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re: Dan Wetzel blames "Travel Ball" for the lack of development of US Soccer
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:33 am to Fun Bunch
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:33 am to Fun Bunch
Even the cost to play aau basketball is insane compared to 20+ years ago, even with sponsors. I was barely able to play back then and probably wouldn’t now. Baseball and soccer takes the cake.
1
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:35 am to Fun Bunch
quote:
The youth leagues get paid by clubs when the players develop and go to them, and those payments are in some way passed down to the player/families
This does happen in the States. Just not on a scale as big as other countries. I’ve known several people go to or have gone to MLS “academys”.
I think it’s a number of things. The most being that in popularity, soccer falls somewhere 4-10 in the States. With that being said, we should have a top 10 national team.
I’ve noticed in Europe and South America, in the inner cities and city blocks they have soccer courts where we would have basketball or tennis courts.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:36 am to real turf fan
Several years ago I spent some time traveling through Brazil. Their culture is soccer obsessed in ways that exceed our own love of football in the South. Many of the schools have hard-court soccer gyms built into them in the same way that we build basketball gyms here. And every field near a neighborhood has make-shift goals, much like we see basketball goals outside homes in our country.
My point is that it isn't just travel ball. Outside of the quadrennial World Cup bandwagon, our nation just isn't into soccer. We like our beer cold, our fireworks loud, our temperatures in Fahrenheit, and our football with a dash of violence.
My point is that it isn't just travel ball. Outside of the quadrennial World Cup bandwagon, our nation just isn't into soccer. We like our beer cold, our fireworks loud, our temperatures in Fahrenheit, and our football with a dash of violence.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:39 am to moneyg
quote:
At this point, I don't think that's the case. There's plenty of interest in Soccer now.
I'd agree. It seems like some of the best athletes (at least white middle class ones) around 9 (my kids age) are choosing Soccer as their main sport. These are kids that would have played football in the past but their parents are directing them to soccer because its considered safer.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:40 am to moneyg
quote:
An investment into mens college soccer probably would be a significant benefit.
What?
College soccer is a TERRIBLE system to develop players.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:41 am to dinosaur
quote:
I think that the US is at least a generation away from being competitive with other countries.
We're somewhere in the range of 12-20th best national teams in the world
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:41 am to real turf fan
Yeah, but baseball has more equipment—- nothing screams I’m living through my kids like having stuff to buy them.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:42 am to real turf fan
Football
Basketball
Baseball
Soccer
Basketball
Baseball
Soccer
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:42 am to DCtiger1
The best athletes in america dream of being Kobe Bryant or Tom Brady, not any soccer player.
Do the best international soccer players make starting NFL money or these days even NIL college money.
Do the best international soccer players make starting NFL money or these days even NIL college money.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:43 am to real turf fan
Stick to pretzels baw.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:45 am to teke184
I think the lack of scholarship opportunities for soccer players is the main reason for the lack of development of players. Because there’s no scholarship potential for most boys, if they’re talented athletes, they’ll be steered towards other sports where they could potentially earn a college scholarship. Our women’s team is dominant because women’s soccer is a scholarship sport at most colleges, thus high school girls who are athletic aren’t steered away from soccer. They have just as good of odds getting a scholarship playing soccer as they do basketball or softball.
Title IX is the single biggest reason why soccer participation drops off so sharply after middle school. If we eliminate the insane scholarship limits caused by there being no equivalent to football (or just fully segregated football scholarships towards counting towards title ix), we could bring back men’s soccer at the collegiate level, restore the pipeline for parents to support their kids playing the sport beyond middle school, and start developing more players in general.
Title IX is the single biggest reason why soccer participation drops off so sharply after middle school. If we eliminate the insane scholarship limits caused by there being no equivalent to football (or just fully segregated football scholarships towards counting towards title ix), we could bring back men’s soccer at the collegiate level, restore the pipeline for parents to support their kids playing the sport beyond middle school, and start developing more players in general.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:48 am to real turf fan
Wow, what a fresh take!
People have been saying this for over a decade. Yes, pay to play has been a huge problem in development for soccer, and other sports as well.
Now that we have our own MLS academies, are those actually effective? I know it's kind of early, but I'm not seeing any talent come to fruition so far. Or are these academies just a more glorified pay to play scheme?
People have been saying this for over a decade. Yes, pay to play has been a huge problem in development for soccer, and other sports as well.
Now that we have our own MLS academies, are those actually effective? I know it's kind of early, but I'm not seeing any talent come to fruition so far. Or are these academies just a more glorified pay to play scheme?
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:53 am to kingbob
quote:
I think the lack of scholarship opportunities for soccer players is the main reason for the lack of development of players. Because there’s no scholarship potential for most boys, if they’re talented athletes, they’ll be steered towards other sports where they could potentially earn a college scholarship.
College soccer is terrible for development.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:53 am to SuperSaint
quote:
I personally don’t give a shite how the rest of the world does things. Regarding travel ball or anything else.
