OT: Copa America 2016

[CERU00]

I've watched more soccer in the last two years then I ever anticipated watching on my whole life because of my daughters. One thing I've learned is soccer is different. You literally have to have a soccer ball on your foot daily to create the skills needed to succeed. You could send some dominant 16 year old athlete to coach Toal having never seen a football and get him a scholarship. That wouldn't happen in soccer. We either need to send promising youth to some IMG type campus from the age of 8 or start incentivizing foreigners to come play for us over their natural country.

Haven't watched our teams much? Our lineups are typically loaded with non US natives. At one point we had a handful of Germans who had American servicmen fathers inc Green, Brooks, Chandler and Jones. Most of the rest of the team are first generation Americans.

 

[LevaosLectures]

Big picture: we made the Semis of the Copa America. Pretty neat.

Can we just abolish the Gold Cup because this is so much better.

 

[rutgersguy1]

Big picture: we made the Semis of the Copa America. Pretty neat.

Can we just abolish the Gold Cup because this is so much better.

There were rumors of a merger a couple weeks ago but Gulati put a damper on that. He said if anything there could be a new separate tourney outside of the Copa America and Gold Cup where the Conmebol teams and CONCACAF teams could play. Don't know if anything will come of that.

 

[miketd1]

Sir: kinda. I will add that in soccer, it's nearly impossible to overcome inexperience. It's not something that you can pick up in your late teens and expect to still be world class. Most of the worlds' best players were playing the game since they could walk and have generations of family members & friends to play with, test their moves against, and discuss strategy with.

That is such a killer advantage. Like in basketball where grandpa, father, brother, uncle, and son learn how to play against each other and other bigger/faster/stronger/smarter family members and friends. I can still remember uncles teaching me post up moves and my friends practicing our Hardaway/Iverson crossovers on each other. We'd play till the moon came out and do it all over again the next day, getting better and gaining confidence with each touch of the ball.

I imagine it's a lot like that for soccer in other countries.

But here, kids play in highly supervised environments. They are grouped by age, athletic ability, and skill level. Few are going to dare performing a roulette 360 or Cryuff turn when they know if they lose the ball or otherwise mess up they will be benched or demoted. "Get rid of it!" is the typical soccer mom war cry. The club coaches are pressured to win so many times they advocate hoofing the ball up to the speedy guy. It's the "safe" route to club soccer.

And this is why we have players who "look" like they simply want to "get rid of it" when even under the lightest pressure -- that's what they've been doing for decades.

 

[rutgersguy1]

Well reading that article above it actually sounds like we do have some of that nascent talent here. So in some sense that is encouraging because I didn't know if it existed here at all. But it's in our impoverished urban minority communities where it doesn't get a chance to be discovered, mined and harnessed.

So obviously discovering and developing that talent is a difficult task but it sounds like it exists and there are diamonds here to be found. I don't know that we'll take another step up in class until that happens. From what I read here it doesn't sound like our current system lends itself to creating world class players you find on other elite teams.

It sounds like we need that early on unstructured "playground soccer" type development and we actually have it here from the sound of that article but not much is being done with it. Is there anyway to or do we have scouts from international clubs at different levels around Europe come here and scout these regions of the US? How do some of these elite South American players get discovered and brought to Europe?

 

[cubuffsdoug]

Haven't watched our teams much? Our lineups are typically loaded with non US natives. At one point we had a handful of Germans who had American servicmen fathers inc Green, Brooks, Chandler and Jones. Most of the rest of the team are first generation Americans.

Why are you calling them Germans/ non natives?

 

[mcbabz]

The US lacks a pool of players that play at a higher level (England/Spain/Germany)...as someone that has played at a decent level, the difference is the equivalent of a bunch of AAA (MLS) all star ball players playing against a major league (England/Spain/German Leagues) all star team. It's the subtle difference in the pace of play and speed of thought, I played against guys that played in MLS and the lower divisions overseas and I can tell you I could out run all of them, I could out jump most of them and I had a solid first touch.....BUT, they were already in the spot I was going to with the ball before the ball even got to my feet, they thought so much faster and further ahead and once you realize that on the field, you PRESS and start to think too much.

The US can hang with teams outside of the top 10 in the world, once you get into the top 5 or so teams in the world, it's another BIG gap to overcome. We just don't have the players that are use to playing ever week at that level and speed. We have some guys like Brooks, Pulisic, Yedlin, Cameron, Fabian Johnson that are use to it, but if you have other guys on the field with you that are not, it's tough to play cohesively as you are playing a ball you expect teammates to anticipate or expecting them to cover runs behind you that they are not or just expecting them to be more composed on the ball then they are used too.

