Another excellent article

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https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&sour...49857144196904

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Not really inclined to follow any links on this chat board. Cut and paste maybe?

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I don't really care if the US wins the World Cup. There are more important things to worry about. If the US wins the world cup, my life won't get any better.

The business side of soccer is driving the idea of the US winning the world cup. If the US wins the World Cup, it mostly benefits the people selling stuff.

I hope the US never wins the world cup. I think that might corrupt the game even more.

The best part about soccer is playing.

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furthermore...

Some people think the benchmark for soccer success is winning the World Cup.

In the article preceding the one linked above states:

"The last global count by FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, found that the U.S. has as many female players as the rest of the planet combined."

The article uses this fact to demonstrate the failure of soccer in the US.

I think the benchmark of soccer success should be the number of people playing.
And in that respect we are doing fine.

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...except for the birth-year change. That was dumb.

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furthermore...

Some people think the benchmark for soccer success is winning the World Cup.

In the article preceding the one linked above states:

"The last global count by FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, found that the U.S. has as many female players as the rest of the planet combined."

The article uses this fact to demonstrate the failure of soccer in the US.

I think the benchmark of soccer success should be the number of people playing.
And in that respect we are doing fine.

Except we aren’t doing fine. Numbers are dropping. In large part to the stupid and misguided birth year change. Shockingly, not every kid who picks up a ball has the talent or aspiration to play in the World Cup. Some kids want to play a competitive sport with their classmates while they develop healthy fitness habits and the social and interpersonal skills gained from a team sport. So why not throw that entire process into turmoil and upheaval on the off chance it benefits .001% of kids with the talent and aspiration for national team play. Stupid.

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Except we aren’t doing fine. Numbers are dropping. In large part to the stupid and misguided birth year change. Shockingly, not every kid who picks up a ball has the talent or aspiration to play in the World Cup. Some kids want to play a competitive sport with their classmates while they develop healthy fitness habits and the social and interpersonal skills gained from a team sport. So why not throw that entire process into turmoil and upheaval on the off chance it benefits .001% of kids with the talent and aspiration for national team play. Stupid.

A 15% drop in just three years. Other sports are down some as well but not nearly as much as soccer. Costs, travel, frustrations with all the leagues and simply not being fun anymore

As for the MNT we've gone backwards in terms of not qualifying for WC and Olympics when we did before. While we've made some progress the rest of the world had a huge head start and keeps making more progress than we are. For the women we're still ahead but others are catching up quickly.

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Except we aren’t doing fine. Numbers are dropping. In large part to the stupid and misguided birth year change. Shockingly, not every kid who picks up a ball has the talent or aspiration to play in the World Cup. Some kids want to play a competitive sport with their classmates while they develop healthy fitness habits and the social and interpersonal skills gained from a team sport. So why not throw that entire process into turmoil and upheaval on the off chance it benefits .001% of kids with the talent and aspiration for national team play. Stupid.

Down 15% after monumentally stupid change to birth year. Not only do the more players want to have fun playing with their friends, the better older players want to try to play in college. Change to birth year left one third or more players without a team in 8th grade and 50% or more in 11th/12th with the combined age teams eliminating an entire separate age group. The participation downward slide will continue unless a change is made to graduation year. ECNL is rumored to be changing to graduation year to beat gda in the quest for players.

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A 15% drop in just three years. Other sports are down some as well but not nearly as much as soccer. Costs, travel, frustrations with all the leagues and simply not being fun anymore

As for the MNT we've gone backwards in terms of not qualifying for WC and Olympics when we did before. While we've made some progress the rest of the world had a huge head start and keeps making more progress than we are. For the women we're still ahead but others are catching up quickly.

In all likelihood, the 15% who dropped due to birth year are the calssmates who are playing only because their friends are playing. If the aim is to improve the whole system you don't build it around the lowest 15%. There are plenty of 'fun' league options for kids to join, but some parents just don't believe their kids should have to be subjected to recreational soccer. It's not fair to expect the top 85% to want to cater to the wants and wishes of the bottom 15%.

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Except we aren’t doing fine. Numbers are dropping. In large part to the stupid and misguided birth year change. Shockingly, not every kid who picks up a ball has the talent or aspiration to play in the World Cup. Some kids want to play a competitive sport with their classmates while they develop healthy fitness habits and the social and interpersonal skills gained from a team sport. So why not throw that entire process into turmoil and upheaval on the off chance it benefits .001% of kids with the talent and aspiration for national team play. Stupid.

