Just wondering why with all the boards and forums for america....womens soccer is the most popular yet the most underpopulated on big soccer. why is that?
Good Question, a few of us requested to have for girls only forum, and BS gave into it, but now all the girls side have all disappeared. We need new blood in the forum. Nice to have a SoCal view on things. Not many Left Coast folks on here.
Honestly, for me, I have stopped posting because all the talk eventually pretty much the same -- and after posting for a while, I started to find that there are only a handful of people posting...and not just on the Girls side -- read some of the other forums and they have their own possibly unique group posting -- but it is almost always a small group posting. I WISH the girls/women would get more discussion....I know a TON of girls are playing soccer -- surely those parents have some opinions on what is going on with the sport...whether it be player development, coaching moves, club affilations, tournament or league play -- I hope in 2007 we get the boards moving again!
It's pretty much already been said above, but you'll notice that youth soccer PERIOD just doesn't get much traffic on BigSoccer girls or boys. It's all pretty much the pro game and the international game that gets people talking. Even the college game gets very little traffic in its forum. And youth and amateur is pretty much where girls/women's soccer is gonna get covered. Well, there's the W-League, but you'll notice that the mens PDL threads aren't exactly hopping, either.
Most youth soccer discussions end up being about this team vs. that team, because that's what the writers care about. Relatively few care about more general issues of youth soccer, such as development topics or the psychology of dealing with young athletes. This being a national board rather than a regional or state board, it is not well suited for team vs. team talks. In addition, it strikes me that parents of youth female soccer players are even more likely to be interested in team vs. team discussions than parents of youth male soccer players, because they are less likely to be fans of the professional game. Thus, this particular girls' board gets less action than this site's boys' board -- although very often on state boards (i.e., SoCal), the team vs. team discussions (and the endless arguments about which kids belong on the State ODP squad!) are dominated by the girls' parents.
Your right and ive noticed that..part of the reason for parents being so "shy" in posting is....."you get sht for it" "why are you talking about your kids?" "thanks idiot for the personal insight on your parenting" Its hard to get off what you say on these boards without recieving sht for it. Im new to big soccer..and "frankly" dont give a fuc what they think about me..if you dont believe me look at my previous post. I think its such a high commodity ...because my kids are and i will push,help,and encourage my daughter to go the extra mile.."regardless" of the soccer intellects, or the criticism that im a "overzealous" parent. I know what my goal is for my daughter...and thats to get her to the next level and put her in the position to do it.... "fuc the haters!"...lol
Thats sort of confusing to me...cause i keep hearing how popular womens and youth soccer is in this country. But your right it doesnt reflect it on the board. I think alot of it is the "soccer mom" thing..they like the stickers but dont care bout the "real development" with the girls. sht.."they are women"...their is a new era coming i think with more outgoing parents willing to be pointed at for going crazy during games(positive words only) but going off. I dont care..maybe its cause im "ghetto" or maybe its just because i wish someone was in the stands like that for me when i was young.. ps...have you guys herd of the w-league? its a professional league for women...its cool in giving the girls something to "aspire" to be We are going to go see the san diego shockwave next yr when they play "support support.....support"
Hey SoCal Charlie, W-League, there is a thread for it in Womens Soccer Forum. More and More Elite HS players are starting to play in the League. There are alot of College players playing in it during summer break. Also, ref our PM, LBS coach didnt get the USC job. I guess Cal State Fullerton got it. Not really a big name for USC standards?? So UCLA still will rule the roost in SoCal. Nice to see Toxo in the boards again, Sent you a email to your work last nite. JR, Even thou I have a daughter that plays Socr, Im a huge MLS fan and I would love nothin more to see the new MLS Youth league take off. As all the post on your Magic/Sockers site, CTown wont see a difference in it for a few yrs cuz its still set in its ways with the 2 almighties. Charlie, why dont you get some of your die-hard socr friends on this board. I would like to hear about Girl Socal soccer. I think the tide of talent has shown that the power is in the Midwest rite now.
Wouldn't we all! And yes, I know you're a general soccer fan. Which is one of the reasons why you are posting on these boards, no? Your interest goes well beyond Eclipse vs. Team Chicago vs. Michigan Hawks.
Hi -- yeah, I had to come out of hibernation R2 (and get posting again)... Funny, I was at a Christmas party last night (ok -- that is not funny in and of itself) -- but the topic turned to travel vs. rec -- and how the parents ruin the game for the kids, the coaches are parents that demand that little Johnny get the most field time, people are spending huge $ for training on the side, when do you make the switch to travel, how far is too far for travel....etc etc etc. They were talking about youth baseball..... Every topic they talked about was the same as the soccer boards -- and I have had these talks with parents of basketball and volleyball players as well... OK -- I have gone WAY off topic for this thread -- just had to mention that discussion. I have said it before on these boards -- like it or not, soccer gets little respect in the US, save the die-hards -- and women's athletics is just as bad -- so it is a double whammy of no respect from the general population -- that is why there is no real talk on the boards...It is similar to hockey in that way -- the die hards who love the game are super passionate -- everyone outside of the sport is kind of like "so what, hockey...."
You know, I mentioned this in a past post, but Im at the point now that I really do not follow the NFL like I did yrs ago. I follow the rankings of the D1 Womens College like a hawk. Tox, I bet you will be there soon as well. Its now in my blood that I just cant shake. After watching live the NCAA Final 4 in Raleigh and being part of the sold out crowd at the outstanding stadium (Soccer Only), its hard to explain. It wont be long and I will start to know players playing at these D1 schools. Players that my daughter has either played with or against. I will be able to follow these girls college careers. So, am I crazy or what?? Its been fun just watching the Class of 08 committ to what schools. Oh the fun.