Hopefully we have guys like Pulisic, Miazga, Zelalem, Hyndmann and MAYBE Green who can become REGULARS at the highest levels at least. The next step would be for a few of them to be considered dangerous players in the top leagues, at this point, we just don't have that....other teams respect Dempsey, but he's older and he's become more of a poacher, not able to run at guys with the ball himself, he needs his team to get him the ball in a dangerous spot, if we play a top team where possession is at a premium, he's much reduced as a player.

 

[vkj91]

Haven't watched our teams much? Our lineups are typically loaded with non US natives. At one point we had a handful of Germans who had American servicmen fathers inc Green, Brooks, Chandler and Jones. Most of the rest of the team are first generation Americans.

No I do and I know we made a push with some German guys. What I meant was we need to get guys who have other options. Not I can't play for my country so I'm gonna go play there. We need to figure out a way to become a destination.

 

[miketd1]

Mcbabz: nice insight. 2 questions for you. 1.) what are your thoughts on Klinnsman and 2.) if you were youth technical director, what changes (if any) would you make?

 

[zappaa]

Mcbabz: nice insight. 2 questions for you. 1.) what are your thoughts on Klinnsman and 2.) if you were youth technical director, what changes (if any) would you make?

Pressure the ball, take away time and space.
Youth programs in America should stress full speed running and keeping possession...scoring not passing.
Euros and S Americans grow up learning first touch because they get pressure on them from the time they're five.
We simply do not pressure the ball on defense, good teams are shocked at the time and space they get against us, we're easy to play against

 

[SirScarlet]

The US lacks a pool of players that play at a higher level (England/Spain/Germany)...as someone that has played at a decent level, the difference is the equivalent of a bunch of AAA (MLS) all star ball players playing against a major league (England/Spain/German Leagues) all star team. It's the subtle difference in the pace of play and speed of thought, I played against guys that played in MLS and the lower divisions overseas and I can tell you I could out run all of them, I could out jump most of them and I had a solid first touch.....BUT, they were already in the spot I was going to with the ball before the ball even got to my feet, they thought so much faster and further ahead and once you realize that on the field, you PRESS and start to think too much.

The US can hang with teams outside of the top 10 in the world, once you get into the top 5 or so teams in the world, it's another BIG gap to overcome. We just don't have the players that are use to playing ever week at that level and speed. We have some guys like Brooks, Pulisic, Yedlin, Cameron, Fabian Johnson that are use to it, but if you have other guys on the field with you that are not, it's tough to play cohesively as you are playing a ball you expect teammates to anticipate or expecting them to cover runs behind you that they are not or just expecting them to be more composed on the ball then they are used too.

Hopefully we have guys like Pulisic, Miazga, Zelalem, Hyndmann and MAYBE Green who can become REGULARS at the highest levels at least. The next step would be for a few of them to be considered dangerous players in the top leagues, at this point, we just don't have that....other teams respect Dempsey, but he's older and he's become more of a poacher, not able to run at guys with the ball himself, he needs his team to get him the ball in a dangerous spot, if we play a top team where possession is at a premium, he's much reduced as a player.

i get it, but you are being way too kind

last night was an absolute choke job. there's no way around it. when your captain can't make the most basic pass under average / no pressure, and your backs can't even clear the ball without looking like they just make a u9 travel team, something is off.

I understand the quality of who we were playing last night. but that doesn't excuse how poorly we played.

sometimes I think we try to over-analyze the whys...and I think your post is a very good one...but I dont it's applicable to last night's debacle.

last night we simply choked.

 

[Bamm Bamm Rubble]

Rumors of the merge has been talked about for 15 years... Combol really wants that American TV dollar but FIFA will never let it go down. Its too much of a financial risk for the United States and Mexico not to make the World Cup. They almost sh@t their paints during the last qualifiers. You'll probably see the MLS with one or two spots in the Euro Champions League before you'll see FIFA allowing such a risky decision. They need Mexico and The US in every World Cup.

 

[rutgersguy1]

Rumors of the merge has been talked about for 15 years... Combol really wants that American TV dollar but FIFA will never let it go down. Its too much of a financial risk for the United States and Mexico not to make the World Cup. They almost sh@t their paints during the last qualifiers. You'll probably see the MLS with one or two spots in the Euro Champions League before you'll see FIFA allowing such a risky decision. They need Mexico and The US in every World Cup.

Well from what was said it doesn't sound like you'd get rid of the Gold Cup or Copa America so that risk wouldn't exist. It would be a new tournament combining the 2 outside of those tournaments if it were ever to happen. So the risk of not qualifying would be no different than it is now.

