I really really wanted to say something like that. But, they're all new to youth competitive soccer + all younger parents with $$$ + this is their first kid. It will be more fun to watch them get more and more crazy over the years. If they all hate me now we won't get to be "friends".
Club Team Tiers
- Thread starter Rollonyoubears
- Start date
RandomSoccerFan
GOLD
I'd also be happy to help update the data in this instance, but I don't know how. I am but a grateful normal parent user of the app, providing pseudo scouting reports for other parents.
It's trivial if you'd ever want to attempt. (It does require the Pro subscription, for $10/year; it doesn't work if using the free version without the sub). When you're on a team you're troubleshooting, click the Sources tab at the top, and it will list all of the data sources (tournament, leagues, etc.) that are already assigned to that team. You can find out exactly which ones they are by clicking on them, and if any of them still have a live web page, you can even click that button to see the results on the web. If any of them aren't actually this team, just hit the Edit button within the app, then the trash can next to the wrong data source, and hit save. That's it - that data source is no longer connected to that team. Finding data sources that you know about (a tournament the team was in, or a league that started), but isn't connected to the team, is just as easy. Click the Add Missing Sources button at the bottom of the app, search for what you're looking for, and if you find one - just add it to the team and hit save. To do it for your own team takes minutes at most per year. But.... then you notice that your opponent's data isn't complete, so you fix them. And then you notice that there are a bunch of teams in your conference with wrong or incomplete data, so you fix them. And the tournament that you just went to was mostly pulled in OK, but there are a few dozen teams that didn't get the info for some reason. And pretty soon, if you have the mildest of OCD tendencies, you find yourself as yet another of Mark's unpaid volunteers helping keep the data closer to accurate than it would be otherwise.
(similar instructions on the FAQ for the app here)
I only have/use the free version for now, but I will keep this in mind; I don't buy many apps, but have been considering this one. Your OCD note is on-point, though: I already do a lot of research online, and I am a software developer professionally, so that might be a deep hole if I started...
RandomSoccerFan
GOLD
Like many apps, it's a 30-day free trial - so you can enable it and then disable it at day 29 if it turns out it wasn't particularly useful or worth the money.
Hilarious, right? And the logo is a completely nondescript soccer ball. As the kids would say, "so basic"
Soccer Dad & Ref
SILVER ELITE
Except it is truly an amazing app with amazing accuracy overall. Filled a massive void in this realm
Soccer Dad & Ref
SILVER ELITE
If enough parents notified the manager and club about this, it would be a massive help. Some of the team names crack me up.
aong cangkol
SILVER
For people who are financially constrained, spending $3000 to "enjoy" soccer is not wise. Sacrificing family vacation or math/english tutoring to give your son/daughter playing time may not be acceptable for everyone.
If you have the time and money then yes, the advice above is absolutely correct, just look for a good coach. If your kid is talented, it will show, he will find better league later but be prepared to spend $10000/yr for MLS NEXT
Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr
SILVER
I cannot write a nuanced post that addresses every single situation. I'm writing to the parent who has a kid with an interest in the game and wants to get better by avoiding the pitfalls of charlatans that are everywhere in club soccer. The readers of this site are sharp enough to make a determination whether they are financially able to make sacrifices for private group and individual training which will give them better access to quality coaches.
"If your kid is talented, it will show" is not sound advice. Footballers don't just pop out at 12, ready for u13 MLS Next or some other, higher league without putting in work. Kids who make those leagues at u13 and above put in tons of hours for years developing their fitness, technique, and ability both in team and outside the club setting. Check out "The Myth of Talent" if you underestimate the work required.
But none of it is worth while, though, unless the kid loves the sport. As a parent, you can help that by fostering enjoyment of the game. Play with your kid, watch pro games, send your kid video of players to open their minds, show them guys from the past so they get some appreciation of the history of the sport, pop on a coaching podcast in the car when you're driving, etc. Or don't, and your kid will do something else.
