re: Will the US change its youth system?

We need to put soccer courts next to basketball courts in the hood and market heavily to inner city youth. Have street guys from France and England come over and do tours around, make it big and flashy. Start a pick up game culture and promote the relative ease of getting a soccer scholarship to college as opposed to football or basketball.

After I moved back from France, I put together a document with facts, figures, locations and strategies based on everything I experienced playing on the streets in Paris and Lyon. I put a lot into it and sent to several people at US Soccer. Never heard a damn thing back.

We really won't see the big leap until parents are educated on the basics.

It’s not like they have a say.

It’s not like we are really in direct competition with them anyway.

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FC Dallas has a massive set up and even then it’s not free for everyone at all levels

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Yes, that’s unfortunately true. Those teams are the epitome of pay to play. And they are expensive. Probably use those dues to pay for the players that they put through the real academy

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For 4 year olds

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Nah not true. When the concussion shite hit the NFL big 10 or so years ago there was a pretty massive uptick to an already quickly growing sport.

A lot of the moms saw that CTE shite and directed their chads and thads to buy shin…pads

Here's a story from Yahoo on overhauling our youth system.

LINK

Love this bc all of you equate size and straight line speed with this statement. Athleticism is a combination of both. It incorporates lateral movement, strength and size. It’s why CEH excels at his position. It’s why J Chase and JJ excel at their positions. It’s why D White excels at his. Those guys, age wise, would be better players than anyone on the current team if they had started down that path. The more you guys deny it, the more it makes my point. If you think that our best athletes actually play this sport then you are all truly stupid. The problem at the core is that soccer people run youth soccer. You need people who recognize and understand natural athleticism at the youth level , with soccer people only coaching them from a skill and strategic standpoint. There is a reason why certain kids excel at football, baseball, and basketball. They are the BEST athletes for their respective sports. The US doesn’t put those same kids in a position to be the best in soccer. It’s a fact.

Just go through and read the thread people have explained it continuously.

Take Croatia for example. Their most important player still at age 37 is 5’8 Luka Modric. He is not a freak athlete and never has been. But he is amazing at seeing the field where players are and need to be. He tops it off with the ability to pass amazing ball and bring those players into more dangerous positions. He hit an amazing shot in the round of 16, that took an unbelievable save to stop. We had a laugh about this exact post in the in game thread.

the same thing with Messi. There are countless examples. Soccers best players don’t have to be and often aren’t freak athletes. Hell Ronaldo has been talked ab his entire career ab being a physical freak in the sport and he’s 6’1 180.

You cannot out athlete teams at soccer. The USA team probably have better all around athletes than just about every team at this World Cup and they had a rather lack luster showing.

It’s why upsets happen in soccer a lot more than other sports. It’s so easy take 30 seconds off mentally and you lose your man and give up a quick counter goal.

Soccer comes down to Tactical Intelligence, being technically sound, being able to run all day, and speed and agility. The bigger guys give up more in the speed department than their strength is worth.

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Here's a story from Yahoo on overhauling our youth system. LINK

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This was a great article. Thanks for sharing.

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I used to think this same way back in 2014. But it’s just simply not true.

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It's just such a dumb premise. We have a country of 350 million. There is no shortage of athletes. The Americans we have playing soccer aren't playing soccer because they couldn't hack it in another sport.