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    #16
    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
    Here is a simple plan to make soccer great in America.

    1) Stop trying to mimic everything Europe does. This is not a knock on Europe, but we need to realize just like the success of football and baseball, there is a culture component. Europe has there’s and we have our own so we need to build off our sports culture.

    2) We need to strengthen local play. This means in states with the density and popularity of soccer like Florida we need to build local competitive leagues. These leagues like ECNL, DA, R3 are missing the mark. We spend more time traveling to play then we do training. There is no reason for Florida to have three leagues that require ridiculous travel to develop players. Playing teams within a two hour radius should be all you need to do. Do 1 or 2 in-state tournaments. Go out of state or up to New Jersey, South Carolina once or twice a year and you bring some travel excitement.

    3) Support high school soccer. Yes, it’s quality is not up to club standards...not even close in many cases. I will say that many players benefit from the freedom it gives them to explore and try things that sometimes gets negative reaction on the club side. And it builds community interest in the sport from families who don’t have higher level club players. How many football and basketball players from a high school team make pro? Not many, but there are a heck of lot of people who played in their youth and those that don’t make it big are fans of their friends or peers who do.

    4) Most important. Make it our sport with our culture. We need to better align with College soccer. This is our sports culture. Play club and high school, play college and go pro. I want to watch an MLS game where I know players I watched in club and college. I want to hear of the stories of them growing up in Tampa or Orlando and how they played for the local club and high school and went on to play college ball at Duke, Penn State, USF, etc and watch them get drafted. Until this becomes our way and not the Europeans way we will be struggling to hit the popularity it has the potential to be.
    I can't take any recommendations that include High School and College soccer as important building blocks of soccer in the US seriously.

    I mean really . . . as the great Ron Burgundy once said . . . "that's just dumb."

    Comment


      #17
      Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
      I think we have tried the European way...on the guys side we were more successful a decade or so ago before European DA, ECNL Travel and things like birth year...which is a disaster here.
      Hmmm . . . US players are having more success than ever playing for established European clubs so . . .

      We rate this claim as FALSE!!!

      Comment


        #18
        Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
        The US Women's team was first in the world. Why go search the world wide for college players?
        Because many of them are better than our US players. It's one thing to fill one team with the nation's best but something very different to fill the thousands of college spots that open up each year. Coaches take players who will help them win. Its pretty simple.

        Comment


          #19
          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
          Hmmm . . . US players are having more success than ever playing for established European clubs so . . .

          We rate this claim as FALSE!!!
          Wow! Theres a two dozen more now than a decade ago when there were a few dozen. Hardly a Tsunami is it?. When US players stop losing college spots to foreigners AND our NT starts having success too, then we're getting somewhere. Neither of those things is happening in the near future

          Comment


            #20
            Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
            How about the USA colleges try to do the right thing and not up the other by trying to recruit the next "Mia Hamm" from Germany. They are here in the USA and colleges should be developing these players. It is like educating all the genius tech wizards from China and then they go back to China to use what they learned in USA colleges to make China great again.
            A college coach's job is to win. That is all. They take whoever will help them do it. Most international players are better trained and they come in and hit the ground running.

            Comment


              #21
              Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
              I can't take any recommendations that include High School and College soccer as important building blocks of soccer in the US seriously.

              I mean really . . . as the great Ron Burgundy once said . . . "that's just dumb."
              For 99.8% of players that works just fine.

              Comment


                #22
                Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                A college coach's job is to win. That is all. They take whoever will help them do it. Most international players are better trained and they come in and hit the ground running.
                Colleges should have a limit to how many foreign student athletes can be on a roster.

                Comment


                  #23
                  Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                  Colleges should have a limit to how many foreign student athletes can be on a roster.
                  Why ? Is there a limit on how many illegals can get welfare ?

                  Comment


                    #24
                    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                    Hmmm . . . US players are having more success than ever playing for established European clubs so . . .

                    We rate this claim as FALSE!!!
                    Really? We can’t field a decent national team...just because we are sending a handful to Europe to play professionally is not progress.

