Anonymous wrote:There’s a fine line between flair and being a show off though.

I wouldn’t want my DD or DS to be on a team with a bunch of ball hogs trying to show off their dribbling skills when their teammates are wide open.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington and Braddock road both have superior talent in their areas but are price out of the club. theses clubs in particular are more of a safe haven for more well off white kids . The parents their would get he reality check of a life time if the clubs were free . they would form a new club and price the better kids out of it too just so Jonny and Kim could play travel with three friends and not be shown up by Carlos or Maria on a daily basis. Only other thing I would add is in this area its not just white kids. Its the well off Asian and middle eastern kids too. it just so happens the DMV is such a well off area we are blinded by fact that there is a whole lot better quality of talent in the lower income latin communities that don't get the the exposure for multiple reasons and thats fine with the well off families who can afford to create this protected false dream for their kids to believe they are elite when they simply are not. and this my friends is why the USA isn't dominating the world in soccer yet.

Woooo sah!!! Finally!!! Someone hit the nail on the head. I want to be your friend.

I’ll add for good measure... my DD plays on a select team. Cost is moderate; ~$1100/yr. Not too terribly expensive but priced too high for some. Everyone on the team is white w/UMC parents happy to pay that with no travel. They lost some girls to club teams and the remainders were just out there for fun. The coaches recruited some Hispanic girls on “scholarship” and wouldn’t you know it... the team wins every game and when those girls aren’t available to play, they lose by 5-6 goals. It’s shameful what pay to play has done to our culture. Every time I see those girls out there, I’m stoked. They are good and they have natural, raw talent that should be showcased.

I get where you're going here. But the latinos don't have "natural, raw talent." They have a culture of playing the game. Any coach will tell you that if your rich white kids, poor black kids, or really any kids sees soccer as the one and only sport, falls in love with it, watches it, and plays it on the playground, in the street, and around the house as a kid, their skillset will be fantastic. Thing is that upper income kids do a lot of sampling and have a lot of other draws on time. So it is a class issue, but not for the racially biased reason suggested.

I totally did not mean it in a racially biased way AT ALL. I was also NOT trying to imply that all "latinos have natural, raw talent." I was specifically talking about the girls on that team who, as you correctly state, have a culture of playing the game. The thing is... I've lived in Europe and Africa and I've watched people who "have a culture of playing the game" and not all of them have natural, raw talent that make them very good at soccer. You could argue that Dominicans have a culture of playing baseball... but how many actually have the "natural, raw talent" to make it to the major league.

I appreciate your comment but the intent was not as you imply.

Anonymous wrote:Where do you people live? There are kid and adult pick up games all the time where I live. Granted, my kids tend to be the only caucasians. My boys also are in the backyard all the time.

I also don’t let them on Xbox for hours on end.

The Dutch blame video games and phones for the fall of their soccer dominance. I was just talking to two Ajax coaches that said kids are never out playing in the streets like they did as kids. They are late 20s and said they were the last generation of kids that played like that.

Anonymous wrote:This is what you don't see in the US - pickup soccer in public spaces

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington and Braddock road both have superior talent in their areas but are price out of the club. theses clubs in particular are more of a safe haven for more well off white kids . The parents their would get he reality check of a life time if the clubs were free . they would form a new club and price the better kids out of it too just so Jonny and Kim could play travel with three friends and not be shown up by Carlos or Maria on a daily basis. Only other thing I would add is in this area its not just white kids. Its the well off Asian and middle eastern kids too. it just so happens the DMV is such a well off area we are blinded by fact that there is a whole lot better quality of talent in the lower income latin communities that don't get the the exposure for multiple reasons and thats fine with the well off families who can afford to create this protected false dream for their kids to believe they are elite when they simply are not. and this my friends is why the USA isn't dominating the world in soccer yet.

Woooo sah!!! Finally!!! Someone hit the nail on the head. I want to be your friend.

I’ll add for good measure... my DD plays on a select team. Cost is moderate; ~$1100/yr. Not too terribly expensive but priced too high for some. Everyone on the team is white w/UMC parents happy to pay that with no travel. They lost some girls to club teams and the remainders were just out there for fun. The coaches recruited some Hispanic girls on “scholarship” and wouldn’t you know it... the team wins every game and when those girls aren’t available to play, they lose by 5-6 goals. It’s shameful what pay to play has done to our culture. Every time I see those girls out there, I’m stoked. They are good and they have natural, raw talent that should be showcased.

I get where you're going here. But the latinos don't have "natural, raw talent." They have a culture of playing the game. Any coach will tell you that if your rich white kids, poor black kids, or really any kids sees soccer as the one and only sport, falls in love with it, watches it, and plays it on the playground, in the street, and around the house as a kid, their skillset will be fantastic. Thing is that upper income kids do a lot of sampling and have a lot of other draws on time. So it is a class issue, but not for the racially biased reason suggested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington and Braddock road both have superior talent in their areas but are price out of the club. theses clubs in particular are more of a safe haven for more well off white kids . The parents their would get he reality check of a life time if the clubs were free . they would form a new club and price the better kids out of it too just so Jonny and Kim could play travel with three friends and not be shown up by Carlos or Maria on a daily basis. Only other thing I would add is in this area its not just white kids. Its the well off Asian and middle eastern kids too. it just so happens the DMV is such a well off area we are blinded by fact that there is a whole lot better quality of talent in the lower income latin communities that don't get the the exposure for multiple reasons and thats fine with the well off families who can afford to create this protected false dream for their kids to believe they are elite when they simply are not. and this my friends is why the USA isn't dominating the world in soccer yet.

