The Truth

[Unregistered]

I had to laugh that as a "coach" you would agree with his rant since he was saying that coaching was not required just time unstructured time with the ball.

He likes to talk about technical skill but I have never seen him define that. IMHO what sets the best players apart from the good players is the combination of the three aspects of the game, physical ability, technical skills AND game IQ.

I would like the referenced poster to tell us how the "pitch rats" are going to develop a refined game IQ playing unstructured games without coaching or having to defend structured attacks?

Ever heard of Futsal? The thing we so badly miss in this country is we want to control and mass produce everything. If we can mass produce it than we as parents ought to be able to follow a path and turn our little ones into professionals at anything.

I absolutely agree that the focus needs to be on developing through "street ball" type open play.

Take two players, one which has been coached since birth, has memorized every drill, but doesn't have a lick of creativity, or one which has been playing with a ball at his feet since birth, but has never played organized soccer.

I would take the second in a heart beat...Any coach can polish the surface and turn this sort of player into a phenom. It would be a lot harder to get the first player to stretch beyond the routine.

The reason everyone resists this is back to our production mentality...How do we crank out soccer players when we first have to trust them to develop on their own.

Maybe the answer is the people it fits will find it, and we shouldn't be in the market of mass player production.

[Unregistered]

You should become a street scout!

Ever heard of Futsal? The thing we so badly miss in this country is we want to control and mass produce everything. If we can mass produce it than we as parents ought to be able to follow a path and turn our little ones into professionals at anything.

I absolutely agree that the focus needs to be on developing through "street ball" type open play.

Take two players, one which has been coached since birth, has memorized every drill, but doesn't have a lick of creativity, or one which has been playing with a ball at his feet since birth, but has never played organized soccer.

I would take the second in a heart beat...Any coach can polish the surface and turn this sort of player into a phenom. It would be a lot harder to get the first player to stretch beyond the routine.

The reason everyone resists this is back to our production mentality...How do we crank out soccer players when we first have to trust them to develop on their own.

Maybe the answer is the people it fits will find it, and we shouldn't be in the market of mass player production.

Creativity is great but if you do not know how to play within a structured system that creativity will not be productive or appreciated by your team mates. This is precisely why players like Messi refined their game NOT on the streets buy in top clubs where they learn to incorporate their creativity with the structure of a team attack and against structured defense.

If your theory held any water 99% of players on Latin American pro teams would not be coming from clubs but the streets!

[Unregistered]

Ever heard of Futsal? The thing we so badly miss in this country is we want to control and mass produce everything. If we can mass produce it than we as parents ought to be able to follow a path and turn our little ones into professionals at anything.

I absolutely agree that the focus needs to be on developing through "street ball" type open play.

Take two players, one which has been coached since birth, has memorized every drill, but doesn't have a lick of creativity, or one which has been playing with a ball at his feet since birth, but has never played organized soccer.

I would take the second in a heart beat...Any coach can polish the surface and turn this sort of player into a phenom. It would be a lot harder to get the first player to stretch beyond the routine.

The reason everyone resists this is back to our production mentality...How do we crank out soccer players when we first have to trust them to develop on their own.

Maybe the answer is the people it fits will find it, and we shouldn't be in the market of mass player production.

http://www.wimp.com/streetplayer/

He is pretty creative, but I doubt if this player could even play on the Timber's U23 team.

[Unregistered]

http://www.wimp.com/streetplayer/

He is pretty creative, but I doubt if this player could even play on the Timber's U23 team.

I agree. I've seen videos of this guy and he has awesome skills. At his age he is doing freestyle either because he could not make it playing in a professional soccer team environment or just enjoys doing freestyle better. He is not undiscovered talent.