Much more Americans care about being entertained by these sports on a daily basis than what other countries think of us
Let's not let that take away from my first two points Even if your first point is right, baseball is still way more popular in this country than soccer. We're probably what, football being obsolete from that changing?
The caliber of athlete is not as much to blame as the level of technical skill. We weren’t outathleted by T&T, or really the vast majority of the international teams we’ve lost to over the past few decades. It’s a matter of playing guys who’ve played professional-level ball for a few years versus those who’ve played it for most of their formative years.
I keep hearing conflicting things in this thread regarding our players. It seems like some people think we don’t just let our kids play in the backyard and develop their own style but then others seem to think it’s because of the lack of infrastructure. I honestly don’t know shit about any of this, but those two concepts just seem to conflict.
I don’t think they do it because they aren’t talented enough at those other sports. I just don’t think there’s a single poor kid in this country that has any desire to play soccer. And why would they? The average American could name about three MLS teams and not many people care to root for teams that are playing a continent away. Compare that to how we treat football and basketball in this country. Kids here want to be the next lebron or Brady. There’s a good chance they couldn’t even name a single soccer player to idolize.
Yeah to say it's the athletes is just off We're one of the largest countries on earth the talent is there. We need to hone the skill. Can't thrust a bunch of kids to play in a mediocre college system when they're in their primes. We're on a different, less effective model
Agreed and I don't think we will ever get there. That being said, since I know you are in the NBA thread it's an interesting crossover conversation on how with the same model a ton of Euro clubs are following for soccer and how they are applying it to basketball. They are developing in the same manner and talent is trickling through to the NBA but a lot their issues are competition levels through the ranks. Kind of similar in how an NBA prospect just isn't going to get solid developmental minutes in say Turkey, past the ages of 18-20. There's no exact science obviously, it's maturity, body type, growth, etc....... but Americans just flat out won't get snatched out of middle school to join Barca's academy. The infrastructure, economic factors, culture and a myriad of other conditions just don't exist for that to happen. That being said, we certainly should be competing on an International level and able to qualify for the WC. I'm not arguing otherwise, just saying we'll never compete with or stand a chance against the big dogs.
Playing pickup and building individual ball skills are critical in the 2-12 age range. I was talking about the structure in your teenage and young adult years.
And it’s just horribly coached still except for a few metro areas I’ve watched youth practices where kids stand in line after line after line, run up, pass a ball, then rinse repeat. I’ve watched kids as young as nine playing full sided matches where they’re touching the ball once every three minutes. Just a waste of a crucial hour when they could be developing a relationship with the ball. A lot of the American coaching regime still place a misguided priority on passing and “teamwork” at the youth levels. Later, all they worry about is speed and physicality once puberty hits. This has traditionally still been enough to help us qualify for the WC and occasionally win a Gold Cup, but you’re never going to build a top flight international team until that stuff changes.
I agree. Kids need to have on-ball contact constantly at the youth age. Just let them play and figure out how to best manage having the ball at their feet through simply playing. Then around 11 and 12 start instituting the structure to go with the skill. These 9-year-old select leagues for hundreds/thousands of dollars are stupid.
Don't think that's the case at all. Maybe some ethnic classes that's true, but there are plenty of poor kids from nationalities other than here that all they do is play soccer. If you're talking inner city Detroit or Compton, then you're probably right. If you're talking the poor side of San Antonio, then I don't think that's an accurate statement. The problem with part of the system is it does nothing to help the poor kids in areas where there could be talent and doesn't really seem to promote the game in areas where the game isn't already accepted. It doesn't necessarily mean getting the game into those areas makes the program and the player pool better, but it doesn't seem to be a target at all right now on a large scale.
This is it. You have to develop the skills at a young age and challenge yourself by putting yourself in an environment with elite level coaches and players. The coaching sucks and the style of play sucks. Any good player on the US team right now like Pulisic grew up playing away from the US at an early age. You don’t have to know much about soccer to see he doesn’t even play like most of the other guys on the team.
ya, feel like if you are a dynamic soccer player, college soccer will kill your growth in the crucial 15-18 y/o range.
Still years behind. Start instituting structure at 11 and 12? I grew up playing in Germany (7 - 16) and we played with a true sweeper, two man markers, five in midfield and two out and out strikers with a defined strategy by that age.
Our players are so awkward. We'd need to learn how to handle the ball without being assholes. Pusilic aside, we're just horrible on the first touch. Either way, our youth soccer system as currently is sucks (as does everything).
While growing up in Chicago- it was the Magic or nothing was my understanding. I think there is a Fire academy now as well But I’m not sure these systems benefit anyone other than white kids from the suburbs How do we get soccer played in the inner cities and blue collar towns will dictate the future of US Soccer Does anyone talk about that on a leadership level? Fuck the white kids in the suburbs Little Blaze, Jackson, and Harper aren’t winning us the WC
Basketball and baseball aren't draining the soccer pool. Football is, and is waaaaaay cheaper to play.
Football is interesting because it's the only one where competitive action on the development level takes place entirely within the community/school frame. I would have to assume it's the sport with the highest level of talent pool capitalization in the country.
Top level athletes are top level athletes. The biggest drain on the talent pool is culture, not football or curling or anything else.
There's a group in DC called the Open Goal Project, and their mission is to help kids in DC that wouldn't otherwise have the abilities to participate on pay-for-play teams get noticed. They seem to have a good model. Not sure it's sustainable on a larger scale though.
Wait you're saying soccer is cheaper to play right? Football requires more equipment than any sport besides maybe hockey.
you can play high school football at a high level at little-to-no cost. if you want to play high level soccer you need to spend thousands of dollars to be on a travel team. equipment is irrelevant.
( Yeah this isn't Trinidad where they'll find you like kicking around a ball in an old sugar cane field. If you're not on the club teams good luck anyone ever knowing who you are
Soccer being 'expensive' to play is stupider than cat shit. In no way should it be expensive. Then again, everything about soccer is stupid as shit, so it makes sense.
There is some merit to it because of the geographic size of our country and certain quality of products people expect. If we ever want to be a soccer powerhouse they need to find a different way to fund it instead of just making each kid pay out of pocket
You sound like one of those kids that had parents that paid thousands of dollars for their kids to play travel soccer Lol, soccer pussy
USSF is turning a really nice profit on a yearly basis. not enough to cover all costs, but they could subsidize some of this stuff.