A clean sweep is what it was.
All three academy teams – U10, U11, and U12 – which Brian overseas, took home the hardware at the prestigious Surf Cup. Not a bad start to the new season.
- The 10s are beginning to show some signs of keeping the ball and combination play.
- The 11s have their spells of good possession where regular 5-touch sequences pop up, but that team needs a ton of work. Not even close to what it should be.
- The now globally recognized 12s with a tremendous target on their back, had 18 goals for and 2 against. Good? It needs to get better.
Brian had this to say during the trophy presentation.
Yeah, Surf Cup is a nice tournament to win. But the goal here is far greater than that. The goal is to change US Soccer into the global powerhouse it could be.
And here’s a little chat we had the following day:
That’s what people don’t get.
The teams we play against at Surf Cups, State Cups, or any league or American tournament, are not who we’re competing with. Of course we can lose games against them, and we will. That’s not the point.
The point is, our opponents here are not holders of the gold standard, nor are they even remotely close to resembling it. That’s what we’re after.
So, the truth is we are competing against ourselves and our vision of global excellence.
That is the mentality. That is the culture our country at all levels does not share with us.
Instead, when others win Surf Cup, they’re world beaters.
Don’t get me wrong, it is definitely worth celebrating (especially this situation)! I mean who the hell wins Surf Cup in every age group they compete in? It’s astonishing! It’s probably never happened before! Oh and let’s not forget the most impressive thing. Winning AND playing the right way!
This is no coincidence!
But we keep it real with our global perspective.
Gary,
The saddest thing is the rest of youth clubs, ODP, USSF probably won’t even bat an eye. They will probably think they need to get bigger and even stronger kids to do better than you. FC Barcelona is the gold standard in USA as far as i’m concerned. The gold standard in terms of philosophy and having a vision. I wish my son’s club had a vision to want to be the best on global stage. FC Barcelona USA will go very, very far and obtain major success just based on something as simple as having a vision, a philosophy, identifying and developing right kids, and surrounding them with coaching staff who believe in that system. I sincerely hope you shit on the old guard FC Barcelona USA. Shit on them and let something new grow out of it.
Kana,
Rest of youth clubs and ODP have known of our work for years.
US Soccer was present at 5 of our 6 games. Lines of comm are open.
That’s great, your work is an inspiration for all coaches who aspire to buck the trend here in the US.
Nice work guys, keep it up.
Thank you Travis!
Congratulations! Keep up the good work and pushing the limits of what US Soccer expectations should be. We aren’t competing against the kids from Bakersfield, or San Jose or Las Vegas… we are competing against the kids that live and breath soccer 24/7. Those kids walk down the street, while dribbling a soccer ball, and see soccer idols on billboards, that hear it in the conversations while they wait for the bus, they play it at recess and after school – they play with their older and younger brothers and friends and cousins. Then they go to training, which happens only a couple times a week and it is a great day when they get to “train.” Then on the weekend, they watch their local team “live”… where they see all of the action.
It’s going to take something special to get the U.S. to compete against that… but it can be done and you guys are doing your part. Thank you!
The US can compete against that.
We have millions with the same culture as that of the global powers.
Keep it up!
Thank you Chris!
Congrats Gary!
I recently had a series of back and forth comments on another blog about why the US doesn’t produce the kinds of players others do, and all the usual things came out: it’s not the dominant sport, the money isn’t there, we don’t have millions of kids playing it in the streets, and so on and so forth. For each of these arguments, there are countries out there in the world that refute it clearly. As you highlight here, the problem is much more fundamental: the people who are producing players in this country don’t know what they’re doing.
“the people who are producing players in this country don’t know what they’re doing”
I feel the same way. I finished 6 exhausting days in 100+ deg heat at the National Diploma course and probably barely passed. I spent a lot of time and money to learn from the best but at the end I was just sad and disappointed. I did learn many coaching methodologies and how to identify errors and correct them. But fundamentally, I felt that these instructors were not so great. Every coach attending the course felt they learned and experienced a great opportunity. I felt otherwise. I saw that the details were good but the environment and culture was all wrong. I left with more knowledge but also more confusion.
