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re: Dan Wetzel blames "Travel Ball" for the lack of development of US Soccer
Posted on 7/8/26 at 10:51 am to DCtiger1
Posted on 7/8/26 at 10:51 am to DCtiger1
quote:
They dont have to play for MLS. They could make bank overseas and still play for the national team
So put in a ton of work all of your life only to leave the greatest country in the world to make it? No thanks
2
Posted on 7/8/26 at 10:52 am to ILurkThereforeIAm
quote:I have the opposite experience. My 13 year old quit rec league soccer this year.
I have a 13 year old son, and it seems to be less niche among his generation. They all wear the jerseys, play FIFA World Cup on the Xbox, and argue about which pro player is the best. He plays soccer at the local rec district,
Why? Rec leagues are floundering by that age in my area because of travel leagues. There’s a lot of kids like my son that enjoy the sport, but not enough to commit their time to a travel league, so they give up the sport entirely.
They might not be making any great developmental progress in rec leagues at that age, but at least they are playing the sport and remaining engaged.
A high level athlete isn’t going to fail at a sport simply because they spend a couple of years playing recreationally at a lower level, but they don’t have a chance if they give it up entirely.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 10:54 am to Adam Banks
quote:
The problem for competitive soccer and the US is it is at best 4th in line for kids here.
I think all those ghetto kids who become amazing Wide receivers, defensive backs, point guards, and shooting guards might be pretty good soccer players if they gave a crap about the sport
Posted on 7/8/26 at 10:55 am to DownshiftAndFloorIt
quote:
So that means the highest paid soccer players in the world are ~ 20M short of the best NBA players. Thats more competitive than I thought it would be, but that is still a very significant gap and whats the pay like for the average pro soccer player?
Athletes in the US do football/basketball/baseball for the money. If there were a reasonable path to high income for playing soccer in the US, some of our best athletes would be doing it. There isnt, so they don't.
Possible earnings isn't the reason at all.
Professional soccer players that aren't superstars in the top paying leagues like in England, Spain, Italy, Germany mostly average 3-5m per year and those numbers are, unlike here, reported post taxes.
More significantly, there are simply a lot more international leagues below those that pay well.
You can compare it to basketball where American players make good money in European leagues but the amount of soccer leagues and money in them completely dwarfs basketball internationally.
Again, there's a lot of reasons the US doesn't develop as many great players as the elite countries but potential earnings really isn't one of them.
The "reasonable path" isn't about how much money is being paid to soccer players as much as the reasons being discussed for why potential American soccer players think they're not going to make it to that level.
This post was edited on 7/8/26 at 11:04 am
Posted on 7/8/26 at 10:58 am to Gravitiger
Well when I googled “LSU club sports” (lsu.edu) neither of those showed up in their listing for “men’s sports clubs”. Just saying. 
Posted on 7/8/26 at 10:58 am to Rex Feral
quote:
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.
Travel sports weren't a thing when I was growing up.. Had some older friends having kids getting into travel sports and I though it was absurd... I now have a daughter that plays tournament golf and the other the competes in competitive dance ( arguably one of the most expensive of travel anything) and I can't really make fun of them because here I am doing the same thing... But you're right about the parents,, Most of the dads hangout and drink .. Dance moms can be sketchy ...
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:00 am to real turf fan
Youth sports in the US is backwards as hell.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:04 am to SoDakHawk
quote:he might of knee capped it but it's a net loss to athletic departments. It need to be done away with.
I thought Title 9 got knee capped by the Trump administration? Isn't it now roster limits per sport and not scholarship limits?
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:05 am to teke184
No soccer won't take off here because we're not pussies.
The amout of flopping and writhing in pain writhing until the ref comes to you and hope the other team gets carded is a bitch as move and that might play in Europe and South America but in the US we have football where people ar running 20 mph into another player running 20 mph and they both get up.
Soccer needs to police its self and yellow cards need to be given out for flopping.
The amout of flopping and writhing in pain writhing until the ref comes to you and hope the other team gets carded is a bitch as move and that might play in Europe and South America but in the US we have football where people ar running 20 mph into another player running 20 mph and they both get up.
Soccer needs to police its self and yellow cards need to be given out for flopping.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:05 am to WhiteMandingo
You can always expect these sorts of articles after a World Cup crash out. Consistently, however, they all lack practical solutions to the problems they present.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:07 am to WhiteMandingo
quote:
The amout of flopping and writhing in pain writhing until the ref comes to you and hope the other team gets carded is a bitch arse move
So, you're saying Lebron missed his calling?
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:08 am to boogiewoogie1978
And no kid in america dreams of doing that, especially extremely athletically gifted black kids. They want to be Kobe, LeBron, Adrien Petterson, etc. Not Messi. They dont even know who Messi is.
My school was more than half black. I graduated with two guys who started in the NFL and played with 4 who did. Only one of them played soccer, the other 3 basketball. I think our soccer team had two black guys out of the maybe 20 man rooster, and this is a large 5A public school 15 years ago. They just have zero interest in the sport, and few of white kids did. We had a few soccer players who could have been really good at any sport but for the most part, they weren't big enough for football/basketball and couldnt make the baseball team. Id say that applies to basically every large high school in the southeastern United States, where a tremendous amount of our best athletes come from.