Well considering the rest of the world is significantly better at Soccer and is developing talent and we are not, maybe we should in this case?
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:53 am to RAB
quote:
Their culture is soccer obsessed in ways that exceed our own love of football in the South
Basically, everybody can play soccer. Not everyone can play football. Our best athletes will still gravitate to football and basketball. It just is what it is and any attempts to unorganically alter this will only have marginal success.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:57 am to kingbob
I'd say this is somewhat correct. All my boys started playing soccer as soon as they were old enough to sign up. They didn't play because we loved soccer, they played because it was good exercise and was a complimentary sport to hockey, which they also played.
After a few years they dropped soccer, stuck with hockey, and picked up baseball, golf, and eventually played some football as they got older.
Bottom line is that if you are going to spend a whole bunch of time (and money) on a sport you want there to be some future down the road, if they turn out to be good enough. There is close to zero future in soccer. At least with most other sports in the USA there is a chance to play in college (NCAA D1, D2, D3, NAIA). Even hockey, outside NCAA hockey, has a strong college hockey structure with the ACHA club programs.
Soccer doesn't have that fallback college soccer option. It's professional or bust.
After a few years they dropped soccer, stuck with hockey, and picked up baseball, golf, and eventually played some football as they got older.
Bottom line is that if you are going to spend a whole bunch of time (and money) on a sport you want there to be some future down the road, if they turn out to be good enough. There is close to zero future in soccer. At least with most other sports in the USA there is a chance to play in college (NCAA D1, D2, D3, NAIA). Even hockey, outside NCAA hockey, has a strong college hockey structure with the ACHA club programs.
Soccer doesn't have that fallback college soccer option. It's professional or bust.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:57 am to SlowFlowPro
I agree the college system isn't a great development of talent for soccer to the national team. However, if more college programs had sanctioned D1 teams, it creates more incentive for youth to get involved in the sport, with a clear goal/path to scholarships and saying you were a D1 athlete at top athletic school. With more youth in the sport then you can find more of the gems that can go on to elite training.
I know it's anecdotal, but I played the sport growing up and while I was fairly decent, I wasn't overly motivated to become the best, because there was no future in the sport other than small schools or East coast schools. Had any of the D1 programs in Louisiana sponsored a NCAA team, I'd like to think I would have committed more to the sport, trying to earn an athletic scholarship to play a D1 sport. But that didn't exist so my extra time was focused on academics and work
I know it's anecdotal, but I played the sport growing up and while I was fairly decent, I wasn't overly motivated to become the best, because there was no future in the sport other than small schools or East coast schools. Had any of the D1 programs in Louisiana sponsored a NCAA team, I'd like to think I would have committed more to the sport, trying to earn an athletic scholarship to play a D1 sport. But that didn't exist so my extra time was focused on academics and work
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:57 am to Y.A. Tittle
quote:
Basically, everybody can play soccer. Not everyone can play football. Our best athletes will still gravitate to football and basketball. It just is what it is and any attempts to unorganically alter this will only have marginal success.
Having our super elite tier drift to soccer is very unlikely, but we have a huge population of people with no future in football or basketball who could become pro soccer players and we should focus on getting a % of them to think about soccer early.
This is a copy/paste from one of my posts from a thread on the MSB
quote:
These conversations always try to focus on the elite of our Tier 1 (like the Lebron Jameses), but we could dominate without touching that tier, or even tier 2, or even probably tier 3.
We have so many athletes of the typical soccer build playing college sports at relatively high levels. We see these kids every year in college football and college basketball. There are so many WRs, CBs, Ss, PGs, SGs, etc. playing for shitty football/basketball teams with no chance of going pro. Hell, even if we just limited the pool to 1AA and D2, we'd have an incredible assortment. Then add in all the amazing high school players who don't even get those shots for being 5-7 - 5-10.
These college players who are successful show you they have the proper mentality to develop as an athlete. The discipline, coachability, effort, etc. shows they can be trained.
Now the high school pool obviously doesn't show the same level, but that population is so large you'd probably get even more out of it.
And we wouldn't need all of them. 10% of that population being steered towards soccer probably sets us up as elite. 20-25% and we're France, capable of producing multiple elite squads.
It's a numbers game, and we have the potential numbers, sports culture, money, etc. to do something on a level soccer hasn't seen.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:58 am to moneyg
quote:
This is true. An investment into mens college soccer probably would be a significant benefit.
If you're legit you're already at a pro club at that age overseas
Posted on 7/8/26 at 9:59 am to Rex Feral
quote:Sounds like Greek life for parents.
I was going to make a smart arse comment before I remembered that's how I felt about travel sports when I was a kid and my parents spent all their time with my sister's travel softball. Then I grew up and had kids who did travel sports. I became friends with the other kids' parents and realized that's why my parents were so into it. It's a friend group of similar minded people who you get to hang out with and drink beer with in the evenings after the kids go to bed.
"We paid $10K/year so we could drink beer in hotel lobbies with our new friends."
This post was edited on 7/8/26 at 10:02 am
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