US SOCCER AND THE RE-IMAGINING OF AN ELITIST CULTURE
- Thread starter Vin
- Start date
If you can play, you can play. The reality most likely is that despite their love of the game, the author's Croatian friends probably weren't as good as he thinks. With pickup up games, Tiffany leagues, AYSO, YMCA, and other avenues there are plenty of opportunities to play soccer and develop as a player for very little cost. My understanding is that at least in California there is very little cost to playing high school sports. If you are good, you can get seen. And you normally cannot be a student athlete if you aren't a good student.
There are lots of serious issues that we as a nation face and need to address; fixing a perceived problem in youth sports seems pretty low on the list.
There are lots of serious issues that we as a nation face and need to address; fixing a perceived problem in youth sports seems pretty low on the list.
charlie murphy
SILVER
You don't know high school or collegiate athletics. "You NORMALLY cannot be a student athlete if you aren't a GOOD student " That was a joke right! LOTs of student athletes not such good students. This is a soccer forum so the pendulum definitely swings toward the sport. true there are a lot of more serious issues in the nation , but that is a different forum.
And thats perhaps the problem. There are a lot of cheap options for players to develop, however the big "prestigious"(Expensive) platforms have done everything on their power to block those cheap options from ID those players that are on those cheaper options.
For example ECNL was the prime pipeline for girls to be ID by college coaches at D1 schools and USWNT, by segregating the top talent that was able to pay up for it and it killed HS Soccer as a viable recruiting option for those that can't or refuse to pay up. Same thing with DA for boys and now for girls. These expensive programs rewarded the scouts by cutting up their work of having to go find gems at high school games, league games, etc. and I feel this is what this guy conveyed in his article, if you can afford it you are within the program, if you can't you will be penalized for playing YMCA/AYSO ball.
Listen to the Hercules Gomez interview with Bob Bradley (on an ESPN podcast). Bradley was adamant and I agree, kids are not being missed. The good kids from the free, Friday night city heights league in San Diego on dirt with tacos for sale in the parking lot get picked up in 2 seconds and play (for free) for Surf or Nomads or whoever. AYSO younger games have Albion scouts sitting there.
Good kids aren't being missed.
I think the problem we have (which is the same problem Europe has or South America) is that a kid who may just be ok at 13 years old doesn't warrant a free spot at Surf but with better coaching and competition could turn out to be outstanding. But because that kid can't afford to be in that program (and isn't yet good enough to get a scholarship) he/she misses out. But that isn't a US soccer thing. That is true for AAU basketball, high level baseball, gymnastics, swimming...whatever.
Nothing killed using HS as a recruitment tool. It's never been a huge draw for coaches. Before ECNL and DA there were still huge tourneys where college coaches could see hundreds of players in a short time span. HS or free/cheap leagues have never drawn huge scouting interest. There's always been tourneys and paid leagues where the concentration of good players is higher. Furthermore, I don't know one story of an elite kid who played only local cheap club and high school and was missed. At some point along the way they were passed along to a bigger stage or got seen at some event somewhere.
Good kids aren't being missed.
I think the problem we have (which is the same problem Europe has or South America) is that a kid who may just be ok at 13 years old doesn't warrant a free spot at Surf but with better coaching and competition could turn out to be outstanding. But because that kid can't afford to be in that program (and isn't yet good enough to get a scholarship) he/she misses out. But that isn't a US soccer thing. That is true for AAU basketball, high level baseball, gymnastics, swimming...whatever.
Nothing killed using HS as a recruitment tool. It's never been a huge draw for coaches. Before ECNL and DA there were still huge tourneys where college coaches could see hundreds of players in a short time span. HS or free/cheap leagues have never drawn huge scouting interest. There's always been tourneys and paid leagues where the concentration of good players is higher. Furthermore, I don't know one story of an elite kid who played only local cheap club and high school and was missed. At some point along the way they were passed along to a bigger stage or got seen at some event somewhere.
Nice logic there - you never heard of a kid you never heard of.
I agree with your mid assessment of kids growth years in which if not properly invested, nobody will ever know how good they would be, and the Albion's and Surf's tracksuit wearing used car salesmen cannot be qualified as scouts but more so as prolific businessmen. In fact the best talent that has come out of SD are from Nomads, Rangers and Aztecs.
OCsoccerdad7777
SILVER ELITE
I also think that most coaches only look for the bigger stronger players. The ones with "high potential" instead of smaller faster more technical players.
This happens in other sports as well.
I think that both should be looked at and a combination of both is best.
If they can play, play them and develop them as well not only focus on the bigger players.
This happens in other sports as well.
I think that both should be looked at and a combination of both is best.
If they can play, play them and develop them as well not only focus on the bigger players.
U
uburoi
Guest
I think the Croatians were as good as he thinks. They just didn’t didn’t have the infrastructure to keep it going. I think it’s true that those players from Sunday leagues are being scouted and found and playing and are good, but there is no long term support from the league and the family’s can’t pay for everything even though some or most is covered. There’s still travel, time = money.
She wasn't missed. Coaches knew of her but she needed a full scholarship and had iffy grades. She wasn't as polished as many players so a full ride on a kid who might turn out to be good is hard for a lot of places. And she was seen by Fullerton at a club tournament, after high school was over. It was her club coach that called for her. CSUF had money and made the right call and she turned out to be very good. But it's not like coaches had no idea who she was.
Meh...some coaches in tracksuits are merely businessmen...some do know what they are doing and who to look for. The big athletic kid gets found first, but ive seen clubs bring in small technical players too. We get off track when we try to generalize too much about it's all this way or it's all that way. Good players have come from all over and all different paths. Some coaches are great at finding them and some go for the easy big kid. All of the long-standing clubs have turned out some good players.