Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
American soccer at the youth level can be too politicized, i.e. often the kids whose parents donate the most money or are most involved in the organization are the ones playing.
Competitive teams rarely look into bringing in kids from the "wrong side of the tracks" (of course it happens but it's an exception) since most competitive youth soccer is in middle-class suburbs.
Then you have programs like ODP (Olympic Development Program), which once again rely on financial kickbacks. When you call it that, everyone thinks they're the next world cup star as well. I played other sports as well, but remember kids who played soccer actually thinking they were Pele or Maradona quite often.
'Youth coaches with solid international experience'
You know that has been going on here for a number of years where European coaches came and offered their services to youth teams and clubs. I thought that was good because they brought an international angle to the game and dispensed with all that ridiculous 'kick and run' bs. It may win games but hardly does anything for development. So in a way I believe their work helped the fledging sport here.
But you know in the end it's my feeling players need to LOVE the game if they want to go on.
That love makes them work and work and sacrifice things to achieve the goal of being the best player they could be. Trick is US soccer needs to know how to identify those particular players and perhaps if our current squad is any indication they've learned the ropes of how to do it.
MLS can try to emulate European, South American, and Mexican soccer (or "football") all they want, and the sport will never grow to be more than a niche sport here in the United States.
and the sport will never grow to be more than a niche sport here in the
United States]
Perhaps. And the factb that the greatest matchups come up only every 4 years doesn't help. Then sport apparently gets alot of attraction when it coms around. But it doesn't look like it gets much play by the media in the intervening years.
Not really true, BPL gets good coverage and is on starting at 6AM. A lot of dedicated fans get up that early.
CL final etc is on local channels. The leagues across Europe gets a fair chunk of television time as does MLS and its also increasing. Saying it is and will be nada more than a "niche" sport is just plain ignorant, but thats fine with me if people want to bury their heads in the sand.
The US could have the best of all styles of play. We should have a strong defense, a wicked dribbling samba style midfield and a crazy good attacking force. We are not there yet but in a few more years we will develop into one of the best teams out there.
Right. The US is extremely diverse, which makes a single style difficult to translate. As an aside, I would love if the US found a guy that could beat someone one on one. Dempsey did it in the first 30 seconds of the Ghana game, but he always seems a little clunky. Johansson filled in for Altidore in that game and basically ran in a straight line when he got the ball.
Maybe something like creativity upfront, speed on the wings and strength in the middle back. A high energy, never ending counter attack seems to be where we are aiming for at this point, but are still missing major pieces.
Then you have programs like ODP (Olympic Development Program), which once again rely on financial kickbacks. When you call it that, everyone thinks they're the next world cup star as well. I played other sports as well, but remember kids who played soccer actually thinking they were Pele or Maradona quite often.
Heh, I was on the ODP NYS West team when I was 12. Was surprised to be one of the last to make it after starting the day-long tryout rather horrendously. Wasn't/am not aware of the role of financial kickbacks in the selection process, although I wouldn't be surprised to hear of its having happened in some cases/"federations".
Regarding kids thinking they're budding Maradonas, well, kids who are participating in something termed the "Olympic Development Program" might certainly be persuaded into harboring some delusions of grandeur, yes. (Also by that time they've probably learned how to do the dribbling move that is named after Maradona, so maybe there's some validity to these comparisons, heh). But the inflated self-image you reference is true across sports, pretty much for anything kids do (or adults, for that matter). Barring traumatic brain injury, I'll never forget a school assembly that I witnessed when I was in fifth grade. Former Buffalo Bills left tackle John Fina was there to give a speech. Here's how he started: "How many of the boys here think you're going to play in the NFL? Raise your hands." Maybe a third of the K-8 boys raised their hands, with the percentages skewing higher for the younger grades. Fina then informed those assembled: "I've got some news for you: none of you are going to make it. That's why school is important." Heh, what a dreamcrusher.
Right. The US is extremely diverse, which makes a single style difficult to translate. As an aside, I would love if the US found a guy that could beat someone one on one. Dempsey did it in the first 30 seconds of the Ghana game, but he always seems a little clunky. Johansson filled in for Altidore in that game and basically ran in a straight line when he got the ball.
Maybe something like creativity upfront, speed on the wings and strength in the middle back. A high energy, never ending counter attack seems to be where we are aiming for at this point, but are still missing major pieces.
Joel Campbell of Costa Rica, who's currently looking like the best player in CONCACAF, is a prototype for the player that the US needs to find, preferably in multiple copies, if they wish to have any chance to live up to Klinsmann's propaganda.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