 

[SirScarlet]

Well from what was said it doesn't sound like you'd get rid of the Gold Cup or Copa America so that risk wouldn't exist. It would be a new tournament combining the 2 outside of those tournaments if it were ever to happen. So the risk of not qualifying would be no different than it is now.

yeah - you guys are talking past each other

Bamm Bamm is talking about merging of 2 confederations...you are talking about merging 2 tournaments

I agreeing the merging of the confederations would NEVER happen

And, I would love for Concacaf to merge the gold cup with the Copa America...would be great for the development of our USMNT

 

[mcbabz]

i get it, but you are being way too kind

last night was an absolute choke job. there's no way around it. when your captain can't make the most basic pass under average / no pressure, and your backs can't even clear the ball without looking like they just make a u9 travel team, something is off.

I understand the quality of who we were playing last night. but that doesn't excuse how poorly we played.

sometimes I think we try to over-analyze the whys...and I think your post is a very good one...but I dont it's applicable to last night's debacle.

last night we simply choked.

my commentary was not specific to last nights game, it was more commentary on the US national team currently....it's been the same story when we traditionally play any of the power top 5 or 10 teams in the world (not in friendlies, but in meaningful games WC, Copa, etc).

with the lineup that was put out there, we never had a chance....that lineup would struggle to get more than 3+ shots on goal against Panama, let alone an Argentina. Add on top of that they were NOT on the top of their game at all, & I think you are fair to say they choked in the sense of not coming out and playing loose (they had nothing to lose and nobody really expected them to win). Instead, they came out tight and were never in the game.

 

[SirScarlet]

my commentary was not specific to last nights game, it was more commentary on the US national team currently....it's been the same story when we traditionally play any of the power top 5 or 10 teams in the world (not in friendlies, but in meaningful games WC, Copa, etc).

with the lineup that was put out there, we never had a chance....that lineup would struggle to get more than 3+ shots on goal against Panama, let alone an Argentina. Add on top of that they were NOT on the top of their game at all, & I think you are fair to say they choked in the sense of not coming out and playing loose (they had nothing to lose and nobody really expected them to win). Instead, they came out tight and were never in the game.

totally agree. well said.

 

[mcbabz]

Mcbabz: nice insight. 2 questions for you. 1.) what are your thoughts on Klinnsman and 2.) if you were youth technical director, what changes (if any) would you make?

1. Klinnsman is a solid coach, he plays a bit too much with his lineup and I feel like he goes conservative a bit too much for my liking (taking Wondo & Beckerman when I'd prefer to see Morris and a Hyndmann get some Copa experience), but I understand why, he's more or less come out and admitted we just don't have the big horses to run with these guys...he's in a tough spot as he needs to support MLS as he knows it's where his biggest pool of youngsters comes from and guys that can supplement his roster...but he also knows that we just don't have enough guys (in particular) young guys getting consistent FIRST TEAM action in the top leagues, reserve team soccer is not the same thing (a lot of times in those games you have guys playing with you that are basically there on a try-out who have recently been playing the equivalent of semi-pro). It puts him in a tough spot, but I like him because he is one of the few foreign coaches that has played at the top of the worlds game AND understands how things in the US work (he lived here for several years before taking the job).

2. Youth......that's the $1M question, we are such an interesting country, kids have SOOOO many options and soccer for the majority of kids that aren't from parents that are not immigrants, typically it's not the first sport in the house (I grew up with a baseball in my hand once I could grip one), so it takes a while for a lot of our top athletes to find the sport in a competitive manner (if they ever do). Most kids play it when they are 3-5, but it's a sport their parents put them in to keep them busy until they can sign up for baseball, basketball or football.

So, you had the ODP system which tries to identify the top talent and promote them through the regional teams, etc, but they are basically PAY TO PLAY, so you are eliminating a portion of the population that can't afford it, and gee....a big portion of that are kids from poorer income and immigrant families that are passionate about the sport. The costs for travel and the various tournaments are NOT cheap. It's a big country!

Ideally, you'd love to see more investment in the MLS youth systems where they would be allowed to pull kids from their areas and hopefully they can pick up the bills and eventually create more of the traditional youth academy setups like we see in Europe (AJAX, Barcelona, Spurs to name a few), the closest thing we have is IMG down in Bradenton, which has been doing this for soccer with the top U-17 for years (residency program). If we had more of those IMG type systems locally it could be a help because it in theory wouldn't be about what parent can afford it if MLS/US Soccer can pick up the bill....there are ton of issues with that though beside the $, as you have to consider most of the kids wash out and won't play professionally, but if they play in the youth set up of a pro team, do they now lose college eligibility? So you have to fund for college educations, which we all know are not cheap in this country. There have been signs they are moving that way...but very slowly (plus some the MLS rules for who can play for you are insane, even though they went through your youth team).

it's a long battle, the politics have to be overcome (people in prior power do not want to give up that control, etc.).

