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OK. so I'm not sure if this thread belongs here or not but I'm sure it will be moved if so.
A little background. I'm originally from Nigeria where we live, eat and breathe soccer. Moved to the States (Dallas area) about 15 years ago. Growing up, the US had always been dismissed as a soccer power. Losing to the US in soccer was the equivalent of the Lakers losing to the high school basketball team...in other words, the US was irrelevant.
Fast forward to the present time. Now married, with an 11 year old daughter who plays soccer. I was totally turned off by the style of soccer taught in our area. A lot of "boot ball" just blasting the ball with no type of ball control. Dribbling non existent. But taking into account that these are little kids, I just assumed that was the norm for younger players. Fortunately I was able to find a small soccer club run by a European who believed in building the ball control and dribbling skills and not boot ball. But the majority of the big name soccer clubs for kids here in the Dallas area practice a lot of this. They only recruit girls who are big and fast and can run all day, but since they lack individual dribbling skills, they struggle to beat opponents one on one. A big mistake in my view. Playing "system soccer" can help the team win, but the individual player will lack the skills needed to play elsewhere.
Last night I stumbled upon a college soccer game between my alma mater, TCU, and Oklahoma state. I watched the entire game. Thoroughly unimpressed. While there was a bit of passing and more control, there was still a large amount of bootball...players not being pressured by an opponent just blasting the ball across the field with nary a teammate in sight. The commentators were busy blabbering about what an exciting game it was...the score was 0-0 after two extra time periods. The obvious problem was that since no one on either side could actually dribble past a defender, they were unable to make finishing moves to score, and had to rely on taking long distance shots which the keepers on both sides easily stopped.
Since these college girls are now adults as opposed to 'undeveloped youth', I wondered maybe this was just the case of two crappy teams playing. So I looked on their websites for the players biographies, and I was floored. All of these girls had distinguished high school careers. Many (the majority) played in national championships for Select club teams in Dallas. In other words, they are the cream of the crop, yet the level of play was frankly embarrassing.
Does anyone else see this? How is the state of things in other parts of the country? How could coaches decide that this is the right way to play soccer??? Now I will say that the US is lucky that women's soccer doesnt receive anywhere near the type of funding and support in most of the world that it does here, because then the US Women will join the US Men in being non entities.
What you've seen is a remnant of the terrible old soccer culture that I grew up with. It caught on with middle class suburban types because they thought they could have the boys and girls play together, have them run around for an hour, give them a trophy and feel like they had them do something productive. I was never any kind of big athlete, but even at a young age the level of technical instruction I got in basketball was far superior to soccer.
Womens football has always been terrible. Yeah there are some great players, for girls that is. All the eye closing goalkeepers and uncoordinated defenders make it a bore most of the time. Good for a laugh, not great to support.
Womens football has always been terrible. Yeah there are some great players, for girls that is. All the eye closing goalkeepers and uncoordinated defenders make it a bore most of the time. Good for a laugh, not great to support.
same here I watched the women's world cup and it was another bore for me the pace of the game was slow and the quality just wasn't there.
A few teams - Sweden, Germany, France, USA, Canada, Lyon, Arsenal and German club teams are pretty good I have to say, just not the depth of quality teams.
Does anyone else see this? How is the state of things in other parts of the country? How could coaches decide that this is the right way to play soccer??? Now I will say that the US is lucky that women's soccer doesnt receive anywhere near the type of funding and support in most of the world that it does here, because then the US Women will join the US Men in being non entities.
First, if you believe the USMNT is still a non-entity in the world you are missing something. They are not a world power, for sure, but are probably top 20.
On to youth soccer...We just put my boys in a soccer club in our area that is Brazilian style. It is all about ball control, they really focus on ball skills and don't talk a lot about passing yet (other than don't pass it to the middle of the field on defense). I am told that comes later.
A couple months ago I was talking with the guy that started it, I believe he started it about 15 years ago when he moved to this area and found girls soccer clubs to be lacking. It originally was girls only, but then expanded into boys. I have found it to be a pretty good club to this point. The guy's daughter plays for the Brazilian national team (she trained here and went to a college in your area) and he has started a couple soccer schools down in Brazil. Our neighbor's duaghter was also in the club and she just got a scholarship to college for soccer.
In the boys last game the coach yelled to one of my boys to "do your move" (the move they were practicing) at least 7 times, it was pretty funny. I could see my boy thinking about it and slowing his game down. 4-5 games in, the boys know they aren't supposed to boot the ball anywhere and are picking up the basics of what the coach wants. They still are figuring out when to do moves and when not to, though. I don't have unrealistic visions of great soccer success for my boys, but I have found lots of club options for youth with varying styles.
There are lots of clubs in my area with lots of different approaches to the game. I can see it when we play other teams. For example, when we played a junior club associated with our local MLS team they were better at passing, but not the foot skills.
same here I watched the women's world cup and it was another bore for me the pace of the game was slow and the quality just wasn't there.
Yeah, the last womens world cup I was watching a game, then right after I switched over to a random MLS game that was on. It seemed like the men were playing in fast motion after watching the women. That was when I realized how vast the difference in pace was between the two (I knew there was a difference, but it was just so large I was shocked).
Yeah, the last womens world cup I was watching a game, then right after I switched over to a random MLS game that was on. It seemed like the men were playing in fast motion after watching the women. That was when I realized how vast the difference in pace was between the two (I knew there was a difference, but it was just so large I was shocked).
The difference is indeed enormous, despite what you sometimes hear of the gap slowly diminuishing.
A couple of weeks ago, I and a couple of my teammates (we're in the veteran team now, all being in our thirties ) played against the fanion womens team of my club. This because we practise the same evening and because the coach of the women asked us if we wanted to play against them. We were six, they were eleven. After ten minutes, we were leading five - nothing. After fifteen minutes, we stopped the game, leading 8-0. And we played at the slowest possible rhythm, against girls between 18-20 years old that train twice a week and that play at national level in the Belgian female league.
The speed, the power, the quickness of thinking, the technique,...Men are lightyears ahead (and mind you: I love women and I think they're great - but just not when it comes to football).
I cannot watch women's football on TV because the slowness bores me to tears.
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) played against the fanion womens team of my club. This because we practise the same evening and because the coach of the women asked us if we wanted to play against them. We were six, they were eleven. After ten minutes, we were leading five - nothing. After fifteen minutes, we stopped the game, leading 8-0. And we played at the slowest possible rhythm, against girls between 18-20 years old that train twice a week and that play at national level in the Belgian female league.
