Scarshins hit up the Copa Latina(were Diego Serna, the Fusion "star" got completely shut down) then we'll decide.
Yeah, Firpo kicked our ass back in the day, wasnt even really a game but Panamas much improved now. I think Panamas seleccion is ahead of Salvador but your league is still better. Our big boys are in Europe. A long time ago I lived in Glendale close to LA when I first came to america.It was mainly Armenian and Asian people I played with. Now I live in Hallandale and I played high school and semipro ball here. We had one of the best teams in the state and only lost one game in the state championship to the winners St. Thomas. Hallandale is real getto, hallandale high got one of the worst records in Florida for gangs and stuff so its hard to get a scholarship but one of our boys did, this Argentine kid who was top scorer in the state Ezekiel Romero went to UMiami division i. As far as being racist not too many white people play soccer in SFlorida and if they do they go look up Jamaican or European teams. One time in 93 the KKK came out to protest Latinos and Hatians and they had like a million police protecting them from hundreds of people who wanted to kick their ass. If that bitch lotharis on the other thread ever came down here and said the shit he said hed prolly get shot. I guess in Cali you gotta know English, here too. In Miami though almost nobody speaks it. I learned it in Panama so I was str8 when I came here. Thing is there its mainly chicanos, almost all latin people here werent even born here and I think the foreigners better than the ones born in america. Latins and black people can ball here 4 real, I didnt see too many black people playing in LA and they win alot of stuff in Florida. You said we just got upper class Cubans I dont know if you seen Scarface but we got Marielitos Boricuas Dominicanos Salvadorenos down with MS13 and alot of hardcore cats down here. Damn Im writin too much and Im going out to the club now, holla atcha later. Ciao
Wow. You may know street futbol, but you don't know dick about boxing and/or Tyson. Tyson was one of the best defensive fighters of his generation. When he was young, and not all **********ed in the head, he would utterly frustrate opponents because they flat couldn't hit him. I'm not talking about the early, early fights when he literally would step through the ropes and just knock tomato cans out. I'm talking about as he worked his way through the best fighters of his day. His defense seemed simple, but it was damn near impossible to get through. Cus D'Amato taught him well, and his defense was one of the long forgotten keys to why he was unstoppable. His footwork was very good as well. You don't throw the left hooks and uppercuts that he threw without having good footwork. By the time most of you saw Tyson, his career was over and the vultures had picked the carcass clean.
I happen to recognize your style of writing, or is just similar to this dude that goes to Clemson that used to debate big times with me in another soccer forum, well why do i even waste my time talkin about that dude. Tyson was just a hitter, a "forward" kind like Ronaldo... where I come from, they tough us that the best way for defending yourself is attacking, if you attack then you dont worry about defending too much. Although if you want to win you have to be good at everything, even when you hold the ball, control game on a psycological way. I remember after making CD Aguila. Wearing the orange shirt in ES is such a pride Aguila is the most popular team in the country. Fans love you, players hate you. I guess it wasnt fair wearing expensive uniforms, playing in a Pro Stadium, having pro players coming to suport our team, having coaches that were part our national team, even coaches from Argentina and brazil. I remember one of my coaches Zapata that is the only Salvadoran that scored on world cups used to talk about Sosimo, a Brazilian world Champion that came to play for Aguila. Whenever my team hit the field it was time to beat opponents 6-0 at least. With fans all over the place watching the best kids on the city run the show. It was such a pride for me and my brother from the "hood" making the team. Going to CA tournaments and getting all the ladies at school hitting the mall and everybody recognizing you as the kid that one day would play for CD Aguila and maybe the national team. I am saying, thats something nobody takes away from you, and yankies would have get used to hanging with the big time latinos, with real futballers, i know how it feels being a celebrity in your hometown. I am used to being hated not bc i am "latino" and bc of my brown skin, but bc of my street moves, my winning attituted and my luck with the ladies you know, "this is how we do." Going back to your arguments, Tyson was not the average heavey weigh weight champion. He was short and he also had short arms. Therefore he could not work his way out with a defensive strategy to beat his opponents. Tyson and his one heck of a hit would nock the f... out of anybody except for HOlyfield who was a great defensive boxer. I am sure for a boxer to combat Mike would be so difficult bc of his size. MIke was short so therefore quicker and attacking minded. I am not saying Mikes defense suck, but it was not the best either, I actually saw tyson-holifield live with my grandpa and bunch of familiy that bets money on boxing, if you bet money on something you must "know" what youre putting your money on. Boxing is the second sport for the latino man, I am sure it goes after soccer. In the family, a game Aguila-Fas, ES-Mex, ES-Honduras, Madrid-Barca, Argentina-Brazil, Mex-Argentina, Italy-Spain, Italy-Germany, Brazil-Germany... is a big party, is like a family ritual, and the same happens with Boxing Championships, I can talk all day long on how JC Chavez, El Maromero Paez, Duran, Oscar de La Hoya, Tito Trinidad were once on top. Latino man would never understand sports like Basketball or American foot-ball as much as north americans wants to. Basketball is too easy to score, and american-football is too much touching man to man which is kind of gay. Soccer is a way of living is like a religion for us. The classy and the macho latino play soccer or do boxing. I am almost ready to do my debut in semi-pro, i've been working a chiropractic, and also at the gym. Well see how it goes, last time i went to watch the semi-pro play-off the latino newspaper was there, thats a good sign, that means people actually care about soccer in los angeles. After watching an amazing volley by the chilean dude I got exciting to know that i'll be facing the best latino ballers in cali. People was talking about this salvadoran dude that played for a team called Durango in Santa Barbara I think. So I guess my boy Toño have something to add to that. well igg to get ready bc las bichas are waitin to go fiesta. "hoy es noche de seiso"
