Geoff Cameron rips US club soccer coaches: "It's not about you, man."

Mystery Train

Mystery Train

GOLD
There is so much about this article I love, but mostly I love him taking a blow-torch to the mentality of US youth soccer clubs:

"I’ll never forget a club coach telling me, when I was maybe 14 years old, that I would never make it as a pro because I was “too small.” But this is the mentality that is so toxic across the board in youth soccer in America. It’s not about proving yourself every day. It’s about what you did last year. It’s about who you know. It’s about your size. It’s about your reputation. It’s about what fancy youth club you play for. If you want to see what’s wrong with U.S. Soccer in a single image, just go out to one of these fancy suburbs some weekend and spot the coaches of the fancy club teams strutting on the sidelines. Half of them are carrying themselves like they’re Pep Guardiola. I mean, the arrogance. It’s unbelievable."
--Geoff Cameron

Damn.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/geoff-cameron-what-must-change-in-u-s-soccer/
 
Great article MT...thanks for the link...

However, I am left wondering what would have been a better formation to run in Trinidad? He did not really say exactly why he slammed the formation they used...also should I read anything into his omission of Wood ?? Wood also took the tough lonely road to Europe at a very young age...
 
soccerobserver said:
Great article MT...thanks for the link...

However, I am left wondering what would have been a better formation to run in Trinidad? He did not really say exactly why he slammed the formation they used...also should I read anything into his omission of Wood ?? Wood also took the tough lonely road to Europe at a very young age...
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Unfortunately, my phone was on silent ring and I missed Bruce's call that day and for that I apologize to my fellow Americans. Getting back to the article, his slam of the 4-1-3-2 was that it is an offensive formation that can be exposed by a strong fast attacking team, which is exactly what the USA faced with Trinidad. Once the attackers get to the defensive line, the defenders are usually playing even or a man down. The 4-4-2 would have been a tad more defensive, allowing mids to cover and drop and a good starting formation given the wet conditions and motivation/formation used by Trinidad, or drop down to the highly defensive 4-5-1 and play it over the top hoping for that 1 on 1 chance while you wear out Trinidad.

Ultimately, Bruce's mistake was his ego. He stuck to what he thought he knew and showed about as much coaching sophistication as Bill Belichick when the lad was 1 and 1/2 years old.
 
As soon as Juergen said to play in Europe, Bradley and Dempsey and the rest cane back to MLS, And it showed!
Geoff Cameron nailed it.
Let MLS be a stepping stone for the top players.
I read an article when Klinsmann was still coaching, he said “in the US we develop our kids to play in the NCAA. In the rest of the world they develop their kids to play pro”.
 
toucan said:
IMHO, the most important insight given by Cameron has to do with how difficult it is to keep a roster spot in a competitive European league. He uses the term "ruthless" when describing the competition at each practice. One term he never uses is "development." He never once suggests that coaches should concentrate on "developing" players; instead, he implies that ruthless competition is itself the best "developer."

As a youth coach, "development" is critical, although each coach has his or her own idea of what the term means. To me, it means a thoughtful training plan, with regular and intense focus on fundamental touch-technique, within the context of a possession-style team concept.

I wholeheartedly agree with Cameron on this point: If you want to build good teams and good players at any level, you have to create an atmosphere where each player must compete for his or her position at every practice, and you must exhibit a certain amount of ruthlessness when it comes to roster selection, meaning that players who are not performing must be removed from the roster for the good of the team.
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At what age do you suggest this begin? You gonna have the 8 year olds wiping out each other? I think most high level teams operate this way already.

Granted it should be competitive and only those who want to win should be in sports anyways. But, this is also a team sport. I think that is completely overlooked by this theory.
 
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@toucan,

I think its important to consider that when it comes to youth players, there are different categories and the age of the player impacts how competitive the program needs to be. Generally, I break it down as follows:
  • Recreational players play for the enjoyment and physical fitness. They tend to have many different interests, play other sports and are there because its fun. Creating too competitive of an environment for the recreational player is counter-productive because its not what they want.
  • Low-Level Club/Travel these kids are just coming from Rec, they are now more focused on improving, but still play because its fun. Most of these kids won't move to the next level. These are the backbone of the club system with 80% of the kids falling into this category. They enjoy the sport, but are still very interested in the fun aspect of the team.
  • High-Level Club/Travel these kids are motivated and thrive on competition internally and externally.
  • Elite these kids are the best of the High-Level and also thrive on competition.
Your comments of making youth programs just as competitive as the pros should be qualified. I think its appropriate for the High-Level and Elite teams/clubs, but not the Recreational and Low-Level Club, which have different goals. Working hard should be rewarded at all levels, but let's not get too ruthless until we are truly working with highly motivated kids with sufficient age to appreciate the circumstances there are in.
 
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