USA soccer history

[fortebleedsblue]

Was made today.... USA over Mexico first time ever in Stadium Azteca! Howard is a beast and that guy they brought in towards end has been great.

 

[progrocks]

The backline and Howard were beasts, and we converted the one opportunity we had. This us much bigger than the Italy win. Mexico was missing Gio and Salcido from their A team. We were missing a bunch and still did it. We will no longer be so afraid going anywhere in central america.

Onward and Upward!

 

[UConnDan97]

The backline and Howard were beasts, and we converted the one opportunity we had. This us much bigger than the Italy win. Mexico was missing Gio and Salcido from their A team. We were missing a bunch and still did it. We will no longer be so afraid going anywhere in central america.

Onward and Upward!

We were never afraid of going into Central America. We were just afraid of going into Estadio Azteca. And it isn't fear, really, as much as it is a ridiculously low amount of oxygen at that elevation, coupled with the insane heat, that players aren't really ready for unless you train there all year.

 

[progrocks]

El Salvador, costa rica, doesn't matter, we go down there, we are happy with one point. If we can win at azteca, we have no excuse not to beat Honduras.

 

[SubbaBub]

I don't know what to take from this game. Great result, but the experimental lineup was a complete flop. Back line did a good job recovering but had to much too often. A lot of poor touches and giveaways in bad spots. It also appeared the intensity just wasn't there for either side. But if forced to make.judgements...

Cameron (and Goodson) have moved ahead of Gooch IMO.

Castillo isn't the answer at left back, Johnson is if he'll ever commit to playing for the US.

I've seen enough from Edu and Torres, end of bench subs at best. Beckerman doesn't belong in the 18.

Gomez may not threaten Altidore's starting job but Boyd will.

I like Shea at left midfield, allow Dempsey to play Forward. Don't like Donovan at forward, keep him at right midfield.

Jones is playing better, his yellow was undeserved, but he's best playing a defensive counterattacking role behind Bradley who should be higher.


Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Palatine]

Did the Mexican fans chant "O-sama -O-sama. ?"

 

[Carl Spackler]

The problem with U.S. soccer was on clear display last night. We just don't have the ball skills on our team that elite players around the world have all over the place. THe ability to control that ball in tight space with players all around you.

It's one of those things about the sport, that needs to be developed from a very young age. YOu need an unconscious awareness of body movement and space to be able to get, maintain, and than manipulate control that ball and move it out of a tight space with defenders on you, and then make an accurate pass to open space. Don't know how many times I saw that last night.

Great defensive game though, could have been 2-0 if Hercules doesn't try to play hero and simply crosses that ball on the break. Howard was MVP. By far. Amazing body control.

Klinsmann, with complete control of soccer all the way down to the age group structure, is working to change that. It's going to take at least 8 years though, he's putting in the same structure he put into Germany that rebuilt their national program. The 10 year olds right now, will have those ball control skills by they time they're ready for the senior team.

 

[UConnDan97]

El Salvador, costa rica, doesn't matter, we go down there, we are happy with one point. If we can win at azteca, we have no excuse not to beat Honduras.

If you think we are happy with just 1 point against El Salvador and Costa Rica, I think you are quite mistaken. We haven't been happy with 1 point against those teams since the 90's...

 

[SAMCRO]

A nice result, but esasily could have been a lopsided defeat. Mexico carried the play, IMO, and Howard came up big several times. Agree with post above that it lacked the ordinary intensity these games usually generate, even the stands seemed less raucus. Could be b/c most the euro players are about to start their seasons, and being a friendly nobody was going to risk injury and the Mexican fans are still hungover from their Fiesta after winning gold. Either way, big psychological win getting the result at Azteca. Now we need to follow it up with getting 3 points at Jamaica next month.

 

[fortebleedsblue]

Having coached travel soccer with someone who chose to play semi pro in Europe over UCLA scholarship I can say that Americans typically have no clue how to coach soccer. Football is called "the beautiful game" because its all about creativity. I grew up playing soccer my whole life and while coaching these last few years a few things dawned on me. I never learned core fundamentals properly. US coaches don't know how to teach fundamentals ... All too often in warm ups you'll see players pound the ball 50 yards over the goal, or dribble with the ball being too far in front of them in stead of small controlled touches.. Not even using the appropriate part of their foot for both. Shooting itself has many steps and a follow through the ball shouldnt rotate yet you see kids at all levels just hammer it over. In basketball we teach finger tips, guide hand and propper follow through yet in soccer those core fundamentals are lost.