3. Youth Teaching...sorry for the long response in #2, but I think what you were probably driving at was the approach to youth coaching. For me, it comes down to ball skills, so that would include:
- first touch (take the ball down under control away from the pressure and in a position to make a quick penetrating pass if available)
- first time passing (reading and reacting to where your teammates are and the defenders while the ball is in the air so you know where to play it without even taking it down...it's the best way to break high pressure, first time passes tire out your defenders and frustrate them keeping in their defensive shape)
- comfort on the ball (know how to shield the ball and not feel paniced with the ball at your feet and a defender pressuring)
- game recognition (WATCH top level soccer, learn to understand when a change of ball is necessary, watch how the top teams play...when to press, when to play off...the "flow" of a game), I feel like we lack that type of player that knows when to go fast and when to put his foot on the ball...the last two players we have had that truly understood when to attack and when to reset were Reyna & Ramos....long time ago.....that is learned in the "classroom", and watching a lot of video of the best teams.
- play a BUNCH of different positions early, I don't like kids "specializing/focusing" at a young age.....defense only, attack only, wing only, etc.

I just kick a ball to my 3 year old all the time, I just want him use to the ball being played to him at any point, even if he's not expecting it, it becomes second nature to just take the ball down in a position to your best advantage. All about comfort with the ball.

And if you are going to pressure the ball as a team, either everyone is IN or DON'T DO IT, kills you when 2 guys pressure and 3 or 4 others behind you do not.

 

[dvb91]

yeah - you guys are talking past each other

Bamm Bamm is talking about merging of 2 confederations...you are talking about merging 2 tournaments

I agreeing the merging of the confederations would NEVER happen

And, I would love for Concacaf to merge the gold cup with the Copa America...would be great for the development of our USMNT

Not sure if you can eliminate either of the Gold Cup or Copa America, as the winners get a ticket to the Confederations Cup, which is a dress rehearsal for the next WC.

Loved the Centanario and would like to see a variation played regularly. At worse, it would give the US Nats another tourney to test our mettle.

 

[RUsojo]

Winning last night would be tough but klinsy never gave the squad a fighting chance with that starting xi. He has always been a hypocrite and this is just another example. He preached the need to "take it to them" and then put in a lineup that lacked athleticism in the midfield to an alarming degree and with no threat to stretch or get in behind Argentinas back line. Overall I like klinsman, but when I saw yesterday's line up for the first time, I bet big on Argentina.

 

[NotInRHouse]

Losing to Argentina would be like us losing to Bama in football- we all know it's coming.

Fact of the matter is that Argentina is probably one of the best teams in modern times. Not only because of Messi, but the rest of their team is all playing at the highest level in Europe and the Argentine league itself is nothing to sneeze at. As opposed to here in the US, we have too many MLS players and not enough players from the upper levels in Europe. Argentina and (formerly) Brazil are historically so good that they have players who can't make their teams so they use their grandparents' heritage to play for Spain and Italy, which are no slouches themselves.


China is trying to pay like crazy to build a soccer league, but it is not helping them internationally- it's just getting Chinese people to watch foreigners play games in China. Right now the MLS is basically a retirement league- European players publicly comment that they'll just show up there once they're done with their "real" careers in Europe, knowing expectations will be nill and that they can come here old and still run roughshod over the local competition.

 

[dvb91]

Pressure the ball, take away time and space.
Youth programs in America should stress full speed running and keeping possession...scoring not passing.
Euros and S Americans grow up learning first touch because they get pressure on them from the time they're five.
We simply do not pressure the ball on defense, good teams are shocked at the time and space they get against us, we're easy to play against

Sorry, but "NO" to the highlighted. The US Nats have always relied on a level of athleticism & fitness to drive its teams, which only get you so far. It's the fine skills that are lacking (i.e. passing, taking down a ball, shielding a ball, etc.) that most of our youngsters lack. A lot of them can run like deer, but if they can't control a ball or make a one-time pass (see Yedlin & Zardes, who I both appreciate but have leaden touches), then it's much easier to defend against. And even our current best doesn't seem to be able to pass out of defense when we absolutely need it. It seemed everytime we intercepted a ball, we'd lose it to a bad pass. Granted, some of that was due to pressure, but a lot could also be due to spacing & lack of touch. Wondo's lack of it led to Messi's first goal.

If I were to preach 1 thing, it would be patience. Not necessarily for the long term, but within the game. Too many times I see our team making a high-risk pass that doesn't come off or hoofing upfield hoping someone can latch onto the ball. There are times when those passes are warranted (like when Wood could latch onto to it), but it just seems the US is more frantic about it in games vs better teams, instead of calm & collected. Nothing wrong with passing it back & forth, side to side, making the other team work for a bit. I get that it's maybe our best chance is to play counterattacking football, but there are advantages to possession.

