Anonymous
05/09/2025 11:08
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Pay to play is also a problem…. From Sir Alex Ferguson in Leading:
"Almost all football players have working-class roots. Understandably, middle-class parents want to make sure their boys go to college or acquire skills which means football never gets as much attention in those households. Around the world, football attracts boys for whom further education is unlikely and who have no choice but to work very hard on acquiring and improving their football skills as the path towards a better life.
For almost all the British players who played for me, football was their ticket out of miserable circumstances.
David Beckham came from a small house in East London and his father worked as a heating engineer.
Paul Scholes grew up in a council house in Langley and Nicky Butt hailed from Gorton - both places where you won't see a Bentley parked in the drive.
Wayne Rooney comes from a hard neighbourhood in Liverpool and gave serious thought to becoming a professional boxer.
Danny Welbeck and Wes Brown both grew up in Longsight, a Manchester neighbourhood known for gang violence.
Bryan Robson's dad was a lorry driver.
Rio Ferdinand grew up in Peckham, one of the poorest areas of London.
The list is endless."
two things can be true at once. While I agree that pay to play is a problem and that adversity breeds a special kind of resiliency, there are also countless examples in sport, in particular, where privilege and parental resource investment (sometimes obsession) foster the conditions for peak performance greatness. Not perfect examples on all counts but Kobe Bryant, Lindsay Vonn, Trinity Rodman, Chloe Kim, the Williams sisters, Ichiro Suzuki, LaVar Ball. So many talented kids from harder streets never get the same leg up in life and never make it out. But yes, pay to play allows so much mediocre talent to overperform, low ceiling, high floor, but never to make a dominant USMNT.
Uh, Trin's dad had almost nothing to do with her growing up, and she and her mom and brother were borderline homeless at points. Admittedly, she probably got a genetic bonus and possibly some name recognition. Privilege and parental resource investment, not so much.
Anonymous
05/09/2025 10:32
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
Anonymous wrote:Pay to play is also a problem…. From Sir Alex Ferguson in Leading:
"Almost all football players have working-class roots. Understandably, middle-class parents want to make sure their boys go to college or acquire skills which means football never gets as much attention in those households. Around the world, football attracts boys for whom further education is unlikely and who have no choice but to work very hard on acquiring and improving their football skills as the path towards a better life.
For almost all the British players who played for me, football was their ticket out of miserable circumstances.
David Beckham came from a small house in East London and his father worked as a heating engineer.
Paul Scholes grew up in a council house in Langley and Nicky Butt hailed from Gorton - both places where you won't see a Bentley parked in the drive.
Wayne Rooney comes from a hard neighbourhood in Liverpool and gave serious thought to becoming a professional boxer.
Danny Welbeck and Wes Brown both grew up in Longsight, a Manchester neighbourhood known for gang violence.
Bryan Robson's dad was a lorry driver.
Rio Ferdinand grew up in Peckham, one of the poorest areas of London.
The list is endless."
two things can be true at once. While I agree that pay to play is a problem and that adversity breeds a special kind of resiliency, there are also countless examples in sport, in particular, where privilege and parental resource investment (sometimes obsession) foster the conditions for peak performance greatness. Not perfect examples on all counts but Kobe Bryant, Lindsay Vonn, Trinity Rodman, Chloe Kim, the Williams sisters, Ichiro Suzuki, LaVar Ball. So many talented kids from harder streets never get the same leg up in life and never make it out. But yes, pay to play allows so much mediocre talent to overperform, low ceiling, high floor, but never to make a dominant USMNT.
Anonymous
05/09/2025 04:12
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
Pay to play is also a problem…. From Sir Alex Ferguson in Leading:
"Almost all football players have working-class roots. Understandably, middle-class parents want to make sure their boys go to college or acquire skills which means football never gets as much attention in those households. Around the world, football attracts boys for whom further education is unlikely and who have no choice but to work very hard on acquiring and improving their football skills as the path towards a better life.
For almost all the British players who played for me, football was their ticket out of miserable circumstances.
David Beckham came from a small house in East London and his father worked as a heating engineer.
Paul Scholes grew up in a council house in Langley and Nicky Butt hailed from Gorton - both places where you won't see a Bentley parked in the drive.
