Of course not. What is applicable to most is that they are not good enough. I went to school with eight kids in my year alone who were in either the LFC, EFC or Tranmere youth teams. Not one of them "fell in with the wrong crowd", they just got released at 16 because their coaches didn't think they would make the grade. Naturally, some proportion of promising teenagers lack the will or discipline to make what talent they do have stick when it comes to choosing between another training session or going out and enjoying teenage life with their mates. But to extrapolate that into some form of flytrap existence where "the wrong crowd" is the thing that stands between "most" potential footballers and the promised land of professionalism is nonsense. Like I said - 99.9% of people are not good enough. Of the remaining 0.1%, a mere fraction fail because they can't be arsed to pursue their dreams whilst their mates are finding out what a ************** is, or what beer tastes like.
i hear all of these excuses that there coach didnt like, didnt traing hard enough, blah blah blah the reason that they didnt make it or other equally as pothetic remarks...i dont mean to be rude but it all comes down to dedication... if you are dedicated, really dedicated you can do anything, there is always a way. ill give you my little story because as of right now my future is looking bright. I started playing in tiffin ohio, i fell in love with the game because of one match. my grandefather made me watch the final between france and brazil in 98..from that game on i decided i wanted to be like zidane. from the moment on i learned everything i could. i played raelly hard in the rec teams. and was recruited to a tryout in toldeo, the closet good club team is an hour away in toledo. i tried out for the toledo pacesetters 3 years straight and didnt make it.. every year i failed i just wanted it more. and i worked harder.. i worked alone because there is no one here in my hick town that plays soccer. because of this my individual skills exceted everyone i played with. I made the team. a season later i was one of hte best players on the team. my parents didnt give me ******** either.. i had to take out a loan this year to pay for soccer. for gas money to get to toledo. highschool was terrible for me also.. my team blows and i tried to do to much. my coach hated me because i had better skills then everyone and i was little to creative. actualy way to much, i played wtih flair. he wanted me to play like a german lol jk i got benched alot.. that didnt stop me i kept playing i figured if brazilans played like this then there had to be something. the year before my coach came i made all districts and was nominated for all ohio in 2003.. the following year i did get nominated for anything what so ever what does that tell you? lol.. alot of the d-1 colleges i tried to get into my coach told them i was ********. He said i was the biggest disapointment he has ever had. i said ******** him.. and went to rio grande universities tryouts and made it without my coach knowing ( i actualy gave him a fake number of my highschool coaches). I played the best soccer i ever had because i knew this was my last chance. something snapped inside. the coach saw something in me and wanted me. rio won nationals last year and are a solid team. right now im training with a pdl team (toledo slayers) and sitting the bench on home games. im 18 and things are finaly starting to fall in place for me. my whole point is this i wasnt gifted... i worked very very very very very hard. no one gave me ******** i just kept trying and i woiuldnt take ******** from anyone.. i train 4-5 hours a day i want it more then anyone..my life literaly revolves around soccer. dedication will get you where you want to being gifted is only so much. real dedication is a gift oyu can take if you want it enough. something kinda sad though is that no matter how good i become i will never be satisfied. its kinda like going down a a dead end road as fast as you can in the dark.
So far we hear, not "good enough" others believe "not worked hard enough" , or "health" or, "desire, just not my thing" or "running around for 90' does not appeal to me", "smarted up at older age" etc.. However, some of us are extremely sure our reason is applicable to almost all others.
In your last statement:- if you feel that way then I believe you are not enjoying it. Got to take a break bro. When I have a good game, it's a blast all week cause of the memories. This move and that, the shot. It's a cool feeling. You got to enjoy it.
i was alittle to dark in that statement.. what i was trying to get acrossed was that if you want to be a good you have to have an unquenchable thirst for being the best. I always have a blast.. there isnt anything i love more then just going out and playing well. but i tend to beat myself up when i play bad.. ive become better at it. i just cant stand excuses and i just tend to be to hard on myself. LOL.. i wish i was near as talented as landon donvan. but i do have alot more hair. he can never take that away from me. lol. thank you though i really appreciate it.