I am starting to follow the College rosters/polls as well R2. But, I have considerably more time to digest the trends than now.
Sorry, to also take this off topic, but one of the things that has really struck me about watching NFL after watching EPL or MLS is all the stoppages for commercials. I am finding it harder and harder to follow our local favorites, the NE Patriots, despite their usual success on the gridiron.
I am also starting to pay attention to college soccer, on the boys side, for the same reasons -- the age group is starting to get within my radar. Bird, TIVO is your friend. I *never* watch the Bears live. Ever. My New Year's resolution for '07 is to watch a bit more girls/womens soccer.
Now back to the topic. My oldest graduated from college last spring, but as she was a grade ahead of her soccer class, many of the kids she played with and against over the years were college seniors this past fall. With more college games now being shown on TV, we got to watch several of them on FSC or ESPN. One particular surprise was a former teammate whose family had moved to the Midwest and whom we had lost track. While watching a game between Marquette and St Louis I heard mention a familiar name and checked the roster on the college web site to see if it could be the player from my daughter's U14 team. It was and I also learned that she had grown considerably since we knew her and had been named a high school All American. It was great to see she had done so well over the years.
The boys High School Player of the Year in Illinois (Chicago Sun-Times), who scored 24 goals and assisted on 20+ goals as well, is a kid whom I have seen on occasion at club ball over the past few years. Several of his club teammates were always more highly touted, and this boy never even made his State ODP squad. I never noticed him on the field. But then he developed physically, and is now described as possessing "tremendous quickness and speed." So much of what we call "soccer ability" is really athleticism -- a statement that is demonstrated by your story and mine. For both genders.
Actually, she had what I would consider soccer ability, as least as it might translate to a U14 girls team, one that was better than average in terms of playing a possessive game of soccer. But she was very small, in fact her nickname was Tiny. I don't think she was even 5 feet tall as a U14. She was listed as 5'5" on the college team roster. I find it hard to believe that she grew that much, but neiither parent was short, so it is possible she had a late growth spirt. I don't have a hard time believing she was an All American though, because she was a skillful player whose only problems at U14 was related to her size. She played striker and I remember the coach telling the midfielders they couldn't expect her to physically win balls, so play the ball to her feet where she could use her skills.
lol..nice..im new to the fanatical side of representing for youth soccer....i dont know if that "tide" thing is true..most of the top youth clubs for girls are based in the west, according to nationalsoccerrankings.com.....i know "so cal blues" are a top name and so is isc...dont forget about my daughters club..."crsc"...in reference..let me check the rankings now..lol
Huh? Womens soccer in the Unite States is the most popular? Where on earth did you get that idea? Let me help you. The popularity of Women's soccer in the United States pales in comparison to the popularity of the Men's game. Women's soccer is way, way, way less popular then the Men's game. Period.
Well, let's see -- before saying something "pales in comparrison" -- you should probably support that with some sort of statistic...since there is no equal to the MLS for the women (and we are talking youth here) -- let us compare the attendance figures of the top NCAA colleges, male and female... Top 5 for Men in 2005: New Mexico 3629 Indiana 3112 Maryland 2547 UConn 2274 Creighton 2014 Source: http://www.ncaa.org/stats/m_soccer/1/attendance/2005_d1_m_soccer_attendance.pdf Top 5 Women for 2005: Portland 3403 Texas A&M 3363 North Carolina 2561 BYU 2257 ND 1570 Source: http://www.ncaa.org/stats/w_soccer/1/2005/2005_d1_w_soccer_attendance.pdf Granted, that is college attendance, but I think that the pale comment is not supported from your end either....
Actually, looking at the numbers I just posted, it is painfully clear to me that soccer is still not very popular as a whole in this country (as much as I wish it were)...
I am kind of a stats "geek", so let me help you with your "fact finding" from NSR.com. I'll give it to you in three different slices...make your own determinations. TOP 30 GIRLS CLUBS BY REGION (# of clubs in rankings by region)--- R1= 3 R2= 14 R3= 6 R4= 7 TOP 50 GIRLS CLUBS BY REGION (same as above)--- R1= 8 R2= 16 R3= 14 R4= 12 TOP 300 GIRLS CLUBS BY REGION (ditto)--- R1= 94 R2= 74 R3= 71 R4= 71 Recent census data shows the following for population by Region--- R1= 68,490,000 R2= 68,290,000 R3= 80,700,000 R4= 63,320,000 What does this show (besides that I am an insomniac with loads of time on my hands right now)? Here are my conclusions: 1) The highest number of top 50 girls' clubs are indeed in Region 2 2) As the number of clubs increase, so does the parity among regions 3) The further down the rankings you get, the stronger Region 1 appears 4) Lookin at census data begs to ask....what the heck is wrong in Region 3?! So, in short-- I am tired of hearing how strong and dominant Region 4 is compared to the rest of the US. Stats don't prove this until you get well beyond the Top 100 clubs in the US. Also, if you want to use the recent Nationals results to try and prove anything....here is that breakdown: Champions- R1= 1 R2= 2 R3= 0 R4= 3 2nd- R1= 3 R2= 1 R3= 2 R4= 0 3rd- R1= 2 R2= 2 R3= 1 R4= 1 4th- R1= 0 R2= 1 R3= 3 R4= 2 If we use a points system (1st =4, 2nd = 3, 3rd = 2, 4th = 1) then it shakes out like this: R1= 14pts R2= 16 pts R3= 11 pts R4= 16 pts HEY! A TIE? NOT DOMINATION? POINT PROVEN.
Interesting statistics and I am certainly not trying to make a case for Region 4, but how much of your statistically analysis of Region 4 is actually southern California? I'm thinking that disportionatelly the top female players are coming out of So Cal and I expect the same would be the case on the men's side.