The US coaching staff and the team deserve kudos for
reaching the knockout round. Our victories and our losses should tell us we
have a long way to go to be competitive in the top tier of the World Cup. I will
say the same thing that I said in 1998 when I worked with the team and in my
observations of each succeeding World Cup – we seem to be very naïve in our preparation.
Not just in preparation for the World Cup but in how we identify and develop
our players from the time they enter the system. Hopefully this World Cup will
help us to change and innovate by looking closely at what we did well and what
we did poorly. As food for thought
– Our 2022 World Cup players are now 10 to 12 years old. What are we doing to make
them better than our current crop of players? What are we doing differently?
3 Comments
Jeff Cubos
HOPEFULLY we are letting them just play. HOPEFULLY we are limiting their time on facebook. HOPEFULLY we are introducing them to Jamie Oliver and not Ronald McDonald. HOPEFULLY we are providing them with age-appropriate coaching.
Anthony Boerio
As soem follow-up to Jeff’s comments above….
When the toys-for-tots or other groups seek donations for Xmas presents, I have always purchased sports balls – soccer, basketball, football – for presents. I want kids to be active!
As for youth soccer: when I was coaching the sport, I was the only one who had the kids doing dynamic warm-up drills and post practice stretching. Why? They needed it because many weren’t very coordinated (from sitting around playing too many video games!) Of course, I think this could be said no matter what sport we discuss.
Thanks!
Mark
The difficulty in the US with gaining on the rest of the world (other than losing many very athletic kids to sports with bigger dollars) is the “old-school” mentality of the soccer coaches here. Too many still believe that to get better at soccer the kids need to play more soccer – and the coach feels the need to stop play far too often for their “coaching points”. I have been trained by Dutch and German coaches and have watched their training – we are far behind them. We are also far behind them in the athletic development aspect of the game as well. Watching the Ghana game was a great example of being out-athleticized.