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what about NASA?

It's not that difficult really to manage that many kids, we have multiple fields/games set up, each field has several coaches assessing the players. If players are dominating their field we bump them up a field and conversely move players down a field if they are clearly over matched.

The biggest challenge is identifying the middle third of the players which is about 60-70% of your entire pool. The top third players are easy to identify as are the bottom third. It's the middle third that proves the most difficult, I had 40-50 players on my field that were fairly similar all we pretty good but no one stood out of the pack, it's very hard. Then you go by intangibles, positions, etc. It's not a perfect science but we try to do the best we can.

Don't know about Academy but for the 2004 Tryouts we probably had 250-300 just for that age group for 7 or 8 teams for rising U13.

The top team coach picks their team and has to wait for parents to accept, any players not offered a spot on the top team then gets an offer on the second team if they choose to accept. The process is typically delayed because families wait a few days to accept a spot or not. Teams below have difficulty offering spots until the teams above are filled.

Quite a few clubs have "open house" camps the week leading up to tryouts, allowing players and parents to see a club and training for themselves

Don't you see its a fundraiser for the USWNT and yes I understand it's a Boys camp.

Maybe she'll only get 40% of the punishment vs male DUI offenders.....sorry had to go there.

Here is an article from Business Insider as to why USWNT players should not be paid the same as the USMNT players, although I'm not in total agreement the article does bring up some valid points.

Here's why it's fair that female athletes make less than men-Business Insider

www.businessinsider.com/womens-small-soccer-salaries-are-fair-2015-7

I've said before but taking off the rose colored glasses and not being a homer-

Take the 1994 WC team that lost 1-0 to Brazil in the knockout stage and compare that team to today's team, I don't think we're that much further along even with DA amd the money pumped into youth soccer. Back then we also had a number of players with dual citizenship: Thomas Dooley, Marcelo Balboa, Tab Ramos, Roy Wegerle, Ernie Stewart, Hugo Perez, Fernando Clavijo and Frankie Klopas if I remember them all correctly, just as we have many players with dual citizenship on the current team. I don't think we've produced a Claudio Reyna type player since that team. Are we fitter and better tactically? Probably so but I don't think we are light years better technically even with all the money invested into youth soccer. Watch the recent clip of the U12 Barcelona Boys v the U12 Real Madrid team at a recent match, the gulf between those players and our young players is huge. Jurgen deserves some criticism with playing players out of position and an inconsistent lineup but at the National Coach can only work with the players,at his disposal, culturally I don't think we'll ever close that gap. The days of being fitter and having a blue collar work rate isn't enough anymore.

Read numerous studies on girls injuries and concussions in soccer, one overwhelming factor for the disparity between girls v boys irrespective of the physical differences is that girls are more likely to self report injuries vs boys, male soccer players are more likely to hide the injury in an effort to keep playing.

I live about two miles from the new Braves stadium in Vinings, GA, the traffic is bad now with all the construction, I dread what it's going to be like when the stadium opens

Season has been extended to Dec 13th by GA Soccer. Last spring was just as bad, we had to play several weeknight games and two games in one day to get them all in.

imgur.com/9GPU9em

I would say that is significantly worse, water was almost up to the crossbar

All this hand wringing over these new age group mandates will not give us any advantage on the international stage. Six months of the calendar year isn't gping to matter in the grand scheme of things. The reality is that we simply aren't good enough technically or creatively to compete with the best countries and 20 years from now I'll bet everything I own that will still be the case. Being bigger, stronger, having a high work rate or being physically mature doesn't make a difference if a player is technically deficient. As I always say we don't have one player on the USMNT that could even sit the bench for Brazil or Spain.

The change needs to happen culturally and kids need to invest more time AWAY from practice to develop those technical skills. Take our top basketball players, they develop those skills with countless hours of going to the park, playing pick up ball and carrying a basketball everywhere they go....all unstructured and unsupervised. Jordan, LeBron, Iverson, Chris Paul, etc didn't get their skills playing AAU basketball, it was from thousands of hours invested on their own time that made them great. How many kids do you know that invest that much time into soccer on their own? Unlike kids in other countries soccer here is not "a way out for a better life", kids have too many alternatives and social distractions.

All this stuff is a band aid and not a long term solution.

I believe referees are instructed until the offside player becomes active in the play, however in the scenario you described it seems like only the attacker and goalkeeper were within yards of the play, at that point the AR should signaled to avoid a potentially unnecessary collison.