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Post by Soccerhouse on Oct 14, 2015 18:58:30 GMT -5
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Post by soccerdadinga on Oct 15, 2015 21:37:34 GMT -5
This article is spot on in addressing the problem. Right now, even this late at night, there are basketball courts filled with kids and adults playing. During the summer, in suburbs, country towns and inner cities, there are kids bouncing basketballs in their back yards or in courts, acting out moves they've seen pros do on television, playing with their family members, playing in schools or just shooting hoops. Give the average American, male or female, a basketball and chances are they will know how to shoot it. And not for nothin', we have so many great basketball players that we can export them to leagues throughout the World and an American accent is to basketball what a Brazilian (or British) one is to soccer in the States: Proof of Genius.
However, in the US, you do not see kids in every group kicking a soccer ball around. We have made it so that soccer is a badge of middle-class dom, in a way that no other sport is. Imagine attempting to get private training for a jumpshot at $50/hr. You'd be laughed off the court. Private training for basketball is nearly the exclusive province of near-professional grade players. Whereas for soccer we offer it to kids.
And that's the problem. We don't get the same kinds of touches that other countries do. Our kids don't play soccer in school during gym or recess. (Of course lots do, but not the entire country.) And so the pay to play culture does nothing to reach out to our soccer crazed immigrant communities and get their best athletes involved. The high cost discourages lots of others. And prevents a culture where people are getting more touches on the ball.
And that means when the US play Costa Rica, or Mexico, for example, you immediately notice that their entire team has a much better first touch than the US. Fewer errant passes. Fewer give aways because the first touch was too heavy, etc. Combine that with a much larger talent pool and you get the thorough beat down Brazil administered recently.
The problem with US Soccer isn't that we haven't produced a Messi. It's that we don't even have the average world class player on our squad. Anthony Martial, Raheem Sterling or Wayne Rooney at 19, don't exist in our talent pool. We haven't produced a Yaya Toure, Ozul, Eden Hazard, Vincent Company, Fellani, Steven Gerrard (not the LA Galaxy one, the Liverpool standout), etc., other that the deep goalkeeping bench we keep. It's not greats, we are not producing EPL level talent out of our player pool.
One reason is our best soccer athletes become overachievers in other sports. Allen Iverson, who was also a well recruited football player, would have been a beast on a soccer field. There are thousands of kids like him who are undersized basketball players, or running backs, or wide receivers - or even short stops -- but would make phenomenal soccer players. We have probably the top 60-80 runners in the 60 meters out of 100 in the world. Only 3-6 are famous. The rest could have been amazing wingers instead of very good college or high school runners.
Until we solve the problem of making soccer feel welcome to everyone and remove the barriers that exist, perceived or otherwise, we will not get the player pool we need so that then we can blame the coach for not coaching them properly.
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Post by newposter on Oct 15, 2015 22:04:11 GMT -5
Well put! Soccer in the US is a business. In other locations its a way of life. It's ingrained in the culture and fabric of the community. Here its ingrained in upper middle class who can afford the $10,000 cost of Encl or DA. We also know that with $ comes favor to players who frankly aren't worthy a practice I have personal knowledge of. There is no level playing field and as the other poster stated we are losing players who don't fit this profile.
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Post by rifle on Oct 16, 2015 6:56:18 GMT -5
And because our top pro tier has a floor and a ceiling defined only by money and not quality, there is no path for more players to remain in the game.
All those mid level pro players in other countries are not striking it rich by any means. I would venture to say that many have day jobs even.. but because there is a opportunity (elsewhere) for small clubs to climb the ladder and compete, there is no ceiling or floor except performance/merit. Players don't abandon their dreams if they can't make it in the top tier. They keep going.
Our system is broken.
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