Sigh, so many pie in the sky people here. Maybe 1 in 100000 kids will make the pros of some soccer team. So the whole system should be revamped huh . Soccer is a distant 4th sport and you want to make it as unappealing as you can. Try that 3v3 stuff for teenagers til 13 and see how many bored kids you have left at14. By your logic baseball could have 6 players, more at bats etc, or how bout 4v4 football at freshman level? kids want to play the real game, not endless practices, scrimmages, 3v3 tournaments etc. The real problem is the competition for athletes from other sports . So keep smugly throwing out pie on the sky solutions if it passes the time and makes you feel better.

anselansel wrote:Sigh, so many pie in the sky people here. Maybe 1 in 100000 kids will make the pros of some soccer team. So the whole system should be revamped huh . Soccer is a distant 4th sport and you want to make it as unappealing as you can. Try that 3v3 stuff for teenagers til 13 and see how many bored kids you have left at14. By your logic baseball could have 6 players, more at bats etc, or how bout 4v4 football at freshman level? kids want to play the real game, not endless practices, scrimmages, 3v3 tournaments etc. The real problem is the competition for athletes from other sports . So keep smugly throwing out pie on the sky solutions if it passes the time and makes you feel better.

Ansel,

Ignorance is bliss. Have fun watching your kid kick and run.

Axxman wrote:

forbin wrote:

anselansel wrote:Ban 11v11 til 13? Might as well fold up shop. We have a hard enough time getting kids to play soccer bs football, basketball etc and you want them to play some abridged game til 13? Not gonna happen. England can do that because soccer is the only game in town.

How would this make the game less attractive to young players vs other sports? They would get more touches with fewer players on a smaller field, and from what I have seen most kids at this age love smaller sided games. We just don't give them enough opportunities to play that way. Hmmm, I wonder why we have pushed 11v11 down to younger ages here in the US... to make the kids grow up and develop faster by playing more like pro's early on? Nah, more players on the field = more players on the team = more $$$. Our pay to play system will continue to challenge our ability to compete with other countries, but until MLS becomes more popular and economically able to support youth development like other countries I guess we are stuck with it.

They push 11 v 11 down to the younger ages for the same exact reason they allow increased roster sizes whenever the coaches or clubs ask for it. For no other reason than money. And you have leagues like Classic that support the BS. I see HappyFeet answer many questions, but this is one he's simply avoiding and it's for one reason, cause he knows that in this case we are correct. 11 v 11 at the younger ages and even 9 v 9 at 8 years of age is not the way to go. So in order to make your bb better, you need to play 3 v 3, 4 v 4, and do as much skills as possible, all stuff that should be incentivized and part of the clubs, but if you want it around here, get your dough out.

I find this whole arguement/situation quite ironic. Most rec asociations get it. They play 3V3 to 5V5 , no scores or standings. at U8 and under. The "experts" who lament how terrible rec is take their kids to programs that emphasis winning over development for little kids. How about everyone putting some effort into the sport they supposedly care so much about Get out there and teach it at the rec level instead of sitting back writing checks and then complaining about what they got. I have said it before and I will say it again. NTX is one of the few places in the world you can make full time income working part time teaching young children a game.

Needle, somewhere on Bulgaria , a football dad is making your arguments on why they don't produce NFL quality players....

Nah, he is busy teaching his kid to throw the ball. They don't value catching so nobody actually catches. They call it American throw ball. The dream of winning a super bowl with their great throwing and no catching.

anselansel wrote:Needle, somewhere on Bulgaria , a football dad is making your arguments on why they don't produce NFL quality players....

Right and these idiots running Texas High School football have the high school kids playing 7v7 flag football now. That ain't the real game. I wonder why they do it?

Some of kids even play 3v3 basketball games. It is crazy. Thst is not the real game either.

Crazy right? Sometimes my dad and I would play basketball 1:1! What idiots we were for playing like that. He would show me the fundamentals of the game and stuff...what a waste.

Crazy right? Sometimes my dad and I would play basketball 1:1! What idiots we were for playing like that. He would show me the fundamentals of the game and stuff...what a waste.


from the sublime to the inane.....


but onward, the post was a broken american system, with conspiracy theories of the clubs to limiting how the game can be played. again, soccer here will always be a backseat sport because it competes with highly popular ingrained sports. I still think HERE you would not be able to limit the players and still gain traction. not sure how dear old dad made his way in, but whatever..

Two points to the discussion:

1. Small sided games are clearly preferred. We all know this, but there are different reasons why we don't offer this to our players.
So...Sorry to burt your bubbles, but lil' junior at 8 years-old may not be able to even tell you that their are 11 players on the field in EPL, let alone want to emulate the higher level. These boys want to play, contribute and have fun. Putting 7 players on a 45x60 field leads to two things:

- More Walking. They don't yet understand the concept of movement without the ball
- Less Touches. Talented players seek out the ball. Other may be able to hide more in our current system, losing touches.

Even if academy had a structure to support small sided games, the challenge is the number of players and matches scheduled. SDL and other leagues, even now, do not support a proper 7v7, let alone smaller fields. The Blue Sky fields repurpose fields for older boys (9v9 and 11v11) so the younger ages play on fields too big for 7v7. This is pure economics.

Even with 7v7 at U7/U8 levels, I would say the one element of this format that gets lost is having a 7/8 year old as a goalkeeper. Ask yourself how many times you have seen a quality game played on the field, but differences come down to fundamental elements of goal keeping. Wish we could play a format without GK involved, since it is not a skill we look to teach at a young age.

The good news is that from posts and messages here, you do not see a lot of "04 Goal Keeper Needed." This means that our teams and coaches are still publicly staying focused on development.

2. My second point is related to the American Soccer Inferiority Complex (ASIC). Far too many times we see discussions about how American players are not as good, dedicated, talented, etc as the rest of the world. Okay, so what. Soccer is not our primary focus and some of our top athletes, while probably starting in soccer, end up with other interests. We have a lot of distractions and options...deal with it. My biggest challenge is to pry my son away from the Wii or PS3 to go to practice, so I am a far cry away from having him play soccer outside all day long.

It would be great to design a system for soccer that produces exacting results and we win everything. Based on this new focus, I think the saddest thing for USA in the past 20-years is allowing NBA and NHL players to compete in Olympics.

Even with all the wealth and science of USA, the fact that a short kid from a third-world country can have the heart, passion and love of the game to become the best reminds us that money doesn't always buy results, and we as parents can push all we want but it will not mean our children will become stars. At the end of the competitive soccer journey, the only lesson of your $20K may be that junior has to work hard for the things that matter in life. Just hope that with this money spent some lessons are actually learned.