April Heinrichs canned

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"In fact, Snow’s squads for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers and the 2016 U17 World Cup were so loaded up on forwards that they each basically had only three true midfielders. (Oddly enough, these teams also struggled to play through midfield and break down organized defenses."

No kidding. Can't believe these people get paid to do this.

Thank you for reading (and understanding) the quote i put out a few posts ago from that article. It's crazy that our "experts" (who are highly paid btw) think this way. You can say that the rest of the world has caught up, but it simply isn't true. The teams we put together at younger ages simply don't work out well because of their dynamics and chemistry. We just try to force all of our highly desirable square pegs into every hole (whether they are square or not). US Soccer needs to figure out that different positions required different sets of skills and get the best players we have into each one. We should stop trying to take track stars almost exclusively and expecting them to be good defenders, mids, or forwards because of their speed.

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"In fact, Snow’s squads for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers and the 2016 U17 World Cup were so loaded up on forwards that they each basically had only three true midfielders. (Oddly enough, these teams also struggled to play through midfield and break down organized defenses."

No kidding. Can't believe these people get paid to do this.

This basically describes the situation at every team my kid has played for:

Why miss out on obvious talent?
A common element of this formidable set of players is that they are more passers and playmakers, rather than 1v1 dribblers. These days, apparently, being an attacking-minded midfielder who looks to combine, to build attacks through passing and off-ball movement rather than only direct take-ons, gets a player marginalized by our YNTs, not celebrated.

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Soccer here feels like a sport for the rich so it it harder for it to have mass appeal.

Which makes the location choices of bumfuk TX and Cary NC more baffling. Not exactly soccer-fan hotbeds. No wonder the stands were half empty, and they weren't even big sites.

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This basically describes the situation at every team my kid has played for:

Why miss out on obvious talent?
A common element of this formidable set of players is that they are more passers and playmakers, rather than 1v1 dribblers. These days, apparently, being an attacking-minded midfielder who looks to combine, to build attacks through passing and off-ball movement rather than only direct take-ons, gets a player marginalized by our YNTs, not celebrated.

And because THESE players are passed on, I find it very difficult to watch the game here. I simply can not stand all of the exceptionally fast players dribbling into 1v4s and turning the ball over or consistently taking too long of a touch that they consistently give the ball back. Take a touch and play it to a winger that presents the ball to the defender behing them because of consistently poor (and ill-advised) turns. Everyone yelling for the mids and backs to get forward and catch the 40-yard pass (because the coach wants everyone to find the hanging forwards and mids that are often offside) and 30-yard route 1 run by a fresh forward after they just defended for 5 minutes and kept the ball out of the back of their own net (and now they need to catch the ball which went 70 yards north in sub 1 second!). Get a clue ..... this game is so NOT beautiful. I often thought the US audience simply liked offense, so they naturally disliked soccer but I now think they are mostly right in in disliking a game that is not only short on scoring but technical ability and great feats of skill that they might aspire to have. They get running fast, but there is nothing else of merit after that (and every sport has this). Did you see the left footed goal by Colombia last night. In traffic, the guy made a little space and bent a ball with his left that was so impressive .... and the pseudo-bicycle goal by Colombia?? Awesome to watch.

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"In fact, Snow’s squads for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers and the 2016 U17 World Cup were so loaded up on forwards that they each basically had only three true midfielders. (Oddly enough, these teams also struggled to play through midfield and break down organized defenses."

No kidding. Can't believe these people get paid to do this.

To make matters even worse for themselves they have substantially limited their pool of superstar YNT players (from https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/20...ting-nastier):

"Just this past week (in August), the US Girls U15 national team announced its roster for the CONCACAF U15 Championship--and it consisted almost entirely of girls from GDA programs and only one girl from an ECNL club (a forward from Mountain View-Los Altos SC). Perhaps there is a better explanation for this--but this sure looks like a deliberate snub. If the national team is excluding or ignoring players for not choosing to play in the GDA, this needs to stop--now."

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And because THESE players are passed on, I find it very difficult to watch the game here. I simply can not stand all of the exceptionally fast players dribbling into 1v4s and turning the ball over or consistently taking too long of a touch that they consistently give the ball back. Take a touch and play it to a winger that presents the ball to the defender behing them because of consistently poor (and ill-advised) turns. Everyone yelling for the mids and backs to get forward and catch the 40-yard pass (because the coach wants everyone to find the hanging forwards and mids that are often offside) and 30-yard route 1 run by a fresh forward after they just defended for 5 minutes and kept the ball out of the back of their own net (and now they need to catch the ball which went 70 yards north in sub 1 second!). Get a clue ..... this game is so NOT beautiful. I often thought the US audience simply liked offense, so they naturally disliked soccer but I now think they are mostly right in in disliking a game that is not only short on scoring but technical ability and great feats of skill that they might aspire to have. They get running fast, but there is nothing else of merit after that (and every sport has this). Did you see the left footed goal by Colombia last night. In traffic, the guy made a little space and bent a ball with his left that was so impressive .... and the pseudo-bicycle goal by Colombia?? Awesome to watch.