Gary, please tell me you are doing something completely different than what is taught in US coaching courses. Otherwise, I don’t have a chance helping players improve to reach a high-level.
Brian and I are developing it.
As to the current ‘licensing’, I can say this:
If the coaches giving these courses were legit, I would expect their teams and players to play legit football. Is that the case?
Gary, the instructors are all college coaches from D1, D2, D3 schools. Do they have legit teams? I would say “NO”. They mainly have comfortable, stable jobs at colleges and coaching courses all over the US.
We were taught a set of coaching tools such as technical/tactical progressive methods, coaching in the game methods, and functional coaching methods. My criticism and confusion is that I am looking for a strict training curriculum and methodology from U8-U18.
I don’t believe there should be any flexibility and room for your own coaching interpretation when training youth players. Youth training should be very focused, intense and systematic.
US licensing courses only provide tools and random knowledge about soccer coaching. It’s like learning random algebra, geometry, trigonometry concepts before understanding addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. There is no unified approach. These courses leave the serious work, structure, and curriculum up to individual coaches which they fail at delivering just like your 50/50 rule. http://blog.3four3.com/2012/06/11/soccer-coaching-evaluation/
A strict, progressive curriculum based on the “gold’ standard is key. I know you have it and I want it.
At a recent USSF “C” license course that I took, the instructors routinely contradicted each other in regards what they were looking for and what they deemed important. One instructor would model a session and when candidates would practice coaching based on his progressions and style, another instructor would criticize you for doing just what the other instructor did. Frustrating and makes you think that there is no organization or real thought behind how things are presented. Instructors should not be contradicting each other.
Those people are hopeless newbies Carlos.
They think things are a matter of opinion, but they’re not.
Great job! Keep moving the bar. It takes time, but eventually others will follow.
Thanks Terry.
We’ll see where all this leads … 🙂
Keep going Gary. You guys are the spark to the revolution taking place in US Soccer. Hopefully, more will follow in your footsteps and work towards developing world class players. You have already inspired our small club in the Northeast to play the Barcelona way and reach the gold standard.
Thank you Carlos!
Feel free to email me any time to share some of your story.
The surf cup motto cracks me up in the background of the picture. “The best of the best?” Gary’s correct in his dedication to play against his own motto or philosophy, which is the gold standard. Knowing that Gary beat some of the clubs that are dominating soccer discourse in America makes me feel good. Not in a vindictive way, but in the belief that many people saw that philosophy and Gary’s reflection process, which translates into a greater understanding of the game.
Most coaches would have taken the acquiring of their shiny cultural artifacts, as a way to validate their philosophy. At tournaments I notice grown men turning into 7 year olds in their pursuit of fake gold plastic symbols. They see the acquisition as the end game rather than pursuing a larger, more meaningful goal– the gold standard rather than the fake and chintzy standard.
A fantastic artist wrote, “In the archaeology of American cultural artifacts, common sports trophies are fitting symbols of personal achievement in a democratic society. Cast from non-precious materials to shine like silver and gold, they are at once common objects and personal treasures.”(YORAM WOLBERGER)
The typical winners of surf cup are pieces of poop, thought of as gold, however the truly great soccer jewelers (I’m still working on identifying the difference between puke and poop, and have so far to go) know the difference between a fugazy and a real diamond.
“The typical winners of Surf Cup are pieces of poop”, Did your child’s team compete in Surf Cup and win, and if so, are they pieces of poop? Or, if they did win, are they untypical (special)? And if they didn’t win then what does that make them? Less than poop? Maybe they weren’t even good enough to be accepted to Surf Cup.
The standard of youth soccer is improving every year. The fact that Barcelona USA Academy had such a successful tournament doesn’t mean that every other team is clueless.
“The best of the best?”. I get the impression that Gary is proud of their accomplishment. Surf Cup is the best tournament on the west coast and is made up of some of the best teams in California and around the country.
But, your post is trolling anyway so whatever.
Welcome to the community Tobias!
