Before Baseball?!?!? Maybe in your neck of the woods, not here. Even still at youth doesnt matter if once they hit high school or older the best athletes go in a different direction (and they do). Also before I get flamed on it, I'm not saying I like baseball more. I barely follow the sport anymore other then ESPN radio and ESPN highlights. I perfer playing and watching any soccer over baseball.
With the majority of those guys coming up through the crew academy system how would that work as far as the mls draft? Would the crew have to turn them down and then they would go in the player pool for the draft? does anybody know how that works?
"All players must reside in a team's "Home Territory" for at least one year prior to being added to the team's Home Grown Player List. Players must be added to an MLS team's Home Grown Player List prior to entering a four-year college, but can maintain their Home Grown Player status during college if registered before entering that institution. Members of the U17, U20, and U23 U.S. National Teams cannot be added to an MLS team's Home Grown Player List, but a player already on a Home Grown Player List can maintain that status if selected for a U.S. National team at a later date. "http://www.redbullsacademy.com/academy/overview/homegrown_player_policy.aspx I thought the rule stated that you had to play for the youth academy for 2 years, which is why Dilly Duka wasn't able to sign with PBnJ as a home-grown player.
As far as organized youth sports, I'm pretty sure soccer blows pretty much every other one out of the water. The issue of abandonment comes up around middle school or Jr High, when school athletics come into the picture. Either from parental pressure or by choice, kids seem to leave the game for more "approved" American sports. One of the biggest differences between today and not even 10 years ago: idols. What soccer loving American kids in 2000 got to watch players like Zidane, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Paulo Maldini, etc. play the game in their primes? The chance that they even knew who these guys were was very small. If you asked a kid who their favorite professional soccer player is, they either said Coby Jones or there's professional soccer?! No disrespect to Jones, but he was never a world class player. Kids crica 2000 wanted emulate Kobe, McNabb, A Rod, etc. but no soccer players. Today, where the list is probably LeBron, Manning, Pujols, etc. you might now be able to throw in Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi into the discussion. Kids today, if they play the game, most likely know who those two players are, and there's a good chance they attempt to emulate them. IMO, kids modeling their abilities and techniques after some of the best players in the world is a major part of what fuels improvement from generation to generation.
I have organized recreational youth soccer leagues before, coached club and high school levels. My main complaint is the PAY to Play mentality that comes with pretty much any American sport. Soccer is relatively cheap to put a league together and to maintain at the youth level say, about u12 and below. But as the players grow up the cost of quality tournaments, club fees, equipment, and camps, the cost does become prohibitive. So parents and children often are forced to make a choice about middle school. Where the school may charge a Fee ($250 for my school to play football) or continue to play soccer where $250 gets you into "A" tournement or maybe a soccer camp for the week. In my case, my high school didnt even have a soccer team. I ended up playing club (and yes i punted for my HS football team..) The cost of Pay to Play also creates a mentality that I abhor in american soccer. Must Win. Mom & Dad are shelling out the money and that in turn puts pressure on the Coach who is now forced to produce results in the Win column rather than a result in the players ability. This is still at the "youth" level too. Reffing a game I heard a parent get into a shouting match at the coach because a "talented" player was playing defense rather than as a forward. The coach had the right of it, the kid didnt have the footwork or touch at that time to play up top. I'm sure he wasnt about to learn it all from 1-2 practices a week and a game on saturday morning either. High school soccer unfortunately is a poor choice due to the majority of a school's Ath Dept. funding going to the "cash" sports; Football, basketball then baseball/track. (exceptions to every rule). Many times while coaching I dealt with the unfortunate fact that I was getting first year players who decided that they were prolly going to sit the bench on the football team. You might get an athelete but not a soccer player. **Sidenote: college scouts dont regularly attend ANY high school games UNLESS its state tournement settings or its an exceptional case. Most scouts goto club tournements to draw new talent from. (Thats how i got my scholarship) In my perfect world, I would open up a Charter school here in central ohio. At the school we would have a practice in the morning before class. Have a regular school day. Then a practice after the classes. Games every other week during the school year. Winter time have an indoor facility. With the inherent "pay to play mentality," parents will pay for a charter/private school and not think twice. The school would "sign" a player and hold rights and upon graduation from the school, sell the "rights" to a team. (Which in turn is reinvested back into the school) Rinse and Repeat and hope that 1 kid is the next Landon. Some of my ideas are not new, there was a terrific article written not too long ago about the Ajax Academy. Take time to read it, its a well written piece http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html?pagewanted=all
I think all of you guys got it wrong. Young players don't ditch soccer for other sports. I don't know many soccer players who gave up soccer for another sport. I do know plenty who gave it up for girls, parties, weed, playing in a band and half a dozen other reasons. They're all content with playing indoor a few nights a week with their buddies and chilling on weekends. They occasionally watch it on TV and even own a 6 year old Barca shirt that they got at a camp. I know dozens of these guys. Being third or fourth most popular shouldn't matter either. Even just a fourth of our country could provide the resources needed to produce quality players.
I can't really agree with you there Eggy, though i don't doubt that in your circle that may be the case. per a CNN report There are an estimated 41 million American kids playing competitive youth sports. In soccer, which remains one of the country's most popular youth sports, numbers have risen from about 15 million in 1987 to more than 17.5 million in 2002, the latest date for which numbers are available, according to U.S. Soccer. numbers are a little dated but sure lets use the 2002 estimate That puts approximately 1 in 2.3 (.3 count for the little people) in a soccer kit. I will venture to say most are not giving up the youth sports for weed, hookers and blow
Watching the College Cup, Speas impressed me more than anyone on the Akron team with his natural soccer sense. He was the most creative player on the field (even more than the much ballyhooed Apaipitakwong), and he was constantly playing dangerous balls in for his players. Barson looked pretty solid, and seems to be able to play full or center back (at least at the college level).
I haven't followed the Crew Juniors program at all, but it was nice to stumble upon the tidbit that Pollock plays college ball at Butler. I think I'll have to make a few "scouting trips" out there this fall.
No cheap shot intended. If thats the case, I would say that is more of an exception rather than the rule.
THIS! This is what I was trying to say only I was trying to paraphrase a bit. Funny thing is, I'm 28 and guess who my favorite player was "growing up"? Mr. Jones. I would agree to most of what you have said here, but notice the bold part. We aren't talking about quantity of ok quality players. What we are talking about is the fact that soccer is not looked at as an option for our best athletes. The only time I can think of where there was a "phenom" that was dedicated to soccer was Freddy Adu in this country, and that hasn't really worked out how we would have liked it. The Lebron's (ewww I don't want to talk about him), Jeter, Jordan, and so on and so forth that from the beginning were just world beaters were not as you say soccer players. It wasn't going to be an option for them. When it was noticed that they were over the top and much better at athletics then other kids their age they had to get dedicated to one or at most 2 sports. Because they needed to hit the camps and the tournaments and have a trainer and so on and so forth. I know even the best soccer programs up here in NE Ohio don't get the best athletes. They just end up getting the best as you say "soccer players". In this country to get out of current situations, make millions and millions of dollars and be famous beyond your wildest dreams you play Baseball, Football, or Basketball. Very few neighborhoods in this country are playing back yard soccer and dreaming of being Messi, Ronaldo, or any of the others. They are LeBenidict, Peyton, Derek or countless other players from the big 3 that are household FIRST name players. It's just a culture that needs to change. Somehow soccer needs to figure out how to get the top tier athletes to grow up playing THIS sport. U12 town leagues dont count. Traveling teams at the Junior High and High School programs need to get in the forefront. For this to happen MLS needs to get mainstream so that people want to go see their high schools play. Hubbard (the town I grew up in) fills the stadium every Friday night for football games. Not just parents of Band Members, Cheerleaders, Majorettes, and Players (nevermind that football gets all of them and soccer gets none of that extra support), This is 20 yardline to 20 yardline both sides of the field 30 rows high of fans. We are a suburb of a small city. Half the city (or more) shows up for EVERY home game. For soccer games? Lucky to fill a 5 row 5 yard wide bleacher or 2 with some scattered lawn chairs at the soccer field. No one is going unless they are the parents of the players or related. Hubbards girls went to states, I think it was my freshman year, we had to go since we were on the boys team and there were MAYBE 200 people there total. It's not a money maker, there is NO outside interest in the towns people for it. So it gets little financial support at our lowest levels. Before it comes up Basketball games have a full gym and baseball team has good fan interest also. However Hubbards baseball team is always bad so they dont get as much student support as the other sports. Something else I never understood is why soccer in this country is always put up against the countries number one sport schedule wise. I think Soccer could/would build more student body/citizen interest if it was in the spring where people may not go to baseball games over soccer.
Ah Cobi. Provider of one of my all time favorite moments in sports. Jones gets his head busted open, and a Mexican gets sent off. Epic Win-Win!!!
Some people in this thread need to take some deep breaths with a paper bag or just put a plastic bag over their heads. The culture is changing. The sport is becoming more popular, kids today are seeing the star power of the Messis and Ronaldos, and the development sysytem is slowly but surely getting better. Take a chill pill and enjoy the ride.
Its getting more popular to a very small extent. Talking best athletes it needs to compete with at least one of the major 3 sports in this country. At current rate that isn't even remotely soon. Also I don't think anyone is THAT upset about it are they? I mean I'm guessing the "some people" was partially aimed at me after my long post. I know I'm not all that upset just stating some facts. I'm ok with watching MLS quality where it is right now. I just hope we get USMT quality eventually to compete in International competition or to draw International talent over here in their prime. Not upset just stating some facts. When you think about it that's another issue. Even our best soccer players think/know to improve they need to play over seas.
With the popularity of the sport growing comes kids seeing that there is a future in playing soccer. One athlete that comes to mind for me when talking about this subject is Chad Johnson. Growing up he loved to play soccer, but he saw no future in the sport so he decided to continue on with football. As kids continue to see that there is the possibility of a future to make a name for yourself in the sport, we will see some of these athletes have soccer as one of their options if they love to play the game. Another thing I like to point out is that soccer is a totally different animal than baseball, basketball, and football. Although it is important to get athletes to play the sport, it is a totally different set of skills that a person has to develop to play the sport. In this country, I don't think someone like Messi would ever get the chance to be recognized as an elite athlete if soccer weren't available to him, and he had to play one of the other three major sports. Not to bash on basketball or football or even baseball to some extent because I love all three and I hate getting into one of these arguments, but I think soccer is a game that takes a lot more tactical awareness, mental awareness, and skill devlopment than these sports where size, strength, and speed dominate. Look at Guille: he's short and not the fastest or strongest guy on the field anymore, but he's still one of best players in the league because of his skill and soccer sense. That's why I think the development factor is so much more important than getting more "athletes" to play the sport, and the development is starting to find it's way in this country.
I will never, ever forget the dying moments of the knockout win against Mexico when Arena had Cobi in there to kill the clock and he's in the left corner holding and holding and holding and finally the two mexican defenders just start kicking him until he falls down and then they started quite literally stomping on him. Great moments in Mexican sportsmanship.
It would be highly kosher for the suits to MAKE TIME to honor our youth (yutes) at a Crew match (preferably, by the Nordecke). Halftime or before the match.
Even better if the yutes were presented to Crew fans by Marisa Tomei dressed in Daisy Dukes. {That's just how my mind works in logical progression...}