US v. Belgium - Let's do this

[Nonlinear FC]

A good Academy example of not $ is Andy Najar. DC United got him after only a few months in the US. They developed him signed him and got the transfer fee. I am guessing Gideon Zeeleman (Arsenal) also was not paying $5k a year for Bethesda's club (or whatever full cost is).

The only said thing I see is club being more important than high school ball. US development academy kids are prohibited from playing for their school. Once again the too much soccer games and not enough time working on skills....but playing for your school is an experience that kids should get to do. Jamie Moreno (DC United legend) kid choose his high school over the DC United Academy because of this decision.

Bethesda is the big bad wolf around these parts, no question. That is an accurate figure, but it's also a lot more than its competitors. Like I said, Rush is nowhere near that, even with professional coaches. (It's a market position thing, but also part of the mentality of the club.) Potomac, comprised of the same economic class of kids/families, is probably half that $5k figure. The costs can vary wildly from one team to another, depending on the number of tournaments and where those events are held (travel - hotel costs.)

I'm really torn on the high school thing. My heart agrees with you, but the level of play in many areas outside of MoCo can vary wildly. And a big part of that comes down to coaching. Unless it has changed, you don't need a coaching license to run a high school team. There are a lot of high school teams in MD being run by a history teacher with little or no experience. The other thing is that the fields are absolute crap... Combined with the rah rah, testosterone fueled players out there, the risk of injury is worrisome.

[The Sybian]

OTOH, most of Brazil's players come from very poor areas where they kick a ball around wherever they can, gaining insane ball control in tight quarters. Organized training is great, but for the Brazilians, this is how they develop their creative style and ball control.

Maybe we should cut down the basketball nets in the projects and have the kids play futsal instead.

Actually, I have been calling for the popularity of futsal for years. The game is much faster paced, and much more conducive to developing foot skills, creativity and the ability to dribble through defenders. I always preferred indoor soccer to outdoor. I was always a slower runner, but quick to react. I was a big time poacher, too. They called me Schillaci back in the day.

If you haven't seen futsal, here are some clips. It's huge in Brazil and some other countries, but the US can't even qualify for the World Cup. We get destroyed by crap countries in CONCACAF. Check out the :30 mark, 2:03 and 3:00. I think this sport would be highly watchable for Americans. Fast paced, high scoring.




Then check out Sean Guarnier, my favorite futsaler/street performer against a dog. He does the same moves in pro futsal games and makes people look damned foolish. Check out the clips of him playing Street Style, which is one on one in a tiny circle, and run more like a freestyle rap contest.

[Rex]

Dude got owned by that dog. Should we be developing more dogs?

[DC47]

I'm curious as to how to calibrate the US team's talent level. How many from this group would have made the Belgian WC team? How many would have started?

[Rex]

For those in the know or who have an opinion about this: is the NCAA good or bad for player development in the US? Intuitively it seems bad to me to have players of that age playing 3 month seasons and dealing with all the other bullshit that the NCAA has to offer. And yet I count 8 guys who played yesterday who came up through the college ranks.

[rass]

And yet I count 8 guys who played yesterday who came up through the college ranks.

Yeah, but are they playing on Saturday???


Interested in nonlinear's take on your question.

ETA: or wlu_lax's!

[wlu_lax6]

I think it depends on the school. University of Maryland has a pretty good track record for kids who come and leave early and come and stay. Here are some that I can remember/found.