 

[RUsojo]

Sorry, but "NO" to the highlighted. The US Nats have always relied on a level of athleticism & fitness to drive its teams, which only get you so far. It's the fine skills that are lacking (i.e. passing, taking down a ball, shielding a ball, etc.) that most of our youngsters lack. A lot of them can run like deer, but if they can't control a ball or make a one-time pass (see Yedlin & Zardes, who I both appreciate but have leaden touches), then it's much easier to defend against. And even our current best doesn't seem to be able to pass out of defense when we absolutely need it. It seemed everytime we intercepted a ball, we'd lose it to a bad pass. Granted, some of that was due to pressure, but a lot could also be due to spacing & lack of touch. Wondo's lack of it led to Messi's first goal.

If I were to preach 1 thing, it would be patience. Not necessarily for the long term, but within the game. Too many times I see our team making a high-risk pass that doesn't come off or hoofing upfield hoping someone can latch onto the ball. There are times when those passes are warranted (like when Wood could latch onto to it), but it just seems the US is more frantic about it in games vs better teams, instead of calm & collected. Nothing wrong with passing it back & forth, side to side, making the other team work for a bit. I get that it's maybe our best chance is to play counterattacking football, but there are advantages to possession.

ACTUALLY, last night, athleticism or lack there of WAS the problem. Specifically in the mid field.

 

[RUevolution36]

Winning last night would be tough but klinsy never gave the squad a fighting chance with that starting xi. He has always been a hypocrite and this is just another example. He preached the need to "take it to them" and then put in a lineup that lacked athleticism in the midfield to an alarming degree and with no threat to stretch or get in behind Argentinas back line. Overall I like klinsman, but when I saw yesterday's line up for the first time, I bet big on Argentina.

it's not necessarily stretch...but i'm now convinced that having bradley as our engine room will doom us to failure in the near future. the guy has been good for the program under his dad, but now...with the direction that JK says he wants us to go...we need someone who won't turn the ball over constantly, can make quick decisions, and can spot the smart diagonal runs and understand possession football. here's to hoping that kitchen, hyndman, trapp, or acosta can get enough exposure to move to a european league to develop sooner rather than later (yes, i know hyndman is at fulham). we can't be in the position where hoofing it down the wing is our modus operandi anymore.

 

[rutgersguy1]

Sorry, but "NO" to the highlighted. The US Nats have always relied on a level of athleticism & fitness to drive its teams, which only get you so far. It's the fine skills that are lacking (i.e. passing, taking down a ball, shielding a ball, etc.) that most of our youngsters lack. A lot of them can run like deer, but if they can't control a ball or make a one-time pass (see Yedlin & Zardes, who I both appreciate but have leaden touches), then it's much easier to defend against. And even our current best doesn't seem to be able to pass out of defense when we absolutely need it. It seemed everytime we intercepted a ball, we'd lose it to a bad pass. Granted, some of that was due to pressure, but a lot could also be due to spacing & lack of touch. Wondo's lack of it led to Messi's first goal.

If I were to preach 1 thing, it would be patience. Not necessarily for the long term, but within the game. Too many times I see our team making a high-risk pass that doesn't come off or hoofing upfield hoping someone can latch onto the ball. There are times when those passes are warranted (like when Wood could latch onto to it), but it just seems the US is more frantic about it in games vs better teams, instead of calm & collected. Nothing wrong with passing it back & forth, side to side, making the other team work for a bit. I get that it's maybe our best chance is to play counterattacking football, but there are advantages to possession.

Completely agree with your first paragraph.

 

[RUsojo]

it's not necessarily stretch...but i'm now convinced that having bradley as our engine room will doom us to failure in the near future. the guy has been good for the program under his dad, but now...with the direction that JK says he wants us to go...we need someone who won't turn the ball over constantly, can make quick decisions, and can spot the smart diagonal runs and understand possession football. here's to hoping that kitchen, hyndman, trapp, or acosta can get enough exposure to move to a european league to develop sooner rather than later (yes, i know hyndman is at fulham). we can't be in the position where hoofing it down the wing is our modus operandi anymore.

Bradley has certainly reached his ceiling. We all hoped for a little bit more but it looks like he's hit his wall (as an aside: he plays bad in big games of late but Klinsman packs in the midfield and plays a roster with no one to release to on the chalk). Bradley should still play in my opinion, but in the Beckerman role, touching the ball much much much less than he is accustom too.

I like Hydman. Btw, Hyndman just competed a transfer to Bournemouth.

 

[zappaa]

Sorry, but "NO" to the highlighted. The US Nats have always relied on a level of athleticism & fitness to drive its teams, which only get you so far. It's the fine skills that are lacking (i.e. passing, taking down a ball, shielding a ball, etc.) that most of our youngsters lack. A lot of them can run like deer, but if they can't control a ball or make a one-time pass (see Yedlin & Zardes, who I both appreciate but have leaden touches), then it's much easier to defend against. And even our current best doesn't seem to be able to pass out of defense when we absolutely need it. It seemed everytime we intercepted a ball, we'd lose it to a bad pass. Granted, some of that was due to pressure, but a lot could also be due to spacing & lack of touch. Wondo's lack of it led to Messi's first goal.

