is no longer an advantage and tactics/philosophies get complicated, the gap widens between us and elsewhere.
One or two diamonds will always make it out of the coal-mine

[/quote]

The lack of soccer culture really is a huge issue. many kids don't watch professional soccer to see how it's supposed to be done, or the level of creativity brought to the game by elite players. The lack field awareness and game IQ because they've not seen it done or have no one to emulate. I'd compare it to a chef who specializes in French cuisine and cooks straight from a cookbook but has never lived in or immersed himself in the culture to taste/grow up with the food. Sure, you can follow the recipe and the steps but there'd be a level of authenticity missing. That's US soccer. It's textbook, boring and lacks panache. [/quote]

I've heard Tom Byer, an American who has been working for decades in Japan to promote and develop soccer there, talk about his philosophy of "soccer begins at home" and how Japan, a country without a soccer culture, has succeeded in developing technically proficient competitive players on both the men's and women's sides. His perspective is interesting, but[b] the main takeaway is that kids need to develop technical skills from a young age outside of competitive situations. [/b]American soccer, which prioritizes speed and strength and focuses on competition and outcomes, devalues technical development and skill acquisition that should be prioritized in young players.

[url]https://www.socceramerica.com/tom-byer-on-the-intriguing-comparisons-between-us/[/url]

[/quote]

I'm a big fan of Tom Beyer and own his book. And I don't disagree with anything that he's said about the importance of very young kids developing their soccer skills. What I find interesting is how this same dynamic is not so much at play with other sports -- [b]you rarely (if ever) hear anyone focusing on very young kids developing technical skills in basketball, baseball,[/b] or American football. In those sports, kids seems to be able to get away with just being good athletes who pick up technical abilities in those other sports later in childhood.

This seems to indicate that highly developed soccer skills really are uniquely difficult -- after all, using your feet rather than your hands is not natural for humans -- and that soccer really is the Beautiful Game and the most popular sport in the world for a reason.[/quote]

That's one way to say that you don't have kids playing those sports [/quote]

I'm a DP, but I agree with the PP. That's not to say that kids build skills in those other sports from a young age. However, there are athletes who take up sports like basketball and football as teens and are able to compete at high levels. These athletes tend to have specific physical attributes that are advantageous in the sport. You rarely, if ever, hear of a late-to-soccer athlete who is able to excel. [/quote]

I am sure it depends on where you live but I'm sure you'd have to be a heck of an athlete to walk on to our girls high school basketball team. They've all been playing travel ball for years. And you can just see why...the later-to-sport kids don't have the same fluidity in movement as those that have been playing. It just isn't in their muscle memory [/quote]

Here is a list of successful NBA players who started playing basketball in their teens or later.

[url]https://fadeawayworld.net/10-nba-players-who-started-playing-basketball-late-dennis-rodman-began-playing-at-21-years-old[/url][/quote]
Those players only started organized playing at that age. It doesn't mean they hadn't picked up a basketball before. Many were born and living outside the US where there probably weren't many places for organized basketball. But they were likely watching on TV and playing on playgrounds often.  Still, these are outliers and one in ten million world class athletes. I'm not sure their examples translate to ordinary youth soccer.[/quote]

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