Marc Burch (Seattle Sounders)
A. J. DeLaGarza (LA Galaxy) *
Maurice Edu (Philadelphia Union) *
Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy) *
Clarence Goodson (San Jose Earthquakes) *
Jeremy Hall (Toronto F.C.)
Taylor Kemp (D.C. United)
Zac MacMath (Philadelphia Union)
Patrick Mullins (New England Revolution)
Robbie Rogers (LA Galaxy) *
Chris Seitz (FC Dallas)
John Stertzer (Real Salt Lake)
Schillo Tshuma (Portland Timbers)
Rodney Wallace (Portland Timbers) *
Ethan White (Philadelphia Union)
Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City) *
Leo Cullen (3 MLS teams)*
Stephen King
Taylor Twellmen *
London Woodberry
Abe Thompson
Sumed Ibrahim,
Danny Califf *



Guys with * have national team caps

[Nonlinear FC]

For those in the know or who have an opinion about this: is the NCAA good or bad for player development in the US? Intuitively it seems bad to me to have players of that age playing 3 month seasons and dealing with all the other bullshit that the NCAA has to offer. And yet I count 8 guys who played yesterday who came up through the college ranks.

The college game is an extension of the youth soccer system that Klinsmann wants to change. Actually, I don't think the goal is to change the set up, but to funnel the better kids to pro academies, hopefully overseas. And that is going to have to happen when these kids are young. Like, 11 or 12 at the latest. Once a kid grows into teen years, it's not possible to "teach" the innate ball control and awareness you see from the best players.

The college game, as an extension of the American youth system, exalts plucky, gritty, run all damn day soccer players. If you look at the guys in MLS that come out of the youth/college pipeline, the vast majority are defenders and midfielders with a high work rate and mediocre skill on the ball. European teams don't need to come over here to sign those guys, they are a dime a dozen. Look at the guys that play in Europe, Stuart Holden, Dempsey, Donovan (albeit briefly), Beasley... Before this generation, Harkes, Ben Olsen, Eddie Lewis, Bobby Convey... They aren't just guys that run all day, they have a higher level of skill. (There are exceptions, like Onyewu, Maurice Edu, Brian McBride... but those are outliers.)

So, there are certainly programs that excel at cranking out players at the highest level that the youth --> college --> MLS pipeline can produce. Guys like Zusi, Gonzalez, Yedlin, etc. AND, there are now teams in the PDL (which is, basically D3 in our soccer pyramid) that allow NCAA guys to continue playing during the summer and retain eligibility. That's a big deal, because one criticism of the college game is that guys just weren't seeing enough competitive games. But these days, if you play for a big time program, you're going to play upwards of 25-30 games in the fall, then another 16 or 20 games of PDL. That's better than before, but not nearly enough when professional clubs are pretty much 11 months a year, if not more.

But, and this is important to note, this D3 of soccer didn't exist 10 years ago, at least not in such a professional arrangement. And a lot of D3 and D2 teams are forming partnerships with MLS teams OR with academies. None of this stuff existed 20 years ago.

The bottom line is that it is taking awhile, it is organic, but there is real progress on the American set up. College will never completely disappear as a feeder, just like in hockey where the college programs supply a decent chunk of talent to the NHL, despite a really aggressive pro system vying for those players.

But there's no question that soccer will never get past the current ceiling until a majority of the players on the NT are being developed by professional academies, as opposed to the "old" system.

[howard]

…And that is going to have to happen when these kids are young. Like, 11 or 12 at the latest. Once a kid grows into teen years, it's not possible to "teach" the innate ball control and awareness you see from the best players.

Thank you, noted.

Is there disagreement on this?

And Nonlinear, please continue, expound and be as lengthy as you care to be. I find these topics very interesting, and I doubt I'm alone in here.

[Nonlinear FC]

…And that is going to have to happen when these kids are young. Like, 11 or 12 at the latest. Once a kid grows into teen years, it's not possible to "teach" the innate ball control and awareness you see from the best players.

Thank you, noted.

Is there disagreement on this?

And Nonlinear, please continue, expound and be as lengthy as you care to be. I find these topics very interesting, and I doubt I'm alone in here.

Well, I think we're probably nearing the end of my ability to pontificate with the backing of, you know, facts. But...