I always say the best defense is offense. Spend the entire game assaulting the opponents goal and eventually the ball gets in the back of the net; the keeper can't save everything. Nothing is more psychologially damaging than that. The only thing is if you want your game to improve, it won't happen unless you go up against people just as good as or better than you. Nothing was more fun growing up than playing in the ethnic leagues and pulling off all types of outrageous stunts and showing off. Playing in America will give pretty much any good player an overinflated ego. Leaving the US and going somewhere were everyone is just as serious and determined as you are will teach you you're just a fish in a small pond. When Landon Donovan amd Beasley got nominated for World youth players of the year and people in the US started to put them among the best youth players in the world, I laughed at that, and so did everyone in Europe; and they were proven right when he couldn't handle Leverkusen, and Beasley started out decent in Holland but couldn't keep it up. Freddy Adu is the same thing; he's a star because he's in the US, where people emphasize fitness and commitment over ball control and when they see someone dribbling they automatically assume that Pele reincarnated; if they went to Africa, or South America, France or Portugal, they would find dozens of players in every neighborhood with the same skillz, and with the right training they could be just as good as him. Once he gets to Europe it'll be proven he's just another good foward among many. All the European-based Latin(or African or Asian or any other) players are better than the domestic ones because they learn to do their stuff against the best in the world, weekly. I think basketball is getting more popular all over the world even though it will never catch soccer. Sports like baseball and hockey are declining because they are too expensive for lower-income people(which is over 75% of people on the planet) to play. Hockey equipment is extremely expensive and it can only be played in indoor rinks or certain climates, and baseball is a game that fathers tend to teach their sons. In third world countries(or even in poor areas of America) were people only have one parent who works all day or are orphans, basketball, soccer and boxing are just things you can pick-up on the street, as far as soccer all you need is a ball, which people often make out of socks, and with basketball just a place to play on. In Latin America soccer and boxing are king though, they have a long(at least century-old) history that basketball can't touch. I remember him, forgot his name though. A winger with good moves and the Mexican and Argentinean coach(Jorge Coch) wanted to get him on Chivas USA after Durango played them, there was some problem with player allocations or some other shit I didn't understand. I think he was studying too. I remember one of the Chivas' coaches telling us, "porfavor juegan tranquilo, no pegan a mis jugadores," and Jorge saying,"pegalos hasta los cuellos." I'e never played CD Chivas Guadalajara but from what I've seen that team isn't anywhere near them. We ended up losing 4-2, but having played against them and the NE Revolution, and some college, PDL and USL teams, it really makes you wonder if these are really the best players in the US. I have a nasty ankle sprain I got about 2 years ago in a fight and it keeps comming back, and it hit me when I was on the Durango team and I couldn't play good, and it came back to haunt me again both at Alajelense's reservas(think you saw the picture on my profile) and in Heredia's Primera. I've got to get it completely better before I start playing again next year. La Primera(East Los Angeles) is cool, but I'm only here for a little bit. Peace
Im goin to start by telling you that money have nothing to do with an sport being good and popular. I remember moving with my dad in ES and living in a nice neighboorhood for a while, going to a private school, and hanging with rich salvadoran kids. 2 of our friends have moved from California, like business people, and they were hardcore surfers. My friends and I started surfing with the "gringos" and skating also, a skateboard was 100$ by then, and a surfboard 300$, you had to go to San Salvador to get one, or ask a relatives to get you one from the US. Next thing we knew, everybody was trying to get skateboards and surfboards, something that we started bc of our californian friends became "cool," and now we have a lot of Surf tournaments, and Pro Surfers in ES, some of my friends are Pro Surfers and others organize Skate events. We always had Gringos moving to our neighboorhood and bringing basketballs, "footballs," and baseballs to school. But they never got any attention, not the one they wanted. Basketball is very popolar only in private catholic schools, on my school soccer was king then basketball but usually the best basketball players always decide to stay with soccer. So the argument of "money" and "third world" countries cant afford baseballs or "footballs" is stupidly wrong. How can a "lanchero" that lives on the beach and lives out of fishing can afford a Surfboard that is 300$ and not a baseball that is about $5? Sorry Tonio and I know you this isnt your idea, bc I read before the argument of "third world countries cant afford to play american sports." Baseball is not going to make it bc is slow, and boring as crap. Hockey bc it doesnt snow in Latin America, Basketball bc not everybody is 8' tall, and gringo football bc not everybody enjoy eating 10 Mc Donalds a day to weight 500lbrs to be a great athlete... Talking about South Carolina First Division which is full of foreigners mostly from northern Europe, and dropped out college kids, or all state high school players that partied too hardcore and couldnt make it into college. It is kind of ridiculous how they think of soccer there. The "white" guy is usually a classy player with "sick" moves, and they have 1 black forward or winger that is too fast for the strong white defender... So basically you have two black kids to run any white defender that is in his way, and they cross it to a tall white dude that is usually bald, bc white kids shave their heads so they can look gansters on the soccer field. On my team in south carolina we had an old italian defender, 2 black dudes from trinidad, another black dude from Jamaica, 2 british, another mulato dude from Puerto Rico, he played soccer for a college somehwhere, and the onwer is brazilian. My brother and I were picked out of our own team in third division where we played a lot of our friends from high school, like basketball and football players that wanted to try soccer and couldnt keep up with the speed of the game. I like better latin soccer, white or black soccer is way too predictible, Brazilians are mixed black and white and natives so therefore they are called latinos just like we do. I have met many brazilans that look just like me, and my game is also very similar to Cicinho and is not that I grew up watching Cicinho play and he was my role model, bc my role model would always be Jorge El Magico Gonzalez, and Diego Maradona. California is hot yo, and the league is not called "East LA Primera" i think is just called Semi Pro SoCal or something, I love it here, my team is full of young Central Americans and one dude is from Brazil but he is white... The team to beat is this team with a Juventus uniform that half of their players are Argentinians, and the rest central americans they also have this one good forward from Chile they are good as shit. From 4 months of playing amateur in los angeles, and 1 month of training with semi-pro I can tell you that the most skilled players are from El Salvador, we're fancy as shit, and the strongest are from Honduras, not many costaricans around here, then the other group that can ball are Argentinians, and now and then you see a descent Mexican team, or a descent white team.. let me know how things are going on CR, I know alajuela did horrible on Suramericana, so did Aguila on UNCAF. Peace bud, I gg to practice in a bit.