Woooo sah!!! Finally!!! Someone hit the nail on the head. I want to be your friend.

I’ll add for good measure... my DD plays on a select team. Cost is moderate; ~$1100/yr. Not too terribly expensive but priced too high for some. Everyone on the team is white w/UMC parents happy to pay that with no travel. They lost some girls to club teams and the remainders were just out there for fun. The coaches recruited some Hispanic girls on “scholarship” and wouldn’t you know it... the team wins every game and when those girls aren’t available to play, they lose by 5-6 goals. It’s shameful what pay to play has done to our culture. Every time I see those girls out there, I’m stoked. They are good and they have natural, raw talent that should be showcased.

I get where you're going here. But the latinos don't have "natural, raw talent." They have a culture of playing the game. Any coach will tell you that if your rich white kids, poor black kids, or really any kids sees soccer as the one and only sport, falls in love with it, watches it, and plays it on the playground, in the street, and around the house as a kid, their skillset will be fantastic. Thing is that upper income kids do a lot of sampling and have a lot of other draws on time. So it is a class issue, but not for the racially biased reason suggested.

Yup. Like you said, it’s just so deeply engrained into the culture that kids are always out playing, always have a ball with them. That’s what we’re missing here that people don’t get, instead many ridicule that deep love for the game.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington and Braddock road both have superior talent in their areas but are price out of the club. theses clubs in particular are more of a safe haven for more well off white kids . The parents their would get he reality check of a life time if the clubs were free . they would form a new club and price the better kids out of it too just so Jonny and Kim could play travel with three friends and not be shown up by Carlos or Maria on a daily basis. Only other thing I would add is in this area its not just white kids. Its the well off Asian and middle eastern kids too. it just so happens the DMV is such a well off area we are blinded by fact that there is a whole lot better quality of talent in the lower income latin communities that don't get the the exposure for multiple reasons and thats fine with the well off families who can afford to create this protected false dream for their kids to believe they are elite when they simply are not. and this my friends is why the USA isn't dominating the world in soccer yet.

Woooo sah!!! Finally!!! Someone hit the nail on the head. I want to be your friend.

I’ll add for good measure... my DD plays on a select team. Cost is moderate; ~$1100/yr. Not too terribly expensive but priced too high for some. Everyone on the team is white w/UMC parents happy to pay that with no travel. They lost some girls to club teams and the remainders were just out there for fun. The coaches recruited some Hispanic girls on “scholarship” and wouldn’t you know it... the team wins every game and when those girls aren’t available to play, they lose by 5-6 goals. It’s shameful what pay to play has done to our culture. Every time I see those girls out there, I’m stoked. They are good and they have natural, raw talent that should be showcased.

I get where you're going here. But the latinos don't have "natural, raw talent." They have a culture of playing the game. Any coach will tell you that if your rich white kids, poor black kids, or really any kids sees soccer as the one and only sport, falls in love with it, watches it, and plays it on the playground, in the street, and around the house as a kid, their skillset will be fantastic. Thing is that upper income kids do a lot of sampling and have a lot of other draws on time. So it is a class issue, but not for the racially biased reason suggested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington and Braddock road both have superior talent in their areas but are price out of the club. theses clubs in particular are more of a safe haven for more well off white kids . The parents their would get he reality check of a life time if the clubs were free . they would form a new club and price the better kids out of it too just so Jonny and Kim could play travel with three friends and not be shown up by Carlos or Maria on a daily basis. Only other thing I would add is in this area its not just white kids. Its the well off Asian and middle eastern kids too. it just so happens the DMV is such a well off area we are blinded by fact that there is a whole lot better quality of talent in the lower income latin communities that don't get the the exposure for multiple reasons and thats fine with the well off families who can afford to create this protected false dream for their kids to believe they are elite when they simply are not. and this my friends is why the USA isn't dominating the world in soccer yet.

Woooo sah!!! Finally!!! Someone hit the nail on the head. I want to be your friend.

I’ll add for good measure... my DD plays on a select team. Cost is moderate; ~$1100/yr. Not too terribly expensive but priced too high for some. Everyone on the team is white w/UMC parents happy to pay that with no travel. They lost some girls to club teams and the remainders were just out there for fun. The coaches recruited some Hispanic girls on “scholarship” and wouldn’t you know it... the team wins every game and when those girls aren’t available to play, they lose by 5-6 goals. It’s shameful what pay to play has done to our culture. Every time I see those girls out there, I’m stoked. They are good and they have natural, raw talent that should be showcased.