USA men again fail to qualify for Olympic soccer.

[usasoccerboy]

If you think like me, you believe the reason we continually fail at the Olympic and younger age tournaments in men's soccer is due to the climate of soccer in the USA being totally different from the rest of the world in how we train and develop our players.  This difference is mostly because of our youth, high school, and college systems being inferior to those of other nations.

It is time to get rid of all school soccer and replace it with a genuine club system where kids and teenagers constantly compete for a spot (not just a one time try out before the season starts), can earn money for playing on the best teams of the club, and play a schedule that does not disrupt play as soon as teams start playing better soccer, by ending a season in order to switch to a high school or other season with other teams and players.  

It was pathetic to watch the Olympic men's team get out classed by Columbia last night.  They were uncomfortable on the ball, incapable of holding the opponent's attack at the middle third, and non productive in creating scoring chances.  The USA showed that they are no where close to generating competent players at the youth and Olympic level.  It is the fault of how we develop players in this country and something needs to happen or we will continue to struggle producing players who can compete at the international level.  

[beasleyisbeastly]

While the team as a whole was horrific I really liked Tim Parker. He was an absolute beast on the back line. I don't even care that he stomped that dude. If you ask me, if you dive you deserve to get stomped.

[loJic]

Tim Parker was impressive.

[rlb2024]

Mar 30, 2016 14:01:41 GMT -6 usasoccerboy said:

If you think like me, you believe the reason we continually fail at the Olympic and younger age tournaments in men's soccer is due to the climate of soccer in the USA being totally different from the rest of the world in how we train and develop our players.  This difference is mostly because of our youth, high school, and college systems being inferior to those of other nations.

It is time to get rid of all school soccer and replace it with a genuine club system where kids and teenagers constantly compete for a spot (not just a one time try out before the season starts), can earn money for playing on the best teams of the club, and play a schedule that does not disrupt play as soon as teams start playing better soccer, by ending a season in order to switch to a high school or other season with other teams and players.  

It was pathetic to watch the Olympic men's team get out classed by Columbia last night.  They were uncomfortable on the ball, incapable of holding the opponent's attack at the middle third, and non productive in creating scoring chances.  The USA showed that they are no where close to generating competent players at the youth and Olympic level.  It is the fault of how we develop players in this country and something needs to happen or we will continue to struggle producing players who can compete at the international level.  

So you want to get rid of high school soccer, which is played by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls across the country to have some fun and represent their school, for the sake of a hundred or so kids who are good enough to be called up for the national team?

How many of those players even play high school soccer?  A great many play in the DA system and probably don't even play HS soccer.

My son has played for 14 years now, from rec league through club, several years of RPL and Regionals, and some ODP -- but the most fun he has had was wearing his high school colors.  They weren't the best team, and it was colder than a well-digger's spittoon most of the time, but the bus trips and the camaraderie are some of his fondest memories.  Watching him advance from a young freshman who was thrilled just to be training (and occasionally playing) with the varsity team, to wearing a captain's armband and being a team leader and mentor to the younger players in his upperclass years, has meant a hell of a lot more to me as a parent than whatever happens to the national team.

To throw out the school system would be to deprive these young players of some wonderful experiences.  The great majority of school players have no intention or desire to play at the national level, but will excel in other areas by using the life lessons of high school athletics.  Getting rid of it just for the sake of developing a few national-team players would be an incomprehensible mistake.

[firebruin]

I think the new "no heading" rule for younger players is going to be more of a detriment to development than high school soccer is to the club system.

[usasoccerboy]

Apr 7, 2016 21:14:47 GMT -6 rlb2024 said:

Mar 30, 2016 14:01:41 GMT -6 usasoccerboy said:

If you think like me, you believe the reason we continually fail at the Olympic and younger age tournaments in men's soccer is due to the climate of soccer in the USA being totally different from the rest of the world in how we train and develop our players.  This difference is mostly because of our youth, high school, and college systems being inferior to those of other nations.