I think alot of people take it the wrong way when I talk about people who have money, when honestly alot of people are well off because they work hard for what they have and many of the poor are just lazy, but outside of America, they have entrenched class systems where generations of people are born into money or poverty, regardless of how hard they work. While several of my family members were born in Costa Rica, most of my family are from Nicaragua, and several of them were(and still are) in the Sandinista military that fought the contras back in the 1980s, and everything they have they had to fight for, and they raised me to be the same way. Being poor in Latin America(or Africa, the Middle East or Southeast Asia, etc) is very different from the US; there aren't any food stamps, welfare checks, section 8 and all that other bullshit. Either you work hard, or you starve, pretty simple. Latin America has some of the best soccer players in the world because they have to get out of the barrios and favelas by any means; Brazil, Colombia and Central America have some of the highest murder rates in the world(some of the things I've seen there would make any hood in NY ir LA look like a picnic). Where I grew up in S. Florida, I had mainly African-American friends, Italian-Americans from New York, or 1st or 2nd generation immigrants from the Caribbean and Latin America. A few of them ended up getting academic or sports scholarships, alot of them ended up in jail or deported because of silly gang shit, a few ended up dead, and most of them are still there, just hanging out and doing nothing, with kids to support. I decided to do something adventurous and go overseas to play pro soccer, running circles around semi-pro teams for years can get boring after a while. People always have asked me if I'm afraid to go to certain thrid-world countries with high crime rates by myself and I always laugh. If you can handle the street in the US you can pretty much handle anything anywhere else in the world. Since I've done kickboxing/kong fu tournaments and played basketball on the street with people who weigh 250+ pounds for years, and had to fight with gangs in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, I wasn't intimidated by the Mara gangs in Central America(most of them are malnourished and weigh less than me), and when I finally get to Europe next year, weather I go to Eastern Europe or a lower division in Spain(even with all the skinheads in those areas and racism against anyone who's Jewish or isn't white), I won't be intimidated there either. If you grow up sheltered(like many players do in the US) alot of times you can't take it when it gets rough. This isn't everybody, and that doesn't mean that everyone who is working class or from the ghetto is tough either, but when you're conditioned to work hard for what you want there really isn't anything that can stop you. Basketball really is getting popular, not just 'cause its easy to play, its fun and there's a lot of room for creativity, just like soccer or boxing. It takes skills. Baseball just sucks cock, and I can't even begin to fathom how anybody could sit in a ballpark in a hundred degree weather and watch a non-athletic guy with a beer belly hit a ball and run around some bases. Football and baseball are just not fun and not many people like it. The only countries that even mess with baseball(I think I mentioned this in a nother thread) are the ones that were dominated by the US military, or have some other connection or proximity to the US(Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Israel, etc.) and in eveyone of those countries its going down and soccer(to a lesser extent basketball) is comming up. Soccer is just very easy, cheap, and more than anything else, fun to play; it always has been and always will be the world's favorite sport. American soccer is English soccer. When the game really got kicked off in the US in the 70s they decided to look to what most people consider their "motherland", England, where they just value commitment and obeying whatever the coach barks at you. Black soccer is what is played by African countries, France, Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia or wherever they have alot of Blacks playing soccer, and it usually is very skillful with alot of dancing moves(comes from black culture and dancing) and is probably the most entertaining style to watch in the world, just like and-1 basketball. Almost every African-American US player(its changing now with Johnson, Altidore and Adu) was raised in a white suburb so they play the same old-school English boring game. Miami is hotter and more humid La Primera is just a street slang they call the hood, East LA(if you saw Sangre por Sangre, American Me, or heard Kid Frost or Cypress Hill you'll understand what I mean). I'm just chillin' 4 now, I gotta get this injury better if I wanna get on a decent team next year. I had spoke to a scout back in Florida right before I came here that offered me a trial with either Village Utd. or Portmore Utd. in Jamaica's 1st division, but from what I've seen the league looks too violent(after Central America and Uruguay I'm tired of that shit) and I'm not sure anything will come of it. Plus in those places things often aren't very organized and the players stick together in a group(and don't pass you the ball) so they can keep any newcomers from taking their positions. I wanna try my luck in Europe. Next year, all the partying and hot girls every weekend stops and the real training starts, so I'm enjoying my descansa while I still have it. Semi-Pro in Cali is better organized than Florida, and alot of the teams pay a salary(the duenos of the Durango team won several million in the lottery and paid most of the players something). I do see that some of the Central American players have better skills than the Mexicans(Salvadorians and Costa Ricans in particular) because they play more street soccer, but Mexico, being more organized, tends to win when it matters. If I can load some videos of my friendly games in South America and Costa Rica, and some of my old photos from American Ambassadors in Holland and England on myspace I'll let you know. C-Ya
dog. how u did it? i mean is it an agent helping u, i left salvador when i wuz 7 & played semipro back in el paso and houston back in tha daybut couldnt crack hi school cuz of my grades. i wanna find a good team but somebody gotta hook me up. peace