Because you develop a system to maximize the chances to produce the .001% players not cater to the parents of the kids who want to be able to brag about their kid playing in the premier division/ecnl/gda. There are plenty of fun options where classmates can play together if parents would put aside their entitlement image issues and allow them to sign up for lower level leagues. Allow the kids who play for fun to do that, and allow the players who want more to do that without the burden of carrying an underserving classmate on a supposed 'select' team.

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I don't really care if the US wins the World Cup. There are more important things to worry about. If the US wins the world cup, my life won't get any better.

The business side of soccer is driving the idea of the US winning the world cup. If the US wins the World Cup, it mostly benefits the people selling stuff.

I hope the US never wins the world cup. I think that might corrupt the game even more.

The best part about soccer is playing.

Winning the world cup probably isn't a realistic goal. Only 8 countries have won it, none on our continent. Qualifying and advancing out of the round of 16 (where we were in 2014) is probably a realistic goal for 2022; getting to the quarters (with the advantages given to the host country) is a good goal for 2026.

And yes, the game worldwide is corrupt; for all who complain about US Soccer, they're a bunch of choir boys compared to what goes on at FIFA and in the federations of top footballing nations like Argentina or Croatia, for two examples. But sports itself is corrupt. College football and basketball are corrupt (and a lot of that corruption is the result of NCAA shamateurism rules which prevents athletes from getting paid what the market dictates they are worth for their services, hence the large number of backdoor schemes to pay them under the table).

At any rate--some people care a great deal about raising the profile and skill of American soccer. Others don't. If you don't, then there's nothing to worry about.

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Because you develop a system to maximize the chances to produce the .001% players not cater to the parents of the kids who want to be able to brag about their kid playing in the premier division/ecnl/gda. There are plenty of fun options where classmates can play together if parents would put aside their entitlement image issues and allow them to sign up for lower level leagues. Allow the kids who play for fun to do that, and allow the players who want more to do that without the burden of carrying an underserving classmate on a supposed 'select' team.

It should be noted that rec soccer in Oregon is based on the academic year.

(That said, one problem with "academic year" as implemented before the change, is that the cutoff date imposed by US Soccer--August 1--does not necessarily jive with the school calendar; in Oregon the cutoff is September 1. Kids born in August in Oregon were screwed either way).

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Winning the world cup probably isn't a realistic goal. Only 8 countries have won it, none on our continent. Qualifying and advancing out of the round of 16 (where we were in 2014) is probably a realistic goal for 2022; getting to the quarters (with the advantages given to the host country) is a good goal for 2026.

And yes, the game worldwide is corrupt; for all who complain about US Soccer, they're a bunch of choir boys compared to what goes on at FIFA and in the federations of top footballing nations like Argentina or Croatia, for two examples. But sports itself is corrupt. College football and basketball are corrupt (and a lot of that corruption is the result of NCAA shamateurism rules which prevents athletes from getting paid what the market dictates they are worth for their services, hence the large number of backdoor schemes to pay them under the table).

At any rate--some people care a great deal about raising the profile and skill of American soccer. Others don't. If you don't, then there's nothing to worry about.

I read Talking-Soccer for a laugh and to remind myself what a great parent I am in comparison to most that Blog. You need to take your intellect and valid points somewhere else my friend.

In all seriousness best post ever award goes to you!!!

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I read Talking-Soccer for a laugh and to remind myself what a great parent I am in comparison to most that Blog. You need to take your intellect and valid points somewhere else my friend.

In all seriousness best post ever award goes to you!!!

This place is a bucket full of crabs, ain't it?

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It should be noted that rec soccer in Oregon is based on the academic year.

(That said, one problem with "academic year" as implemented before the change, is that the cutoff date imposed by US Soccer--August 1--does not necessarily jive with the school calendar; in Oregon the cutoff is September 1. Kids born in August in Oregon were screwed either way).

Which is why ECNL is rumored to be going to graduation year like lacrosse. The majority of girls want to make their high school varsity teams and play in college. Graduation year age groups will attract the most players and make college recruiting the easiest. If college coaches are looking for 2020’s, they just go watch the 2020 games. Simple!