Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love how people rail against a system they continue to help prop up. “We hate it but we will all continue to do it”. I’m starting to think people don’t actually hate it as much as they say they do.

Those of us with the opportunity to move out do. I know 4 families with European passports that are going back there to give their kids a genuine football experience albeit making a bit less money in their professional careers than here. But, alas, advances of dual passport. Would suck if you wanted to do this move but can’t because you only have 1 passport. God bless you.

What a crock of BS, you know 4 families leaving US for kids soccer….lol

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love how people rail against a system they continue to help prop up. “We hate it but we will all continue to do it”. I’m starting to think people don’t actually hate it as much as they say they do.

Those of us with the opportunity to move out do. I know 4 families with European passports that are going back there to give their kids a genuine football experience albeit making a bit less money in their professional careers than here. But, alas, advances of dual passport. Would suck if you wanted to do this move but can’t because you only have 1 passport. God bless you.

Going back to be near family, the culture, and other legit reasons sure but moving to Europe just to give their kids a different soccer experience? I don’t buy that one. Maybe that’s how they sold it to their kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love how people rail against a system they continue to help prop up. “We hate it but we will all continue to do it”. I’m starting to think people don’t actually hate it as much as they say they do.

Those of us with the opportunity to move out do. I know 4 families with European passports that are going back there to give their kids a genuine football experience albeit making a bit less money in their professional careers than here. But, alas, advances of dual passport. Would suck if you wanted to do this move but can’t because you only have 1 passport. God bless you.

I live in Earth’s greatest country. I don’t plan on leaving so DS can play at an academy for a third division club.

God bless you.

I can't tell whether this is serious. By what measure do you "live in Earth's greatest country"?

They had that copied from 2011 and just pasted it 😂😂

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love how people rail against a system they continue to help prop up. “We hate it but we will all continue to do it”. I’m starting to think people don’t actually hate it as much as they say they do.

Those of us with the opportunity to move out do. I know 4 families with European passports that are going back there to give their kids a genuine football experience albeit making a bit less money in their professional careers than here. But, alas, advances of dual passport. Would suck if you wanted to do this move but can’t because you only have 1 passport. God bless you.

I live in Earth’s greatest country. I don’t plan on leaving so DS can play at an academy for a third division club.

God bless you.

I can't tell whether this is serious. By what measure do you "live in Earth's greatest country"?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love how people rail against a system they continue to help prop up. “We hate it but we will all continue to do it”. I’m starting to think people don’t actually hate it as much as they say they do.

Those of us with the opportunity to move out do. I know 4 families with European passports that are going back there to give their kids a genuine football experience albeit making a bit less money in their professional careers than here. But, alas, advances of dual passport. Would suck if you wanted to do this move but can’t because you only have 1 passport. God bless you.

I live in Earth’s greatest country. I don’t plan on leaving so DS can play at an academy for a third division club.

God bless you.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love how people rail against a system they continue to help prop up. “We hate it but we will all continue to do it”. I’m starting to think people don’t actually hate it as much as they say they do.

Those of us with the opportunity to move out do. I know 4 families with European passports that are going back there to give their kids a genuine football experience albeit making a bit less money in their professional careers than here. But, alas, advances of dual passport. Would suck if you wanted to do this move but can’t because you only have 1 passport. God bless you.

I live in Earth’s greatest country. I don’t plan on leaving so DS can play at an academy for a third division club.

God bless you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love how people rail against a system they continue to help prop up. “We hate it but we will all continue to do it”. I’m starting to think people don’t actually hate it as much as they say they do.

Those of us with the opportunity to move out do. I know 4 families with European passports that are going back there to give their kids a genuine football experience albeit making a bit less money in their professional careers than here. But, alas, advances of dual passport. Would suck if you wanted to do this move but can’t because you only have 1 passport. God bless you.

Being in Europe with soccer is like being in the US with basketball

It's all around and there's some high quality, but only a small percentage are actually a part of the high quality environment

Anonymous wrote:I love how people rail against a system they continue to help prop up. “We hate it but we will all continue to do it”. I’m starting to think people don’t actually hate it as much as they say they do.