I wish. For the most part I do it on my own. My Uruguayan coach(Vega) is well-traveled and has alot of connections, and knows alot of agents in Europe and South America. Central America is fairly easy place to get in(most of my friends playing in Costa Rica and Nicaragua don't have agents either) but South America is harder and Europe almost impossible to get into on your own. If you look around Cali I'm sure you can find someone, there are connected scouts/coaches everywhere. People need to assess themselves realistically though. There are tons of ethnic players that are passed up because the coach wants players who look like and remind him of his son and teamates, and fit their playing style, but often the players are too small, out of shape, can't follow instructions good enough, don't check back and mark, don't pass the ball, etc. Moves aren't everything. If you know you can play, then try a foreign league. Just be honest with yourself and how hard you're willing to work. Another thing, these open "tryouts" where a hundred people show up like the Fusion, Chivas USA or Miami FC held are just ploys to take your money, I've never heard of anyone getting chosen from those things. I'm sure it must be possible, but unlikely. I have an American born friend whose father was a professional from Colombia, and he tried out for Saprissa. It cost around 3,000 colones(about$2.50) and there were several hundred people there, but just the fact that they let him try out, when they have a policy of not letting anyone not a Costa Rican citizen play on the team shows they didn't even intend to look at him. When he got a trial(different from a general tryout, where they let you practice with the first team instead of the others trying out with you) with Alajuelense's second division they kept him. If you really want it just keep trying and you'll get there. Aiight
Players have actually been signed from open tryouts. The most successful in MLS was Rodrigo Faria, who showed up at a Metrostars open tryout, got the coaches' attention enough for them to bring him into the Metrostars Black amateur team, and then he was signed the next year and actually scored some goals. The rest have been less successful, with only Mario Torres staying on a roster (in Dallas) for as long as two seasons - and even he didn't play a single first-team minute. I heard that Torres was easily the best player in the Dallas area ethnic leagues, so that says something about the difference in level of play. For the record, in the entire history of the league, MLS teams have signed about ten players from open tryouts, while looking at well over 20,000.
I have a hard time believing that these tryouts are really held primarily to search for players though. When I went to Miami FC to tryout(and scored about 8 goals, one off a scissor kick and another lobbing the keeper from almost midfield when he was daydreaming) they looked at 3 groups of over 50 players each. Of all of these, one guy around 35 years (never met him, he came on a different day and saw it in the Miami Herald) was chosen, and one 18 year old Brazilian kid about 5 feet tall who kept trying to dribble the entire team and losing the ball was told to stay on to get looked at further(I heard his parents had paid the Brazilian coaches an unspecified amount of money). In addition the day before I came they already had a group of college players doing hard professional-style training; they had us touch our toes and measure our flexibility, do one sprint half-way across the field and timed us, did some long passing, heading off corners, and a game. After taking our 100$ they said thank you for coming we'll do it again 8 months from now. If this wasn't something designed to raise money(because I've heard similar stories of several other MLS teams and teams in Central America) I'd like someone to explain what it was all about...
MLS, the USMNT and USA soccer is a joke. They dont even have the respect of an average unatletic north american citizen, not even going to talk about big deal competitive north americans. Ask Oneil, Tony Romo, Miachael Jordan, Donald Trump what they think of soccer? Even gayas Tiger Woods makes fun of soccer... I mean a sissy like Tiger makes fun of a Coach like Bruce Arena and his mommies boys. Germany 06 was a huge example of how soccer in the US is going nowhere with all this weird people involved in a such an important sport. MLS and the USMNT is not ready for real ballers, for kids like me that dream and think of soccer 24/7, kids like me that practice at a 200% level, that work out at the gym even 4 hours till our body is about to explot, and the kids that would drop blood on the field till the end, like a warriors movie. But eventually, MLS would want to start thinking on players that PACK STADIUMS OF 200,000 PEOPLE, evetually MLS would be interested on players that do different than running around and just kicking a soccer ball, eventually MLS would be interested on good looking players...like hollywood types, eventually MLS would be interested in ballers that can ball for real and are not scared of the streets, or south americans, or italians or germans. Eventually MLS would want to compete with NFL, NBA, and with the big dogs... thats when they are probably going to come to us, but guess what? we are prob going reject a League full of neo-nazis fans like you. I mean really, evetually the US would want to really compete with the Super-Powers in the world game, you think the real big dogs in North America are always going to get laugh at bc bunch of richi college kids that can even score a goal in the world cup? Have you seen a movie called "The Miracle Match?" Its a descent movie talking about the reality of North American soccer... Playing for El Salvadoran team would be so much fun, sp at a team like Club Deportivo Aguila that always play at a pack stadium with crazy fans (el Templo del futbol cuzcatleco is Aguilas Stadium), and people actually loves that fancy style that Salvarans futbol offers. Unfortantly my expectations of living dont go along with what the Salvadoran League could offer me. I like to date hot models, and ride Lamborguinis (even though I dont have one yet) I love Santa Monica and California in general. I never want to leave here, I am prob going to UCLA next year. As far as improving myself... dont worry Tono, I got the respect of the people I need to. The respect of streetballers, respect of the people. You have the respect of the streets and who gives a crap of what FIFA thinks of you. You know the king of street futbol is Diego Maradona and prob after him comes El Magico Gonzalez, no other baller played "fantasy" futbol like they did, maybe some have come close to them. Players like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, Denilson and now Robinho. Maradona and Gonzalez were unique in their time, they were all fantasy like those movies you never want them to end bc they are so good... I am a champ, and will quote two Americans celebrities on that one. "I am the peoples champ, and I dont care what anybody else think" Ali "You can buy cars but you cant buy respect" 50 Cent and then comes my quote, "Yo soy el campeon de la gente, el campeon