Wow! It will be really interesting to witness your inevitable humility.
To condone somebody saying that the typical winner of a surf cup is “poop” is concerning.
Such arrogance always backfires.
Thanks Gary! I’ve been reading and ingesting your content for about 8 months now, and I have never been challenged to the degree, which you provide. Your philosophy is strong and introspective. Building and developing my own philosophy has been helped so much by this blog. I obviously don’t think that your kids are waste products from an animal’s digestive tract. I wasn’t talking about the kids, but the institutional issues. I congratulate your guys’ shared independence and belief in playing the right way, not only talking about the gold standard. Applying the theory in life is as important as developing the theory in academia.
Well, I do think your results are unprecedented, though I appreciate your comments and Tobias that Barcelona USA has the real gold standards in their sights. Winning all 3 ages at Surf Cup is phenominal in itself, but doing so by building a club (founded in 1999), in what is probably the most competitive and largest youth soccer region in the US, and focusing on underprivileged kids – bravo! I also think it’s significant that your club is winning by developing a winning style of tiki-taka football, and not taking the easy way by recruiting the biggest/best athletes to play boot ball. I appreciate your humility and focus on the bigger target – but I do hope you take some time to enjoy your progess. Clearly, these resutls show your way is much better than the existing status quo. Congrats!
Thank you Scotty! Brian and I had nothing to do with the founding of this club.
It’s actually easier to win if you possess the ball, but you have to know how to make that happen. 🙂
And we’re definitely enjoying the progress!
We simply want to communicate the proper mentality / culture one must possess to get to the highest levels.
The gold standard is probably La Masia in terms of youth development. FC Barcelona USA just made a giant leap to doing that in USA. But the size and power hurdle stretches tot he sky in USA. American soccer will be a hard nut to crack. Hopefully we can tear it down one cut at a time.
I truly hope for continued success Gary. The more you prove size and power is not the answer, the more they will need to listen. Parents like me will start demanding better. My son’s club is all about putting big kids into Academy and then college. No vision or philosophy about developing gold standard level technical or tactical skills. Grow em big and set em free is the motto.
Thank you Roger!!
I will have to write more posts on what I mean by the ‘gold standard’.
I most definitely don’t mean La Masia. The ‘gold standard’ is not one place, one club, one style of play, etc. It is littered across the globe.
Congratulations, your “teams” did well. Find it interesting that this blog is dedicated to player technical developement, but the talking points for improvement seem to be tactical.
Hi,
This blog is most definitely not dedicated to ‘player technical development’. Not even close.
The largest hurdle US Soccer faces at all levels is not technical, but philosophical and tactical.
Hey, RP-17, that’s along the lines of what I was thinking / wondering. Gary, I’d really be interested in hearing your thoughts on whether you think you are developing any individual players who have the potential to reach what you characterize as elite (I realize that they are still very young and have a long ways to go in terms of development, maturity, etc.). Obviously, your teams are doing very well and are fun to watch (saw your U11s at the Danone Cup–a joy to see in person), but do you foresee individual players being able to reach the highest levels as a result of being a part of your training? As you know, oftentimes there are some very strong teams, but not necessarily any standout individuals who ever make it that far personally, i.e., the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Anyway, I wish we had something (anything) like what you’re doing here in South Florida.
Hell yeah! There are players on the team who have the potential for the highest levels.
We have to stop being brainwashed into thinking that technical development is the big differentiator between who ‘makes it’ and who doesn’t. It’s the brain, the tactical, the understanding of the game, the decision making, the fakes, the speed of thought, and the details, details, details!
Those are all the things our players are being educated in + the technical. Without this work, playing the way we do is impossible! Without true player development, you can’t play the way we play. I’ll go further, if you’re not playing the way we play, there is no quality player development going on.
