Cal-South regularly dominates ODP national championship competitions, so how can you argue Cal South is not the dominant region? Obviously, ODP has it's flaws but typically, it's the state's best players in their respective age groups playing against other states. With Cal-South usually leading in national championships, it's a little hard to say that they are not the best state in the country.
I would say they are the dominant state in Region IV, not necessarily the dominant state in the country.
Agree, and I'm from CalSouth Boys team. We saw some excellent teams at Nike Friendlies last year. There are many teams in other regions of the country that are on equal par with SOME CalSouth teams. I would also state in the Hispanic issue, that at the younger ages, that "yes" they are dominant as they mature earlier, but when the teams reach 16/17/18, the teams are a more mixed ethinicity, and most boys are equal in size if not surpassed. Kids at the older age groups (and I don't care if they're purple with stripes nationalitiy), tend to drop the sport because of other interests. It's apparent when you see the number of registered teams in the league at the youngers, and then it significantly drops in the olders.
Fair enough. I am always a lot slanted toward the girls' side. I'll give in to the boys' side......don't get me started on the girls though...... However, let me point out that the following is true based upon the NationalSoccerRanking.com rankings (granted, these aren't perfect-- but what else do we have?): U-11 Boys-- 13 of top 50 are R4 U-12 Boys-- 12 of top 50 are R4 U-13 Boys-- 11 of top 50 are R4 U-14 Boys-- 11 of top 50 are R4 U-15 Boys-- 11 of top 50 are R4 U-16 Boys-- 10 of top 50 are R4 U-17 Boys-- 9 of top 50 are R4 U-18 Boys-- 8 of top 50 are R4 U-19 Boys-- 7 of top 50 are R4 Given my limited math classes, I would say that an even split among Regions within the top 50 would allow for 12.5 per Region. So, what are your thoughts on this? Granted, from the 2006 National Championships.....3 of the 6 boys Champions were from SoCal. Dang it! I am hijacking a thread again.....sorry. But I am kind of a geek when it comes to this. Can anyone give a valid reason for this (besides the rankings are skewed)?
Of course us latinos dont have the money to play kick ball with the elite(white club soccer teams such as Chicago Magic) but we continue to dominate. The problem is MLS and College and Club teams love the big white kid who can outrun the whole city so they get in and the latino...who works from 5pm to 9pm after school gets dropped. Arsenal..the best club ever is dominated by latinos!
I believe this to be the most racist post I have read in quite some time. So, you are saying that the big white kid doesn't need to work? Hmm....I can think of plenty of big white kids who have to work and earn lots of money to play on the white soccer club teams. You, my friend can't be serious. And if you are, seek sensitivity training run by the rich white doctors.
Arsenal from So Cal? Yes, they're a good club. Play them all the time. Now, let me ask you, how many Latino players from Arsenal are going to D1 Colleges with some money attached?
I'm not too sure if you are referring to the Arsenal from California or the Arsenal of the Premiership but if it's the youth side, there are many latin players who recieve scholarships to Division 1 schools. This fact is only proof that there are MAJOR clubs in the United States that offer help with club fees and have DOC's who work hard to help these kids along with others get recruited. Anthony Beltran- UCLA Andrew Villalobos- UC Riverside Danny Ortiz- San Diego State are only some of the latin players who have received D-1 scholarships. Another youth club with a very prestigious history that offers a lot of help to underprivlaged kids is Pateadores of Mission Viejo, Ca. I can honestly say Mike Gartlan, the DOC, works extraordinairily hard to make sure each one of his players gets to play at the next level, if they are good enough and work hard enough in the classroom.
Actually according to literature I'vs seen on maturation, Hispanic boys mature later (of course if you use your cousins ID which has been known to happen, then you might mature earlier). Black boys tend to mature a few months earlier (and possibly several years earlier if born out of the US). Also top U10 teams of 8 years ago were less Hispanic than they are today. As such, it would seem this would hold true for U18 teams of today. In a few years I think the top older boys teams will be more Hispanic. I'm speaking about the boys side.