Wayne Rooney comes from a hard neighbourhood in Liverpool and gave serious thought to becoming a professional boxer.
Danny Welbeck and Wes Brown both grew up in Longsight, a Manchester neighbourhood known for gang violence.
Bryan Robson's dad was a lorry driver.
Rio Ferdinand grew up in Peckham, one of the poorest areas of London.
The list is endless."
"Almost all football players have working-class roots. Understandably, middle-class parents want to make sure their boys go to college or acquire skills which means football never gets as much attention in those households. Around the world, football attracts boys for whom further education is unlikely and who have no choice but to work very hard on acquiring and improving their football skills as the path towards a better life.
For almost all the British players who played for me, football was their ticket out of miserable circumstances.
David Beckham came from a small house in East London and his father worked as a heating engineer.
Paul Scholes grew up in a council house in Langley and Nicky Butt hailed from Gorton - both places where you won't see a Bentley parked in the drive.
Wayne Rooney comes from a hard neighbourhood in Liverpool and gave serious thought to becoming a professional boxer.
Danny Welbeck and Wes Brown both grew up in Longsight, a Manchester neighbourhood known for gang violence.
Bryan Robson's dad was a lorry driver.
Rio Ferdinand grew up in Peckham, one of the poorest areas of London.
The list is endless."
Anonymous
05/09/2025 03:11
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I know tryout season just wrapped for most top teams. Is there a lot of movement on yours? Anyone make it who probably shouldn’t have?
Here’s how things went with my DC team:
• 2 new kids from outside the club
• 2 kids moved up from the B team
• 1 kid left for another club
• And somehow, 2 kids who clearly didn’t earn a top spot still made the cut
What’s the situation like with your team?
Is the coach suddenly flush with a new ride?
Boy post. Nearing the end of kids soccer journey and realizing (very late) how little most American coaches know about the sport even on top clubs/top teams in DMV.
If player seems not very skillful on top team coaches are likely on the take. A common option is for parents to pay for coaches’ car loans (hard for IRS to detect)
You will also see (because, again, soccer has become such a lucrative side gig for gym teachers) the selection of the 6 foot Adonis over skillful euro transplant because, hey, let’s face it, most American parents don’t understand the game.
This article details what success means for soccer and it goes against what most coaches think a good athlete is: Messi.
Memo to American soccer coaches: it’s skill - not necessarily height, speed, or thickness - that makes a country a world
Cup contender. (Prediction: look for Australia to be shock quarterfinal entrant while American coaches face the finger pointing next summer (yet again) for the failure to reach soccer heights: they’ve been recruiting children that demonstrate touch over ‘physicality’.
https://phys.org/news/2017-11-soccer-success-skill.amp
Why so much criticism about American system of soccer? Out of 211 countries in FIFA, American men are ranked 16 and women ranked 1. This is actually very good by any standard.
I think the biggest problem here is not the coaching. It’s the parents. The parents are the ones who can’t seem to understand what is needed and also drive the direction of the clubs and teams.
No it's the coaching. American style soccer is not what most of the world plays and why the men's team will never be great and why the women's now struggles. Our women's team was the only one with actual investment for decades and it showed. Now that other countries are investing in women's soccer things like what happened in the last World Cup happen to the US team. 'Athletic (big), strong, and fast ' is all America cares about. America is huge and his many internationally recognized players are there on the men's side from America? Where's our even Temu version of Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, etc?
At the grassroots level coaches instruct kids to pass the ball instead of dribbling. This plants the seed in their brain from a young age that you should not dribble, refine your technical dribbling & creativity skills, instead you should robotically pass like you're a cog in a machine. US coaches want to "play it safe" and sacrifice player development in exchange for winning (sometimes losing out on both)
Neymar Jr and Messi are the players they are because of the freedom to express themselves with creative dribbling & very extensive experience with 1v1 battles.
USA will never be successful at the national level until this fundamental aspect of coaching changes & they make the youth league system affordable to bring in more lower & middle class players.
Anonymous
05/09/2025 02:46
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I know tryout season just wrapped for most top teams. Is there a lot of movement on yours? Anyone make it who probably shouldn’t have?
