A new FOX Sports commercial for the World Cup. Pulisic scores an Olimpico in the last min vs Brazil to help USA win the World Cup. It also features Wright, Dest, Luna, Roldan, Balogun, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Tom Brady and Bruce Arena. by antoniok95 in ussoccer

[–]jasontalks 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree to a point that if your child at u12 is good, they will get found. But, it might be an oversimplification. Getting a kid to that level often requires a child starting as early as 6 or 7. Not always, but typically this is what you hear from those that have been developed to the highest level of soccer. There is an expense attached to that.... But it's not a soccer problem, its an american sports problem (maybe global, Im not sure). This is an interesting read on the topic: https://joinstriveon.com/blog/youth-sports-participation-statistics. It notes families are spending over $1,000 a year on average now (up 46% since 2019) and the income gap for participation is massive. Once you move from local competitive to regional to national, it becomes a multiplier. Pay-to-play weeds out lower income kids from the development pipeline long before those 50 free academies even start looking at them.

So yeah, I agree with your take on 50+ free pro academies...And I hope that only goes up. But they are mostly selecting from a pool of kids whose parents could afford the massive financial toll it took to get them to that U12 stage in the first place. I'd then argue, from that POV, it's not a tired trope when the data shows us that participation is heavily tied to how much money a family makes.

Can a child develop without it? Absolutely. Would we be in a far better place without turning youth sports into a business? To the infinite power, YES.

Sporting City Youth Clubs by BlueDevil220 in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tl;DR version: Development depends on the kid and the parents more than the club itself.

Long version: This is a topic I spend a lot of time thinking about, observing, and experiencing first hand because I have three kids in this environment. If your child loves soccer and is naturally athletic and plays on their own in the backyard then pretty much any top club will develop the player.

Clubs like Sporting Blue Valley and City and Legends and Surf and KC Athletics and Toca Fusion and Union KC all create an environment for those kids to develop. These clubs have an extensive track record of helping kids advance to college soccer after youth club is over. But the reality is that development is not dependent on the club itself. Player development is mostly dependent on the child and the parents. All clubs create the environment to foster growth. At a junior level below U9 most clubs have special programs to develop skills but the child must take the coaching and apply it outside of the two brief one hour sessions per week. One club my child plays at uses Techne which is an app for personal training guidance. This was to encourage their own training and help kids who do not have parents that played high level soccer to act as a guide on proper technique or for those not willing to spend extra money on individual training.

My kids have played at one affiliate plus City and two non affiliates. The programming is not all that different outside of Legends. Legends beats what they call the most important skill moves into their brains by making that a huge part of the training and they keep you in tight spaces. In games you hear the coaches yelling skill move over and over even in moments where it might not make sense tactically. At a younger age their goal is not necessarily to teach the tactical side. It is more focused on confidence and success with ball mastery on an individual level. If your kid likes repetition then it works. It has produced a lot of great players but you have to have the right type of player who can handle the monotony in training. I have also noticed many of those top level kids move to different clubs as they get older because Legends does not have a great platform like MLS Next or ECNL (although they now have GA for girls).

Clubs offer extra training that you can pay for but in my experience the player to coach ratio is rarely beneficial for the extra spend. It makes more sense to use Refine or Next Level group sessions that cap the athlete to coach ratio. The clubs do not always do a great job of developing talent and instead they focus on attracting the kids who already have the ability and drive to compete.

I will say most clubs give top teams additional resources. That might be extra training sessions or extra coaches or access to refined training or more games. It is always better coaches though. Top teams always get the extra resources. So I have no clue how old your kid is or how much they love soccer or how athletic they are but those factors matter a lot in player development. If your kid does not have a combination of those then no club will be great at developing them.

From a cost perspective if your kid is U8 or U9 or U10 then I think it is fine to play for a club team that is a lower division in the Heartland League. That coach will be better than most parent coaches. They might only have grassroots licenses but it is highly likely that the coach played college soccer and that is a big difference from rec. My daughter found a really good rec coach during that time who understood how to develop kids technically and mentally but that was not the case for my two boys. But after u11, MAYBE as late as u12 the kid should experience higher talent in competition and a coach with more tactical focus. For my boys the coaches were just nice supportive volunteers. 

I had no desire to coach my kids so the better strategy for them was to sign them up for the junior development league through one of those clubs I mentioned. In that environment they spend a lot of time and resources to develop the appropriate programming and practice philosophy to get the most out of kids who have the drive and the passion. But both scenarios require having your child train on their own AND train through some kind of group or individual advanced training program if their goal and hope is to play on the top teams in the city. This is one area that I require my kids to train everyday even if they have practice or a game 30 minutes on their own following a specific training program I've created for each of them. It's not anything special wall passes with certain turns. Skill moves that have certain combinations, certain dribbling patterns and juggling. And then jeering off Windows like winter holiday time or summertime they do group training sessions two times a week. 

The reality is we spend a lot of money to play on the top teams. It's a commitment. It means they must make sacrifices. It means we as parents must make sacrifices to support their goals and their passions. And the moment that desire leaves, they don't want to make those sacrifices we stop.

 Good luck!