If I were to preach 1 thing, it would be patience. Not necessarily for the long term, but within the game. Too many times I see our team making a high-risk pass that doesn't come off or hoofing upfield hoping someone can latch onto the ball. There are times when those passes are warranted (like when Wood could latch onto to it), but it just seems the US is more frantic about it in games vs better teams, instead of calm & collected. Nothing wrong with passing it back & forth, side to side, making the other team work for a bit. I get that it's maybe our best chance is to play counterattacking football, but there are advantages to possession.

When all your youth practices and games are organized, you get the robotic and scripted play of the USA.
Go to Italy or Brazil and watch the kids with news paper shin guards and an old leather ball playing soccer in the school yard with the agressiveness of American Football.
No coaches, no parents…just a half dozen dominant potential world class players developing their amazing skills by never giving an inch and being completely natural.
They play from sun up till sundown and score 20 goals.

 

[miketd1]

mcbabz: Again, terrific insight. Thank you for your well thought out response.

I think we have it backwards: Developmental academies ("DAs") are not the solution. Simply put: it's not a good value to pour in literally tens millions of dollars into a program that only focuses on maybe 1% of the players -- 1% (again) of whom have national team potential.

We need a bottom-up, grassroots approach to soccer development. We need to make the funnel to the national teams bigger, making sure we do our best to include disadvantaged kids.

In order to do this, we need to concentrate on programs that scale. Hiring professional coaches to teach in leased space in remote areas to maybe 30 kids a session is not scalable. However -- to borrow from the Startup world, SaaS is highly scaleable.

What is SaaS?
SaaS stands for Software as a Service.

How can SaaS improve development of soccer in America?
Create an MLS/US National team sponsored app. What would the app include?
Here's what I would recommend:

• A training session "buddy" that can suggest different drills (videos and tutorials included) depending on 1.) how many people are participating, 2.) the skill levels of each player, & 3.) the aspect of one's game one's seeking to improve (ie: heading, striking, dribbling, stamina, etc.). Obviously the solo drills would have the most comprehensive list of drills, but there should be ample suggestions for "common" situations like 1 novice + 1 advanced player (typically an older sibling) and 1 novice + 1 parent.
• A SSG (small-sided-game) "wizard" that can similarly suggest different games depending on 1.) how many people are participating and 2.) the skill levels of each player, 3.) equipment available (nets? endlines? cones? #balls?), & 4.) space available. Kind of like how kids playing basketball "inherently" know to play Around-the-World, Knockout, 3-pt contest, etc.
• A segment of the trainer would focus specifically on 1v1 moves, feints, & shielding techniques, again fully explained and demonstrated.

The neat thing about soccer is that at the younger ages 1.) you don't need a whole lot of equipment and 2.) you don't need professional coaching. This makes the 3-9 y.o. (plus parents) segment a prime area to target for this app.

Kids are competitive in nature and love playing games, so just let them play with minimal intrusion. This app simply acts as a guide to make sure the games/drills stay "fresh" and reinforces what makes special players great: love the game, embrace competition, and try to get better every day.

As the kids get older, enable additional social-networking features for the app:

• upload your own videos of your skills
• create a "group" of neighborhood kids that you can communicate with to arrange games and/or freeplay skill/drill sessions (similar to getting XBOX players together).

The games & drills would all be demonstrated by MLS and/or nationalplayers which could adds branding/marketing/awareness value. I honestly would struggle to name 11 players in the MLS...

 

[RUevolution36]

Bradley has certainly reached his ceiling. We all hoped for a little bit more but it looks like he's hit his wall (as an aside: he plays bad in big games of late but Klinsman packs in the midfield and plays a roster with no one to release to on the chalk). Bradley should still play in my opinion, but in the Beckerman role, touching the ball much much much less than he is accustom too.

I like Hydman. Btw, Hyndman just competed a transfer to Bournemouth.

Good for Hyndman, maybe he'll get some minutes in league play this upcoming season.

I also feel like JK has the guys playing in a bit too rigid of a formation. If you look at the really successful teams around the world these days, attacking positions are really really fluid. it's not uncommon for RM to have benzema on the wing, bale center, CR7 on the right or in any other permutation. same goes for Barca, Bayern, Spurs, City, Atletico, PSG, etc., etc. We tend to park our attacking midfielders in their lanes.

 

[CERU00]

Why are you calling them Germans/ non natives?

I think in most cases they were born and raised in Germany by their German mothers. They would be playing for Germany if they were good enough.