It is time to get rid of all school soccer and replace it with a genuine club system where kids and teenagers constantly compete for a spot (not just a one time try out before the season starts), can earn money for playing on the best teams of the club, and play a schedule that does not disrupt play as soon as teams start playing better soccer, by ending a season in order to switch to a high school or other season with other teams and players.  

It was pathetic to watch the Olympic men's team get out classed by Columbia last night.  They were uncomfortable on the ball, incapable of holding the opponent's attack at the middle third, and non productive in creating scoring chances.  The USA showed that they are no where close to generating competent players at the youth and Olympic level.  It is the fault of how we develop players in this country and something needs to happen or we will continue to struggle producing players who can compete at the international level.  

So you want to get rid of high school soccer, which is played by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls across the country to have some fun and represent their school, for the sake of a hundred or so kids who are good enough to be called up for the national team?

How many of those players even play high school soccer?  A great many play in the DA system and probably don't even play HS soccer.

My son has played for 14 years now, from rec league through club, several years of RPL and Regionals, and some ODP -- but the most fun he has had was wearing his high school colors.  They weren't the best team, and it was colder than a well-digger's spittoon most of the time, but the bus trips and the camaraderie are some of his fondest memories.  Watching him advance from a young freshman who was thrilled just to be training (and occasionally playing) with the varsity team, to wearing a captain's armband and being a team leader and mentor to the younger players in his upperclass years, has meant a hell of a lot more to me as a parent than whatever happens to the national team.

To throw out the school system would be to deprive these young players of some wonderful experiences.  The great majority of school players have no intention or desire to play at the national level, but will excel in other areas by using the life lessons of high school athletics.  Getting rid of it just for the sake of developing a few national-team players would be an incomprehensible mistake.

YES!  I want to get rid of High School and College soccer.  Why?  1.  They do not play by FIFA rules.  2.  They limit the season and the training of all competitors with draconian rules that do not apply to the development of a national team.  3.  They subdivide the seasons so that players start with one team, then may go to another team, and then to only return to a team they played with before, but usually with a few roster modifications.  Why is that bad?  Because good coaching brings players to develop playing better soccer.  For instance, a coach may start out with 1v1 teaching and then progress, to 2v1, 2v2, 3v2, 3v3, 4v2, 4v3,  4v4, 5v4 up till 11v11 tactics.  When these players get this far in a season of playing, it would benefit development of our players if we learned to play at this higher level and continue to play at it by not breaking up the team so it can go play school soccer.  This would increase repetition of players playing more advanced soccer.  Instead, a coach in our systems, usually coaches 1 or 2 practices a week before playing up to 5 or 6 games on weekend.  If we had a club system, dates of play would usually be consistent, and not reliant on organizations whose main emphasis is school grades rather than development of players.  The best players should have a system where they can escape the draconian school systems that treat the game as if it was baseball or American football.   As for your son's non passionate enjoyment of highschool soccer, he can and should play as long as he wants to, but the advance players should not have to, no matter how much fun high school is.  Instead, they should be competing for Club, city, regional, and state teams that draw fan interest and pay for the privileged.   So, lets say your son was playing as he was and lets say Louisiana had a development team.  Say, this team plays all over the state, just a as a national team plays all over their country, and they compete against other states, or other clubs, at a higher level.  Say, 3,000 people attend and pay $4 to attend and that after expenses the club makes $10k that it uses to pay $400 per player for each win and $300 for each loss paid by revenue.  Would you want your son to play on his high school team and retain his NCAA and/or Olympic eligibility (then again, Olympics allows pros to play in Olympics, so his eligibility to play Curling) or play for a team he can profit a few dollars for his efforts?   Would the money encourage kids to stay in the sport and continue to seek being a professional?  Pele won his first WC at 17.  Do you think he could have developed that fast if he was playing in the NCAA or LHSAA?  Or, did the fact at 15 he working in the local club, polishing players boots, encourage him to practice and learn so that he can get where he needed to be?  The NCAA is never going to develop players until they adopt FIFA rules and allow players to play all year long, not just in the fall.  Till then, a true club system like the rest of the world plays will always be superior to NCAA/LHSAA and other school systems to develop superior players.