Whats wrong with the US Men's National Program?

[Unregistered]

Name them. Give me your list of freak athletes from other countries that mirror 6'5 230 pound dudes that run real fast...

Forwards: Drogba. Zlatan. Lakkaku. Defenders: Lescott. Sergio Ramos. Pique. They are all big and fast and dominant world class players in a sport that has far more participants than football.

Those are lots more, but you'll never be convinced so what's the point.

[Unregistered]

Limited numbers and limited academic choices.

While many "Futbol people" will poo poo the negative effect of scholarship limitations on the quality of our players they need to consider that less than half of the Pac 12 have men's teams and the other large FBS leagues also do not have full soccer schedules either. In the SEC you have just 2 men's programs at Kentucky and South Carolina.

The gross numbers are 3,663 scholarship for men's D1 & D2 vs. 5,800 plus for women's D1 & D2.

Equally important to retaining our better athletes are the academic offerings those scholarship provide access to. For instance in the PAC 12 men can't play for Stanford, USC or either of the Arizona schools.

[Unregistered]

Limited numbers and limited academic choices.

While many "Futbol people" will poo poo the negative effect of scholarship limitations on the quality of our players they need to consider that less than half of the Pac 12 have men's teams and the other large FBS leagues also do not have full soccer schedules either. In the SEC you have just 2 men's programs at Kentucky and South Carolina.

The gross numbers are 3,663 scholarship for men's D1 & D2 vs. 5,800 plus for women's D1 & D2.

Equally important to retaining our better athletes are the academic offerings those scholarship provide access to. For instance in the PAC 12 men can't play for Stanford, USC or either of the Arizona schools.

Stanford has a mens team. There are 2 players from the DA going there this fall. There are no mens teams at: UO, WSU, Utah, Colorado, USC, Arizona or ASU in the PAC 12.

[Unregistered]

Limited numbers and limited academic choices.

While many "Futbol people" will poo poo the negative effect of scholarship limitations on the quality of our players they need to consider that less than half of the Pac 12 have men's teams and the other large FBS leagues also do not have full soccer schedules either. In the SEC you have just 2 men's programs at Kentucky and South Carolina.

The gross numbers are 3,663 scholarship for men's D1 & D2 vs. 5,800 plus for women's D1 & D2.

Equally important to retaining our better athletes are the academic offerings those scholarship provide access to. For instance in the PAC 12 men can't play for Stanford, USC or either of the Arizona schools.

If the men could get 2,200 more scholarships you would be talking about adding 4,400 more quality athletes to the US system of soccer. Does this mean that these college players are going to end up on the National team or play in the pros? In directly the answer is yes MORE players are going to stay with the sport at the younger ages as it becomes a reasonable path to college vs. going with football or basketball.

If we do the math on the dollar value of these additional 2,200 scholarships with an average value of $25,000 per year we are talking about the logical benefits of adding FIFTY FIVE MILLION dollars annually to the system.

[Unregistered]

German National Team

A glance over the 21 field players on the World Cup Champs shows one 5'7, one 5'9" and two 5"11".

Compare that to the 8 players between 6'.0" and 6'.1" and the 7 players 6'.2" or taller.

The point of this review is to show that the game is changing and it is getting taller. Yes every team can have a couple of shrimps but the bulk of the players in the future are going to be over 6'.0".

Now if we could get the MLS league minimum up to the $400K of the other major American sports and we would see the US go toe to toe with the world!

[Unregistered]

L o l

Its not bogus... think about some of our best athletes: Kobe, Lebron, westbrook, rose, adrian petersen, sherman, Petersen, the list goes on and on, if all of them grew up only playing soccer think about the freak athletes we would have playing on the national team. In other countries those freak athletes are playing soccer.

This is so awesome, someone put together an entire article to prove your point, or make fun of it, you be the Judge!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernst...ccer-wed-win-e

[Unregistered]

This is so awesome, someone put together an entire article to prove your point, or make fun of it, you be the Judge!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernst...ccer-wed-win-e

The credibility of that online blog article is anchored in the choice for the Coach Michele Obama. This is the reason we don't excel at soccer; our coaching is sub-standard, inconsistent from young youth ages up through the pros. The "best athlete" issue is such a lame excuse. With 300 million people and a much more expansive youth sports culture (in many European countries only a small percentage of kids play ANY sport) we have more athletes to chose from than almost ANY country in the world. IF athleticism were the deciding factor we would be one of the best soccer nations in the world, hands down. Soccer is a sport that requires far more early coaching and long term development of technical skills, well beyond football or basketball. If fact baseball is more analogous an look at where many of best baseball players are coming from now, Dominican Republic, other LA countries and even Japan. Japan for crying out loud, now there is a well of athleticism!!!! Look at the athletes that play NCAA soccer, many of whom as a team would out run, bench press, etc. Real Madrid, Bayern Munich etc...

[Unregistered]

Bush's fault.

[Unregistered]

Huh

The credibility of that online blog article is anchored in the choice for the Coach Michele Obama. This is the reason we don't excel at soccer; our coaching is sub-standard, inconsistent from young youth ages up through the pros. The "best athlete" issue is such a lame excuse. With 300 million people and a much more expansive youth sports culture (in many European countries only a small percentage of kids play ANY sport) we have more athletes to chose from than almost ANY country in the world. IF athleticism were the deciding factor we would be one of the best soccer nations in the world, hands down. Soccer is a sport that requires far more early coaching and long term development of technical skills, well beyond football or basketball. If fact baseball is more analogous an look at where many of best baseball players are coming from now, Dominican Republic, other LA countries and even Japan. Japan for crying out loud, now there is a well of athleticism!!!! Look at the athletes that play NCAA soccer, many of whom as a team would out run, bench press, etc. Real Madrid, Bayern Munich etc...