There's not disagreement on the need to funnel the best and the brightest into "higher level competition" at an earlier age. But where you'll see a huge rift is what that actually means in practice. This can't be stressed enough, there are massively entrenched forces within Youth Soccer that do not want the status quo messed around with in any way. I often find it funny (and slightly infuriating) when I see all this nonsense about how soccer is a sport where they take competition out of the game, and everyone gets a medal. Yeah, fucking sure. Maybe when they are U6-U9... maybe. But more and more, soccer is a business in this country. And you have clubs and teams within those clubs battling it out for players, recruiting and even some underhanded/shady stuff going on.

It's so incredibly political, and there are so many clubs and leagues either vested in the current format, or dying to wrest that power away. So, just to give you a regional example (because I can speak to it from experience.) In the DC area you have WAGS (wash area girls soccer) and NCSL (nat'l capital soccer league-boys) that have been the premier travel leagues for Yahweh knows how long (probably at least 30 years). What's happening how is that regional leagues are cropping up, where you play teams from DE, VA, WVA and NJ. The pitch is that you're playing higher level teams comprised of all stars from another club (who are combining all of their U14s, for example, to create a super team.)

And, yes, that's true. But the other aspect is that this a power grab on two fronts: Obviously, if you are taking teams and creating super-teams, you are moving away from WAGS or NCSL to play in these regional leagues (ECNL, EDP, ASL, etc.) But, and this is the more underhanded shit going on, certain clubs are making sure they box out other clubs in their area. We (a Rush club) couldn't even get past "Hi, who are ya" with the ASL because Potomac and Maryland United are on that founding board aren't going to let other teams in their immediate vicinity join. It's a competitive edge they have at this point.

Ok, so I put all that out there to give you just a glimpse of the shifting landscape. I mentioned earlier, even just the flavor of academies is wide-ranging. Rush, MSC, Bethesda and Potomac have "academies" for their youngest age brackets, where the focus is on development and getting ready for travel at the higher levels. DCU is structured in a manner to more support the club, and includes a U23 component. Foreign clubs are coming over and doing the same thing.

But, and this is important, none of them (as far as I know) are residential academies. And THAT is what separates South American and European clubs from where we are. That is light years ahead of our nascent academy system, and our existing academy system still hasn't won this battle of development by a long stretch, because it's still on the outside looking in at these leagues and clubs that have been around for decades.

[Steve of phpBB]

I'm curious as to how to calibrate the US team's talent level. How many from this group would have made the Belgian WC team? How many would have started?

I just figure that by getting eliminated in the first knockout round, that means the US's world ranking in in the 9-16 range. That sounds about right.

I don't know how many of our guys could make the starting eleven for Belgium, but I have to think our roster matches up well with the other 9-16 level teams.

[P.D.X.]

So, the field-rusher had a wheelchair spot:



Which raises the question: why is there a camera trained on him before he even gets up?

[The Sybian]

The bigger question is why it took so long for security to react. That was ridiculous how long he was running around before security hit the field. And why were Belgian players high fiving the guy?

[DC47]

I'm curious as to how to calibrate the US team's talent level. How many from this group would have made the Belgian WC team? How many would have started?

I just figure that by getting eliminated in the first knockout round, that means the US's world ranking in in the 9-16 range. That sounds about right.

I don't know how many of our guys could make the starting eleven for Belgium, but I have to think our roster matches up well with the other 9-16 level teams.

I follow you to some extent on the ranking. Though my guesstimate is that USA should be ranked a bit lower -- somewhere in the 15-20 range. Still, that means apart from the over-hyped "Group of Death" stuff, it is no great upset for the USA to make the round of 16.

I'm curious about the talent gap between the USA team and the Belgian team simply because that's a higher level team many of us saw play the USMNT. My guesstimate about a rank for Belgium is somewhere in the 8-12 range. So from my point of view, the Belgians are quite a bit better, despite the last game being one that USA could have won without much of a stretch of the imagination (e.g., failures to finish by Wondo and Dempsey; injuries to Johnson and Altidore). But I don't really know the Belgian roster. So I'm curious if those who know more could say something about how much the two rosters overlap in terms of talent.

