Anonymous wrote:Maybe because the U.S. isn't Europe.

American kids don't turn to futbal as their go to sport like the rest of the world. That's changing with steady ethnic and cultural diversification but soccer has another 50 years before it's as mainstream as football and basketball in the U.S. I agree it's not the most efficient system but the structure does separate - relatively quickly - players and families willing to commit and pursue the sport at an increasingly more competitive level. Those kids who want to play, but don't want to travel out of their neighborhood, have the option to play in recreational leagues within their club as well as cross-over recreational leagues like the Suburban Friends League in NoVA. Once you navigate to the travel teams, you can select more geographically localized clubs who play NCSL and drive 30 - 60 minutes for a game. Beyond that, however, greater competition means more driving so that you're not playing the same teams over and over again.

BTW, losing to a local team 0 - 7 doesn't feel any better than losing to a team you drive 4 hours to play especially if you to play the local team three or four times knowing they'll beat you 0 - 7 each time.

Anonymous wrote:With an incompetent national federation, generally ignorant populace, tiny professional structure that is spread over a massive geographical area, and an infrastructure of local neighborhood clubs controlling fields this is where we are stuck. Lots of competing “elite” money grab leagues with coaches and administrators looking out for their paychecks over the good of the players and actual development.

There should be regionalized competitive structure with a defined pathway for players (local neighborhood rec - local travel - regional travel) where coaches actively push players to the appropriate level, but instead coaches cling to players that can win them games. The extra long travel component that has developed over the past 10 years is ridiculous, especially in an area like this. Time and cost are out of control.

Anonymous wrote:If you’ve ever heard Tony Meola talk about growing up in Kearney, NJ - along with Tab Ramos and John Harkes - he credits that type of environment with the success they and other players had - playing a lot of pickup and learning from the older guys. There’s little doubt in my mind that is the best way for players to develop. There are small pieces of that in some Latino communities in the area, but certainly not the norm.

Anonymous wrote:There are lots of options to have the experience you want, OP. Our kid plays for a lower level travel team, and wants to stay there rather than than move up because it’s an NCSL team, which means all of his games are within an hour’s drive. He has fun, likes his teammates, and doesn’t feel compelled to advance in rankings because it’s not like there’s a realistic chance he’s going to play professional soccer someday. If he can play in college for a D3 team he’d be happy, but it’s not the be-all and end-all of life.