The problem with US Soccer is not that we lack extremely talented players; we have them! There are loads of players with world class potential here. I see it every week at the youth level, and sometimes college. The problem is we have ignorance and incompetence occupying the coaching and management positions at the higher […]
Problems
Breaking Bad Habits
Most of us have seen that TV show or movie where the cowboy jumps on a horse’s back with the aim of domestication. The wild animal violently resists being ridden and will buck, jump, twist, whatever it takes to knock the cowboy on his ass! After all, the horse is wild and doesn’t want to […]
US Soccer 2009 (Part IV: Nothing’s Changed)
It’s easy for the blind faithful to spout off the following as evidence we have “arrived”: Qualified 1st to the Wolrd Cup out of CONCACAF Got to the final in the Confederations Cup by knocking out #1 ranked Spain Got to the final of the Gold Cup But like I said in the last post, […]
Now This Is Beautiful Soccer!
The day US soccer starts demonstrating combination play like this, is the day we’ll graduate to the next level. How many times have you ever seen it on our National Teams or MLS? Here’s the video. (If you can’t see it, click here). This is what we should be striving for, this is what fans […]
The “Freshman Syndrome”
Allow me to introduce one of the many scourges in US soccer. What I like to call the “Freshman Syndrome”. A lot of high school and college coaches suffer from this idea that simply because you are a freshman, you should smell the fresh-cut grass from the bench, or not at all! Sure, in general […]
The Cream Isn’t Rising To The Top
I think we can all agree that the best should always get recognized and rise to the highest level. It is a basic principle that enables any country, company, team, etc to maximize their potential. In the case of a soccer team, we obviously want the best players, coach, management and staff possible. Today we’ll […]
Work Ethic – An Ellusive Player Trait
The main things to look for in a player when scouting, with the intention to recruit, were covered in the article about elite players. Now I want to cover one of the properties that is impossible to identify solely by scouting at games. That is, WORK ETHIC A player may currently have great qualities and […]
Diving is Smart
Foul simulation says a lot about a player or team. It is a good indicator that they have “street smarts” on the field. Whether it is an attempt to give your team a free kick, waste time, or persuade the ref into giving an opponent a yellow card, the idea is to give your team […]
Top Freshman to Watch in College Soccer
So many entities around the net publish their yearly list of “top 100 freshman” to watch during the college season. It’s really just a list of those players with impressive “pedigree”. Have you been in ODP or National player pools? Have you been on a high profile club or team that’s won big titles? Have […]
Stop Making Excuses!
You know, this is one of our soccer problems in this country… EXCUSES! These things we use so often are arguably an instinctive property of humans. We think that by using them we protect our egos, self esteem, self worth. In the short term, it might work. We go on living our seemingly flawless lives, […]