I’m a bit late to the U20 topic, but this is not a news outlet; it is an education outlet. In case you’re not up to speed, we lost to Guatemala and were eliminated from the U20 World Cup for the first time in 8 cycles. And as with most US Soccer failures, many across […]
Barcelona vs Real Madrid: Stop Bitching and Start Understanding!
The so-called diving. The exagerations. The ref badgering. Most of you complain about it and the players that are most notorious for it. But this is what happens when a team, in this case Madrid, decides it does not want to play straight up. And I don’t blame them – I’d certainly do the same. […]
American Invited to Join La Masia
This will go down as a mark in US Soccer history. Ben Lederman, a U-11, has been invited to join FC Barcelona’s youth Academy. He started his trial with the famed academy on April 11, 2011 and just 4 training sessions later, the Director of all 7 v 7 at the club, Andres Carrasco, had […]
The Recipe For World Class
A general outline not meant to capture exceptions: 1) Be obsessed with the game. 2) Put in your 10,000 hours. 3) Have coaches for many years at the youth level that can polish you. 4) Debut professionally as a teenager. Again, with a coach that has a clue. 5) Get transferred to a “big club”, […]
More on Development [Video]
This is a nicely done short film. And when viewed through the lens of player development … well you figure it out.
US Soccer vs Paraguay: The Conclusions
This was much much better from the US! There was some intent to build an attack instead of firing cannonballs up field. Now for some context and conclusions: 1) The obvious one. This was not Argentina. Nor was it against a Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico, or any team whose style is to keep the ball. This […]
US vs Argentina: Another Game, Another Rant (well not quite)
As the title suggests, this is me blowing off some steam after reading and hearing stupidities from people across the web. But there are takeaways here that are well founded. Is the result all that matters? It’s a damn shame when the majority of the media, and dare I say fans, focus on the 1-1 […]
If You Think It’s Boring …
then you still have a lot to learn. Yes, once again I’m referring to possession. Everyone has their preferences; which are usually formed from experiences, education, and culture. And that’s fine. For instance, some pieces of art may be great, but I might think: “wtf is this … next.” And it’s likely because I haven’t […]
Requirement For Mass Player Development
There can be no player development factory without monetary incentive. First let me be clear; without competent coaches, all the money in the world will not develop a quality player. So assuming there’s a capable coach, what makes you think he will do everything in his power to develop his pupils? And I assure you, that’s […]
UNC Soccer Takes Two of Our Girls
I want to congratulate Brooke Elby and Taylor Ramirez and wish them the best in their next soccer chapter. North Carolina head coach, Anson Dorrance, recruited and got verbal commitments from the girls in the first half of 2010 during their U17 season. And last week he got their signatures. What They Can Teach Us […]