In fairness, the guys that would manage the midfield correctly and create the movement and runs - McKennie and Tyler Adams - were injured and not playing. It's a pretty big drop off from those two and Christian Pulisic so not surprising we get dominated by a world-class team (James Rodriguez is a joy to watch).

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There were more Colombian fans there last night than there were US Men's fans!

"Colombia fans made up the majority of the announced 38,631 fans — a record for a United States men’s national team game in Tampa — at Raymond James Stadium to see the South American country beat the U.S. 4-2 Thursday night. The previous record of 31,547 was set in 2007 against Ecuador.

A quick scan of the stands revealed hand-made signs that read “Me Encanta Cartagena” and “Tuluá del Valle” or “I love Cartagena” and “Tuluá of the Valley,” both cities in Colombia. The yellow shirts waved them high in the air, sometimes while doing the wave that rippled through the stadium sections."

If I were there I would be rooting for Colombia too. This isn't the USMNT that will feature in the next few years so why not enjoy effectively the same team that, absent some bad luck on PKs, gone to the WC semis.

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In fairness, the guys that would manage the midfield correctly and create the movement and runs - McKennie and Tyler Adams - were injured and not playing. It's a pretty big drop off from those two and Christian Pulisic so not surprising we get dominated by a world-class team (James Rodriguez is a joy to watch).

Semi-agreed, but we have not had a USMNT midfielder that makes a difference for a very long time. I was speaking mostly to female USYNTs as was pointed out in the cited article, but also a heavy dose of this on HS, club, and college teams of every level across the US.

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This basically describes the situation at every team my kid has played for:

Why miss out on obvious talent?
A common element of this formidable set of players is that they are more passers and playmakers, rather than 1v1 dribblers. These days, apparently, being an attacking-minded midfielder who looks to combine, to build attacks through passing and off-ball movement rather than only direct take-ons, gets a player marginalized by our YNTs, not celebrated.

My experience at one of the "big three" CT premier clubs (yes, maybe it's just one or two, but not relevant for this) has been that the old(er) American dinosaur coaches (but...they coach college teams!!) treat their premier club teams this way - they love the big fast strong kids with crappy touches and no ability to see the field any way other than straight ahead. They want them to get the ball wide and go 1x1 or 1x2. There are plenty of kids on the team that could play a role of controlling distributor in the middle of the field, but the STYLE of play is tailored to the limited skills of the BSFK (big strong fast kids) who almost exclusively play wide forward or mid. So those other kids are marginalized and not really valued.

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Semi-agreed, but we have not had a USMNT midfielder that makes a difference for a very long time. I was speaking mostly to female USYNTs as was pointed out in the cited article, but also a heavy dose of this on HS, club, and college teams of every level across the US.

I think the Adams/McKennie pairing will change your mind ;)

However, on your point, it's interesting synthesizing those articles/criticisms of the women's USYNT with the perennial complaint of most parents with Ds at the higher level teams -- don't pass and expect to get the ball back. Almost seems like culturally it's happening from the top down *and* the bottoms up. Makes for bad soccer I agree.

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I think the Adams/McKennie pairing will change your mind ;)

However, on your point, it's interesting synthesizing those articles/criticisms of the women's USYNT with the perennial complaint of most parents with Ds at the higher level teams -- don't pass and expect to get the ball back. Almost seems like culturally it's happening from the top down *and* the bottoms up. Makes for bad soccer I agree.

McKennie (like Pulisic) another kid that played overseas early.

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In fairness, read this.

https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/20...er-ynt-problem

Do you really think she was good? She grew up and strived in a system where all the talent was on one team, nc and when the rest of the world didn’t invest a penny in women’s sports and women’s soccer, so you throw together the best athletes and you win a World Cup.

If you read the article, you can see a bias to not selecting ecnl players on to junior national teams. Players who went on to be top ncaa players and make the senior national team. How does that happen. You are good enough to make a full us national team, but not good enough to make any junior national team camp even? Your job is to find the best talent and to provide superior coaching and put a team on the field that can win. She failed at her job. Us junior national teams have failed under her watch. Answer was right under your nose, but instead we created a new watered down league and will use that as our primary source of players. Sounds like a plan.