Whatever dude....

[Unregistered]

Whatever dude....

Ah, an intellectual.

[Unregistered]

The credibility of that online blog article is anchored in the choice for the Coach Michele Obama. This is the reason we don't excel at soccer; our coaching is sub-standard, inconsistent from young youth ages up through the pros. The "best athlete" issue is such a lame excuse. With 300 million people and a much more expansive youth sports culture (in many European countries only a small percentage of kids play ANY sport) we have more athletes to chose from than almost ANY country in the world. IF athleticism were the deciding factor we would be one of the best soccer nations in the world, hands down. Soccer is a sport that requires far more early coaching and long term development of technical skills, well beyond football or basketball. If fact baseball is more analogous an look at where many of best baseball players are coming from now, Dominican Republic, other LA countries and even Japan. Japan for crying out loud, now there is a well of athleticism!!!! Look at the athletes that play NCAA soccer, many of whom as a team would out run, bench press, etc. Real Madrid, Bayern Munich etc...

Exactly.

No one who has ever played the game beyond rec, or is a qualified coach in any capacity would agree with the best athletes BS. That should tell you everything you need to know.

The real game, not US Youth Jungle Ball, is art as much as sport.

[Unregistered]

To funny

Exactly.

No one who has ever played the game beyond rec, or is a qualified coach in any capacity would agree with the best athletes BS. That should tell you everything you need to know.

The real game, not US Youth Jungle Ball, is art as much as sport.

Says 60% of male soccer fans in the US who are under 5'.8" and swear they were really good athletes. LOL to funny.

Get over it.

[Unregistered]

Says 60% of male soccer fans in the US who are under 5'.8" and swear they were really good athletes. LOL to funny.

Get over it.

Says 100% of male hand egg fans, who are over 300 pounds and never put on pads or cleats of any kind. Yet are now trying to live their non-existent athletic careers vicariously through their daughters.

[Unregistered]

Exactly.

No one who has ever played the game beyond rec, or is a qualified coach in any capacity would agree with the best athletes BS. That should tell you everything you need to know.

The real game, not US Youth Jungle Ball, is art as much as sport.

So u are saying the crappy coaches should know that it's their fault?

How about a serious examination of how Germany has come to dominate in the last few years? The key ingredient has been the adoption of a national "style" of play that is taught from the earliest ages. That program was started 6 years ago and the results are now paying off.

this observable result seems to agree some what with your take that it is coaching. However until we send out best athletes between the heights of 5'10" and 6'4" in to soccer no "system" of play is going to produce consistent results.

In other words it's BOTH things.... coaching and talent!

http://www.ehow.com/way_5875337_germ...-coaching.html

[Unregistered]

So u are saying the crappy coaches should know that it's their fault?

How about a serious examination of how Germany has come to dominate in the last few years? The key ingredient has been the adoption of a national "style" of play that is taught from the earliest ages. That program was started 6 years ago and the results are now paying off.

this observable result seems to agree some what with your take that it is coaching. However until we send out best athletes between the heights of 5'10" and 6'4" in to soccer no "system" of play is going to produce consistent results.

In other words it's BOTH things.... coaching and talent!

http://www.ehow.com/way_5875337_germ...-coaching.html

Yes, our crappy coaches know it is their fault.

Germany did it the way everyone does, by improving their investment in their youth system and coaching better, scouting better and training better. This is of course what every successful youth setup has done, steal from the Dutch/Ajax.

The athletes theory + height requirements? Did the German DFB go looking for taller stronger athletes? Having read much of their literature, I have not seen anything in there about height requirements. Someone should have told Mario Goetze, he of the World Cup final winning goal, cause dude is a little midget that weighs 140 pounds, seriously, 5'8 140! How did he get on the pitch?

Not to mention the fact that proponents of the "Athlete" theory have yet to mention or explain why we, along with the African Nations, are already one of if not THE most athletic teams at every World Cup, taller, faster, bigger than almost everyone we play, yet we still suck. Oh. that's right, we are a bunch of donkeys with no touch and tactical acumen.

I am all for a thorough discussion of youth development and the German DFB over the last 6 years in particular, but I am pretty sure that discussion should not revolve around a half baked ehow article with a bunch of grammatical errors.

Here is a very simple and direct explanation of the DFB youth curriculum, that if compared to our current youth setup, will clearly explain why they are awesome and we suck, (hint, it has nothing to do with athletes):

http://www.kthi.is/skrar/file/Fyrirl...%B0verjans.pdf

If you then care enough to take a look at our current USSF curriculum, which few clubs and coaches bother to read or implement, you will see that they (along with that of the KNVB, Belgium, French, Spanish, etc.), are pretty much the same thing and none of them mention looking for taller, stronger, bigger, faster athletes.

http://www.ussoccer.com/coaching-education/resources

But I am sure all of you dads out there, who never kicked a ball in anger, are 100% spot on and we just need more roided out NFL players.