del barrio y del pueblo, y me puede valer verga lo que un hijuelagranputa gringo piense de mi" For that other dude that is interested in playing semi-pro here in Los Angeles, if you are truly good enough, just contact me. I'll hook you up on my team, but that does not guarantee you anything, we're young and good, youll actully have to fight for a spot on the team just like I did. For last I want to share with my boys from the forum what my coach as a kid told us when I made CD Aguila in El Salvador. CD Aguila is the best of the best in ES. I was only 11 years old. " You guys are now part of Club Deportivo Aguila, you are profesionals now, a lot of kids wish they were part of our respected team but this club only has space for the finest in our country, it doesnt matter if you are rich or poor, prieto, moreno, or chele, we are all the same here, part of Club Deportivo Aguila. People are going to insult you after and before games, some are going to hate you, but I never want to hear of one of my players responding to any offense, bc you will be automatically out of my team. You are part of Aguila, you are a professional already, so start acting like one, not joking involved on the field, when practice, games, or conditioning, you will have all you need so if you need something or you have a question just ask." Juan Ramon Paredes is prob one of the best soccer Coaches of El Salvador now days. He was the best Coach I ever had, out of 40 games we only lost 2 finishing 3rd in the nation. I made all state, all region and I was also invited to joing ES U15. I am still working on my left ankle, but I am almost ready for LA semi-pro =) Welll what happens. Alrite man. Keep it real. Peace O yeah, there is a song that any time I listen to it, its like a himno on my head. "Many Man" 50 Cent. Good stuff.
That's cool. College is good if that's your thing. I love learning, but I can't stand Florida schools. They have one of the highest rates of trauncy in the US and most kids didn't care much for it either, but for me it was like a medieval torture. Futbol is what I want. I'm tired of seeing talented ethnic players get discouraged and piss it away because they get passed over repeatedly and they just give up. People think that players not involved in the US soccer system can't play as good as the ones that are, and if they could, they'd be selected, but its mainly the white non-hispanic players that get taken into ODP, national team programs and Brandenton, get scholarships or sent to lower teams in Europe around 16-17. I pointed out on the other thread Donovan and Dempsey both learned to dribble by playing with Mexican kids, and Donovan says they got passed up because they couldn't afford the fees, if some team would have taken them in there's no reason to believe they couldn't have achieved the same success they did. They're just raw talent of the street(usually just dribbling machines) but unless they're really really good(like Denilson or Ronaldo) they have to learn the basics of the game, and they don't. I've never met anyone I couldn't dribble by, can shoot from any angle, pass and volley the ball with any part of my foot, and ran track for years; but until very recently was never good with my head and didn't understand shit about tactics, because I was never trained. I played on adult semi-pro teams since I was a kid, but I only got picked on teams that needed a goalscorer, and I usually ended up carrying the whole offense myself. Since I was just there to score goals I never developed anything other than sprinting, dribbling, shooting and volleying. Even when I went to Central/South America and asked them about learning it they just said thats "************ Europeo" European shit, and that Europeans don't know how to play which is why they need it and that they didn't. Most of the coaches played their pro carrers in the sixties in the Argentine league or in the World Cup for Uruguay in 1974, before tactics reached Latin America, so I never did quite get what I wanted. The only way for me to get signed on a team in Europe is to do what Ronaldo and Denilson did: be so good technically with the ball, and score tons of goals that there's no possible way they could turn you away. In other words, street soccer at its best. In Uruguay I managed to get into the equivalent of Brandenton; the division B(segunda division) players are in their late teens or early twenties trying to break into first division teams or go oversees, and the best ones were sent to the Selecion Uruguayo B, and we got to train in the Estadio Centenario, and played every 1st division team except Penarol. One of the coaches left to go to Australia afterward for the final Qualifier with the senior national team. On my myspace profile you can see me in the uniform with the blonde kid whos playing somewhere in Europe right now. Another one went to Qeretaro in Mexico, one to Brazil, and most got on first division teams there. At first they thought I would suck comming from the US, and they started with Osama jokes, but eventually as I improved I integrated into the team. It was a good experience because they did 4+ hours of training a day, and its rough and fast just like in Europe, along with Latin skill. When I went to Costa Rica after that(and especially when we scrimmaged the Revolution) it was like slow motion. Going to Europe is different and more difficult though. If you've been capped for any national team its easy to get a look(I have some friends from my days at Nicaragua Real Esteli's team who got to Europe just because they had played internationally. But if you don't have that, or some type of European ancestry, its difficult. I'm going to Madrid, on either a second division B or third division team to train until I get signed, my coach Vega will let me know in December. Spain has so much money even the semi-pro teams pay around 3,000 Euros to good players a month. Some of the kids I played with in Argentina are already there. Maybe we'll meet up some day peace