Here’s how things went with my DC team:
• 2 new kids from outside the club
• 2 kids moved up from the B team
• 1 kid left for another club
• And somehow, 2 kids who clearly didn’t earn a top spot still made the cut
What’s the situation like with your team?
Is the coach suddenly flush with a new ride?
Boy post. Nearing the end of kids soccer journey and realizing (very late) how little most American coaches know about the sport even on top clubs/top teams in DMV.
If player seems not very skillful on top team coaches are likely on the take. A common option is for parents to pay for coaches’ car loans (hard for IRS to detect)
You will also see (because, again, soccer has become such a lucrative side gig for gym teachers) the selection of the 6 foot Adonis over skillful euro transplant because, hey, let’s face it, most American parents don’t understand the game.
This article details what success means for soccer and it goes against what most coaches think a good athlete is: Messi.
Memo to American soccer coaches: it’s skill - not necessarily height, speed, or thickness - that makes a country a world
Cup contender. (Prediction: look for Australia to be shock quarterfinal entrant while American coaches face the finger pointing next summer (yet again) for the failure to reach soccer heights: they’ve been recruiting children that demonstrate touch over ‘physicality’.
https://phys.org/news/2017-11-soccer-success-skill.amp
Why so much criticism about American system of soccer? Out of 211 countries in FIFA, American men are ranked 16 and women ranked 1. This is actually very good by any standard.
I think the biggest problem here is not the coaching. It’s the parents. The parents are the ones who can’t seem to understand what is needed and also drive the direction of the clubs and teams.
No it's the coaching. American style soccer is not what most of the world plays and why the men's team will never be great and why the women's now struggles. Our women's team was the only one with actual investment for decades and it showed. Now that other countries are investing in women's soccer things like what happened in the last World Cup happen to the US team. 'Athletic (big), strong, and fast ' is all America cares about. America is huge and his many internationally recognized players are there on the men's side from America? Where's our even Temu version of Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, etc?
Anonymous
05/09/2025 00:10
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
Rising u13 boys
2nd team
14 on current roster
Lost one to injury
Lost one to moving to the first team
12 players retained
Added 4 from outside
Some parents talking but when we accepted the offer via Playmetrics, it listed the players for the “future” team
2nd team
14 on current roster
Lost one to injury
Lost one to moving to the first team
12 players retained
Added 4 from outside
Some parents talking but when we accepted the offer via Playmetrics, it listed the players for the “future” team
Anonymous
05/09/2025 00:09
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
DS’s club is dragging their feet with next seasons roster (u19). He plays on the top team. The players would usually tryout each year but this year the coaches had the entire team skip it so we have no idea who the competition is. I’m just hoping DS can finish out his club soccer days with his current teammates and coaches because he’s been really happy.
In our experience, entire rosters aren’t shared with the team until the current season ends though kids/parents talk.
In our experience, entire rosters aren’t shared with the team until the current season ends though kids/parents talk.
Anonymous
05/08/2025 22:12
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I know tryout season just wrapped for most top teams. Is there a lot of movement on yours? Anyone make it who probably shouldn’t have?
Here’s how things went with my DC team:
• 2 new kids from outside the club
• 2 kids moved up from the B team
• 1 kid left for another club
• And somehow, 2 kids who clearly didn’t earn a top spot still made the cut
What’s the situation like with your team?
Is the coach suddenly flush with a new ride?
Boy post. Nearing the end of kids soccer journey and realizing (very late) how little most American coaches know about the sport even on top clubs/top teams in DMV.
If player seems not very skillful on top team coaches are likely on the take. A common option is for parents to pay for coaches’ car loans (hard for IRS to detect)
You will also see (because, again, soccer has become such a lucrative side gig for gym teachers) the selection of the 6 foot Adonis over skillful euro transplant because, hey, let’s face it, most American parents don’t understand the game.
This article details what success means for soccer and it goes against what most coaches think a good athlete is: Messi.
Memo to American soccer coaches: it’s skill - not necessarily height, speed, or thickness - that makes a country a world
Cup contender. (Prediction: look for Australia to be shock quarterfinal entrant while American coaches face the finger pointing next summer (yet again) for the failure to reach soccer heights: they’ve been recruiting children that demonstrate touch over ‘physicality’.
https://phys.org/news/2017-11-soccer-success-skill.amp
Why so much criticism about American system of soccer? Out of 211 countries in FIFA, American men are ranked 16 and women ranked 1. This is actually very good by any standard.