Gary, I really enjoy reading your blog, but this is my first post. As a parent of an U10 player on a DA club, I am so impressed with how your kids play! Having seen several videos of teams from your club, I am not surprised at all that they did so well in the Surf Cup. You hit the nail on the head about what makes the biggest difference and it is not the technique (although players need to be solid technically to be able to play the way your kids play). There are plenty of technical kids in the US soccer system, but very few teams play like yours does. I suspect that most “elite”, “premier” coaches would not know know how to teach the kids to play the game they way your kids play. I recently watched an U12 final at a big tournament with lots of proud parents in attendance, but the teams did not put together more than 3 consecutive passes (even though the game went into the overtime). Both teams were supremely fit, well-organized defensively and ran like well-trained race horses, but the game was painful on the eyes. This is such a contrast with your kids, who play a beautiful, intelligent soccer. I am sure that this does not come to the kids naturally and that you and Brian work very hard on those details that enable them to play like they play, gradually getting better and better. I live on the East Coast, so trying out for your club is not an option for us, but I absolutely love what you guys are doing! I hope that your philosophy and methods will spread around this country. If given choices, a lot of parents will eventually figure out which coaches should train soccer players and which should transition to race horse training.
Gary just hit it on the head!!
Unfortunately many, at many high places have no clue about this, or just don’t give a shit…even when they pretend to try to say the right things …hope some enlightened US Soccer power has the guts to bet in someone like you who has proved that can deliver the right product…the train has left the San Diego station
I’m not sure I understand your distinction regarding “technical development”. Are you implicitly criticizing Coerver, SoccerU, etc and those trying to teach in that fashion?
I think the challenge for many youth coaches is that the kids come to practice without the technical ability to carry out the tactical work, which is why we get bogged down on the technical stuff. I agree with your general point that those sorts of abilities come from the culture, playing on ones’ own, etc., but I don’t think there are very many parts of the country that have that culture.
AS,
Every soccer quality counts. Individual technique(s) count a lot. Mostly this comes from player”s own work outside practice. Coaches can help, inspire to a degree depending on age group and starting point.
But it does come down to having a clear soccer philosophy.
To develop possession oriented teams and players, a common language has to be taught and perfected. That takes time and a lot of coaching know how, but in the process you will be developing and also assessing the different individual qualities needed. And this is really independent of the level…you can have a 3v1 possession game with virtually any level and get a lot out of it
So yes, there are loads of very technical players all over the world (including the US) that never quite made it, because they didn’t have the tools that Gary mentions to impact the game at a higher level.
And the difficulty to fully grasp this by so many at the different levels of the US soccer scene it really is telling of their own limitations or how shallow is their understanding of the game.
I’m sure Gary will have some more insight on this.
how come u never answered the emails i sent u
I find the paradigm shifts in football over the last several decades interesting. We are all in love with the Barcelona way since 2008. The German, Italian, Brazilian philoosphies have dominated for a period of years in their own times of success, only to be replaced by another paradigm shift of another philosophy.
So how long will this love last? Who will be next to shift our attention to another method? I would guess that once Spain/Barcelona stop winning, that the love may stop with some. The Barcelona way did not just start in 2008, but 20 years earlier.
I hope it lasts forever as the Barcelona way is the soccer purist gods saying, “this is the beautiful game” intelligence, skill, grace, etc… rule.
The tactics, skill, training methods are an expression of philosophy, committment and patience to that philosophy and having the right parts in the system working together for that philosphy. The problem we have in North America (excuding Mexico) is that we dont have one, and keep chasing a different one. Maybe it’s a product of our respect nations’ multiculturalism.
Gary. You have the most unselfish team that i have ever seen at a youth level. It has to be your coaching because you have managed to take a bunch of very skilled young players and teach them the propper way to play soccer. Most of the time you will see skilled kids just being ball hogs encouraged by their parents to be selfish. Sadly these are the talented kids that can not play the game at the highest of levels because they never learned how to play the game at that level. Keep up the great work.
I will keep you posted on how we do in Poland at Danone Cup.
Gary, your teams winning all 3 Surf Cup Titles sounds a lot like the Dallas Cup in 2001. Hopefully it won’t go unnoticed.
Paul Gardner wrote:
In 2001 all six of the Dallas Cup age groups, from U-12 to U-19, were won by Mexican teams — from six different clubs.