                    Comment


                      #25
                      Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                      I think we have tried the European way...on the guys side we were more successful a decade or so ago before European DA, ECNL Travel and things like birth year...which is a disaster here.
                      I hear school year is coming back. Makes more sense here to be set up that way.

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Great Thread

                        I am so agreeing with you that building up soccer locally is the solution. And even if we keep a competitive structure it should be local kids playing locally on local teams. If you team excels your team can get promoted into higher quality leagues.

                        Florida should have like four districts (Panhandle, North, SouthEast, SouthWest)

                        In each district there should be like four leagues with promotion and relegation like the English System. If players want to group up and form super teams they should be able to do so simply by driving a few miles. Most cities have lots of clubs or clubs with lots of teams. Even smaller areas will often have five to eight teams of varying skill level.

                        Only in the top leagues would there then be much of a need to travel.

                        But I agree having DA, ENCL, FPL, NPL, and whatever else the heck is out there is simply diluting each league forcing parents to spend more money and travel farther.

                        Comment


                          #27
                          College and High School Soccer

                          High School Soccer can play a role because if it were to get popular in certain regions it will increase the amount of kids playing, and then later watching soccer on TV, and then supporting soccer when adults.

                          High School Soccer if popular would also greatly increase the player pool. The reality is that club soccer is great but it doesn't reach many people. The reality is that we are having trouble competing against island countries. Iceland is better than we are. Iceland.... And how did they do it. They made soccer big time popular using local leagues at all age groups.

                          College soccer sadly because of NCAA rules will never play a big part I feel. I also agree that American college teams should have to have a certain amount of domestically born players. I won't pretend to know what amount should be. But its sad that more scholarships are given to foreign players than domestic.

                          In the off season we NEED more leagues to allow players to continue to train. Can't expect a soccer player to get better only playing three months out of the year.

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                            Here is a simple plan to make soccer great in America.

                            1) Stop trying to mimic everything Europe does. This is not a knock on Europe, but we need to realize just like the success of football and baseball, there is a culture component. Europe has there’s and we have our own so we need to build off our sports culture.

                            2) We need to strengthen local play. This means in states with the density and popularity of soccer like Florida we need to build local competitive leagues. These leagues like ECNL, DA, R3 are missing the mark. We spend more time traveling to play then we do training. There is no reason for Florida to have three leagues that require ridiculous travel to develop players. Playing teams within a two hour radius should be all you need to do. Do 1 or 2 in-state tournaments. Go out of state or up to New Jersey, South Carolina once or twice a year and you bring some travel excitement.

                            3) Support high school soccer. Yes, it’s quality is not up to club standards...not even close in many cases. I will say that many players benefit from the freedom it gives them to explore and try things that sometimes gets negative reaction on the club side. And it builds community interest in the sport from families who don’t have higher level club players. How many football and basketball players from a high school team make pro? Not many, but there are a heck of lot of people who played in their youth and those that don’t make it big are fans of their friends or peers who do.

                            4) Most important. Make it our sport with our culture. We need to better align with College soccer. This is our sports culture. Play club and high school, play college and go pro. I want to watch an MLS game where I know players I watched in club and college. I want to hear of the stories of them growing up in Tampa or Orlando and how they played for the local club and high school and went on to play college ball at Duke, Penn State, USF, etc and watch them get drafted. Until this becomes our way and not the Europeans way we will be struggling to hit the popularity it has the potential to be.
                            1- we need to stop trying to Americanize everything and fall inline with the rest of the world.
                            2- travel soccer is a thing because most good teams are spread out. local teams will not get better playing the same bad teams in their area.
                            3 and 4 are both incorrect. see #1. follow the world standard and play club not highschool and college rec soccer

                            Comment


                              #29
                              Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                              1- we need to stop trying to Americanize everything and fall inline with the rest of the world.
                              2- travel soccer is a thing because most good teams are spread out. local teams will not get better playing the same bad teams in their area.
                              3 and 4 are both incorrect. see #1. follow the world standard and play club not highschool and college rec soccer
                              More than enough high quality youth club teams to play in Florida without having to travel to Texas, CA or NJ.

                              Comment

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