I hate to admit it...but there are thousands of Adus playing in the US. Its just that the "proper authorities" can't find them, and if they do find them, they make them robotic through US training methods. If you go to some of the premier tourneys around the US (U12-U18), there are an awful lot of skilled young players...but...when you look at the USMNT and the Youth NT, they seemed to lose some of that flair and creativity. When people gasp at some of Adus moves, I simply chuckle, because I've seen some of those moves in HS and youth side for years.
How many players have you seen that can make a left footed cross like Adu with a first defender on him? I do agree we have many great youth players out there I would also add from the ages 9 and up. Yes, and coaching can take a players flair and creativety away. As good as he is I would use Claudio Reyna as an example of coaching killing his flair and creativety away and replaced by safe possession.
I very much agree. As a coach, I do everything possible to encourage my creative players to take risks, to be daring, to not be afraid of mistakes. That's why as frustrating as he can be, I've enjoyed watching Clint Mathis; when he's on (which admittedly is not so often these days), he has an audacity that's absolutely breathtaking.
It's not coaching. It's called STRONGER OPPOSITION. The international game, even at youth level, is a lot faster than high school and youth club soccer. Defenders close down players faster, so there's a lot less time on the ball. Matt McKeon continued to play in a fairly high level St. Louis area amateur league even when he was in MLS, and while he looked like a no-talent hack in MLS he consistently dribbled rings around everyone in St. Louis.
It is coaching. One only needs to look at the style of play of foreign players in MLS and compare it to the style of play of the Americans. The foreign players are far more likely to dribble at defenders. They're more likely to shoot from distance and at weird angles. They disproportionately try tricks and other flair moves compared to American players. There's no explanation other the way they were trained as kids. A further data point is that some of our best dribblers (Dempsey, Mapp) were developed a healthy distance removed from the US Youth Soccer maninstream. Donovan could be lethal on the dribble, but he seems very hesitant about taking players on, and as a result the less dribbling he does, the worse he gets at it. Yes it's more difficult to dribble against stronger opposition, but then its more difficult to do a lot of things against stronger opposition. The solution isn't to abandon dribbling, but to learn to be better at it. Dribbling can be very effective even at the highest levels of the game, you just have to be good at it. That said, it isn't as if the foreign players are tons better overall (on average) than the Americans. They just approach the game differently. To me the solution is to continue to try and do well the things we do well, while trying to shift the focus a little to address what appear to be institutional weaknesses, like dribbling. Screaming at players to "get rid of the ball" in youth soccer matches doesn't help very much.
i agree with u........i have watched some of the premeir tournaments around minnesota (U12-U18) i have seen alot of skillfull young talents it is just that they dont have the proper authorities as u said before.
I will agree that US coachin' does take away flair, while the parents and team mates (most of them atleast) encourage the dribblin' fancy moves and occasional crazy weird angle long shot, the coaches hate it, and will sit a kid for it. As i've always seen tho, it's not a "team effort" that jumpstarts a comeback, it's one single player being a pain in the arse to the other team, and doin' what he/she does best along with having an attitude.
Indeed there are dozen of fantastic players all around.... The sad part of the matter is that MLS expend millions of dollars scouting nursing homes in Europe looking for old faded stars while our homeboys grow root on their feed waiting for chance....
In the other side of the coin excesive dribbling and personnal play could result in a disaster; Colombia/Rumania France 98 many of the Colombians players took personal play above team play hence the defeat, it have to be a balance between personal play and team play...