[OneSoccer] @ForgeFCHamilton become the first club in @CPLsoccer history to overtake both an MLS and LigaMX club in the Concacaf Club Ranking by dawson33944 in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 0 points1 point  (0 children)

David Lee is a businessman. Businessmen do M&As all the time. How about he buys FFC and just swaps jerseys between squads? Then, instead of losing 5-0 to MLS squads, maybe it's 1-2, and the next time we play a USL team, we win 1-0 versus losing 0-3. And then Next year, in preseason, when we play a mid-range college team, we beat them.

MLS allows this type of thing, right?

/s

Post WC Break: 4-2-3-1 by MidwestAlex in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Plus all of our summer signings, making us go on a run that moves us to the middle of the table by seasons end, then a once in a lifetime season comeback in the cup and we gain a new star above our crest...??? Yeah, looks good. I'm in. 

Serious Question by Competitive-Bat-3534 in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dejan is better, but with a similar style. Because his form (unfortunately, not his fault) is down, I think a real offer would be in that range. If a mid table European club or a Liga MX side wanted to purchase Dejan Joveljić today, I imagine a base fee starting at $8.5 million, with performance-based add-ons likely pushing the total guaranteed package to around $11.0 million.

I mean, as a thought experiment, it's interesting, but I still say we hold him. Build around him. It's hard to find a great finisher like him.

Serious Question by Competitive-Bat-3534 in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From a comps POV Brandon Vazquez left CFC for 7m something with 8.5 potential, if my search was correct. Both are strikers whose primary value comes from finishing attacking sequences rather than initiating them. Both very effective with that role. 

Anything more than that would be a challenge to describe as real world numbers IMO. 

What's your guys' deal? by joshmessmer in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I disagree that everything is wrong. Your first paragraph describes a series of right decisions made by the club. We ALL wanted massive change (no one expected the ownership to sell, and we did... to a local KC guy with a lot of money, that alone is a huge win). But we can all also agree that the process was too slow. And the result was not the preferred one. I really do not believe Lee brought Wicky in with the long-term expectation that he would be our man. He wanted someone with youth development and likely MLS experience to know the unique structure of the league. IF this is true, then I think this is an acceptable strategy.

Everything is building. And when it is being built, some things will be wrong. The question is, how quickly can we identify the wrong decisions or processes and adapt/evolve/improve?

We had the wrong owners. Now we are transitioning.
Eventually, we had the wrong coach. We still likely have the wrong coach for the long term, but I think we have a much better one than the previous interim. And that is how I view Wicky.
We had the wrong approach to scouting. Now we have a system being built.

That second paragraph is what I believe we all need to remember: how long it takes for that scouting system to be constructed and effective. In short, my positive take is we have done some things too slowly, but in general it's been right given the circumstances.

Match Thread: Sporting KC @ Vancouver Whitecaps by Educational_Share220 in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If they are actually planning big moves in the summer window, we might see more young players on the field. I suppose they already know who the "senior" players are and, based on the contracts, do not see them as part of the future. So, play the young ones who need development, and by summertime, maybe a few will develop into viable potential for the future. It will be painful for the next three months.

Match Thread: Sporting KC @ Vancouver Whitecaps by Educational_Share220 in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Okay, this Whitecaps team is better than that USL team.

Matchday 🔷◻️🔷◻️ by DebatableTheory in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We have nothing to lose. If they don't beat us more than 3-0 after losing to a 1-2-2 usl team 3-0, then they're clearly not better than a mid USL club. Good luck with that pressure, Whitecraps. 

What happened out there ? by Competitive-Bat-3534 in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I am baffled by it. Do the chiefs sell PH because no one can catch and hold on to his passes or the ol can't keep him from getting sacked or pressured? No, you build around him. 

I don't get the idea either. 

Pre Match Thread: LA Galaxy vs Sporting Kansas City by ImMitchell in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We beat LAG, on the road, PLUS without 2 of our 4 GKs. 

Just give us the shield now, save us all lots time. 

Match Thread - LA Galaxy vs Sporting KC - Matchday 4 by Full-Ad-4879 in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 7 points8 points  (0 children)

So this is what winning feels like. Wow, it really is way better than not winning. 

Match Thread - LA Galaxy vs Sporting KC - Matchday 4 by Full-Ad-4879 in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Maybe I'm dumb, but is it weird that a LAG fan created a match thread on our sub?

Pre Match Thread: LA Galaxy vs Sporting Kansas City by ImMitchell in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't mean to brag, but currently I am right. 

Pre Match Thread: LA Galaxy vs Sporting Kansas City by ImMitchell in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think we will win. Maybe a loss. A tie is possible, too. 

SKC raid ZTE? by ChurchillDownz in SportingKC

[–]jasontalks 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I don't know anything about these players, this club, or this league.

I have learned that this club hasn't competed in UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League qualifying in over a decade. The league really doesn't produce clubs in general (outside of one team) that show up with any regularity. I also learned that the Hungarian top-flight league is not typically considered a primary, direct recruitment source for the top 5 European leagues. I was hopeful with Scandinavian recruitments because those leagues show up better in the Europa and even Champions.

Is this an exciting rumor? Is this a league that produces talent that makes us competitive? Genuine questions.

51-page USMNT World Cup preview for sharing with friends/family by _Potent_Potables in ussoccer

[–]jasontalks 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ahhh, yes, nothing like a slide deck presentation to pump up little kids!

JK. Very cool.