US Technically Deficient

Not enough investment to fund good enough coaching during the critical early years of development.

 

Beacuse in Brazil and other places kids grow up playing soccer everyday..at home..at school...on the street....with paper balls, real balls, sock balls....they eat sleep and breath soccer.

In the US some of the players didnt even watch soccer until 16...most played soccer when mom took them to play on weekends and then later spent time playing Baseball or basketball..thats why.

 

Its not about coaching. Its about kids playing soccer on dirt or grass fields for fun...on their own...without coaches.

 

Frankly I think it's both.

 

It has to be both.

 

We are not a soccer super power. MLS is 15 yrs old.

 

That's one way, but not the only way. For example, the Dutch system, particularly the Ajax youth system, turn out some of the best, most technically proficient players on the planet, and they take pretty much the opposite approach.

Having youth players learning through organized practice does work...if you have good enough coaches taking the correct approach. (Neither of which we really have, particularly on the second one.)

 

Actually, the Ajax system does stress the importance of playing on your own outside of the academy. It's where you become "street-smart." But no system is perfect. Even in that highly-developed system the Dutch could not win major tournaments consistently. For years it wasn't talent that kept the Dutch from winning major tournaments, it was infighting in the dressing room. Because academies don't teach "How not to be an arrogant douchebag to your fellow Dutch teammate."

 

True. And being the smallest of the perennial powerhouse soccer nations doesn't exactly help, either.

 

Its largely cultural, if majority of the country grew up with soccer as important as in other countries or the way basketball is in the black communities in the US, then we'd have more players.

Kids in this country have traditionally wanted to grow up to be the next Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning or Derek Jeter more than next Landon Donovan, and spent more time trying to emulate the stars of other sports. Over time this is changing, 20 years ago basically no one in the US wanted to be the next Baggio or Maradona or Tab Ramos or even knew who they were. Soccer is gaining some traction now and more kids are wanting to emulate Donovan or Messi, but they've got a long way too go.

 

Movement off the ball and the not too complex thinking of the balls played.

 

Your on to something here.

I've been coaching soccer at various levels for the last twenty years and I was so amazed to hear kids tell me that they hardly saw any games.

It's getting better but we have a long way to go.

 

what does 'world class athletes' mean in the context of football?

the us is technically deficient compared to the top teams because it recruits from a much smaller talent base in terms of gifted and serious athletes.

secondarily is the coaching if eddie johnson's growth overseas is anything to go by.

imo the gap in technique between the top american ballers and the top teams isn't so big. holden, edu, adu, altidore. dempsey, donovon, torres, bedoya, cherundolo, gooch, feilhaber, etc are not far off.

 

Technically good enough to last longer than France and Italy.

 

Thank you. I was hoping for a good ol' fashion flame fest, instead I get reason and articulate discussion. Pffft.

 

People have hit on some good points, but I think the bigger picture is being lost.

We have kids at the U-9 level playing 20-30 games a season and practicing once or twice a week. The parents of these kids are paying a bunch of money, and to justify that, coaches are expected to win at all costs. By winning, more parents want their kids to play for that club and on and on and on.

What happens is, coaches look for the biggest, strongest, fastest players they can find to get immediate results, because it just doesn't pay to actually teach kids a first touch, ect.

There is also another problem.

I never played organized football (American Football) but I can break down the differences between a 4-3 defense and a 3-4 defense. I can tell you how to defend a spread offense, what plays work best against a blitz happy defense. Why? Because we have hours upon hours of sports television shows breaking down video, using telestrators, ect. Same can be said for basketball.

We don't have that for soccer in this country. Believe me, it makes a difference. It's tactics 101 in Prime Time. There is nothing like that. Imagine if there was a generation of kids growing up with guys like Klinsmann and Ray Hudson and Tab Ramos going over weekly MLS highlights and La Liga and EPL highlights. But not just showing highlights, actually breaking down the passing sequences, runs off the ball, defensive positioning, ect. If a show like that existed and I was a youth coach, it would be required viewing for my players. I'd quiz them on the shit. But we don't have that.

 

A: Frank Yallop was yelling at his team to play more longballs in transition.

 

I've seen this repeated 100x on BigSoccer. It's unfortunate that we have at least 100 guys on here smarter than Sunil Gulati.

 

It doesn't take a genius to figure out the obvious. It does take a genius to figure out the solution to the problem.

It's not like those 100 guys on BigSoccer also know how to cultivate money trees and are just hoarding all that cash for themselves.

"We need better funding for coaching"

That so damn profound. Amazing really.

If I find myself at the bottom of the lake I'm going to realize that I need oxygen to breath and survive. It doesn't magically put oxygen in my lungs.

Any monkey can figure out what's wrong. Come up with an actual solution and I'll be the first to shake your hand. Otherwise you have no place questioning the intelligence of anyone. And I'm not a Sunil apologist by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Youth coaches and soccer parents care too much about their kids playing games and winning them.

Kids should mostly play 5- or 7-a side on appropriately sized fields and not have winning as the end determination of success or useful development.

 

Are you actually dumb enough to think that Sunil doesn't believe it would be better to have more money to throw into youth development?

If you aren't that dumb, you are trolling.


I'm sure the mods won't do anything about it. Cause you've been saying this crap for a very long time and are still posting.

 

I wasn't trying to sound smart. The guy asked a question, and I answered. I didn't say anything about implementation feasibility.

 

88 has a history of trolling

 

doubt the kids in ghana have any more access to soccer shows on tv than us kids. is coaching over there that much better?