This is very interesting, we both speak the same language, and Im not referring to english, spanish, or any maya dialect... i am talking futbol. I am goingo to quote Ali just bc I always find myself related to his words. Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: A desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill. -Muhammad Ali What he says in here is very important, a real champions is not the one with the most skill, or the strongest, fastest... I was never the fastest, strongest, or most skilled on my team. I learned soccer at my grandmas house with my older cousins, the level of competition was always tough bc my cousins were 15 or even 17 and i played with them when i was 7 years old.. of course I never won, i was gettin my a.. whopped by my older cousins, they were stronger, fasters, and mean as shit. they always took me to the games with them, to the stadium to support aguila, i was like the little guy that one day would be as cool and as good as they were. I made Aguila the first dayi got there. I was a right back. The best in the league for 3 seasons. I still played barrio leagues and indoor soccer with friends where I was playing as forward, scoring goals. On my club team (aguila) i could never play forward, I wasnt as big as our strikers or as skilled as they were. I mean i was a great defender, but not the best player on my team. PLaying indoor and other barrio leagues and school, I become an attackin center mid. ON the regional team I was scoring a lot of goals as right wing and i was also trying on attacking center mid, bc I could pass like not other and dribble pretty good too, my best friend who was physically bigger than me was invited to the national team. He made it! I was suprised that I didnt get the invititation. He told me to go to try out, that they were coming to the US to play the Dallas Cup, and that he was sure I was going to make it. I decide not to go bc it was a shame for me not to be included, I guess they wanted the bigger guys on the team and no the best. ONly 5 kids from my team made the national team and none of them were better than I was. I won 2 times the state, and one runner up. The next year I was invited to try out, this time I had my letter but my mom had decided my brothers and I would move to the US. My younger brother also had invitation for the national team. I was invited to the U15, my bro to the U14. When I moved here I was a sophmore in HS, My brother and I try out for te HS team, he was a freshman, we made JV. We made the team but could not make it to practice bc of ride, they practice at a country club not at school. I started playing for a latino club in san fernando valley where my mom had some friends. My coach on that club played for Municipal of Guatemala. Really good coach, he knew a lot of Salvaroran futbol and he knew of how big Aguila, FAS, and Alianza where in Central America. Anyway I played as a forward where I scored a lot of goals and we lost in semi-final when we were undefeated. Then I moved to South Carolina due to family business. Moving from Palos Verdes California to Columbia, South Carolina was a huge change... living in the suburbs of a red-neck town change my life forever... I am gettin too much into this thing, anyway. High School ball I was injured most of the time.. white kids cant play but they sure know how to tackle the shit out of you, im tellin you, the whites game is a dumb game... is really just as most people in here describe it... " just running around and kicking a soccer ball, and the legs of skilled latin players " I will continue later, but I wanted to tell you this thing. Most of the time you and some of the people that do not know much of street soccer (I am assuming you know street soccer) but maybe a different than the one I know. "dribbling" is very important in street soccer but is not all dribbling... i dont know if you are aware of that... street soccer is style, is mental, is ego.... the way you defend, you attack, you pass, you run, you "dribble" thats street ball, on my club i was one of the best, but i woulnd say i was the best... but on the street i always found my way to come out with and awesome shit, maybe a pass, a move, a way to score, or just fool people with the ball or to tackle... im tellin u, i can ball for real, i dont mean tricks... i mean playin the game and makin people stand up and take their hot off... It doesnt matter if you are an streetfutballer or you are a profesinal, what really matter is the way you play, te way you respect the game and enjoy it. Champions are not made, we are born... idk who said that but thats very true. I have played with players that are wayyyy more skilled than me, players that are physicallly stronger or weaker. On my semi-pro right now, we have a little guy, about 5' 5" and he is good as shit, he can dribble like a bitch, and shoot the shit out of the ball. But i dont think he is a champ.... he is not confidence enough, i mean im better lookin... Me? I have to go to school bc my salvadoran dad is a lawyer, my step father is an engineer, and they are pressuring me to finish school... although i have an uncle that played profesional in El Salvador, and i was hoping he was going to support me to play pro... even he had told me to go back to school. So yeah, just wanted to make sure you know or understand that. Street ball is not numbers, is quality. Is not scoring goals, is scoring golazos... is magic, fantasy... If you ever talked to anybody in Spain that saw Jorge El Magico Gonzalez playing, they would tell you that they didnt care about the score, they wanted to see Jorge Gonzalez and his moves and his magic. He left the Camp Nou and Santiago Bernabeu ovacionado by the people of Madrid and Barcelona... So did Maradona, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. My biggest weakness facing US soccer was my left foot, my brother is a left footer so he also is not very good with his right. But we were better than what they call in here "All American" or "ODP" player, bc one of our friends got that recognition in High School and he was not better than we were. people told me that i was fast as shit... i didnt know that bc in El Salvador we use a fancy style of playing, we think is dumb to play a fast game and not show style and class on the field... a lot of colombians and panamenians have been "surprised" before of how salvadoran do not appreciate their physical way of playing... we care more about skill.. which is prob why we did horrible on world cups. I have been told by people that i am fast enoug to play pro... on my semi pro team people told me that but also that soccer is just different in here, too much of im "sombodies friend or i am sombodies son" to make it pro. The thing is idk, I am playing semi-pro and I did have the dream of playing for MLS but after listening how they think of salvadorans and of latinos in general, i dont think is worth it, i have a huge ego and if i am going to a league where i have to act in certain way, kissin somebodies ass, and i have be shame on my game, my believes and my culture... forget it. good luck in the next world cup, Freddy Adu would be ready for their Pele resurection hope. Klissman was a great player so at least we know we have a real coach now, as far as MLS i feel sorry for them, trying to bring David Beckam whe he clearly suck and did nothing on Madrid where the best players on the world show what they can do. There are millions of latinos in the US playing semi-pro that can play better than beckam. Why bother... or wasting time with people who knows nothing of soccer that think they are supperior to everybody in the world.
