TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £100m
Our* lol
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USMNT
- Thread starter RAFUH
- Start date
We had so many professional teams in the early 1900s based, obviously, on a huge influx of footie-enthused immigrants. It's a shame the US soccer federation didn't capitalize more on this, given that the Lamar Hunt Open cup is one of the oldest tournaments in the world, and there were several professional teams, some of which played exhibition games abroad in the 1920s. Seems like an opportunity missed. Collegiate soccer has been around since the 40s but youth soccer only since like the 70s or so...I suspect the latter is what makes us lag as the game was largely viewed as "niche" or a game for "foreigners" prior to this, and only since like the 70s did the game open up to a broader population due to youth leagues (which started to pay off some 20yrs later). It also didn't help that there was only one CONCACAF spot for the WC from 1954 up until 1982, and that spot invariable went to Mexico. This tended to likely kill any development at the National team level for a good while.
I think Wynalda is correct about the coaching development: the US doesn't do enough to develop good coaches...just look at what Iceland did in the early 2000s; they dumped tons of money into new fields and especially into coaching development. And they now punch way above their weight on a per capita basis.
I know what you meant!
Interested to hear what people think about Wynalda's Op-Ed:
From coaches to pushy parents, US men’s soccer is married to mediocrity
A recent debacle at the top of the game in America caused uproar. But the same patterns are repeated through the sport in the USwww.theguardian.com
Generally I agree, although he rambles a bit. The development system is broken, but I'm not sure I prefer the old broken system over the new broken system. But the #1 problem is there isn't player development, which is closely tied to the #2 problem that there aren't coaches. But instead of fewer players (and I like the training cone criticism) we need more players. Get more coaches, get more teams, pump money into underfunded areas and double the number of programs competing at "club" level. Sure you can have your fancy tournaments, but spend time closer to home against other developing teams. Most of those players won't pan out, but maybe a few will. I always point to Dempsey as the future of American soccer unless kids like him can find a love for the game, it's entirely lost. A rigid formulaic system will produce a few great players (it helps that Pulisic's dad is a coach), but there is no coincidence that the top two players at my oldest's school are brother and sister and their dad is one of the better coaches in the area (both play ODP... so do with that what you will).
Yada, yada, ... train a generation of kids who love the game who will themselves become a generation of coaches who love to teach, then you might see some fruit.
All of my kids play soccer and play music; there is a good classical music program (violin, etc) in the area that is *relatively* cheap, but I always joke with my wife (who played violin herself) that our kids play "travel music" because we recognize this is not feasible for so many. I've never counted it up but I suspect we pay in excess of $10k a year on music (all 4 kids lessons, instrument rental, etc) and the kids have formal lessons 3-4x weekly beginning around age 5. As musicians, they are incomparably good compared to the kids who pick up an instrument randomly at age 10, but it's difficult to tell if any of them are actually good (there is one local kid who is excellent on violin, but will he ever be an accomplished professional musician... ?).
I say all of that to compare with the local "travel soccer" programs that are available. The local club is good, and there are a few other programs like FCD that reach into the area. Then I have friends whose kids play on club teams based in Dallas and Baton Rouge... they don't travel to practice but they are traveling 12-18 weekends a year just for competition and this is wildly stupid. I can only guess they pay about $10k or more annually for each child to play soccer, once you add up all of the travel costs. This is what's broken about the pay to play system and until this is fixed there will be nothing good that comes out of it.
Maybe we've discussed this before, but year round competition actually helps maximize mediocrity, and professional athletes are more likely to have played more sports at higher ages. There is some confirmation bias in the results, but generally the points are true.
Title IX/college football doesn't help either, if there were 4x as many college programs then this would encourage development of male players. The number of good women's college programs (as well as the lack of women's soccer emphasis in so much of the world) is part of the reason why the USWNT is so dominant
TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £100m
I think this is true of US sports more than international football
While I think you are probably correct about that, this is another selection bias; unless you believe that the skill required to play professional soccer > the skill required to play other professional sports.
TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £100m
I think that making it at the top level in soccer is harder than any other sport because the selection pool is vastly larger.
Billy Dean
Player Valuation: £70m
What do you think of the Balogun situation? I have a feeling he's more likely to choose USMNT now.
Agree about top level. However there are many more options for a pro career even if u aren't top level, so that balances things.
US Soccer have definitely been working to recruit him
Billy Dean
Player Valuation: £70m
Got quite a good reputation I think
If you boil down the elements of success, in the end most of them are luck or have the same phenotype. What do you need to be great at soccer? Skill (technique), physical talent, desire/drive, understanding the game? Anything else? Only 2 things on that list can be taught and even then the great athletes still seem to develop skill and understanding in a different way than the rest of us.