My school was more than half black. I graduated with two guys who started in the NFL and played with 4 who did. Only one of them played soccer, the other 3 basketball. I think our soccer team had two black guys out of the maybe 20 man rooster, and this is a large 5A public school 15 years ago. They just have zero interest in the sport, and few of white kids did. We had a few soccer players who could have been really good at any sport but for the most part, they weren't big enough for football/basketball and couldnt make the baseball team. Id say that applies to basically every large high school in the southeastern United States, where a tremendous amount of our best athletes come from.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:08 am to DownshiftAndFloorIt
Forbes highest paid athletes list
Ronaldo's contract is insane because the Saudi's threw an oil tanker full of cash to get Ronaldo to agree to play for a club in Saudi. $400M over 2 years
But Ronaldo and Messi have been the 2 highest paid athletes in the world in any team sport for the last 10+ years. Shohei would have overtaken Messi this year if 95% of his Dodgers salary wasn't deferred until he's retired.
Ronaldo's contract is insane because the Saudi's threw an oil tanker full of cash to get Ronaldo to agree to play for a club in Saudi. $400M over 2 years
But Ronaldo and Messi have been the 2 highest paid athletes in the world in any team sport for the last 10+ years. Shohei would have overtaken Messi this year if 95% of his Dodgers salary wasn't deferred until he's retired.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:10 am to real turf fan
This same bullshite surfaces every four years...
Soccer is on the rise in America, we only need to have our youth embrace it.
The US would excel in America if only we made the sport more accessible to urban youth.
The US would excel in America if our youth programs were developed more.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
Like clockwork.
Simple facts are:
Most Americans find Soccer boring.
Most Americans do not enjoy spectator sports in the same manner as European and Latin fans do -- our game viewing habits, our sports traditions, and our fandoms are vastly different than other countries.
Lastly, at the end of the World Cup, most Americans who have had their judgement clouded for several weeks go back to the clear realization, Soccer Sucks.
Soccer is on the rise in America, we only need to have our youth embrace it.
The US would excel in America if only we made the sport more accessible to urban youth.
The US would excel in America if our youth programs were developed more.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
Like clockwork.
Simple facts are:
Most Americans find Soccer boring.
Most Americans do not enjoy spectator sports in the same manner as European and Latin fans do -- our game viewing habits, our sports traditions, and our fandoms are vastly different than other countries.
Lastly, at the end of the World Cup, most Americans who have had their judgement clouded for several weeks go back to the clear realization, Soccer Sucks.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:11 am to Boudreauboudreaugoly
They're both probably coed.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:11 am to WhiteMandingo
I was watching the Switzerland vs Egypt game last night. There was an Egyptian player who, with two minutes left in the game, took himself out. I realize they were in OT and that guy had already played 130 minutes and was beat up and cramping, but I couldn't imagine a professional football, hockey, basketball, etc. player in the USA taking himself out of the game at such a critical point in the end because he was "hurt". That's mentally soft.
Which is exactly why Pulisic is taking so much flack for leaving the game with a twisted ankle. In American sports culture you play with the pain and gut your way through it.
Which is exactly why Pulisic is taking so much flack for leaving the game with a twisted ankle. In American sports culture you play with the pain and gut your way through it.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:11 am to Adam Banks
quote:
Hey 8 year old tyrann mathieu you can keep playing football and make generational wealth here in the US OR you can make even MORE generational wealth but only be able to do so on the opposite side of the world where you don’t know the language and your friends and family will likely never see you play in person and probably not even on tv….you in?”
You’re acting as if Europe is the far side of the moon and people don’t speak English there
And then you’re pretending that friends and family can’t get on a plane and visit to watch a game or even watch soccer on TV
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:14 am to danilo
quote:
think all those ghetto kids who become amazing Wide receivers, defensive backs, point guards, and shooting guards might be pretty good soccer players if they gave a crap about the sport
And somehow they make it to plenty of development camps, AAU ball etc.
Whether it’s due to a coach wanting a competitive advantage and helping out, parents making sacrifices etc if a kid is a prodigy and has sufficient interest it works out.
It’s just all our prodigies are playing other sports.
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:15 am to VOLhalla
quote:
You’re acting as if Europe is the far side of the moon and people don’t speak English there
To a kid in inner city NOLA or Chicago?
Might as well be.
Particularly at such a young age.
quote:
And then you’re pretending that friends and family can’t get on a plane and visit to watch a game or even watch soccer on TV
How many people in Oklahoma City know how to get ligue 1 or bundesliga 2?
Remember we are talking about making decisions as KIDS/early adolescents.
We aren’t talking about the D 1 basketball player at the age of 22 not making the NBA and saying well I’ll go to Europe.
This post was edited on 7/8/26 at 11:18 am
Posted on 7/8/26 at 11:17 am to Tiger Prawn
Those are some insane numbers.
If you go down the list and sort by on field earnings, it starts being a lot of united states basketball and baseball players.
If I cared beyond arguing on the internet while in pointless phone calls, id say let's figure out the top 1000 paid athletes in the world and see how many are US football and basketball players vs soccer. That'd tell a more complete story.
Ronaldo and Messi were the only two soccer players names I recognized on there at a glance though.
If you go down the list and sort by on field earnings, it starts being a lot of united states basketball and baseball players.
If I cared beyond arguing on the internet while in pointless phone calls, id say let's figure out the top 1000 paid athletes in the world and see how many are US football and basketball players vs soccer. That'd tell a more complete story.
Ronaldo and Messi were the only two soccer players names I recognized on there at a glance though.
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