I think the biggest problem here is not the coaching. It’s the parents. The parents are the ones who can’t seem to understand what is needed and also drive the direction of the clubs and teams.
Anonymous
05/08/2025 21:35
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
My U13G team is in the EDP league and doesn’t Tina lose their roster for another month.
My DD went to a practice thought and made the team that way.
My DD went to a practice thought and made the team that way.
Anonymous
05/08/2025 18:19
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
And every p4 roster. By u16 these girls need to be able to manage this emotionally. Better meltdown now and compete against the best than wait for all the other stressors that come with college life
Anonymous
05/08/2025 18:03
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
Anonymous wrote:Big roster seems to be what is in store so it will be a weekly Hunger Games to see who gets rostered for the games.
Welcome to VDA
Anonymous
05/08/2025 17:45
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
Anonymous wrote:I know tryout season just wrapped for most top teams. Is there a lot of movement on yours? Anyone make it who probably shouldn’t have?
Here’s how things went with my DC team:
• 2 new kids from outside the club
• 2 kids moved up from the B team
• 1 kid left for another club
• And somehow, 2 kids who clearly didn’t earn a top spot still made the cut
What’s the situation like with your team?
Is the coach suddenly flush with a new ride?
Boy post. Nearing the end of kids soccer journey and realizing (very late) how little most American coaches know about the sport even on top clubs/top teams in DMV.
If player seems not very skillful on top team coaches are likely on the take. A common option is for parents to pay for coaches’ car loans (hard for IRS to detect)
You will also see (because, again, soccer has become such a lucrative side gig for gym teachers) the selection of the 6 foot Adonis over skillful euro transplant because, hey, let’s face it, most American parents don’t understand the game.
This article details what success means for soccer and it goes against what most coaches think a good athlete is: Messi.
Memo to American soccer coaches: it’s skill - not necessarily height, speed, or thickness - that makes a country a world
Cup contender. (Prediction: look for Australia to be shock quarterfinal entrant while American coaches face the finger pointing next summer (yet again) for the failure to reach soccer heights: they’ve been recruiting children that demonstrate touch over ‘physicality’.
https://phys.org/news/2017-11-soccer-success-skill.amp
Anonymous
05/08/2025 17:43
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Parents: We want teams to focus on developing players not just winning.
Also Parents: We should cut 3 players because they hold onto the ball too long and have low soccer IQ.
Parents, you are the problem.
We want fairness. Kids who work hard and continue to develop should earn their spot and even move up. On the other hand, kids who consistently hold the team back—whether by being uncoachable, slowing down the team’s development, or contributing to repeated losses—should be moved down to a level that matches their current performance and commitment.
Yes, we want every kid to have a chance to grow, but fairness means holding everyone accountable. It’s not fair to the hardworking players to let others stay in spots they haven’t earned.
Half of our team is literally from another club. And more coming
Players that came from club will losing time
Anonymous
05/08/2025 17:27
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
Big roster seems to be what is in store so it will be a weekly Hunger Games to see who gets rostered for the games.
Anonymous
05/08/2025 17:25
Subject: Top team offers are already out—how’s your team shaping up?
ECNL tryouts just finished. For upcoming U16, 3 girls got dropped. 2 of them went to a rival club, joining their RL team. Gotta cut ties with the former club of course. We picked up 1 girl from a different NL club. My guess is the team will have backfilled the other 2 open spots by the time league season starts in the fall. Or maybe we pick up more than 2 and grow the pool of girls who can't dress?
I know some parents from the RL team, through our kids school activities. They've accepted that the NL teams never move up RL players. The club just goes and grab girls from other clubs. Even if it's to have paying bodies sit on the bench. I believe all the starter level players are already on our team or other NL teams.
I know some parents from the RL team, through our kids school activities. They've accepted that the NL teams never move up RL players. The club just goes and grab girls from other clubs. Even if it's to have paying bodies sit on the bench. I believe all the starter level players are already on our team or other NL teams.