Is US Mens/Boys Soccer Dead or Dying

[outside!]

NIL is now starting in High School. Kids will get paid. More athletes will look at money sports.

The MLS Next ban on high school sports forces many players to make a choice.

My is MLS Next U13 is in middle school. He playes soccer, flag football, and runs track. He excels in all of them.

The soccer coach is the only coach that seems to think soccer should be his only sports. Even though the overall youth athletic development is mediocre. They are forcing a 6th grader to not play other sport.

Every other sports coach encourages him to be the best athlete he can be.

He is already contemplating if he wants to keep playing soccer. It's the least fun. Most high pressure, and the sports which least values his outstanding sprint speed. He has led every soccer team he has been on in scoring since U8 and he will probably leave the sport.

High level MLS Next kids have to make a choice in 8th grade if they are good at multiple sports.

Many players that are very fast growing up do not develop dribbling or passing skills as much, since they rely on their speed. Speed solves many problems in soccer but by the time they become adults, lots of players are fast. This may not be your player, but it is true for many "fast" players. The other thing that happens is defenders get better at reading the fast player and let them know early in the game that there can be consequences.

 

[Grace T.]

Many players that are very fast growing up do not develop dribbling or passing skills as much, since they rely on their speed. Speed solves many problems in soccer but by the time they become adults, lots of players are fast. This may not be your player, but it is true for many "fast" players. The other thing that happens is defenders get better at reading the fast player and let them know early in the game that there can be consequences.

It's with the same with the big leggers and shooting. Coaches teach them early on to shoot it over the keepers head. It doesn't work anymore by the time the keepers are U16 and can touch the cross bar. The ones that have been practicing precision shooting to the corners then have the advantage. And then people scratch their heads and wonder why the boys keep woofing it over the cross bar (it's because they've been taught to flex rather than point their foot and therefore do it every single time).

 

[watfly]

NIL is now starting in High School. Kids will get paid. More athletes will look at money sports.

The MLS Next ban on high school sports forces many players to make a choice.

My is MLS Next U13 is in middle school. He playes soccer, flag football, and runs track. He excels in all of them.

The soccer coach is the only coach that seems to think soccer should be his only sports. Even though the overall youth athletic development is mediocre. They are forcing a 6th grader to not play other sport.

Every other sports coach encourages him to be the best athlete he can be.

He is already contemplating if he wants to keep playing soccer. It's the least fun. Most high pressure, and the sports which least values his outstanding sprint speed. He has led every soccer team he has been on in scoring since U8 and he will probably leave the sport.

High level MLS Next kids have to make a choice in 8th grade if they are good at multiple sports.

This is so spot on, and the experience of a lot of kids. Very similar story for my son, although he was only playing soccer by U13 (and totally out of the sport by U16). It became a job in many respects, MLS Next is a grind for both kids and parents. Like you said "it's the least fun". Our youth soccer system doesn't develop passion for the sport. There are more coaches that are passion robbing than passion creating. (Not totally blaming coaches, as I think the lack of passion is partially cultural).

Soccer does require more training than the other big 3 sports, but it doesn't require year round training. The MLSN clubs have long seasons from Sep through May and then many load up the summer with tournaments. The idea that kids should have to specialize in year round soccer by the time they're 10 (or earlier) is simply arrogance on the part of our youth soccer "leadership". The arrogance is ironic considering we haven't done shit as a country in soccer. The concept of cross-training is completely foreign to soccer development in the US.

Despite huge youth participation, soccer will never be more than a niche sport in the US. My son plays HS football and he still has time to be on the golf team, have a girlfriend, get good grades and surf and snowboard on the weekends. His odds of getting a scholarship to play football in college are pretty good. Likely 20x or higher, than if he had remained in club soccer.

 

[Scrub It Kook]

But you are not going to produce thousands of world class players, so you identify the best players, i.e. the ones that look like they may have a shot, scholarship them and let everyone else pay by fooling them into thinking their kid has a shot. Realistically, you are looking at less than 2% who might have a shot out of the 16000 - so a few hundred, with the rest being fillers with money.

Even English academies have "facilitator' players that they know will never make it.

This is a good listen if you have the time:

 

[outside!]

This is so spot on, and the experience of a lot of kids. Very similar story for my son, although he was only playing soccer by U13 (and totally out of the sport by U16). It became a job in many respects, MLS Next is a grind for both kids and parents. Like you said "it's the least fun". Our youth soccer system doesn't develop passion for the sport. There are more coaches that are passion robbing than passion creating. (Not totally blaming coaches, as I think the lack of passion is partially cultural).

Most college coaches are soccer passion killers.

 

[watfly]

Most college coaches are soccer passion killers.

I hear that particularly on the women's side. For men, they're either hardened by that time or have no passion left to lose.

I could be totally wrong about this, but I tend to hear more positive things about girl's club soccer coaches than I do boys.

 

[outside!]

I hear that particularly on the women's side. For men, they're either hardened by that time or have no passion left to lose.

I could be totally wrong about this, but I tend to hear more positive things about girl's club soccer coaches than I do boys.

We had mostly good experiences with girl's and boy's club coaches.

 

[Grace T.]

We had mostly good experiences with girl's and boy's club coaches.

My son has had 6 (it’s going to be 7) coaches since he started travel (more than 1/2 of them having to move due to factors beyond his control). Out of the 6 two of them were great (both focused on development and took knocks on the wins as a result), 2 had their merits and demerits, 2 were downright awful. For the money we pay that shouldn’t really be the case.