Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God forbid teams utilize their most talented players. You people are idiots

And this does not stop at kids level. I played soccer to quite a high level as a holding midfielder and my job was to break up the opposition attack, win the ball, and get it to one of the more creative players on our team.

My kid is only little but funnily enough ends up playing this role even though I am not aware that his coach has asked him to. My kid does it well, loves doing it, and gets lots of game time.

Not everyone can be the goal scoring superstar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a DS on a "high level" travel team and had a problem with the following:

Players not coming to practice during the week; showing up and starting games.

Sons of the assistant coaches. One was a pretty good player, but loved to hoof the ball at the goal from 35 yards out. He'd do this 8-10 times in a game. Doesn't work after U13, buddy. Head coach wouldn't say a word. Son of the other assistant was a big, strong kid who could defend well, but if he won the ball he would immediately pass it to someone wearing a different color shirt. Like, 18 out of 20 times. Even random passes should have better odds than that.

The better players will get treated differently--more playing time, more leeway to make mistakes, etc. No big deal. But it's doing EVERYONE a disservice, including those talented players, if the coach doesn't hold them to some kind of universal minimum standard.

We left that travel team after U14. 2 years later, 80% of the team is still together, same coach. They've gotten steadily worse.

Oh, that's a big problem. The "star" kids make mistake after mistake, taking poor shots when a teammate is wide open or even getting unnecessary fouls. The a bench player comes in and immediately gets yanked as soon as he loses the ball.

A lot of coaches in the area also only see 'activity' over "efficiency".

I can't tell you how many Coaches love the kid that 'hussles', runs around with a chicken with his head cutoff, yet produces literally NOTHING.

They don't notice the kid completing over 90% of his passes that knows when to run vs when to dribble, when to pass vs when to dribble. They like the energizer ineffective bunny. BTW, this is a trait of U.S. soccer. Bradley was king of this mode of play.

PP, I don't know if you are a coach or not, but one of my kids is the accurate/skill move the ball player, rather than the run around everywhere player. It's so hard in this area, because coaches tend to not appreciate kids like my son and even worse, for their skills to bear fruit, they need to be on a certain type of team where there is some level of soccer IQ. It's frustrating, because if you understand the game, it's not that much fun to play on a team where no one is where you expect them to be, where no one makes a run, and when players either play the long ball every time or dribble into a crowd.

1. Go to a program where the coaches appreciate this type of player and recruit other similar players which allows for the necessary style of play to work.
2. Challenge your son to be both accurate and energetic. Think Firmino: incredible technical ability but also works harder than anyone else on the team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a DS on a "high level" travel team and had a problem with the following:

Players not coming to practice during the week; showing up and starting games.

Sons of the assistant coaches. One was a pretty good player, but loved to hoof the ball at the goal from 35 yards out. He'd do this 8-10 times in a game. Doesn't work after U13, buddy. Head coach wouldn't say a word. Son of the other assistant was a big, strong kid who could defend well, but if he won the ball he would immediately pass it to someone wearing a different color shirt. Like, 18 out of 20 times. Even random passes should have better odds than that.

The better players will get treated differently--more playing time, more leeway to make mistakes, etc. No big deal. But it's doing EVERYONE a disservice, including those talented players, if the coach doesn't hold them to some kind of universal minimum standard.

We left that travel team after U14. 2 years later, 80% of the team is still together, same coach. They've gotten steadily worse.

Oh, that's a big problem. The "star" kids make mistake after mistake, taking poor shots when a teammate is wide open or even getting unnecessary fouls. The a bench player comes in and immediately gets yanked as soon as he loses the ball.

A lot of coaches in the area also only see 'activity' over "efficiency".

I can't tell you how many Coaches love the kid that 'hussles', runs around with a chicken with his head cutoff, yet produces literally NOTHING.

They don't notice the kid completing over 90% of his passes that knows when to run vs when to dribble, when to pass vs when to dribble. They like the energizer ineffective bunny. BTW, this is a trait of U.S. soccer. Bradley was king of this mode of play.

PP, I don't know if you are a coach or not, but one of my kids is the accurate/skill move the ball player, rather than the run around everywhere player. It's so hard in this area, because coaches tend to not appreciate kids like my son and even worse, for their skills to bear fruit, they need to be on a certain type of team where there is some level of soccer IQ. It's frustrating, because if you understand the game, it's not that much fun to play on a team where no one is where you expect them to be, where no one makes a run, and when players either play the long ball every time or dribble into a crowd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God forbid teams utilize their most talented players. You people are idiots

And this does not stop at kids level. I played soccer to quite a high level as a holding midfielder and my job was to break up the opposition attack, win the ball, and get it to one of the more creative players on our team.

My kid is only little but funnily enough ends up playing this role even though I am not aware that his coach has asked him to. My kid does it well, loves doing it, and gets lots of game time.

Not everyone can be the goal scoring superstar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a DS on a "high level" travel team and had a problem with the following:

Players not coming to practice during the week; showing up and starting games.

Sons of the assistant coaches. One was a pretty good player, but loved to hoof the ball at the goal from 35 yards out. He'd do this 8-10 times in a game. Doesn't work after U13, buddy. Head coach wouldn't say a word. Son of the other assistant was a big, strong kid who could defend well, but if he won the ball he would immediately pass it to someone wearing a different color shirt. Like, 18 out of 20 times. Even random passes should have better odds than that.

The better players will get treated differently--more playing time, more leeway to make mistakes, etc. No big deal. But it's doing EVERYONE a disservice, including those talented players, if the coach doesn't hold them to some kind of universal minimum standard.

We left that travel team after U14. 2 years later, 80% of the team is still together, same coach. They've gotten steadily worse.

Oh, that's a big problem. The "star" kids make mistake after mistake, taking poor shots when a teammate is wide open or even getting unnecessary fouls. The a bench player comes in and immediately gets yanked as soon as he loses the ball.

A lot of coaches in the area also only see 'activity' over "efficiency".

I can't tell you how many Coaches love the kid that 'hussles', runs around with a chicken with his head cutoff, yet produces literally NOTHING.

They don't notice the kid completing over 90% of his passes that knows when to run vs when to dribble, when to pass vs when to dribble. They like the energizer ineffective bunny. BTW, this is a trait of U.S. soccer. Bradley was king of this mode of play.

PP, I don't know if you are a coach or not, but one of my kids is the accurate/skill move the ball player, rather than the run around everywhere player. It's so hard in this area, because coaches tend to not appreciate kids like my son and even worse, for their skills to bear fruit, they need to be on a certain type of team where there is some level of soccer IQ. It's frustrating, because if you understand the game, it's not that much fun to play on a team where no one is where you expect them to be, where no one makes a run, and when players either play the long ball every time or dribble into a crowd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God forbid teams utilize their most talented players. You people are idiots

And this does not stop at kids level. I played soccer to quite a high level as a holding midfielder and my job was to break up the opposition attack, win the ball, and get it to one of the more creative players on our team.

My kid is only little but funnily enough ends up playing this role even though I am not aware that his coach has asked him to. My kid does it well, loves doing it, and gets lots of game time.

Not everyone can be the goal scoring superstar.[/quote

No one in this thread is expressing resentment against the top goal scorer. There many roles on a team, just as there is no perfect player. The issue is coaches valuing certain teams within a club or certain players on a team, so that the kids receive the message that they don't matter. They need to matter, even if they are role players coming off the bench.