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Post by Soccerhouse on Mar 31, 2016 8:10:22 GMT -5
What’s Wrong With American Youth Soccer Development by Will Parchman HINT: IT’S NOT ALL JURGEN’S FAULT BY WILL PARCHMAN | ILLUSTRATION BY BRATISLAV MILENKOVIC Editor’s note: This story appears in the Spring 2016 issue of Howler. You can support the magazine by subscribing here. IMAGINE FOR A MOMENT that you are an octopus. Your sinewy tentacles are extended before you into the jet-black deep, your movement clearly directed in a general heading, but there is something awkward about your progress. Each tentacle operates entirely on its own, dragging you in directions sometimes congruent with the goal you’ve set and sometimes on an errant course. Now imagine the holistic apparatus of soccer in the United States. There is a head—that is, the United States Soccer Federation—and there are tentacles branching off from the nerve center, each carrying the ganglion to vaguely defined destinations that may or may not be what the brain had in mind. This is the organism responsible for youth soccer development in America today, and it is every bit as slippery, complicated, and prone to working at cross-purposes as that octopus groping its way through the darkness. www.howlermagazine.com/whats-wrong-america-spring-2016/
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Post by alacrity174 on Apr 1, 2016 9:31:01 GMT -5
Good piece, I wish more people would come to this realization.
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Post by zizou on Apr 4, 2016 13:07:34 GMT -5
Whatever is wrong, it is deep, it is systemic, and USSF does not seem to be providing a reasonable solution. Although the writer tries to be circumspect, this is just another indication that the boys DA system has not resulted in an obviously enhanced ability for US Elite players to improve their performance on an International stage. This is what USSF calls a "proven" system for player development. Makes one wonder exactly what they are trying to prove. Also note that our Soccerhouse added a comment at the end of the article! MLS academy teams struggle against International competition
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