Understanding the "why"
- Thread starter full90
- Start date
So what is the solution?
What I witness is shocking. The views of Spaniards and French about excellent players who aren’t considered prospects here really let us know how backward we are in our thinking. The game tells us that technique comes first and that’s the last thing coaches here care about. Ergo, we suck.
There is no "solution" imo. There are huge impediments at every level. We are slowly developing a soccer culture... coaches and soccer leaders will be replaced by more knowledgeable successors.... it will take many generations for change. Mainly... we need to learn... " dont do that...". Adults are the problem. Not the kid...
If you have a kid currently in soccer... it is what it is. Take it for what it is today and enjoy watching your kid play... but dont play for tomorrow....
And i speak a bit from experience.. my kid is in DA... and for most part it is mediocre at best.
I have come to conclusion.... there are a small handful of places where your kid may have a shot at being developed (for US standards)... and no surprise its where the scouts concentrate... its a matter of geography
Well, i have to tell you, the non DA in my area.. not too good. So, you can choose mediocre... to... hey "what about baseball..."? Yea... i have suggested that but my kid says its too slow... boring... which i agree...
El Clasico
GOLD
This reminds me of the expression..."Those who can't do, teach". There are people on this board posting regularly that have no personal understanding of the game (coaching rec doesn't count, hell, I know club coaches that have no clue that only sell the company line) and they think that because they can't post links to stories, that they are somehow an authority on something. Reminds me of another great quote by Mike Tyson when he said "Everyone has a plan till you punch them in the face". Different sport, same concept. We can read all the books, institute the PDIs and do everything USSF mandates us to do (yes, they do have control) but the US misses the point. That creates robots and we need to be teaching our players to think. It is a thinking game more than an athletic game and until that changes, we will not progress. When you watch both the men and the women play, show me where you see the creativity needed to compete at the international level.
We don’t care about smart, it’s sad. However, you’re incorrect about the USSF control. Their guidelines mandate a style of play that is ignored by clubs and DA teams everywhere and there’s no enforcement mechanism.
Dr. Richard Hurtz
SILVER
Nicely put el Clasico. Absolutely. I couldn’t agree with you more
El Clasico
GOLD
I agree, this is very true. However, USSF chooses to relegate the DA program to Clubs rather than spend their money creating a true Academy system and its oversight. USSF gives control to clubs who ignore mandates and perpetuates the pay to play system.
In terms of absolutes, no, USSF does not ignore smart players. That said, they probably place less emphasis on smart players and will most likely pick bigger, stronger and faster players over smart creative players if that's the choice.
As for DA mandate of style of play, the clubs should ignore and tailor the style of play to the kind of players they have. Besides, the mandate has been relaxed, especially with the departure of Klinsmann so its a non-issue. By forcing certain style only, it stifles creativity and at the end of the day, a real smart player will adapt and adjust the style of play to exploit the opponent. Despite what we all like to spew out on the forum, the main purpose of "development" is learning how to win consistently.
Do you truly believe that USSF created academy, ran by them, its a better answer?
USSF's job is to create framework and an environment for better coaching at the youth level and hold the all clubs's feet to the fire. They need to get out of DA business all together. They have created feeding frenzy for parents who live vicariously through their kids.
Set the curriculum and let clubs follow as they will. The market place will quickly determine which clubs are worth a damn and which ones not.
Local leagues like SCDSL and CSL will be more competitive, and high school soccer will mean something again. College coaches will have to go back to doing real scouting and find good players out there, rather than just attending DA playoffs and showcases to pick so called "Academy Players".
We do best when we let creativity lead us and to do that, less structure is better than too much structure. Right now, we appear to have too much structure and not enough creativity and innovation in youth sports.
El Clasico
GOLD
Mirage, you misunderstand my message completely. My point was just as yours, that USSF has too much control, you see it with the DA program by limited choices and options and you see it all the way down to the rec programs that some of the big clubs have created. They, USSF, delegated their mission to the clubs who in turn impose it upon ALL youth players, including the vast majority who have no plans or intentions to do anything other than have fun playing soccer. US Soccer takes the fun, excitement, experimentation and creativity out of the game simply by imposing their mandates on everyone else when they have the resources to fund and develop (ironic), and operate their own program the way they feel is best. But they would rather pad their bank account, get rich and fat and impose mandates on clubs who turn around and market to the moron parents who don't understand the game but write big checks so the clubs get rich and fat too. Only in America!! I am not saying it is not a big money sport worldwide, I am saying that here, it is big money all the way down to the kids who really should only be playing rec. That is the big difference. As a child, I never had to pay, or saw anyone who had to pay anything to play, rent fields, or kick a ball. Very confusing to me. Let the kids play!
