AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH that is arguably the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard in my life. first you talk about "gansta futbol" then you're grateful that Beckham showed up. "oh my gowsh"
Hey Feno I got a friend from Panama who I know from Esteli in Nicaragua, he played for them, Panama's U-17, Colonia(Uruguay), and two of Panamas top teams. He's tearing up Nicaraguas league right now(big deal) but is having some of the same problems I had when I was there, and not many scouts go there to look for people. I know Salvador's level of play is better and you have some connections there, let me know if you could hook him up and I'll send you all of his info. http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2006/09/15/deportes/29001 Te puedo dar una mensaje privito o email despues, es Raul Leguias...
Send me the info of the dude. Right now I am helping another dude that is going to try out for Aguila, idk though bc to make it to Aguila as a foreigner is tough. In El Salvador there is a rule of only 4 foreigners for team, and most of the them are usually from South America, if a dude from Honduras or Guatemala can step up, we usually bring him in just like Maradiaga did but is still tough. About the beck, i think this dude didnt realize that i was actually making fun of barbie beckam. Interesting you know that after Aguilas coach Vladan Vicevic whos from Yugoslavia left Aguila, he said that no many Salvadorans are interested in going abroad. He "pointed" Salvadoran players as "mediocres" for not wanting to "go to europe and "better" themselves, while the salvadoran newspaper came out with the argument that maybe "Salvadorans are not really that interested in going abroad" As far as I know, the standars of living in ES isnt that bad compared to other latin countries. A Salvadoran player usually dream of playing in Argentina or Spain... maybe Brazil bc of the level of competition, but no other country. I am sure Salvadoran would pick MLS over any other average League in Europe bc of the standard of living in the US and the big Salvadoran community in here. I just though I'll share that with you. In CA futbol the biggest rivalry was always ES vrs Honduras (I guess we used to be the best) but in culture and society was and will be ES vrs CR. You know how you Ticos call yourlselves "La Zuiza de America" and we always critize that... interesting huh? I do know that Salvadorans soccer players do have a very good social life sp does that play for Aguila, Firpo, FAS or Alianza... fairly good life for a Latino Society. Send me the info of your boy and i'll see what I can do. Beckam... what a joke.
Alright, in a short amount of time, I'll be illustrating the thread with photos, starting from the ghetto semi-pro teams in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, gang-infested teams in Central America, through Mar Del Plata and Montevideo, with a happy ending(kinda) in Madrid, just like I promised. Be warned, some of the images(particularly in Ft. Lauderdale and Esteli) might be a bit harsh, keep the kiddies away from the thread . In the meantime, anyone else is welcome to start(if you're not afraid of letting people see who you are), we'll compare 'em.
You realize this is exactly why you haven't gotten your "big break" right? Being a professional is about discipline, in everything. Why would a team want to pick up a player, regardless of how good he may be if he's just going to be a headache for the entire duration of his stay. You can pass high school with a C average just by showing up every day, is it really that hard? Don't get me wrong, I wish you the best of luck and hope you do make it somewhere but I just can't see that happening with an attitude like that. If you weren't disciplined enough to stay out of trouble in high school what makes you think you can handle the stress and rigors of being a professional athlete?
Read what I wrote, I'll soon be comming back with photos. If you've already gotten that big break I give you props, and I'll be dying to see your photo album. I know that, and I'll bet money I'm far more disciplined than any suburban player you can name. It takes loads of discipline to graduate from a school with more than a 50% dropout rate, very little learning taking place, and infested with punks and gangs threatening you daily. It takes even more discipline than that to go to third-world countries with crime rates triple that of Los Angeles and NYC with no police anywhere in sight, and stay there training, despite seeing and experiencing things that would make most people not trained to tough it out(*hint* Donovan) run for their lives(or back to safety in the US). Well for me, not really. For someone like you...I dunno. Did you have riots at your high school? Were girls raped in the bathroom? Did anyone try to hold you up? Did you have to carry weapons to protect yourself? Were there ever any shooting incidents?(I already know the answer to that because everytime those things happen in suburban or rural schools they're blasted all over the 6 o'clock news). The "rigors" you describe(presumably in the MLS) is a joke compared to somewhere like Uruguay or Argentina, or even here in Europe. In most of South America players are payed very little, play on rock-hard fields, fouls are rarely called unless someone is flattened(once in practice in Montevideo a player was knocked unconcious and the game resumed like normal until it was clear he wasn't getting up, so they just dragged him off the field and kept playing), and if a team plays bad, especially because some premadonna star was out shaking his ass in a club the night before, he not only has to see his face splashed on TV on every channel and his name dragged through the dirt, he might get attacked by the barras bravas(hooligans) waiting for him outside the stadium after the game. Most of the players know some boxing as they don't have personal bodygards like NBA and NFL stars. Oh, and both Maradona and Pele were middle-school dropouts. Maradona can barely read. I'm not trying to insult you, but this argument that if you can't handle being a nerd in the classroom then how can you handle the street(and by extention,street sports) is so far off base its laughable. In America, "sportsmanship" is valued; everywhere else in the world, its not even considered. In a practice game here recently against a team from South Madrid while I was on the bench the ball came out of bounds to my feet for a throw-in for the other team, and I handed it to the opposing player. Both the coaches and my entire team shouted at me, asking me why I didn't throw it in the opposite direction, and told me to never do anything like that again. These are not dirt-poor people like in South America, but they are working-class from tough backrounds and are trained to win at any cost. If that attitude keeps you from playing in America, well, you look for greener pastures elsewhere...
Wow, you must have lived in a different south america than me cause most of those things (expect the part were fouls are rarely called upon) dont happen, at least here in Chile, wether its professional futbol or amateur leagues.
Chile es tranquilo(at least what I've heard about it) and only Colo Colo has a serious barra brava. Uruguay and Argentina are the roughest parts of South America, starting from youth and amateur going all the way to the primera division. Ask any Uruguayan about La Teja or Cerro in Montevideo(where I started out playing) those are the worst areas in the entire country, I got my jersey I had just bought stolen the first time I went to practice. The gang problem was mainly in Nicaragua though. Anyway those types of disorganized teams are the only ones that will give someone without a name a shot.
For a beginner I would say play as much as often, there is no way to deal with the starting nervousness that everyone gets in the beginning, after a while It will go away once you KNOW that YOU can CONTROL the BALL. I like to play bonito futbol, if its not that then I dont really feel like playing. I hate when people push me or use there BODY to ********ing get the ball.