Perhaps translating this into a metric based on a more common American sport would help. Was Belgium v. USA like a basketball game between the Clippers and the Bulls? Or more like Clippers v. Bucks?

[Rex]

If it helps, this is likely the best team Belgium has ever had. It's not like they are consistently stronger than the USA.

[The Sybian]

I'm curious as to how to calibrate the US team's talent level. How many from this group would have made the Belgian WC team? How many would have started?

I just figure that by getting eliminated in the first knockout round, that means the US's world ranking in in the 9-16 range. That sounds about right.

I don't know how many of our guys could make the starting eleven for Belgium, but I have to think our roster matches up well with the other 9-16 level teams.

I follow you to some extent on the ranking. Though my guesstimate is that USA should be ranked a bit lower -- somewhere in the 15-20 range. Still, that means apart from the over-hyped "Group of Death" stuff, it is no great upset for the USA to make the round of 16.

I'm curious about the talent gap between the USA team and the Belgian team simply because that's a higher level team many of us saw play the USMNT. My guesstimate about a rank for Belgium is somewhere in the 8-12 range. So from my point of view, the Belgians are quite a bit better, despite the last game being one that USA could have won without much of a stretch of the imagination (e.g., failures to finish by Wondo and Dempsey; injuries to Johnson and Altidore). But I don't really know the Belgian roster. So I'm curious if those who know more could say something about how much the two rosters overlap in terms of talent.

Perhaps translating this into a metric based on a more common American sport would help. Was Belgium v. USA like a basketball game between the Clippers and the Bulls? Or more like Clippers v. Bucks?

Your NBA analysis means nothing to me, so I'll say it was like Tottenham v. Stoke. Belgium has enormously talented individuals, but the knock on them is that they don't play well as a team. They looked like they were linking up pretty well and covering each other defensively vs. the US, and I didn't see much from their group stage matches. Hazard, Lukaku, Mirallas, De Bruyne, Kompany, Chadli and Vertonghen outclass anyone the US can put forward. The biggest strenght for the US has always been fitness, a willingness to give everything you have for the team, mental toughness and refusing to quit. Belgium destroys the US with individually skilled players, not even close. The USMNT has just always been full of the intangibles, at least since 1994. Even 1990, it was a bunch of college kids, or recent college grads with no professional experience. Sure they were completely outclassed in embarrassing fashion, but they played their heart out. Think 1980 Olympic hockey team, without the winning part.

[tennbengal]

…And that is going to have to happen when these kids are young. Like, 11 or 12 at the latest. Once a kid grows into teen years, it's not possible to "teach" the innate ball control and awareness you see from the best players.

Thank you, noted.

Is there disagreement on this?

And Nonlinear, please continue, expound and be as lengthy as you care to be. I find these topics very interesting, and I doubt I'm alone in here.

Well, I think we're probably nearing the end of my ability to pontificate with the backing of, you know, facts. But...

There's not disagreement on the need to funnel the best and the brightest into "higher level competition" at an earlier age. But where you'll see a huge rift is what that actually means in practice. This can't be stressed enough, there are massively entrenched forces within Youth Soccer that do not want the status quo messed around with in any way. I often find it funny (and slightly infuriating) when I see all this nonsense about how soccer is a sport where they take competition out of the game, and everyone gets a medal. Yeah, fucking sure. Maybe when they are U6-U9... maybe. But more and more, soccer is a business in this country. And you have clubs and teams within those clubs battling it out for players, recruiting and even some underhanded/shady stuff going on.

It's so incredibly political, and there are so many clubs and leagues either vested in the current format, or dying to wrest that power away. So, just to give you a regional example (because I can speak to it from experience.) In the DC area you have WAGS (wash area girls soccer) and NCSL (nat'l capital soccer league-boys) that have been the premier travel leagues for Yahweh knows how long (probably at least 30 years). What's happening how is that regional leagues are cropping up, where you play teams from DE, VA, WVA and NJ. The pitch is that you're playing higher level teams comprised of all stars from another club (who are combining all of their U14s, for example, to create a super team.)