 

[mildone]

Sir: kinda. I will add that in soccer, it's nearly impossible to overcome inexperience. It's not something that you can pick up in your late teens and expect to still be world class. Most of the worlds' best players were playing the game since they could walk and have generations of family members & friends to play with, test their moves against, and discuss strategy with.

That is such a killer advantage. Like in basketball where grandpa, father, brother, uncle, and son learn how to play against each other and other bigger/faster/stronger/smarter family members and friends. I can still remember uncles teaching me post up moves and my friends practicing our Hardaway/Iverson crossovers on each other. We'd play till the moon came out and do it all over again the next day, getting better and gaining confidence with each touch of the ball.

I imagine it's a lot like that for soccer in other countries.

But here, kids play in highly supervised environments. They are grouped by age, athletic ability, and skill level. Few are going to dare performing a roulette 360 or Cryuff turn when they know if they lose the ball or otherwise mess up they will be benched or demoted. "Get rid of it!" is the typical soccer mom war cry. The club coaches are pressured to win so many times they advocate hoofing the ball up to the speedy guy. It's the "safe" route to club soccer.

And this is why we have players who "look" like they simply want to "get rid of it" when even under the lightest pressure -- that's what they've been doing for decades.

What we do, more and more as youth soccer coaches get more educated, is we focus almost all early training (U7 - U12) on individual skills. Because young brains are more cognitively accepting of the sort of learning that is required to develop naturally strong technical soccer skills. The older a player gets, the harder it is to form those technical skills.

Another critical aspect of that development is to have the players doing extremely high paced exercises with the ball right from the start. The pace of the game, the pressure it creates, can be almost insurmountable if a player isn't exposed to it at a very young age. Whereas, players exposed to that high pace, high pressure environment helps the players instinctively or intuitively develop a high confidence w/the ball (an impeccable first touch).

It's the pervasiveness of that impeccable first touch, where it's as intuitive as breathing to bring a waist high pass down to the ground while at a full sprint, that is always present in all players on the roster on international teams from power countries. Because they learn it on the street w/out any adult supervision from a very early age.

That sort of thing come from countless thousands of touches on the ball at a very young age and it just doesn't happen, to the extent that it should, in the United States. Two or three 90 minute travel soccer practices per week just doesn't cut it. And we're still way, way too focused on tactical development at the younger ages, IMO.

It's really inefficient to be focused on tactical development at U7 through U10 or so. Because it takes so many precious practice minutes to foster the kind of recognition of the cues, both by the first attacker and second attacker, that indicate a wall pass, or an overlap, when a kid is 9 years old. That same kid will learn the same things in one tenth the time when they are 12 or 13. And even quicker when they are in high school.

This stuff is pretty well known by many in the US soccer program (representatives of which are where I learned it all). But somehow, it hasn't taken hold as widely as it needs to. Yet.

I think we haven't yet come close to maximizing the potential we have. And that it's a matter of educating the coaches, parents, and players of the importance of individual ball skills and of how much more important it is to develop those than to win games at an early age.

 

[mdh2003]

Our guys just aren't good enough. Argentina does to us in soccer what we do to them in basketball: absolutely dominate.

Soccer is the one sport where you can't simply out-athlete the opponent.

I mean, sure it helps to be bigger/stronger/faster, but the best player on the planet looks like he could have stepped right out of your average accounting department.

This game demands first touch, anticipation, vision, balance, and skill. Attributes that are best honed on the streets where creative play isn't coached out of you in favor of punt-ball.

Really great points.

 

[miketd1]

mildone: parents want to engage their young children in soccer, however my anecdotal experience tells me that they just aren't familiar with the game enough to know how to do so in a fun way that benefits/teaches the child.

For instance, my dad -- God bless him -- had me running through cones and practicing my kicking power on non-practice days. It would have been far more beneficial for me for him to toss me the ball and attempt to trap & kick it back. Or any number of other drills fathers & sons do in other countries (I'm sure).

Yet it's what kids do on these non-regimented-practice days that really benefit them later on. Structured practice is the minimum one can do on the road to professional (or even collegiate) soccer.

 

[mcbabz]

the two best things I did that helped my game:

1. random pick up games with much older guys, typically south american guys, you learn how to take a kick and a shove as well as learning how to move the ball quickly (plus picked up a new language)...they weren't necessarily all very good, but they were bigger and stronger, so you learned how to be quicker and have tighter control of the ball or you'd just get shoved off it.

2. I would literally just hit a ball against a wall, which was on uneven ground, so the ball would come back at me and take all sorts of funky bounces/hops/skips, you learn to settle the ball quickly, then I would draw marks on the wall so that I had an aim point to one touch the ball back however it came at me. Also, I would very rarely just fire the ball at an empty net when I'd find one, always kick it as high & far into the air and take the first touch to set up the shot, no unnecessary touches, you learn to find the net and how to make sure you have your first touch put the ball into a shooting position no matter where on the field you are.........also, if you have a kick, do NOT let them be one footed, make them strike the ball with both feet...guys that are basically one footed become almost nothing more than a set piece specialist because you can take away one whole side of the field when defending them and they can only play the ball back.