The other thing that stands out is creativity. We as Americans rely far too much on athletic ability than skill. I recall running laps around the field and conditioning with out a ball ... Why? During a game high school is reduced to a 4-4-2 where the sole objective is to play it wide and cross the ball. How about a 4-5-1 with a triangle of ur 3 most skilled players in the center controling the middle? Creativity starts at a young age with fun drills .. Teach over lapping and wall passes .. Focus on the little things n the creativity will come.... The game needs to be taught better.

 

[SAMCRO]

Having coached travel soccer with someone who chose to play semi pro in Europe over UCLA scholarship I can say that Americans typically have no clue how to coach soccer. Football is called "the beautiful game" because its all about creativity. I grew up playing soccer my whole life and while coaching these last few years a few things dawned on me. I never learned core fundamentals properly. US coaches don't know how to teach fundamentals ...

Interesting to read this. I actually heard the exact opposite from a Brit I work with. His father coached youth and development teams in/around Manchester, England (he coached Brian Kidd as a child- former England national team player and now an Assistantt. w/ Man City). He commented on how impressed he was with the coaching the youth teams get and the structure/organization of youth soccer in the US leagues etc... His comment was that the best athletes in the US go on to do other things as they get into the middle school and HS ages, and that is where the lag begins to happen.

 

[Kgun7]

Having coached travel soccer with someone who chose to play semi pro in Europe over UCLA scholarship I can say that Americans typically have no clue how to coach soccer. Football is called "the beautiful game" because its all about creativity. I grew up playing soccer my whole life and while coaching these last few years a few things dawned on me. I never learned core fundamentals properly. US coaches don't know how to teach fundamentals ... All too often in warm ups you'll see players pound the ball 50 yards over the goal, or dribble with the ball being too far in front of them in stead of small controlled touches.. Not even using the appropriate part of their foot for both. Shooting itself has many steps and a follow through the ball shouldnt rotate yet you see kids at all levels just hammer it over. In basketball we teach finger tips, guide hand and propper follow through yet in soccer those core fundamentals are lost.

The other thing that stands out is creativity. We as Americans rely far too much on athletic ability than skill. I recall running laps around the field and conditioning with out a ball ... Why? During a game high school is reduced to a 4-4-2 where the sole objective is to play it wide and cross the ball. How about a 4-5-1 with a triangle of ur 3 most skilled players in the center controling the middle? Creativity starts at a young age with fun drills .. Teach over lapping and wall passes .. Focus on the little things n the creativity will come.... The game needs to be taught better.

I agree with 99% of this! However, with the advent of premier, and now academy levels, the "travel" level is now reduced to a glorified REC league. But to your point, the proper approach to the game needs to be learned and adopted by coaches and parents.

One thing I have always taught my REC teams is: never use the words offense and defense to describe your position on the field. Forward, midfield, and fullback are to be used. Because when we have the ball we are all on offense ... when we don't we are all on defense.

 

[UConnDan97]

Having coached travel soccer with someone who chose to play semi pro in Europe over UCLA scholarship I can say that Americans typically have no clue how to coach soccer. Football is called "the beautiful game" because its all about creativity. I grew up playing soccer my whole life and while coaching these last few years a few things dawned on me. I never learned core fundamentals properly. US coaches don't know how to teach fundamentals ... All too often in warm ups you'll see players pound the ball 50 yards over the goal, or dribble with the ball being too far in front of them in stead of small controlled touches.. Not even using the appropriate part of their foot for both. Shooting itself has many steps and a follow through the ball shouldnt rotate yet you see kids at all levels just hammer it over. In basketball we teach finger tips, guide hand and propper follow through yet in soccer those core fundamentals are lost.

The other thing that stands out is creativity. We as Americans rely far too much on athletic ability than skill. I recall running laps around the field and conditioning with out a ball ... Why? During a game high school is reduced to a 4-4-2 where the sole objective is to play it wide and cross the ball. How about a 4-5-1 with a triangle of ur 3 most skilled players in the center controling the middle? Creativity starts at a young age with fun drills .. Teach over lapping and wall passes .. Focus on the little things n the creativity will come.... The game needs to be taught better.

The problem is that most of the coaches for the younger kids are just one of the kids' parents and not an experienced coach. Most of those people know more about golf than soccer...

 

[Carl Spackler]

The problem is that most of the coaches for the younger kids are just one of the kids' parents and not an experienced coach. Most of those people know more about golf than soccer...

Exactly. The majority of youth soccer coaches, have no clue how to teach the game. They teach kick and chase, the parents want to see goals. That's why if it's ever going to change, it's got to come from the top down, and all those youth programs in every single town across the country, those people that actually do volunteer to coach, that are in cases - paid to coach? they need to be instructed waht to do.