For how simple it is... it's actually surprisingly accurate with "score predictions"
And even without the "predictions", it just shows a way to rank teams based on recent performance...
Is it perfect? No. But none of the professional sports "power rankings" are either.
It's the best $10 for entertainment I've spent!
What I like about the rankings app is that it provides a quick and easy way to define a team or clubs relative standing against their peers.For how simple it is... it's actually surprisingly accurate with "score predictions"
And even without the "predictions", it just shows a way to rank teams based on recent performance...
Is it perfect? No. But none of the professional sports "power rankings" are either.
It's the best $10 for entertainment I've spent!
Before the rankings app team and club standings were 100% subjective. You'd get articles written showing team and club rankings that were completely made up by the article writer.
What I dont like about the app is predictability. While it's nice to see who mathematically will win a game. The problem is there will always be players and parents that will decide which games they choose to participate in based on their teams ability to win. To me this is the wrong way to approach team sports. Unfortunately it happens more often than you'd expect.
RandomSoccerFan
GOLD
I haven't seen it to that extent, but perhaps I'm not aware. One of our coaches is pretty adamant to not directly share any of that information with the boys prior to a game or tournament, with I believe the optimistic goal of inspiring them to give it their all regardless of whether the game was expected to be a 5-0 blowout against a particularly weak team, a 1-5 drubbing by quite strong team, or a 2-2 tie. But he certainly wants any and all knowledge of the competition ahead of time. As the teams get older, I imagine it becomes more common for kids to be interested in the predictions if they were aware of their existence. I can't imagine individual players deciding to come or not depending on what the outcome predictions were telling them, whether individual league games or even full tournaments.
The reason your coach is asking not to show players predicted results is because you never know what might happen in a real game. Some teams don't travel well, others might have injured players, maybe it's raining out, etc, etc, etc.
Predicted results are just the results of previous games applied to another teams results of previous games. If everything is exactly the same for both teams as they were during previous games the predictions will likely be true. But, usually this is not the case. Usually something is different which means there's a chance a prediction might be invalidated.
Also even if you know the predicted results simply playing a team provides opportunities to make yourself and/or your team better players.
Here's an example of how predictive results are bad for teams....
Say you're on a team and need to travel from CA to AZ to play against a league team. The predicted results are either win or loss by 5+ goals. When this happens there's a HUGE incentive for parents to skip that game and save $$$ by not traveling to play in that game.
Say you're on a team and need to travel from CA to AZ to play against a league team. The predicted results are either win or loss by 5+ goals. When this happens there's a HUGE incentive for parents to skip that game and save $$$ by not traveling to play in that game.
Traveling to AZ to play one league game is what's wrong with youth soccer in America...
To no one's fault to be honest... it's just the country is so damn big... A benefit in every other situation... but not so for youth sports...
What I don't like is my kid's team underperforming predictability every single game lol
Oh we are supposed to win 5-1? It's a 2-2 nail biter...
So we should eek out a 2-1 win? It's a 5-1 blowout loss...
Stop giving us false hope! Rank us down already so we can stop expecting to win!
I'm not sure I've seen kids decide to go on a trip based on expected outcomes (though I don't doubt it happens occasionally), but I have seen kids use the app to decide where to play. When my son switched teams one year, he pulled out the app to decide where to try out.
RandomSoccerFan
GOLD
I don't know how you can still believe this. You know, or should know, that the app is going to get the right winner 5 out of 6 times. That does mean it usually *is* the case. The prediction will likely be true. And it will get it wrong a portion of the time also. It's what prediction means. There is no requirement that all circumstances must be identical or the predictions are invalidated. The predictivity as measured right now already incorporates all of that variability.
RandomSoccerFan
GOLD
Absolutely, I can see this. But of course they can look in the league standings and see that the team they are traveling to is terrible already - the app isn't likely to have made a difference.
That seems like one of the primary use cases of the app.