Those of us with the opportunity to move out do. I know 4 families with European passports that are going back there to give their kids a genuine football experience albeit making a bit less money in their professional careers than here. But, alas, advances of dual passport. Would suck if you wanted to do this move but can’t because you only have 1 passport. God bless you.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Mentality? We’re talking about a kids activity here. Just because you take it too seriously doesn’t mean we all do. Not everyone has the same goals. As long as my kid is good enough to play on the team they can have whatever mentality they want. I’ll bet it really burns you to know that there are players on your team who lack the “mentality” but are just as good or better and sharing the stage with your kid.

This is interesting. You are advocating to teach your child to not give their best after making a commitment to the team?

Actually, you're saying you're fine with your kid being mediocre and just showup?
Hopefully they learn better work ethics from others

Your kid giving 50% doesn't hurt the kid giving 100%

This convo has nothing to do with effort. My kid gives 100% every time they are on the field. The discussion was about the value of traveling long distances for games. My position is that we prefer longer travel because we get to spend time together and visit fun places with the team. We have no intention of playing soccer in college or pros. Someone called that soccer tourism and implied these kids aren’t giving 100% on the field. That’s not true. They enjoy the full experience 100% - traveling, competing, socializing.

Are you the guy who said they don't care about development or about what happens on the soccer field because it's all about the travel experience?

No, but I agree with them.

I hear there's this new concept where families can do vacations and weekends together that doesn't involve a sport schedule.
Sounds radical

But we like vacations with sports schedules. Who made you judge of how families should spend their time and money? You do realize these travel leagues (aka sports vacations) exist because there are so many of us who enjoy them and are willing to pay. Radical?

Yeah, sport vacations to cowdunk county in Pennsylvania, Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina etc where these games are are all the rage on the Travel Channel

5pm game on a Sunday with work Monday morning for many

Hey, as long as cowdunk county of Pennsylvania, Jersey, Delaware, and North Carolina has establishments sell a nice, cold refreshing beer. Count me in!!

Plus said cold, refreshing beer makes cowdunk counties of Pennsylvania, Jersey, Delaware, and North Caroline seem much better.

git'er done

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Mentality? We’re talking about a kids activity here. Just because you take it too seriously doesn’t mean we all do. Not everyone has the same goals. As long as my kid is good enough to play on the team they can have whatever mentality they want. I’ll bet it really burns you to know that there are players on your team who lack the “mentality” but are just as good or better and sharing the stage with your kid.

This is interesting. You are advocating to teach your child to not give their best after making a commitment to the team?

Actually, you're saying you're fine with your kid being mediocre and just showup?
Hopefully they learn better work ethics from others

Your kid giving 50% doesn't hurt the kid giving 100%

This convo has nothing to do with effort. My kid gives 100% every time they are on the field. The discussion was about the value of traveling long distances for games. My position is that we prefer longer travel because we get to spend time together and visit fun places with the team. We have no intention of playing soccer in college or pros. Someone called that soccer tourism and implied these kids aren’t giving 100% on the field. That’s not true. They enjoy the full experience 100% - traveling, competing, socializing.

Are you the guy who said they don't care about development or about what happens on the soccer field because it's all about the travel experience?

No, but I agree with them.

I hear there's this new concept where families can do vacations and weekends together that doesn't involve a sport schedule.
Sounds radical

But we like vacations with sports schedules. Who made you judge of how families should spend their time and money? You do realize these travel leagues (aka sports vacations) exist because there are so many of us who enjoy them and are willing to pay. Radical?

Yeah, sport vacations to cowdunk county in Pennsylvania, Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina etc where these games are are all the rage on the Travel Channel

5pm game on a Sunday with work Monday morning for many

Hey, as long as cowdunk county of Pennsylvania, Jersey, Delaware, and North Carolina has establishments sell a nice, cold refreshing beer. Count me in!!

Plus said cold, refreshing beer makes cowdunk counties of Pennsylvania, Jersey, Delaware, and North Caroline seem much better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Mentality? We’re talking about a kids activity here. Just because you take it too seriously doesn’t mean we all do. Not everyone has the same goals. As long as my kid is good enough to play on the team they can have whatever mentality they want. I’ll bet it really burns you to know that there are players on your team who lack the “mentality” but are just as good or better and sharing the stage with your kid.

This is interesting. You are advocating to teach your child to not give their best after making a commitment to the team?