And, yes, that's true. But the other aspect is that this a power grab on two fronts: Obviously, if you are taking teams and creating super-teams, you are moving away from WAGS or NCSL to play in these regional leagues (ECNL, EDP, ASL, etc.) But, and this is the more underhanded shit going on, certain clubs are making sure they box out other clubs in their area. We (a Rush club) couldn't even get past "Hi, who are ya" with the ASL because Potomac and Maryland United are on that founding board aren't going to let other teams in their immediate vicinity join. It's a competitive edge they have at this point.

Ok, so I put all that out there to give you just a glimpse of the shifting landscape. I mentioned earlier, even just the flavor of academies is wide-ranging. Rush, MSC, Bethesda and Potomac have "academies" for their youngest age brackets, where the focus is on development and getting ready for travel at the higher levels. DCU is structured in a manner to more support the club, and includes a U23 component. Foreign clubs are coming over and doing the same thing.

But, and this is important, none of them (as far as I know) are residential academies. And THAT is what separates South American and European clubs from where we are. That is light years ahead of our nascent academy system, and our existing academy system still hasn't won this battle of development by a long stretch, because it's still on the outside looking in at these leagues and clubs that have been around for decades.

nonlinear...has Rush made inquiries with EDP?

[Nonlinear FC]

Yeah... it's kind of complicated. There is a Maryland Rush (based out of Bowie) and Maryland Rush Montgomery (based in MoCo.) The Bowie team has seniority in the U14 age bracket, so he pulls from my team and the other MRM U14 team to from an EDP team. He still has a team in WAGS, but he barely cares about that league anymore.

The Bowie guy might take his team up a level, which would open up an EDP slot for us, but then it gets into which of the two MRM coaches would take the lead, which would be complicated.

[tennbengal]

Yeah... it's kind of complicated. There is a Maryland Rush (based out of Bowie) and Maryland Rush Montgomery (based in MoCo.) The Bowie team has seniority in the U14 age bracket, so he pulls from my team and the other MRM U14 team to from an EDP team. He still has a team in WAGS, but he barely cares about that league anymore.

The Bowie guy might take his team up a level, which would open up an EDP slot for us, but then it gets into which of the two MRM coaches would take the lead, which would be complicated.

Yeah, that is complicated.

My son is with Pipeline, and they went into EDP a year ago with some of their teams, and will be taking more of their teams into EDP this fall. I don't understand the politics of the regional league set-ups - but up my way, not having to play in CMSA or BBSL is a blessing for a lot of teams. Neither of those are nearly as good as the DC leagues or Delco...

[Steve of phpBB]

If getting the US from the top 20 to the top 10 requires putting little kids into specialized, highly competitive and demanding "academies", is it really worth it?

[Nonlinear FC]

If getting the US from the top 20 to the top 10 requires putting little kids into specialized, highly competitive and demanding "academies", is it really worth it?

(Steve - I'm about to be an asshole. It has nothing to do with you, I'm just going to be a dick to make a point.)

This is why we'll always be also-rans in the sport. What kinds of athletes comprise the vast majority of our football and basketball elite? Guys that grew up hungry. Either from the inner city, or from blue collar towns where it was either football/baskeball or the military if you wanted to get out.

That's what soccer is to children in the rest of the world. It's the holy grail to the lower class kids, hungry to get out of whatever shitty situation in which they are mired.

Soccer in the states is almost exclusively the domain of the middle and almost upper class (truly upper class either don't give a shit or play lacrosse or tennis or golf or squash or yachting or whatever the fuck.)

In the rest of the world, being plucked to be part of an academy is a lifesaver. Here, it's viewed as a threat to the middle class bubble life.

