Anonymous wrote:Kids don’t live, breath, and sleep soccer here. They do not watch pro games every weekend and dissect what happened, could’ve happened, and hoped to have happened with their buddies, friends, and schoolmates in school or at the park.

Over the country as a whole, yes that's correct. But the level of intense (some would say, insane) parental involvement/interest that we chuckle at on these boards, however, indicates to me that, at least in certain pockets of the country (which is huge by comparison to most European countries) we do have "soccer crazy" families. I definitely here lots of talk at games and practices about this or that European club game -- so the soccer fanatics are watching here, too.

Let alone have them play pick up games at the park, at school recess (LOL), in THE STREET!!!!

I don't know. My kids play at recess and in the street. Not so much in the park, because frankly we rarely see enough kids in the park, but they do play outside of their team practices/games.

you can’t get to where others are by not imitating them. Sorry, the US will never be a powerhouse in soccer per se.

That's kind of my point. What are Barcelona U9 (and frankly, the other U9 European clubs) doing already at U9 that their boys are far ahead of any of the clubs in NOVA, which is supposedly one of the pockets of strong soccer players in the USA? I'm talking about the type of training, the type of coaching, the type of environment that make a U9 club perform at such a dramatically superior level. What are they doing that we aren't?

Real talented American squad needs early prepubescent teenagers to have been scouted, picked, and ultimately have (and their parents too) the balls to jump over the pond into the old continent.

Sure, we could run over to Europe and join their system. But why haven't we developed a similarly effective system here? What is it? Everyone in the DC-Metro area who talks all this big game about this or that club, or this or that elite league ... at a certain point, doesn't anyone scratch their head and look over at what the European kids are doing and realize that our soccer clubs look like daycare as compared to theirs? There's enough money here, and there clearly seems to be a strong demand for development of young soccer players here ... why hasn't a solid development approach evolved to meet that demand here?

I just don't get it.

Hasn’t it proven that heading the ball below U12 really bad and can cause concussions/brain damage? The kids in the video are 8 years old and are constantly heading the ball.

No good.

Kids don’t live, breath, and sleep soccer here. They do not watch pro games every weekend and dissect what happened, could’ve happened, and hoped to have happened with their buddies, friends, and schoolmates in school or at the park.

Let alone have them play pick up games at the park, at school recess (LOL), in THE STREET!!!!

you can’t get to where others are by not imitating them. Sorry, the US will never be a powerhouse in soccer per se.

Real talented American squad needs early prepubescent teenagers to have been scouted, picked, and ultimately have (and their parents too) the balls to jump over the pond into the old continent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Third grade, really? Who cares.

Anyone interested in seeing the U.S. be competitive in world soccer in 10 years should care. The question is --- if NOVA is rich in talent relative to the rest of the United States, yet none of our U9 teams can hold a candle to Barcelona U9, why is that?

Do "we" in the U.S. have a better method? Is there any age group at which we finally catch up to the real soccer powers of the world? If not, why aren't we changing our approach?

We are no where near the soccer powers of the world. We are only beginning to produce players who are shining at the European club level. When I was growing up I never imagined we would have an “American” score a brace for Barcelona — especially as a LB. The fact that we have a starting 11 where most of the players play on top teams in Europe is a HUGE accomplishment. In my opinion, I believe the pay to play is a big deterrent and also the fact that many of our boys prefer to play basketball, football, and baseball. While perhaps a good thing in a holistic sense, aspiring to play collegiate level soccer is bad for American development. I get it, education is very important, but in other countries they go all in. It’s sad because sometimes a promising kid gets hurt at 17 or 19 and they have nothing to fall back on — but it’s the reality of their method.

Americans are very focused on winning at young ages and developing physicality over technique. So they choose tactics that might not be best for the young players in the long run.

I think in order to really start developing talent, we need to get used to sending players overseas at earlier ages — similar to Pulisic. Also we need to have real academies where people can buy and sell youth contracts. It’s crazy to think of and it will never happen. But I think having a true academy style sports arena will help us develop.

Anonymous wrote:Third grade, really? Who cares.

Anyone interested in seeing the U.S. be competitive in world soccer in 10 years should care. The question is --- if NOVA is rich in talent relative to the rest of the United States, yet none of our U9 teams can hold a candle to Barcelona U9, why is that?

Do "we" in the U.S. have a better method? Is there any age group at which we finally catch up to the real soccer powers of the world? If not, why aren't we changing our approach?

Anonymous wrote:None.

And why not? Genetics?

None.

Anonymous wrote:there's this one rec team that really has it together. Little Tommy is a Messi in the making

He doesn't like being called "Little Tommy" these days. He has asked to be called "Big Tommy" in future. OK?

Anonymous wrote:Clearly SYC samba boyz. 10-1 over bethesda.

Only similarity between the two I the language they speak. It ends there.

Clearly SYC samba boyz. 10-1 over bethesda.

there's this one rec team that really has it together. Little Tommy is a Messi in the making

Anonymous wrote:Third grade, really? Who cares.

+1

This forum is bonkers.

doesn't matter odds are extremely against anyone on Barcelona u9 ever making it thru the system to the pros.

Third grade, really? Who cares.

https://youtu.be/s3PcdKdbkVU

And why do you think so?