At the time I wrote in this column that “The chances are high to the point of certainty that the Mexican sweep will not even be noticed by the top level of American soccer. … As far as Mexican soccer is concerned, this country is, has been for decades, in denial.”
USA has many times the population of countries like Portugal, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, England, and Germany. And in most cases, USA has better resources and economic prosperity. Yet we fail to develop elite level players. We are not inferior genetically. And money doesn’t seem to be answer. Experience counts a lot but difficult to measure. We will be mature football nation when we get there, but may not know when that time comes. Maybe when we are in top 10 FIFA, and/or when we are regular favorites to make it to WC semis, and/or when we have steady pipeline of U17 and above players bypassing college for Europe or getting there by early 20s. The latter is probably best indicator.
These points raise many questions. What are our coaches teaching? What is wrong with the system? Who is doing anything about it? Is our system SOLELY focused on developing players to compete in college? Why are we not developing players and a system capable of competing in world’s elite leagues? Why do we not have a common philosophy?
There are fundamental problems and no one other than maybe this forum is asking those critical questions. Why is that?
Many “competitive” clubs are only so in name only. Not much better than AYSO. And even many USDA clubs field U16 and under teams that are a far cry from being elite . . . even using USA yard-stick for what is an excellent team with elite level individual players. The gold standard does not exist in USA! Why is that?
As someone posted in an excerpt from ODP player identification philosophy, they favor size because smaller players aren’t “physically mature”. Selecting players for higher level (elite) competition on world stage outwardly implies deliberate selection of those who show most promise, playing and mental characteristics for elite level play. Why does ODP think size is the key indicator of future ability and producing elite players? Why do they prematurely limit exposure to smaller more skillful players at an age when this is exactly what future elite players need? Why are we selecting the wrong players?
In Europe, players get free school and equipment. The ones who have professional desire get into a system that will develop them accordingly. In USA top players just get recruited but still pay club fees. And they are only being developed for college; not to compete as an elite player on world stage where top clubs seek their services.
We talk about coaching a lot and playing philosophy and culture. But we rarely talk about Board of Directors. They have as much or more influence than coaches and DOCs. They can implement, enforce and staff coaches and DOCs to fit a particular vision or philosophy.
BoDs can make changes in concepts such as putting philosophy, club, team or player first. Why is player always the bottom? Shouldn’t they be near the top? Putting team ahead of player is reinforces win now mentality. And they do that to satisfy the club’s desire to win.
In ideal world, the philosophy / vision is first (IMHO). The club is built and staffed to support it. Players are then selected to fit philosophy / vision. Team is last and benefits (more winning) when philosophy, club staff and players are in lock-step.
In Europe people have blogged about the tiered system. Pro clubs have the luxury of hand selecting players who meet their playing characteristics. If they don’t work, there is a constant stream of players waiting their turn. That doesn’t happen in USA. Even USDA teams often take what they get.
One last thing: I’ve yet to hear a coach say “I’d rather play good soccer and lose than play physical and win”. Coaches do in fact team kids to play properly but when they are in a tournament, it’s about winning. FC Barcelona USA has found a way to win and play beautiful soccer. IMHO, that is only because they have a vision, staffed accordingly and align player development to those goals. I personally don’t think Barcelona / La Masia are soccer Einsteins. They simply have a system and everything in is in lock-step. They are seamless. Even Tito Villanova is La Masia grad. Roomate of Pep back in the day. Like total soccer of interchangeable players, each academy team and each staff in Barcelona / La Masia area interchangeable. The Borg of soccer.
dis team can easily be beaten with the right tactics for example keeping the ball and not letting barcelona get it would be very frustrating to them btw FUCK BARCELONA
That’s impressive. BW Gottschee on the east coast won u7,8,9,10 in Columbus Cup. Not quite Surf Cup, but it’s competitive and, in similar fashion, they also seem to be the best possession club on this coast. Any thoughts?
Hi Marie,
Two things:
1) I know nothing about U7 & U8 soccer.
2) Without being able to assess the product, I can’t conclude a thing.