[Steve of phpBB]

If getting the US from the top 20 to the top 10 requires putting little kids into specialized, highly competitive and demanding "academies", is it really worth it?

(Steve - I'm about to be an asshole. It has nothing to do with you, I'm just going to be a dick to make a point.)

This is why we'll always be also-rans in the sport. What kinds of athletes comprise the vast majority of our football and basketball elite? Guys that grew up hungry. Either from the inner city, or from blue collar towns where it was either football/baskeball or the military if you wanted to get out.

That's what soccer is to children in the rest of the world. It's the holy grail to the lower class kids, hungry to get out of whatever shitty situation in which they are mired.

Soccer in the states is almost exclusively the domain of the middle and almost upper class (truly upper class either don't give a shit or play lacrosse or tennis or golf or squash or yachting or whatever the fuck.)

In the rest of the world, being plucked to be part of an academy is a lifesaver. Here, it's viewed as a threat to the middle class bubble life.

I'm not sure I agree with your premise. Is it really accurate to say that the vast majority of football and basketball players are guys who grew up hungry? I would guess that the middle class bubble life has produced many, if not most, of our athletes.

I think they mostly grew up talented, had the opportunity to play in school, and also were motivated to work hard enough to make it.

[The Sybian]

If getting the US from the top 20 to the top 10 requires putting little kids into specialized, highly competitive and demanding "academies", is it really worth it?

(Steve - I'm about to be an asshole. It has nothing to do with you, I'm just going to be a dick to make a point.)

This is why we'll always be also-rans in the sport. What kinds of athletes comprise the vast majority of our football and basketball elite? Guys that grew up hungry. Either from the inner city, or from blue collar towns where it was either football/baskeball or the military if you wanted to get out.

That's what soccer is to children in the rest of the world. It's the holy grail to the lower class kids, hungry to get out of whatever shitty situation in which they are mired.

Soccer in the states is almost exclusively the domain of the middle and almost upper class (truly upper class either don't give a shit or play lacrosse or tennis or golf or squash or yachting or whatever the fuck.)

In the rest of the world, being plucked to be part of an academy is a lifesaver. Here, it's viewed as a threat to the middle class bubble life.

I'm not sure I agree with your premise. Is it really accurate to say that the vast majority of football and basketball players are guys who grew up hungry? I would guess that the middle class bubble life has produced many, if not most, of our athletes.

I think they mostly grew up talented, had the opportunity to play in school, and also were motivated to work hard enough to make it.

I think Nonlinear nailed it. In almost every soccer power, the players are almost completely working class to dirt poor. You see a lot of guys from marginalized immigrant groups. A lot of Africans and former Yugoslavians in many European squads, always been a disproportionate number of Algerians in the French side. Soccernomics listed the English World Cup teams from several tournaments, and their father's professions. Almost exclusively working class. Part of it is a greater focus on academics over sports, part of it is other activities and sports getting in the way. In the favelas and slums across the world, kids spend the day kicking around a ball, as they have nothing else. No video games to play, no organized activities, no money or malls to cruise, no cars... And like NL said, sport is the only way out. I made a more racist take on this about needing to focus on blacks and inner city kids. There is clearly a disproportionate amount of football, basketball, and in the 1980s baseball players from South Central and other poor areas. When academics and money can't get you out, sports is it.

There are absolutely middle class athletes in US pro sports, particularly quarterbacks and hockey players. But I think it is the exception is basketball and non-QB football players. Just listening to Men In Blazers today, and they were making this argument as well. They could only name a handful of world class soccer stars over time that weren't working class or worse. Kaka is the only one I remember, because he really stood apart from the rest of the Brazilian team due to class and upbringing. I think growing up in harsh conditions breeds desire and toughness, as well.