Futbol is a universal language, its the one thing I've spoken that everyone understands in every country I've ever gone to. But one part of that people don't seem to understand so well here is street football. America's street sport is b-ball, which gets mixed up with other aspects of street culture, like Hip-Hop music, the ghetto, dealers, street promoters, the inner-city, macho posturing/shit talking, weight lifting, outrageous moves/showing off, and the like. Anywhere else in the world all you would have to do is substitute the b-ball with futbol. If you listen to Ronaldo, Robinho, Ronaldinho, Denilson, Maradona, Huguita, Keane or a million other guys stories they sound strikingly similar to what you might hear from a rapper or Basketball player in an urban American setting. Denilson said if he didn't play futbol he probably would've been a rapper(Master P, Shaq), Robinho wanted to get his family out of the drug-infested favelas and free his mother from kidnappers(Tyrese, Snoop), Maradona had emotional problems stemming from his dirt-poor upbringing that carried into his personal life, making him unstable and violent at times(Big Pun), Huguita got his way paid out of jail by kingpin Pablo Escobar so he could star for his country(2-Pac), and Roy Keane was determined not to be poor all his life and never gave up despite passed up over and over and the prejudice he went through, eventually making it but still being bitter as a result and taking out his anger on the big stage(Eminem, Iverson). I don't know if you or anyone else reading ever saw Above the Rim(basketball movie in Harlem about a star with an ego who gets connected with drug dealers) with Tupac in it back in '94, but that's pretty much a microcism of how futbol is run in much of Latin America and the Caribbean, and although I haven't been there, I imagine in Sub-Saharan Africa and France's Algerian neighborhoods too. In several places I've been to I asked where they got the money to pay the players from and nobody knew(or pretended not to), but there were always rumours of professional and semi-professional clubs having their own ganja plantations or of having connections with Colombians. When I would go down to Central America and the Caribbean to visit family/friends growing up we would always play for hours on the street, on one of those basketball courts that double as a futbol cinco cancha, or on the beach barefooted, with rap music blaring from a stereo, with our shirts off in front of miniature crowds showing off our moves and muscles to the girls. I always saw shady people in the backround(dealers) pointing at me and asking who the new face was. Identical to what I saw playing basketball in the hood in Brooklyn and Ft. Lauderdale. And to get on a team of any sort, you have to connect yourself with the right people. When I first showed up in Nicaragua after high school(without an agent or anything) the team didn't like me, and 2 or 3 of them were in some sort of neighborhood gang. First they tried to punk me, but when I fought one of them and kicked his ass the whole team got mad and would try and sabotage me by not passing me the ball. I had to find a new team, but I met some people from the neighborhood, they introduced me to people who "ran" the place, and the kids on the team, and I got along fine the next time around, even though they were much rougher. I played semi-pro a bit in Argentina(same thing, rough kids, one had been in a barrio gang) before heading to Montevideo. My coach from Miami had brought me to train with division B team progresso(they had this thing when a new guy gets on the team you have to get in the middle while they kick you for 30 seconds, or you run through 2 rows of them while they kick you trying to get to the other side, something they like to do in the ghetto in the US, they probably learned it off TV) , but when they took their break for the rest of the year, I was back to square one. I met this beautiful girl who had a brother who played on a barrio team, after kicking the ball around a few times with him he invited me to play on his neighborhood team(in one of the worst neighborhoods in town, the field was rock hard with rocks on it, surrounded by barbed wire and the whole game people on the sidelines are hurling shit and spitting at you.) To make a long story short because I don't have all night, I went to some of the games in the national stadium with people I met there, in the clubs, cantinas, poolhalls, etc and they introduced me to people who were connected with the barras bravas(hooligans for teams like Penarol, National, Danubia, etc.) and they helped(cause I had to work really hard) me get on that team you see on my myspace profile. I think I told you about how I foolishly left a trial I had earned to give Chivas USA a shot and got screwed when the Dutch coach who had liked me was taken out for some reason, but it was pretty much the same thing this year in CR, I was in the second division of La Liga, and I saw an old buddy who played in the U-17 Youth World Cup for Costa Rica, and he hooked me up with Heredia, while he went to Cartagines in Cartago(he's there now). He kept asking me if I could bring him to the MLS, telling me how bad they looked on TV and he was sure he could make it, I told him just like in Latin America, its all about connections, and I don't have any in the US. This story could have been one of a bunch of players from Latin America or Africa, they know how hard it was to make it, so they would die before losing a World Cup/Copa America game, and when they do they go down fighting(like Argentina/Boca/River do every time they loose). Learning how to maneuver my way on the street in the US, and reading stories about people who became rappers, basketball players, mafia kingpins from off the street(one book Among the Thugs about an American who ran with English football gangs who were run by organized crime "firms" in particular) helped me manage my way through a maze south of the border, although I'm sure it will be much easier going to an organized stable country next year where things work pretty straight-foward. Everytime I told(or tell) people I'm going to Europe everybody asked me how I did it and to hook them up, but they don't realize if you don't have any pro experience its extremely difficult, you can't just show up there like you could on some ghetto team in a third world country, pull off fancy moves, score goals, impress the coach and get on. They want to see your insurance(until recently I didn't have any), list of teams you played for, video highlights if you have any, and usually you have to be brought there by someone. Something interesting I ran into was this kid who I think is Puerto Rican but haven't read through the whole article, went to Europe running around looking for a team and eventually got signed in Denmark. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3358379#post3358379 Granted he probably had more money than I did(Europe's cost of living is higher than the US while Latin Americas is much lower)and had college experience. Also I would think twice before going into working-class neighborhoods or dealing with hooligans there being non-white for obvious reasons(skinheads, Neo-NAZIs etc.) Another thing I used to call up teams that I saw he ran into also was this English site www.worldfootball.org. Also I just asked someone here about an academy they're opening near my old stomping ground in Florida that I think was just set up. www.TSAcademy.net & TSAcademy@hotmail.com. But if you want to go to college I'm sure that will open up all kinds of doors for you. Remember that Brazilian great Socraties studied medicine and became a doctor and still made it to 2 World Cups. You could also try the PDL, if you're any good either one should be a walk in the park, I ran rings around them before I had even left for Latin America. Anyway I'm in a rush I'll write more later. Peace