You find a successful youth soccer program that's producing high quality soccer players come high school age, in some town somewhere, you're going to find that the majority of the youth soccer coaches are immigrant parents. That's got to change.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I think us boneyarders could build a great youth soccer league. One of my biggest pet peeves is going to watch a youth soccer game, and I do it a lot these days, and seeing a bunch of kids chasing a ball up and down a field in a pack, until somebody kicks it in the goal, and everyone cheering wildly about it, as the one or two kids on the pitch, that have had the ball at their feet for most of their lives do most of the dribbling up and down through and around everybody and occasionally makes a pass, straight up the field, no angles.

it's exactly how the U.S. national men's team played last night, and Klinsmann figured out quick many months ago, when he tried to put his offensive philosophy down right away, it's going to take many years of playing fundamentally sound defense, and playing like the Greeks, before the U.S. senior team can play offense at a world class level.

You watch a typical town rec youth team in warmup and they're all lining up for penalty kicks. You want to find a good youth coach, watch how they have their team warmup. It's not lining up to take penalty kicks.

 

[fortebleedsblue]

I think us boneyarders could build a great youth soccer league. One of my biggest pet peeves is going to watch a youth soccer game, and I do it a lot these days, and seeing a bunch of kids chasing a ball up and down a field in a pack, until somebody kicks it in the goal, and everyone cheering wildly about it, as the one or two kids on the pitch, that have had the ball at their feet for most of their lives do most of the dribbling up and down through and around everybody and occasionally makes a pass, straight up the field, no angles.

it's exactly how the U.S. national men's team played last night, and Klinsmann figured out quick many months ago, when he tried to put his offensive philosophy down right away, it's going to take many years of playing fundamentally sound defense, and playing like the Greeks, before the U.S. senior team can play offense at a world class level.

You watch a typical town rec youth team in warmup and they're all lining up for penalty kicks. You want to find a good youth coach, watch how they have their team warmup. It's not lining up to take penalty kicks.

For our U10, U12 teams 3 years ago you would notice early on that while our kids had more skill other teams we would often lose handily due to other teams being more aggressive and athletic ... While parent chant get it... Kick it! While its fustrating to see kids reduced to that it's important not to keep score it's all about learning and developing skill. By our third year the skill between our players and other teams was very noticeable.. We were filling parts of our u18 and U15 team schedules vs. premiere teams. Many of our players made premiere, just over a handful the state team, 2 players made the regional team and the coach I mentioned earlier his daughter about two weeks ago tried out for the U14 team USA national team (invite only) out I. California. Our club went from about 40 kids on coed teams often jumping up and down age groups to fill rosters to around 150 with boys and girls 'A' and 'B' teams in3 years.

 

[BlueMAB]

The problem with U.S. soccer was on clear display last night. We just don't have the ball skills on our team that elite players around the world have all over the place. THe ability to control that ball in tight space with players all around you.

It's one of those things about the sport, that needs to be developed from a very young age. YOu need an unconscious awareness of body movement and space to be able to get, maintain, and than manipulate control that ball and move it out of a tight space with defenders on you, and then make an accurate pass to open space. Don't know how many times I saw that last night.

Great defensive game though, could have been 2-0 if Hercules doesn't try to play hero and simply crosses that ball on the break. Howard was MVP. By far. Amazing body control.

Klinsmann, with complete control of soccer all the way down to the age group structure, is working to change that. It's going to take at least 8 years though, he's putting in the same structure he put into Germany that rebuilt their national program. The 10 year olds right now, will have those ball control skills by they time they're ready for the senior team.

I agree with all of that, however, missing Bradley really hurt our ability to maintain possession. It's one of the reasons I still believe Benny Feilhaber should be on the team.

 

[BlueMAB]

When it comes to U8 and under, the kids should be forced to remain in sections with one player from the other team. It forces them to receive the ball in there area, and look for someone to pass it to in order to advance it up the field. While only having to deal with one defender. It prevents a mob of kids following a ball around the field until it trickles into the goal. It's virtually impossible for most kids that age to maintain possession and make a pass to an open teammate with so many other kids in the immediate area. Keep the kids separated, rotate them between positions on the field, but don't let them all run around the field. They will learn the fundamentals of the game much faster.

Youth basketball should and often uses the same principles by prohibiting presses, requiring teams to play zone, and defenders to keep one foot in the paint when the offense has the ball so the offense can pass and shoot. It's easy for a 6 year old to take the ball from someone else, not as easy to drive by a kid and take a layup.