The only way to develop a truly world class soccer player is to have kids live in an academy at an early. These academies taking off for basketball in Europe is directly responsible for the increase in Euros playing in the NBA. Then you look at Spain, and the majority of the team played at the Real Madrid or Barca academies. Most of the national team played with half of the team since they were 12 years old. The US squad, most of these guys see each other 3 or 4 times a year, and don't have that kind of chemistry or understanding of each other on the field. I think that is a huge reason for the success of the U-17 world cup team with Donovan, Beasely, Gooch... They all trained together at Bradenton full time.

[brian]

(And it's not like it's completely unheard of for athletes in other sports that Americans (occasionally) excel in to go the academy route. That's essentially how pro tennis and hockey players are produced in this country.)

((Academy for hockey is stretching it a bit, but top junior prospects are generally shipped off to what amount to academy programs in Detroit, Boston, Minnesota, US Hockey, the OHL, etc.))

[Rush2112]

Most Olympic sports that require specialized equipment utilize academies. Be it the Olympic training centres (once they are on the cusp of making the team,) or schools in and around the senior training facilities.

[howard]

Gymnastics. Academy + middle class bubble.

Moving from sport to sport in this discussion introduces some apples/oranges difficulties. Even the percentage of athletes from the middle class to reach the NFL compared to the NBA I will bet is significantly different.

Nonlinear, Steve can take it--I've laid much worse on him.

[Rex]

In basketball and football, they call it prep school.

[brian]

In basketball and football, they call it prep school.

Right. Exact same idea. Findlay Prep in Las Vegas is nothing more than a basketball academy with a nominal academic component.

[The Sybian]

In basketball and football, they call it prep school.

Hockey, too. Unless you are Canadian, then you head off to Juniors instead of college. Juniors always seemed pretty damned close to the life of a pro, but more regional travel. Forgot to mention, Roger Bennett the genius soccer writer/documentary producer and Jewish half of the Men in Blazers is writing a study along with some economist. They looked at the zip code every USMNT player since 1994 grew up in, and compared the average salary to the zip codes of NFL players. He said there was a huge discrepancy. The soccer players grew up overwhelmingly in middle class areas, while the NFL players overwhelmingly did not. Come to think of it, looking at my high school, I think the soccer players on average came from much better off parents than the football players. Our soccer team was always very good, girls even won state championship. Football was always fuckawful, though somehow won the State title the year after I graduated. Coaches son was a Senior QB. Only explanation.

I think a lot has change in the perception of soccer in the US, which has to help. The same football coach was there for decades. Every year he would go to talk to the 6th grade boys to encourage them to go out for Jr. High football. Gave a canned speech about how "soccer is for pussies" and football players get girls. He had his older son, then a Sr. starting QB with him, bragging about how football got him into Austin Peay. In a town that sent large numbers of kids to the Ivies, this point didn't hold much sway. He ended by giving us a page of statistics for our parents showing how more injuries occur in soccer than football. He failed to mention the severity of the injuries, but that is irrelevant. Wish I was smart enough then to raise my hand and ask why soccer is a pussy sport, yet football players wear pads and have less injuries.

But getting back on point, I'll let the great Notorious B.I.G sum up the point for me:

Because the streets is a short stop
Either you're slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot
Shit, it's hard being young from the slums
Eating 5 cent gums, not knowing where your meals coming from.

[sancarlos]

(And it's not like it's completely unheard of for athletes in other sports that Americans (occasionally) excel in to go the academy route. That's essentially how pro tennis and hockey players are produced in this country.)

((Academy for hockey is stretching it a bit, but top junior prospects are generally shipped off to what amount to academy programs in Detroit, Boston, Minnesota, US Hockey, the OHL, etc.))

Yep. The son of one of my best friends from home shipped his then-14 year-old son off to a hockey academy in Connecticut last year. He was distancing himself from his Colorado competition, and was recruited by a few academies who stressed that they are the only way to go, if the kid has professional aspirations. The now-15 year-old is winning awards and my friend said the next step will be either college hockey or major juniors.