Very interesting I dont know if you remember, but I did called my mom a "goldiga" in another forum. Well Im hoping im not offending my mother in anyway, is sort of an analogy of how things run. My mom did grew up in one of the ghettos places in ES, although she is really pretty and a really hard worker... to the the point that my father that is really a blue blood salvadoran, he even have some itallian root, and my step-father whos a white guy... long story. I grew up in the barrio, and to be honest there were only two worse barrios than mine in SM. When it comes to soccer, there was always a huge rivalry between barrios. In those barrios soccer is everything. You would always find the finest of the barrios playing for nationals or the pro teams... riding cars and signing for pro teams at a young ages. I sort of moved out of the "hood" when I was about 11, but I never forgot where I came from... i went to private schools and actually did quit aguila for a while and just played soccer at a private club with some rich friends. Aguilas new Coach didnt know much of streetfutbol so he didnt appriciate my game, I said "******** it, im to good to be on the bench," and I left. My father (salvadoran lawyer) got really mad at me, bc he didnt want me playing around with barrio teams, he though it was a waste of time. I had a white cousin whos rich, he actually trained at La Chelona Rodriguez school of soccer, Rodriguez is the only Salvadoran that played for a Bundesliga. It was amazing how a Salvadoran defender was playing for one of the top teams in Europe back then. Anyways, the time I brought my cousin to play in el Barrio... he got jumped by some of crazy kids... they didnt want "white" kids on our field. I have brown skin, but bc of the fisonomia of my face, I do look more like my father, people tells me iam "white." Or like a "morenito or morenazo" which is the brown kid that look "European." Anyways we try to help my cousin out but the dudes from the gang where too big, and we where kids. But learned the lesson. You dont go to a barrio and laugh on anybody bc of their poverty or their ********ed up fields.... and you never challenge a barrio player on soccer... you just dont do that... To play pro... I just have too big of an ego, sorry but if you dont play for Madrid, Boca, or Aguila, I could care less who you are unless you're my friend. I have played againts Brazilians and Argentinians, and I got their respect, thats all I really need, and Im not talking profesionals... i am talking streetballers. Not damn Coach is going to tell me how to act or look down on my street game. I had that problem on SC with my HS Coach, he was a dumb ass that though soccer was the same as what they call football in here. I played club in the US only one year... some crap the call classic... embarrasing, we got "raped" by ODP teams and I just didnt know why that ******** I didnt know shit about ODP or crap like that, but my friend told me they pay about 2,000 $ per month to play ODP and shit... in El Salvador I would never even dream of paying to play... if you are young and good, they give you everything... if you are 18 and over, you get paid... When people on this forums, mostly white suburbans kids try to look down on me I just laugh and keep it to myself, they dont realize that I m not playing on a top college program bc of fallling sleep on math and biology class, not bc of my skill on the field. A real coach would be crazy if he ever close the door to someone like me.... Igg, my cousin needs the pc. Well keep talking later. Ill give you an update on how the semipro here in cali goes... people is already callin us the "dark horse" or " esos bichitos juegan" and yeah with a really young squad we're already beating the crap out of teams. But we still havent face the big dogs... preseason its been good, but im not 100% yet. talk to you later, and keep this thing going, and if there is any other dude that playes semi-pro anywhere, or is just proud of being an streetfutballer, you're welcome to share your game with da homies... peace
Hey I was just curious...someone blessed with so many connections (and having had so many opportunities), how come you're not playing pro yet? Sometimes all it takes is to know one or two key people and you have your chance, and it seems as though you do already know those people. Just curious. Metro
Its not as simple as that, and kids and hooligans I met on the street are hardly "connections;" if you read what I wrote, I said I don't have connections making it extremely difficult." They got me the opportunity to train with pro teams, nothing more. I explained already not many people take American-born players seriously, especially in Latin America or Europe(unless they get a European passport), unless they are mini-Ronaldos. I just ran into all of these sites(including bigsoccer) fairly recently surfing the web. I had one real opportunity already and being naive I blew it, the second one I got recently I intend to make the most of next year. Also, most of the "agents" I met were shady, and I didn't bother checking to see if they were FIFA approved, and that landed me in more porblems I don't have time to get into right now. There are a hundred thousand kids who could probably run circles around Premiership or Serie A defenses and are still playing on the streets in Brazil and Argentina. Raw skill isn't everything...
Okie dokie. I just figured that if someone had so many opportunities (not connections) eventually something would come out of them. Just a personal belief. Metro
Plenty has come out of it already. I've already played in Central America, and have photos of it and everywhere else I've been on my halfway set-up site. Its just that I work hard and set very high standards for myself, and I want something better than to just play in low-tier leagues, especially when I see terrible players all the time on TV. When I achieve my goal, I'll be more than happy to come back and post some pictures, maybe you can post the ones of whatever professional team you're on