Actually, you're saying you're fine with your kid being mediocre and just showup?
Hopefully they learn better work ethics from others

Your kid giving 50% doesn't hurt the kid giving 100%

This convo has nothing to do with effort. My kid gives 100% every time they are on the field. The discussion was about the value of traveling long distances for games. My position is that we prefer longer travel because we get to spend time together and visit fun places with the team. We have no intention of playing soccer in college or pros. Someone called that soccer tourism and implied these kids aren’t giving 100% on the field. That’s not true. They enjoy the full experience 100% - traveling, competing, socializing.

Are you the guy who said they don't care about development or about what happens on the soccer field because it's all about the travel experience?

No, but I agree with them.

I hear there's this new concept where families can do vacations and weekends together that doesn't involve a sport schedule.
Sounds radical

But we like vacations with sports schedules. Who made you judge of how families should spend their time and money? You do realize these travel leagues (aka sports vacations) exist because there are so many of us who enjoy them and are willing to pay. Radical?

Yeah, sport vacations to cowdunk county in Pennsylvania, Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina etc where these games are are all the rage on the Travel Channel

5pm game on a Sunday with work Monday morning for many

Say you know your DC isn’t going anywhere in soccer without saying your DC isn’t going anywhere.

Are you saying enjoying driving 4hrs to Western Pennsylvania for a Sunday afternoon game against an average quality team means your kid will represent the USA and play for Real Madrid?

I love how people rail against a system they continue to help prop up. “We hate it but we will all continue to do it”. I’m starting to think people don’t actually hate it as much as they say they do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Mentality? We’re talking about a kids activity here. Just because you take it too seriously doesn’t mean we all do. Not everyone has the same goals. As long as my kid is good enough to play on the team they can have whatever mentality they want. I’ll bet it really burns you to know that there are players on your team who lack the “mentality” but are just as good or better and sharing the stage with your kid.

This is interesting. You are advocating to teach your child to not give their best after making a commitment to the team?

Actually, you're saying you're fine with your kid being mediocre and just showup?
Hopefully they learn better work ethics from others

Your kid giving 50% doesn't hurt the kid giving 100%

This convo has nothing to do with effort. My kid gives 100% every time they are on the field. The discussion was about the value of traveling long distances for games. My position is that we prefer longer travel because we get to spend time together and visit fun places with the team. We have no intention of playing soccer in college or pros. Someone called that soccer tourism and implied these kids aren’t giving 100% on the field. That’s not true. They enjoy the full experience 100% - traveling, competing, socializing.

Are you the guy who said they don't care about development or about what happens on the soccer field because it's all about the travel experience?

No, but I agree with them.

I hear there's this new concept where families can do vacations and weekends together that doesn't involve a sport schedule.
Sounds radical

But we like vacations with sports schedules. Who made you judge of how families should spend their time and money? You do realize these travel leagues (aka sports vacations) exist because there are so many of us who enjoy them and are willing to pay. Radical?

Yeah, sport vacations to cowdunk county in Pennsylvania, Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina etc where these games are are all the rage on the Travel Channel

5pm game on a Sunday with work Monday morning for many

Say you know your DC isn’t going anywhere in soccer without saying your DC isn’t going anywhere.

No you are all missing the point. The clubs make us drive because of the leagues and the prestige/money that comes with the leagues. We are helping build their business and are paying to be used. People want to join a club because of the league and visibility (right or wrong). So then you are at the whim of the league and where they say to go (especially the cross-country tournaments).

A club staying in the DMV area sounds great, but what could they offer? Lots of local games? What is that offering an elite player seeking opportunities?

And by the way...I hate this system sooooo much. I'm not advocating for this garbage. We are trapped. We lived in Europe for a good while and this is just terrible. But what can we do?

Anonymous wrote:I love spending time with my DS as well, but, the point of this recent thread - besides my signalling that we are super duper elite - is to lay bare the fallacy that tons of long distance travel is necessary for development.

In our not DMV area there are 3 ECNL NL, 3 ECNL RL teams, 3 MLSN 1 teams (including a MLS Academy), 5 MLSN 2 teams, a host of NPL/NAL teams and a variety of other teams and leagues including UPSL.

That's within 1.5 hrs from my house, so why did I drive 2 states away for one game!

Because those local teams don't want to play each other since they compete for the same players.