It really depends...in countries like mine and Brazil, Argentina and uruguay It's because of competition. If you start at age 18 you're too old.
i have a a kid from italy that lives with me.. and he said the same thing about italy. I hope your wrong at least for my sake. but to tell you the truth i still have college coming up, and a pdl team in the summer ( thats kinda like a recruiting leauge for the college kids) i still have a few chance left and im going to try my best.
I probably wouldn't have made it to pro soccer anyway, but we'll never know... I had almost constant injuries from ages 14-16 and again from 18-20. I was definitely a far better player when I was 14 than I am now, even in just about every aspect of the game other than tactical.
Hi my name is HJ I'm 14 and been playing soccer for 8 years,starting 2 years ago i practiced everyday, fitness or speed training in the morning, after lunch I just juggle and practice tricks or play with friends, then in the evening I work on ball skills, ( heading, trapping, dribbling etc.) one specific skill daily for about 1 hour half, but this is only in the summer i play for memphis FC , ODP , sometimes it's hard to get up early to train but I love soccer it's almost always on my mind, trainig for me is fun , i dont mind fitness or team practices, so i was wondering if I could "make it" MLS i hope , but at least college , and of course there are many things i could do to improve like making my sessions more intense etc.
This could be a B.S. advise, but worked for me. Try to move like the Brazillian Pros. Copy their rythm. Finess/flair is a good thing. specially in soccer.
Always measure yourself with people 3-4 years older than you, and strive to be as competitive as they are, if you measure yourself with people your age you wont have any competition, try to play for teams that are older than you and fight for a starting position and keep that up until you made it
I guess thats good advice , i watch Kaka alot and I try to emulate how he plays, he doesnt wait time doing tricks and has great vision
Yeah but everything starts with the rhythm, the beat, with which he moves. It's like a graceful dance following some rhythm in the mind. For me that's all it starts. Once you get it then you can build on that. You can build the vision, the strength, the stamina, the speed. Rhythm, brings finess, flair, joy and creativity.
Re: Why you’ve never been a 1st division type of player Because of my town/environment I guess. I started playing when I was young and felt I was pretty good, but then in middle school I was too old for the rec teams and our school didn't have a team so I had to play football for 3 years (6th-8th grade) otherwise there was nothing else to do in the fall. Then, the year before I got into high school, the high school created a soccer team. It was JV the first year, and then when I got there we moved up to varsity, so it was the first varisty soccer team in the history of our school. Only 16 kids in the entire school "switched" back to soccer from football (because EVERYONE in my town plays football in middle school and the majority continue in high school). I think losing those 3 years really hurt development. Plus, our coach never taught us the tactics or anything about the game, he just worked on our skills and whatnot, so I never really got the "big picture" of what was going on out on the field until I started actually going out of my way to follow the game on the international level (which was after I graduated high school). Because, unlike other sports, it's not like I could pick it up by watching on TV... it was NEVER on TV when I was growing up. Prior to 2004, the only soccer games I'd ever watched were a handful of World Cup Finals games ('94, '98, and '02). I had never seen a club game or any other type of match before '04 despite playing since '91 or '92. So when I finally started to really follow soccer myself (downloading games from bittorrent, since they STILL aren't easily avaliable to watch on TV) and whatnot, I finally did learn the tactics, and now I dominate in the intramural leagues at Michigan State (our outdoor team won the championship and our indoor team reached the semifinals last year)... but if only I knew what I know now about 6 years ago, and if there had been a team to play on when I was in middle school, I could have been so much better. Heck, I might even be playing for Michigan State's varsity team right now, instead of in the IM leagues.
Interesting. Soccer, unlike someothers sports is not something you can learn after you get older and be the best you could have been had you started as a youngster. You can change your style but you can't learn it all new. One has to begin as a kid. Period. No way around it. Missing development years at young age is big.
HJ stay in US...don't get ideas or dreams that you'll go to brazil and play..it won't happen i recommend you try out for american teams.