Lambchop
GOLD
And,,,, that is one reason our men's team does so poorly!!
Why? Primary reasons are $$$ money, the Establishment, and the lack of promotion and regulation.
The whole "dilutes the talent argument" is a big smoke screen.
The establishment doesn't want real competition otherwise there would be promotion and regulations. Instead we have established clubs that don't put out many competitive teams year after year yet they remain in DA, just look at the standings there are 3x or these just in the SW division for the boys for example. Mediocrity persists and the level of play is very uneven, yet year after year little changes at U15+ and the smaller clubs with competitive teams get shut out of getting any teams past this age.
/rant on
He's a perfect example; smaller club players bigger established club yesterday in DA:
The bigger established club is loosing the game and has a player sent off for a 2nd yellow card, Coach of this established teams losses it and is sent off but refuses to leave so after a while the officials declare the game over due to opposing coaches behavior after only 30 minutes of play.
Who losses in this situation? all the players who trained for 4 days to play a 30 minute game. At the end of the day nothing will happen to the established club/team and they will be back in DA next year after being in the bottom 3, getting smoked 6-0 their previous game, having different players suspended for 4 out of the last 5 game, etc. Really poor examples of conduct yet no repercussions so what does that say ?
There is very little oversight on clubs & teams and they pretty much act and do as they please picking & choosing what they adhere to, standards are not being applied across the board, some follow while others not so much.
A closed league that favors the establishment, those with more $$ /wo pro/regulation or standards enforcement is what DA has been/became .
USSF should really blow up DA and start over and turn this over to a third party professional soccer management organization who can manage independently without all the insider influences, they can't seen clearly through the clouds today.
/rant off
The high cost of DA is another topic but one of reasons there is not more teams and a desire to limit the number of groups playing.
The whole "dilutes the talent argument" is a big smoke screen.
The establishment doesn't want real competition otherwise there would be promotion and regulations. Instead we have established clubs that don't put out many competitive teams year after year yet they remain in DA, just look at the standings there are 3x or these just in the SW division for the boys for example. Mediocrity persists and the level of play is very uneven, yet year after year little changes at U15+ and the smaller clubs with competitive teams get shut out of getting any teams past this age.
/rant on
He's a perfect example; smaller club players bigger established club yesterday in DA:
The bigger established club is loosing the game and has a player sent off for a 2nd yellow card, Coach of this established teams losses it and is sent off but refuses to leave so after a while the officials declare the game over due to opposing coaches behavior after only 30 minutes of play.
Who losses in this situation? all the players who trained for 4 days to play a 30 minute game. At the end of the day nothing will happen to the established club/team and they will be back in DA next year after being in the bottom 3, getting smoked 6-0 their previous game, having different players suspended for 4 out of the last 5 game, etc. Really poor examples of conduct yet no repercussions so what does that say ?
There is very little oversight on clubs & teams and they pretty much act and do as they please picking & choosing what they adhere to, standards are not being applied across the board, some follow while others not so much.
A closed league that favors the establishment, those with more $$ /wo pro/regulation or standards enforcement is what DA has been/became .
USSF should really blow up DA and start over and turn this over to a third party professional soccer management organization who can manage independently without all the insider influences, they can't seen clearly through the clouds today.
/rant off
The high cost of DA is another topic but one of reasons there is not more teams and a desire to limit the number of groups playing.
USC
SILVER
Rant? Nope, you are spot on! The truth hurts, but only feelings that are getting hurt are the establishments.
DA should be ran similar to CRL where you have to earn your right to play. Giving Fusion academy status in U12 has to be the biggest joke, they had no B2007 team nor history of developing any kids! How can a club earn DA status this way? Please help me understand this.
Let's have it clear. US Soccer has no clue about how to develop a player and for over 30 years they have been looking to the wrong examples, applying first the culture of politics and business rather than inserting the sport culture. In the other hand, mediocre coaches from Europe saw an opportunity and took advantage of the lack of soccer knowledge from the locals here. So today we have a mediocre system, with mediocre people in charge of National team and MLS academies, and mediocre parents that only stand up for "playing time" while keep buying the mediocre propaganda out of lack of knowledge. Look at San Diego as an example, in two major clubs we have Rec coaches making 65k per year to coach rec U9 teams while real coaches make 24k to coach academy. Parents buy this nonsense and then come here to complain, come on, demand quality from your DOC, demand professionalism from US Soccer!! Stop paying for playing at Academy, this is the top of mediocrity!!
How's that? You may be correct but I see no relationship between fewer number of older DA teams and USMNT doing poorly. There are nearly 80 older DA teams across the country, with total population of over 1600 players, if the roster is 20/team. If we cannot find handful of talented players out of 1600+ players, then having more of the same will not make any difference.