You dont mention the vast majority that did. the article is worth reading , but your slant on it hear is not.

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Arent these paragraphs the heart of the issue:

"As others have noted, the YWNT style in recent cycles, including the recent U20 World Cup, heavily emphasizes individualistic flank play. Central midfield, the theory goes, is simply too easy to clog up defensively. Better to skirt around that part of the field altogether, get it wide as early as possible, and create havoc through 1v1 and 2v1 attacks down the wing.

Thus, in the current cycle, WNT technical director April Heinrichs and U20 head coach Jitka Klimkova picked a roster that was heavy on attacking players with an ability and a propensity to attack and take on 1v1 from wider areas—e.g., Sophia Smith, Ashley Sanchez, Abigail Kim, Erin Gilroy, and Alexa Spaanstra. (Midfielder Taryn Torres, who can play in a variety of positions, tended to be deployed by Klimkova as a flank attacker as well.)

B.J. Snow’s U17 rosters in the 2014 and 2016 cycles similarly favored fast, direct attackers, especially 1v1 dribblers out wide. In fact, Snow’s squads for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers and the 2016 U17 World Cup were so loaded up on forwards that they each basically had only three true midfielders. (Oddly enough, these teams also struggled to play through midfield and break down organized defenses."

Everyone drafts speed, speed, speed and just try to make it work .... The American style of soccer if not predicated on technical ability, spatial awareness, soccer IQ or anuthing else other than speed ..... We do it at the rec level, travel level, local premier, regional premier, and ECNL, DA and US NTs. It is no wonder Colombia kicked the mens butts last night. How about we start picking particular skills for particular positions rather than take all forwards and move them to places that they have never played and in new situations where taking long toiches and running fast sinks you deeper? We dont try to put 4.4 forty guys at LT or QB .... Each football position seeks vasrly different skills and body types ..... Why dont we do something similar in soccer here? I still chuckle that thebintent of DA is the grow prototypical players (forwards and wings imho) rather than let plyers develop unique and necessary, but different, skill sets that can later be harvested as needed for a particilar team.

But no one complains about Pugh? Or Sophie Smith? or any of the other direct attackers when they are selected repeatedly. This take is hypocrisy and 20/20 hind sight.

speed, just like all the other things is an asset. the issue is not speed and athleticism, which so many of these takes seem to want to turn into an either or with IQ,vision and technical ability, but HOW we create and develop players and for waht purpose.

ask yourself why these kids you suggest are so limited DOMINATE the sport here even in College? Then ask yourself who has anny incentive to break that down and gear things towards International soccer?

heck, when the GDA changes the sub rules, we are up in arms because it does not replicate College and apparently hurt recruiting. the disconnect is that the US game including College is NOT a fair representation of the International game AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS and the skill sets needed to play that way.

Can the US win playing the way it does ? yes. Is it a clash in styles vs some countries, yes

Could we do a better job of selection? Yes

If we want to change the types of players we develop, then the system has to do that. Action usually follows incentives. If highly technical passing soccer was dominating, then we would develop more players like that.

go look at the womens top 10 on TDS or USS Coaches . Ask yourself how many of those teams are playing progressive intelligent passing soccer. I bet not many.

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But no one complains about Pugh? Or Sophie Smith? or any of the other direct attackers when they are selected repeatedly. This take is hypocrisy and 20/20 hind sight.

speed, just like all the other things is an asset. the issue is not speed and athleticism, which so many of these takes seem to want to turn into an either or with IQ,vision and technical ability, but HOW we create and develop players and for waht purpose.

Why would we complain about Smith or Pugh? The argument is not whether we need speed, it is whether we need speed over technical ability, soccer IQ, spatial awareness and other things at EVERY position. It might be wise to consider some additional traits as strengths even for wings and forwards (although I would admit, speed would be weighted heavily on a short list of desirable traits). I am not sure that referencing either Sophia Smith or Mallory Pugh supports your argument in this case.

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Why would we complain about Smith or Pugh? The argument is not whether we need speed, it is whether we need speed over technical ability, soccer IQ, spatial awareness and other things at EVERY position. It might be wise to consider some additional traits as strengths even for wings and forwards (although I would admit, speed would be weighted heavily on a short list of desirable traits). I am not sure that referencing either Sophia Smith or Mallory Pugh supports your argument in this case.

Name one player not on the current USWNT, who was passed over and has superior technical ability, soccer IQ, spatial awareness and even speed, than the women currently playing on the team.

Name one player not on the current USWNT at U20 or even U17, who was passed over and has superior technical ability, soccer IQ, spatial awareness and even speed, than the women currently playing on the teams.