Thorns Academy +27GD after 4 games??

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Yes we all know that you can manufacture as many great soccer players as needed as long as you push hard to get better.

I know you are being as assists, That's absolutely the goal to create more skilled players. To attract more athletic players. It starts young but you can't just recruit any more like in the past. More focus on building blocks at young ages.

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assists s/b sarcastic

[Unregistered]

I know you are being as assists, That's absolutely the goal to create more skilled players. To attract more athletic players. It starts young but you can't just recruit any more like in the past. More focus on building blocks at young ages.

Maybe in 10 years when the population doubles. There is a population constraint. You can throw big, huge, crazy amounts of money at creating athletic and skilled players from what once were average good players, but it won't work. I suppose you feel that you can attract girls away from basketball, swimming (not sure if that will help) and golf (don't think this will help at all) and maybe dance and gymnastics.. track (that is right most of the runners play soccer). I don't see it. I think this is something that has been packaged in such a way to justify the cost. In order to create more talent, you definitely need training but you also need a way to capture the economically challenged. The current path doesn't even come close.

[Unregistered]

Maybe in 10 years when the population doubles. There is a population constraint. You can throw big, huge, crazy amounts of money at creating athletic and skilled players from what once were average good players, but it won't work. I suppose you feel that you can attract girls away from basketball, swimming (not sure if that will help) and golf (don't think this will help at all) and maybe dance and gymnastics.. track (that is right most of the runners play soccer). I don't see it. I think this is something that has been packaged in such a way to justify the cost. In order to create more talent, you definitely need training but you also need a way to capture the economically challenged. The current path doesn't even come close.

Top players in other sports probably could have become top soccer players. Great athletes are great athletes. But as long as there are competing sports, you will never have all of the players in one of the sports.

For the parents who are spending a fortune on ECNL, you are wasting your money if your dd isn't a good athlete. At least you are wasting it if you are thinking that ECNL will turn her into some top soccer player. She can improve her speed, but that doesn't mean she will become fast. She can improve her agility, but that doesn't mean she will have the agility of the top players. She can improve her coordination, but that doesn't mean she will have the amount that the top players have. A top athlete with good work ethics and drive to become better, will leave the other players in the dust.

[Unregistered]

Top players in other sports probably could have become top soccer players. Great athletes are great athletes. But as long as there are competing sports, you will never have all of the players in one of the sports.

For the parents who are spending a fortune on ECNL, you are wasting your money if your dd isn't a good athlete. At least you are wasting it if you are thinking that ECNL will turn her into some top soccer player. She can improve her speed, but that doesn't mean she will become fast. She can improve her agility, but that doesn't mean she will have the agility of the top players. She can improve her coordination, but that doesn't mean she will have the amount that the top players have. A top athlete with good work ethics and drive to become better, will leave the other players in the dust.

This is very true. Additionally, not all top athletes have money so the club soccer scene might be a hard sell.

In our area, most public school soccer starts in high school which is probably too late to identify very many players. Track, basketball and volleyball start in middle school and for these sports you will often see the top athletic children being identified by their club counterparts. I know my child was offered scholarship opportunities for both basketball and volleyball and the track coaches were relentless. In our case I could afford club soccer (I robbed Peter to pay Paul anyway) so my child participated in soccer.

I don't see a path that is conducive to the under privileged to get into soccer in the US unless they are a Hispanic male. The only reason Hispanic male make it in is the vast number of recreational (cheap) playing opportunity from an early age and the fact that Hispanic adults love the sport.

I am not saying that all soccer players have money. I have seen no shortage of average working stiffs (like myself) who happened to love the game of soccer and found a way. From my perspective the cost of Girl's club soccer has gone through the roof. So, in today's $10K / year to play range I would not be able to have multiple kids play the sport anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I don't expect anyone to provide freebies to us, I just think that our soccer leaders are so motivated by money that they have lost sight of growing the sport for the sport's sake. I am sure that is not a popular topic on this board.

[Unregistered]

Top players in other sports probably could have become top soccer players. Great athletes are great athletes. But as long as there are competing sports, you will never have all of the players in one of the sports.

For the parents who are spending a fortune on ECNL, you are wasting your money if your dd isn't a good athlete. At least you are wasting it if you are thinking that ECNL will turn her into some top soccer player. She can improve her speed, but that doesn't mean she will become fast. She can improve her agility, but that doesn't mean she will have the agility of the top players. She can improve her coordination, but that doesn't mean she will have the amount that the top players have. A top athlete with good work ethics and drive to become better, will leave the other players in the dust.

good points as to why not to do ECNL or thorns. While we are at it, high level club soccer. Definitely should not travel. Wasted money.

[Unregistered]

good points as to why not to do ECNL or thorns. While we are at it, high level club soccer. Definitely should not travel. Wasted money.

If your kid isn't a good athlete and you think spending lots of money on her will cure that then it really is wasted money. If you realize that she's average and throwing lots of money at it will only made her a little bit better but you are fine with that, then more power to you.

[Unregistered]

interesting/good points

I don't see a path that is conducive to the under privileged to get into soccer in the US unless they are a Hispanic male. The only reason Hispanic male make it in is the vast number of recreational (cheap) playing opportunity from an early age and the fact that Hispanic adults love the sport.

but i'm pretty sure we moved on, from HISpanic to Latino, before I was born.

[Unregistered]

Top players in other sports probably could have become top soccer players. Great athletes are great athletes. But as long as there are competing sports, you will never have all of the players in one of the sports.

For the parents who are spending a fortune on ECNL, you are wasting your money if your dd isn't a good athlete. At least you are wasting it if you are thinking that ECNL will turn her into some top soccer player. She can improve her speed, but that doesn't mean she will become fast. She can improve her agility, but that doesn't mean she will have the agility of the top players. She can improve her coordination, but that doesn't mean she will have the amount that the top players have. A top athlete with good work ethics and drive to become better, will leave the other players in the dust.

There are some interesting quotes by Mourinho on how pure athletic speed (i.e. 100 m) does not equate to the factor of 'soccer' speed within the actual game. What he is looking for is more complex, how foot speed connects to speed of thought, vision, technical skills in the moment within the game, with all those factors and challenges that feed into it.

[Unregistered]

but i'm pretty sure we moved on, from HISpanic to Latino, before I was born.

I did not mean to offend. I'm probably older than you. But, in the working arena Hispanic is widely used. I don't think I really got to the point I was trying to make which is that IF you are lower income then in order to even seek scholarship opportunities in club soccer your parents would likely have some over arching interest in soccer to begin with as soccer clubs don't have a venue to recruit talent through public school at the younger ages.

[Unregistered]

Is the crazy Onyx mom back? I see her and I don't see her

God help us all!

[Unregistered]

So how large will the Thorn's GD be after this coming weekend? Playing the bottom 2 teams in the division and, if you've seen either team play, you know they are a far cry from being "Premier" level. I guess if you like to see lots of goals being scored show up at Buckman this weekend...

[Unregistered]

None if this matters until U23. The focus should be on development. Anything else is unfair to the kids. Don't look at the score.

[Unregistered]

None if this matters until U23. The focus should be on development. Anything else is unfair to the kids. Don't look at the score.

Of course, as 99.9999% of girls are no longer playing competitively by U23. It always matters, at the time.

[Unregistered]

Wins/losses don't matter until you get to national team level. Until it's all about developing. Just have fun and enjoy the ride until then.