Anonymous wrote:US is mainly white. Did you know polo in China is dominated by Chinese people, and it can be further separated by economics and weather.

The US is 1/2 white if that's what you mean by mostly.

Travel Soccer is expensive. Paying for soccer fields (games & practices), coaches, league fees, tournaments fees, and uniforms is not cheap. Someone has to pay for it. Until men and women’s professional soccer leagues obtain revenues similar to football and basketball, someone has to pay for it.

There is really good soccer here for less money, but it tends to be in communities with a very high Latino population. I definitely agree with some points in the article, but I don't know how the author missed the strong community soccer programs for kids in predominantly Latino areas. These programs are thriving and exist through deep community efforts, and it bothers me that the author didn't even acknowledge them. For instance, some of the strongest youth teams in the country are in California's central valley. They are all or nearly all composed of kids with Latino heritage. Coaching is either bilingual or in Spanish. Fees are sliding scale and certainly not in the thousands as implied by the article. I wish the author had seen those teams because they deserve the recognition.

But these teams never get high Got Soccer rankings because they don't do a ton of tournaments (although they destroy other teams when they do go to tournaments). The other issue is that there aren't MLS clubs or Academy teams nearby many of these areas so although these teams teach excellent soccer and the kids are good players, it's hard for them to get on the radar of MLS (which is why MLS will continue to suck, but I digress). A kid who is outstanding in the Central Valley has to commute to Sacramento or San Jose, for instance.

Its crazy to me that if you look at the DA club map for California, you see multiple teams in LA and the SF Bay Area, but so many fewer in the Central Valley. Those are the kids that DA is missing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US is mainly white. Did you know polo in China is dominated by Chinese people, and it can be further separated by economics and weather.

I hear soccer in South America is dominated by Latinos. Go figure.

In the US, all players are Americans.

This is very true particularly for Girls Soccer. I see very few minorities. But when my DD played in an indoor soccer league at the Sportsplex in Rockville, she played against a couple of teams that had all Hispanic players. They were pretty good teams too. I don’t know if it’s the cost or they prefer to play for Hispanic coaches that focused on technical skills, etc.

Anonymous wrote:US is mainly white. Did you know polo in China is dominated by Chinese people, and it can be further separated by economics and weather.

I hear soccer in South America is dominated by Latinos. Go figure.

Anonymous wrote:anyone can play rec soccer for $60-$80 at their local soccer club with minimal driving. If you lived in Brazil, Spain, etc you could walk across the street or go to a neighbor and an older kid or someone's uncle can teach you skills for free.

If you want to learn to throw a football, learn how to pitch, or shoot a basketball, it's pretty much free here too. If you live in the US and you want to play cricket or any non-US mainstream, sport, better open the wallet for lessons.

It’s fairly easy to sign up for rec soccer. But rec soccer is not competitive. The coaches are volunteers that usually have very little experience coaching. They do it for a few years when their kid is playing.
Travel soccer, where the youth actually receive coaching, is far more expensive.

US is mainly white. Did you know polo in China is dominated by Chinese people, and it can be further separated by economics and weather.

Pretty easy to find an open field, and all you need is a ball and some cones or some shirts for a goal. So the barrier to playing is very low even here, but unlike South America and Europe and Africa culturally it is not the sport that really bored kids play here because it is not marketed and in their face constantly like B-ball and football. Instead our kids play and watch those two sports for fun or more and more they simply play video games.

Anonymous wrote:anyone can play rec soccer for $60-$80 at their local soccer club with minimal driving. If you lived in Brazil, Spain, etc you could walk across the street or go to a neighbor and an older kid or someone's uncle can teach you skills for free.

If you want to learn to throw a football, learn how to pitch, or shoot a basketball, it's pretty much free here too. If you live in the US and you want to play cricket or any non-US mainstream, sport, better open the wallet for lessons.

Yes that about sums it up.

Whenever my kid needs some humility, I remind her that there are 500 girls in the county that are better than her, but they cannot afford to play.

anyone can play rec soccer for $60-$80 at their local soccer club with minimal driving. If you lived in Brazil, Spain, etc you could walk across the street or go to a neighbor and an older kid or someone's uncle can teach you skills for free.

If you want to learn to throw a football, learn how to pitch, or shoot a basketball, it's pretty much free here too. If you live in the US and you want to play cricket or any non-US mainstream, sport, better open the wallet for lessons.

This is not breaking news. Kinda obvious.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of valid points here, and rings true all over the DMV

https://sports.yahoo.com/the-privilege-of-play-why-the-worlds-game-is-a-white-game-in-the-us-150024228.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw

+10000

A lot of valid points here, and rings true all over the DMV

https://sports.yahoo.com/the-privilege-of-play-why-the-worlds-game-is-a-white-game-in-the-us-150024228.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw