It was interesting talking to a parent who has a kid who played for a MLS DA team. The kid left to play for a club team and his high school team. He didn't like feeling like he was "owned" by the MLS team. Another parent I talked with who has a young player who is on track to be a part of the DA for a different prominent MLS team has basically said his kid can't learn anything from Americans. His kid is trying to latch onto an academy team in Europe. Point of this is different views and approaches to trying to become pro soccer players.
I remember all the posturing of parents from when my son played. Most thought their child was the best player and would go on to be a college or pro star. A few may have a handle on how good their child is and what path they should take (take a bow Pulisic family) but most are very blinded by there love of their kid or delusions of them fulfilling what their parents "could" have done.
I'm assuming he has a European passport option and can leave at 16 and not 18. Would seem if he's good enough to latch onto a top European academy the 'Americans' taught him something valuable. Or would he get all the credit because he did it all alone by himself. Because he's just that inherently that good.
Even smaller clubs can be good teaching grounds. I just hope he doesn't think because he's in Europe all is well. The goal is to find a developmental environment that allows access to first team minutes as the ultimate goal. US system can provide that just as well as European environments depending upon a number of factors most importantly his skill level.
This is not a winning attitude. This kid could start holding himself to a higher standard in training and push his teammates to as well or do work outside to figure out areas of improvement. Waiting for someone else to do it isn't how players max out their potential.
And that boy's attitude is all too prevalent among allegedly "top" U.S. youth players. Ask most college coaches about the differences between U.S. and foreign recruits, and they'll tell you two things: one, most foreign players have more tactical guile and mental toughness; and two, most foreign players are more humble and appreciative of their situation. Our better youth players would be better served playing against older players as soon as possible to learn toughness and humility while improving. Like I said before, the U18 Galaxy team should be playing college and PDL and NPSL teams regularly. The supposed golden ratio for becoming a better athlete (in team sports) is around 2 wins to 1 loss. Teams that are playing in leagues where they win 90% of their games are being held back. Sometimes there is no obvious solution, but in the case of the U18 Galaxy, there are plenty of older local teams to compete against. Some losing and well earned humility is a good thing in the long run.
The Galaxy U-17/18 team is currently in third place in their region with 15 wins, 9 losses, and 5 ties, so not sure what you think makes them so special.
Still working the way through all the clubs. They were on site this week with one club. I would assume it is up to the respective clubs whether the release what double pass had to say about their club. If Soccer house puts out anything when it is all finished, it will be a sort of average of average type thing that may lack substance. It is the findings at the individual clubs that will be value added, and I doubt we hear many of them.
Damn, the facts wrecked my well thought out point. A 15-9-5 record shows they are playing at the right level. Proceed with your regularly scheduled programming.
Not necessarily. I have no idea whether you were correct before (wrong level), or correct now (right level), but the team's record alone is not determinative.
FWIW aren't there a ton of LA Galaxy academy players playing with the USL team? so essentially some of the best players may be lost for DA game and play regularly against a level higher than PDL or NPSL. That may be the point though; a majority of academy players (like if were talking about a pool of MLS academy players, not just LA Galaxy academy players) don't have the option to play in the USL.
Not that many really. Last saturday was the first game where they started a significant number of players currently in the academy.
This trend will continue. Kleiban brought in his guys from Chivas USA starting with the '99s, but only a few came over. He brought much bigger groups with the 00s and 01s, and it's particularly the 00s who are starting to physically mature where they can hang with USL adult players. Next season we'll start to see some of the '01s playing with Los Dos, along with the '00s.. It won't be every game, of course, but they'll pick the right situations for game minutes.
In my estimation, any where from 50% to 70% of player development is from their family. Attitude is one of the major factors where family influence just completely overrides a coach's input. That's the reason why so many of the top players had ex-pros in their family. Some families just waste a kid's potential with this privilege crap.
MLS Youth Academy coaches (including FC Dallas) kick off a 14-Month educational program in France.https://t.co/RllFUahQ40— FC Dallas Youth (@FCDallasYouth) April 27, 2017
Article on Weston FC and Juan Carlos Michia: https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/clu...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Article on SKC hiring Michel Ribeiro. https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/clu...kes-historic-academy-hire-in-ribeiro_aid41786 Now they just need a 1st team coach who will play DA products.
That's what LA said. Not working out well for them so far. I think you need to refine it to a good coach who will play the DA products. I believe the owners will start looking for those guys to protect their investments in the DA. Martinez in Atlanta was a good hire for that reason - very good coach and will play and teach the young players.
Yes a mindset does come from the family but up to 70%? Family generally means father. And yes the love of the game, competitiveness, and the drive to improve has those routes. But father's have to work, have other kids, other priorities, don't play games with the child, generally doesn't coach the kids. So the game is often spend thousands of hours away from fathers for practices and games. Individual Player Development is often a very complex recipe with many dozens of ingredients. All are important in small doses or it just doesn't quite taste right.
Per Schalke's Menze: “You cannot make a talent,” Menze said. “That is the work of the parents. Sometimes I hear (from academy coaches), ‘I have made him.’ No. I say, coach, you have given him some lessons and perhaps an organizational frame to keep him in and to guide him to the point where he ended. But you did not make him. " Also Tom Byer: "Parents are more important than Coaches at the very young ages, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 years old. This is where Latin countries kill everyone because kids get a tremendous head start in learning Ball skills." Tom has gone on to really espouse providing parents of very young kids with enough knowledge to help toddlers learn ball skills. I'll go further than Tom in saying that a parent with the knowledge to help kids get the directed practice they need is an advantage that few kids have in the US and it's very telling. A coach will tell a kid to go practice at home but a parent will tell the kid what to practice and will give him the individual one on one time to perfect a technique that coaches just can't. There's a reason why many of the most talented players come from families with playing backgrounds. It's not just genetics, it's individualized, timely instruction.
We should make future parents undergo toddler training skills classes before they conceive. If they don't they are just being selfish parents.
Parental guidance is important, no doubt. However, it's only as effective as far as the parent's knowledge and commitment will take it. If, for example, all the parent does is kick the ball back and forth with the kid what skills has the child learned? In very established soccer cultures not only are fathers with high level playing backgrounds able to impart the important skills, but even the average Joe knows a lot of the moves and skills that a child can build on.