I do follow my own advice. My kid does not head clearance balls.
Ps he said that if you are going to eliminate risky stuff start with goalkeepers sliding. It’s a gk wishlist fantasy but his idea is if the gk is sliding in the box the striker has to yield the ball to the gk on pain Of a yellow card. I told him to keep dreaming.
The immediate impact on offense would be minimal. You just could never cross or corner the ball in the air between the penalty spot and the gl because the goalkeeper will have too much of a height advantage in grabbing it and the low cutback would become more of a go to option (an option which is harder for the crosser to properly execute than an aerial). You could also just eliminate the goalkeeper from the game.
I think you and I both agree that the safest thing is for some other kid to head the ball to our kids' feet. Don't argue too persuasively now.
If litigation were to get to this point (that heading gets banned in the us youth game) it ends in one of two places. First, if the over 18 teams continue to be able to do it, the us winds up being woefully unprepared on the international stage, the dominance of the Uswnt ends and the men will largely go off to Europe at age 12 to train. Second if the 18-21 get banned too or even the pros, the us just gets redlined by fifa. The litigation probably also results in youth gridiron football getting banned in the us.
I’d be perfectly happy with my kid playing for a team or league where no one heads the ball.
Ps one of the drivers in the us is the Latino community. Unless the rule change were imposed on Latin American and European countries I just don’t see the community caving to such a litigation settlement. They’d form their own league and try and force the insurers to say they won’t insure it. If the insurers balk they’ll either walk away or more likely go underground Latino league (like during the covid bans). You’ll have Latino soccer and white people soccer. If it’s not banned in college and the pros, the Latino leagues will have an inherent competitive advantage
The trend though in youth football is consolidation. Not just because of some schools dropping it but because the best athletes are recruited by certain public and private schools and the coaches go to see the athletes at these schools (not necessarily bothering with the lesser ones)
would only solve the problem of the gk or defenders long balling it. It’s just as much of a problem if the mids put it over the top to their strikers…it’s still a foot race (and one which has made collisions more likely between the gk and striker).
I was talking about a change that was short of eliminating headers entirely. Heading a 20 yard chip ball is less force than heading a 70 yard clearance ball.
Honest question..I suspected this was true but hadn’t seen enough games to come to a firm conclusion…is it true even of the higher level girls?
I'd say that the better girl players have the best technique, same as anything else.
That’s not really true. I follow Sevilla regularly and you see the ball over the top attempted (not executed) at least 10 times per game. You see it even more in the epl. It doesn’t need to just come from a gk punt but as dad and I discussed From a mid chipping it over. Yeah Barcelona doesn’t do it as much…they prefer the thru on the ground which is much harder to execute.
Someone who was 20 in 1985 is only 57 now. Unless they died young like Scott Vermillion or Junior Seau, they have no CTE diagnosis.
I liked the 35-yard offside line. Later on, I found out it was such a good idea that FIFA rejected its use anywhere else in the soccer world. I also learned about the 10-point standings system from NASL -- it was touted at the time as a way to avoid all those boring 1-0 scores.