 

[RUevolution36]

the two best things I did that helped my game:

1. random pick up games with much older guys, typically south american guys, you learn how to take a kick and a shove as well as learning how to move the ball quickly (plus picked up a new language)...they weren't necessarily all very good, but they were bigger and stronger, so you learned how to be quicker and have tighter control of the ball or you'd just get shoved off it.

2. I would literally just hit a ball against a wall, which was on uneven ground, so the ball would come back at me and take all sorts of funky bounces/hops/skips, you learn to settle the ball quickly, then I would draw marks on the wall so that I had an aim point to one touch the ball back however it came at me. Also, I would very rarely just fire the ball at an empty net when I'd find one, always kick it as high & far into the air and take the first touch to set up the shot, no unnecessary touches, you learn to find the net and how to make sure you have your first touch put the ball into a shooting position no matter where on the field you are.........also, if you have a kick, do NOT let them be one footed, make them strike the ball with both feet...guys that are basically one footed become almost nothing more than a set piece specialist because you can take away one whole side of the field when defending them and they can only play the ball back.

that's not true...arjen robben has made a pretty good career out of being unbelievably one footed.

 

[mcbabz]

that's not true...arjen robben has made a pretty good career out of being unbelievably one footed.

:)
There are definitely a bunch of guys that are just THAT good they can do it....but, it's not the approach I'd recommend if you are looking to train your son or daughter. I should have stated that better, not trying to infer you can't be a good/great player if you are dominant on only one side, just a big fan of being able to play with either foot...makes you a bit more of a flexible player as well (left or right sides).

 

[RUsojo]

Again - all problems would be solved by improving pick up soccer culture. Short sided courts with cages next to everywhere you see a basketball court. That would do it. Nothing else is really needed.

 

[mildone]

mildone: parents want to engage their young children in soccer, however my anecdotal experience tells me that they just aren't familiar with the game enough to know how to do so in a fun way that benefits/teaches the child.

For instance, my dad -- God bless him -- had me running through cones and practicing my kicking power on non-practice days. It would have been far more beneficial for me for him to toss me the ball and attempt to trap & kick it back. Or any number of other drills fathers & sons do in other countries (I'm sure).

Yet it's what kids do on these non-regimented-practice days that really benefit them later on. Structured practice is the minimum one can do on the road to professional (or even collegiate) soccer.

Totally agree.

Two of the simplest and most effective ways young kids can have fun and rapidly develop individual technical skills are juggling (everybody knows this) and wall ball (not so commonly encouraged as juggling, but maybe even better).

All one needs to play wall ball is a wall, a ball and some time. A person can easily get 3600 quality touches on the ball in under an hour playing wall ball 3 yards from the wall. First touch on the ground, in the air, one-touch passing, rapid two-touch passing, shooting touch (technique), headers, foot speed... there are just so many techniques that can be developed just using a wall.

And of course having more than one kid can make wall ball more competitive and fun. And kids can use creativity to invent new games (exercises) to do w/a wall.

The tough part is figuring out how to encourage young players to want to do this on their own in a society that over-structures their kids these days.

 

[mildone]

2. I would literally just hit a ball against a wall, which was on uneven ground, so the ball would come back at me and take all sorts of funky bounces/hops/skips, you learn to settle the ball quickly, then I would draw marks on the wall so that I had an aim point to one touch the ball back however it came at me. Also, I would very rarely just fire the ball at an empty net when I'd find one, always kick it as high & far into the air and take the first touch to set up the shot, no unnecessary touches, you learn to find the net and how to make sure you have your first touch put the ball into a shooting position no matter where on the field you are.........also, if you have a kick, do NOT let them be one footed, make them strike the ball with both feet...guys that are basically one footed become almost nothing more than a set piece specialist because you can take away one whole side of the field when defending them and they can only play the ball back.

Yes. Exactly. Just posted about wall ball. Developing good technical skills is all about getting tons of touches and a wall is so great for that.

 

[topdecktiger]

The problem is that soccer isn't popular enough with enough kids. The best athletes play football or basketball. When LeBron James, Michael Westbrook, Marshawn Lynch, Calvin Johnson, etc. start playing soccer, we will start winning. In all honesty, right now in the United States, soccer is a sport for middle class kids who can't play football or basketball. Training our mid-tier athletes to death still won't be enough.

 

[miketd1]

Topdeck: we have more than enough kids interested in soccer.

Chilehas a population of 18mil. New York City alone has 8mil.

But while people in Chile dream of being soccer players to escape poverty, Americans dream of a piece of the American Pie (nice house, cute family, secure/meaningful career).