I saw her play in person when she was very young she is the same age as my daughter and she was on another level. Since then I have only seen highlights and I agree it looks like she still has incredible skill but I also am wondering and maybe even doubting if athletically she is still on another level in terms of speed quickness and stength when it comes to the higher and top adult levels
Turning Pro at 13
- Thread starter sdb
- Start date
I think that is the strange component of this story for everyone who has kids playing high level youth sports. For a parent to make future plans for a kid before they are fully developed is strange. The fact that Nike and a pro club made that decision is shocking. Especially for women youth sports-- the best players at 11/12 are not the best at 15/16. To go further, at the club level we have seen the very best of the best leave for a pac-10 school and then disappear. Rarely to play.
She is not.
Thank you.
Many of the comments above mirror what we see on the boys’ side. Scouts lock into players at age 11-12. Player gets propped up for years, almost regardless of performance (I am not saying this is all true of OM). Player gets signed to first team at 16, even though clearly not ready and can’t even perform or contribute at USL level. Meanwhile, other kids have advanced and become better, but are second fiddle. Combination of “scouts/organization have locked in and need to prove themselves right” and marketing. Evaluation of performance in games is so subjective in soccer that they can get away with it for a while.
Girls are not boys either physically and their body was also made to have babies and will change. This was my big rub back when my girl was 12. Grown men telling dads that if your dd plays 24/7 soccer 365 days out of the year they to could be pro, just like those boys....lol!!!! A true coach for girls will say, "I don't know the true physical ability of a female until their 17. Get back to me when goat has "physically developed." Why? If you have a girl that has gone from 11 to 17, you will figure it out.
The speed quickness and strength gap closes at top levels of any sport. Swimmers miss the US National team over .05 second differential in a 400 M race. That’s being out touched by 1/4 inch. When my player was young, she’d run the field and score. Again and again. Not a magical soccer protege. Just faster and could run and kick the ball. Today? Yeah she’s still fast but so are all the other players on the field. Gap closed.
A guy who has seen Olivia play and train a lot told me that she clearly has superior technical skills than many of the pros she’s up against. It’s gonna come down to all the other stuff cause hard to deploy that perfect helicopter move when two defenders are there to shut it down. But hey, she’s creating an opportunity to play up, learn from and compete with the best and see how she stacks up rather than settle in. With her Nike deal does she even get to go head to head with players her own age anymore?
It’s not so much about opportunity as it is how hard your parents are willing/able to push boundaries.
SoccerLocker
SILVER ELITE
This is exactly the point. As more money comes into women's soccer, it's inevitable. It's really moot if she is a generational talent or not (Freddy Add anyone?), more that she is advancing the opportunities for girls behind her.
MacDre
PREMIER
Thanks for sharing because I was starting to think that I am biased because of my personal situation.
MacDre
PREMIER
I am relatively certain the marketing is a complete farce according to my research:
1. Heather Paulson is a Nike VP and owner of the Portland Thorns/Timbers;
2. Anson Dorrance’s UNC team is sponsored by Nike; and
3. All of OM’s “professional trials” were set up by her well connected agent.
I’ve heard about KC, but it seems to me that the Paulsons and Dorrance are the biggest liars.
Excellent take. I will just lay it out for you guys. She does not have the speed, quickness or ganas to play right now at the highest pro level and I dont see it every happening, MOO! Skills with thrills is awesome until someone who is faster and stronger comes along and disrupts your skills program and knocks you on your ass...lol! Any player with skills has to use brain and quickness to get out of a physical attack. If your not known to pass the rock to others, well then you will be left alone to get out of impossible soccer situation. Only the triangle and give and go works, MOO! Like so many have said, she is very talented and I wish her the best.
Interesting take, how so?
MacDre
PREMIER
The way that I see it is that Heather Paulson runs shit at Nike because she’s a VP and at Thorns because she is an owner. I also think Mrs. Paulson is using her access to resources at Nike to get around the NWSL salary cap so she can stack her team with talent while remaining within the rules. I wonder how many of the teams that put in a discovery request for OM are sponsored by Nike?
I feel like Dorrance is saying and doing whatever Heather Paulson wants to keep the Nike money flowing to UNC.
I feel like were all playing, "Connect the dots." My head is spinning with this new information I knew nothing about....lol........jk. I remember many top 05s and 04s were being approached with pro back in 2016. I hope by now Dre you know my writing style and you know 100% I was never going to let my goat go pro and let her move up to the Northwest for soccer residency with grown woman. Like I said so many other times, I did approach my dd with the idea of soccer boarding school and she was 100% a no for that life style and actually told me to never bring up that stupid idea ever again.
SoccerFan4Life
PREMIER
It will be interesting to see how many 15 to 17 year old girls will make it to the pro’s in the next 5 Years. This ruling is definitely viewed as equal opportunity for women. I just don’t think you will see too many players/parents willing to make that jump to pros at such a young age. The money doesn’t make sense, injuries will happen, and you miss out on being a teenager and/or going to college.
Yousername
SILVER
A lot of talk about OM matching physicality with older players, but there’s also the mental maturity to factor in as well. She’s been the best on every pitch all this time, but when she’s no longer the best, does she have the mental fortitude to press on, or will that get under her skin and make her lose her mental toughness.
My daughter guested for a coach once- players we’re all college age and older. She was still a freshman in HS at the time. Playing keeper. While she enjoyed the experience, I remember her saying it was really hard because, as she put it, “it felt like they didn’t want to listen to some dumb high schooler telling them what to do from the goalie spot.” Everywhere else she had played, her team would listen to her direction as a keeper. But put her on a team where there was a huge age gap, she started questioning herself and clamming up.
I wish OM well. I am hopeful that these kinds of moves allow young women to have multiple options to higher level sports- not just through the college system. But in addition to the physical matchup disparities, I wonder how she’s going to fare mentally. Just my $.02.
My daughter guested for a coach once- players we’re all college age and older. She was still a freshman in HS at the time. Playing keeper. While she enjoyed the experience, I remember her saying it was really hard because, as she put it, “it felt like they didn’t want to listen to some dumb high schooler telling them what to do from the goalie spot.” Everywhere else she had played, her team would listen to her direction as a keeper. But put her on a team where there was a huge age gap, she started questioning herself and clamming up.
I wish OM well. I am hopeful that these kinds of moves allow young women to have multiple options to higher level sports- not just through the college system. But in addition to the physical matchup disparities, I wonder how she’s going to fare mentally. Just my $.02.
Freddy Adu wasn't a total bust as his long pro and international career can attest. But he also wasn't the miracle player that was going to win us the World Cup.
Pointless aside -- I was at Torero Stadium at USD the day he got into his first MNT game in a friendly against Canada, coming in as a late substitution. He assured his place on the game report by promptly picking up a yellow card.
Precisely
suzysoccer1
SILVER
You know why