Are we talking Latino Americans or illegals? If they are Americans who cares it will only make the sport better. I would guess the "Latinos" have an advantage for the same reason my kids do. I have played the game and spend a lot of time with my kids on it. I assume Latino families do the same. If they are here illegally send them home.
Exactly. It's not Latino per se ... it's immigrant, as well as the children of nonimmigrant Americans who played the sport fairly seriously themselves (say, at the college level). That's the profile of about 2/3s of the strong players whom I know, with the other 1/3rd being mostly mega athletes who were able to overcome their initial disadvantage through superior quickness, strength, balance, etc.
The good players put in the time period. The twice a weak practices is just not going to cut it you really want to improve. That is why there is a huge drop off at 13 the players in the big clubs no that they cannot compete if they do not put in the time and some choose not to. The team my girls is on is a little different the area we are in does not have a big club so although we are good the team as whole is not on the same committment level.
Right. I see that now with some of the mega athletes. They will switch to football and/or track in high school, because those sports are easier for them. With those sports, they can be like the football/track star in my high school who won a Pac Ten scholarship ... just do it on talent alone, skip practices, hang with friends. With soccer, they gotta put in the time, year around, if they are to continue to succeed.
some progress... http://www.socceramerica.com/article/57354/latino-inclusion-how-far-have-we-come-part-1.html
oh I'm not willing to go that far, things have definitely improved but there is still some discrimination which abounds.
Would like to hear your perspective. An arguement could be made that the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction with the thought that latinos are getting incremental preferential treatment due to the thought that latinos are just better than other ethnicities. Some thoughtful points were made that Javon Torre played over other better players at the U20s and should not have been close. One little anecdote but my take is that they are integrated into the system. Many players, many coaches, maybe administration could have a larger representation. How many is integration, that's the debate.
I tend to think that Latinos have a better shot in some parts of the country as compared to others. The NY Metro area and ENY in particular (where I live) is one such area that I can say is not yet fully integrated.
Not fully integrated in what sense. On a national scale it seems our teams are full of latino players and coaches well above any national averages.
Yeah there appears to be two parallel worlds here in ENY. One development that I noticed is that there is a US Club based league getting traction here & one key element of this league is that a team does not need a parent club that is a member of the league to participate. This I think will help with the integration since there is no structural barrier to entry.
Texas has a lot of Hispanic teams. If the Dallas cup was played in NY you would see a lot of immigrant teams in that as well like Russian teams, Italian teams, islander teams. Years ago it would have more Norweign, German, polish teams. It supposed to be an invitational. But local teams are accepted. They are tournament teams that are put together to play in tournaments and not always in regular travel teams. They probably getting the best Latino players from other club teams to play with them. I have coached in other Dallas cups at all age groups including the u19 super group. We always had good teams in every division in our league play. We had a name club so we got invited to the Dallas cup a lot at one time. Besides good coaching, we ad good players, we had the money to get there and we also got the best players we could find to be in it with us. So it just wasn't our own team. We did put a team in the under 19 super group one year. Our regular team won the NY state cup three years in a row we won it at under 16 and won under 19 as all 17 yr olds and won under 19 again as all 18 yr olds. We prepared for the Dallas cup three months before the start f the tourament. We had added three under 16 Olympic nigeran national team players they were big skillful and really fast. We had 3 under 19 national team players who lived on the east coast, and we had our own guys. We had 5 coaches on the practice field with us. It s very hard for an American team to win the Dallas cup under 19 super group. Your playing youth teams from other countries who are professional players. We finish the opening round with a 1-1-1 record knocked out in the opening round.Our only loss came from a team from Argentina 1-2 loss who later won the tournament. People said we were the most skilled full team in the US. We still got knocked out. But we could have won all our games, but we didn't. Their s a lot involved in winning the under 19 super group in Dallas
I agree with you 1000%, while it's definitely much better than it used to be there is still a ways to go here in ENY before you can start talking about being fully integrated.
Latino soccer is pretty well integrated in the Chicago area, for the best plaeyrs. The big suburban clubs find the top Latino players by the teen years and vice versa. But then it segregates at age 18, as many of the Latino kids don't go onto college soccer and essentially all the white/black kids do.