I'm sharing an email I got today - it wasn't sent anonymously, but since they probably didn't expect to be featured in my blog, I'm not revealing who sent it. I'm just wondering if anyone else can relate.
Oh, yeah, the Justin Mapp article that caused the email to be written.
The Email:
It starts at the the youth level where club coaches and parents all want to WIN, WIN, WIN!
Instead of placing trust in the individual players to grow into their own game at their own pace. This is the single most important aspect of soccer in this country that must change if we are to improve our standing compared to the rest of the world. Many felt a Klinsmann or another foreign coach would be the answer to this problem as they would have brought their ideas of youth development to this country and thus begin to change existing ideas (in youth club soccer) of how to nurture young, dynamic soccer players. There are more than you think out there right now, but many get ignored due to their lack of consistent defending or hustle plays? As any coach worth anything will tell you, it is a lot easier to teach a kid to defend than it is to create on his own. Does Cristiano Ronaldo defend all the time and very well? No! But I doubt you wouldn't find one US coach that would leave him out of his team right now. But I doubt he would have made it coming up as a youth player in the US in the 90's.
4 comments:
The email is definitely a fairly accurate depiction of the state of youth soccer in the U.S. - just this past weekend I watched nearly 4-5 hrs of "select-level" U11 soccer at a State Cup tournament, and boy, was it unimaginative soccer. This is the age they are supposed to be dancing around on the field, not hustling up and down the field.
Even in the World Cup, one may remember DaMarcus Beasley, one of the more creative members of the squad, chafing about how the expectation to defend severely limited his creative play.
Part of it, I'm sure, is that that teh u.S. is a culture geared more to effectiveness (winning) than beauty or style. It's why soccer fans go crazy when someone tells them, "Nothing happened in the game." because no goals were scored. No one would ever say that about a baseball game featuring double no-hitters.
I agree very strongly with these comments. Having been through the American system, playing at state, regional, and division I college levels, I was constantly struggling to maintain my identity as a player. Being technically gifted backfired on me throughout my career even at the so called "highest level" of American soccer. I can only assume that my ability to take a good first touch or play out of tight situations gave the allusion that I was not working as hard as my teammates. With few exceptions Youth American coaches emphasize winning over player developement, and give few chances to potentially creative players. Of the players I met during my career who I considered extremely talented, not a single one continued to play past the age of 20. Something must be done to change this trend. The only way for the Cristiano Ronaldos, Decos and Ronaldinhos to be developed in this country is to change the youth system's mentality from winning to developement. At this point we would be better off without coaches as they are doing more harm than good.
This is so true. My daughter, now a freshman in college and on her college soccer team, is also an example of this. She scored goal of the year her senior year in high school (a double sombrero over two defenders, one on each side, and then struck it upper 90, scoring 1 of 4 goals scored against that team - state champs - all year) and also had goal of the year her first year in college. But she rarely got to start in high school; never got to start in college and if she gets 10 minutes, that's rare. Why? They don't care that she can steal the ball without fouling, make one move and juke her defenders and get free, set up her teammates with such moves - all they want is kick and run and knocking people around. If you're big and burly, you're in the starting 11. It's very frustrating.
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