Interesting article on many levels.
"For at least a decade, every World Cup cycle has brought up the same hypothetical among casual fans: What would happen if the United States’s best athletes played soccer? If you could take an NBA point guard or an NFL corner and turn back time and put a soccer ball at his feet, what would happen? With Yedlin, a bottle rocket of right-flank speed and power, we’re now starting to find out.
...DeAndre Yedlin played baseball, basketball, and football as a kid, but his first experience with organized sports came on a soccer field. No matter what sport Yedlin tried, he dominated. He was smaller than most kids, but faster than them all. On the basketball court, he could dribble past everyone for an open layup; on the baseball diamond, he would embarrass opposing fielders in rundowns, leaving them flailing at him with their gloves as he zipped by on his way to the next base.
Today, it’s easy to look at Yedlin — 5-foot-8 and thick-chested, and able to outrun the best soccer players in the world — and imagine him on an NFL roster...In college, Yedlin was clocked at about 4.2 seconds in the 40-yard dash. And, says his college coach, Caleb Porter, “It’s about a lot more than top-end speed. It’s his burst, his ability to go from a jog to a sprint before you even realize what has just happened.” His athleticism, Porter says, “is truly world-class.” It would have made sense for Yedlin to play football. He inhabits a cornerback’s body in an age when cornerbacks can command $70 million contracts.
...Yedlin joined the Sounders’ youth academy...Training was detached from schools and put in the hands of clubs, which taught talented players how to be professionals and to prioritize soccer above everything. Yedlin loved it. And yet, he continued to play for his school. Once, he played an out-of-state game with the Sounders on a Friday, then flew home to Seattle the next morning in time to drive from the airport to an O’Dea game he could enter at halftime.
...unlike many other young American players — Agudelo, Altidore, and Shea among them — Yedlin went to college. He enrolled at the University of Akron, more than 2,000 miles from home. There, he played for Caleb Porter, a coach who had no pretensions about the sanctity of college sports. “I was preparing my players to be pros,” Porter says. “The way I ran my program was similar to the way John Calipari runs his [basketball] program at Kentucky. They came to play for me because they wanted to be pros and because I let them know that I wanted them to be pros, too. Everything we did — from the way we trained to the schedule we kept to our nutrition and everything else — everything was about winning, yes, but also about getting these guys ready for life as professional soccer players.”
...Yedlin’s athletic growth mirrored the typical American experience — soccer as a young child, Little League baseball as an older boy, football as a postadolescent, single-sport specialization in high school, then college, then the pros. But along the way, he took advantage of advancements in American soccer’s infrastructure — playing for elite youth clubs, then the Sounders’ academy, then going back to the club that trained him through a rule designed for cases like his.
And if some of Yedlin’s success can be attributed to the growth of soccer culture in America, some of his shortcomings can be attributed to that same culture’s flaws. In the past, an athlete of Yedlin’s caliber would have been less likely to focus on soccer. But here’s the short version of any Yedlin scouting report: Strengths: Athleticism, fearlessness. Weaknesses: Everything else. Yedlin didn’t even really begin sharpening his technique until he arrived at Akron. “He was always a freak athlete,” says his uncle Dylan. “Akron was where he really learned the game.”
Americans — especially during the World Cup — like to wonder what would happen if our greatest athletes played soccer. But as with any other sport, speed and agility can only take a player so far...
Some have suggested that Yedlin move full time to midfield. But his skill set, built on quickness and speed more than creativity and technique, would have a defined ceiling if he moved farther upfield. “Could he be a winger? Yeah, sure,” Porter says. “But when you look at the top wingers, he’s never going to be more technical and more clever off the dribble and in his combination and movement than those guys are. He just doesn’t have that. But at right back? With his athleticism, bombing forward, going box to box? Right now, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, he obviously already looks like the right back of the future for our national team. Beyond that, he can be a Champions League right back. He can be that good.” The difference, says Porter: At age 21, it may already be too late to master the finer points of midfield technique. But defending? “Yeah,” Porter says, “that can definitely be taught.”
Soon, it seems, a foreign coach will have that responsibility. As of this morning, Yedlin’s future remains uncertain. In recent weeks, he has been linked to clubs ranging from Liverpool to Roma to Napoli. The latest reports have him finishing the season in Seattle, then going to Tottenham."
http://grantland.com/features/deandr...ub-mls-soccer/
"For at least a decade, every World Cup cycle has brought up the same hypothetical among casual fans: What would happen if the United States’s best athletes played soccer? If you could take an NBA point guard or an NFL corner and turn back time and put a soccer ball at his feet, what would happen? With Yedlin, a bottle rocket of right-flank speed and power, we’re now starting to find out.
...DeAndre Yedlin played baseball, basketball, and football as a kid, but his first experience with organized sports came on a soccer field. No matter what sport Yedlin tried, he dominated. He was smaller than most kids, but faster than them all. On the basketball court, he could dribble past everyone for an open layup; on the baseball diamond, he would embarrass opposing fielders in rundowns, leaving them flailing at him with their gloves as he zipped by on his way to the next base.
Today, it’s easy to look at Yedlin — 5-foot-8 and thick-chested, and able to outrun the best soccer players in the world — and imagine him on an NFL roster...In college, Yedlin was clocked at about 4.2 seconds in the 40-yard dash. And, says his college coach, Caleb Porter, “It’s about a lot more than top-end speed. It’s his burst, his ability to go from a jog to a sprint before you even realize what has just happened.” His athleticism, Porter says, “is truly world-class.” It would have made sense for Yedlin to play football. He inhabits a cornerback’s body in an age when cornerbacks can command $70 million contracts.
...Yedlin joined the Sounders’ youth academy...Training was detached from schools and put in the hands of clubs, which taught talented players how to be professionals and to prioritize soccer above everything. Yedlin loved it. And yet, he continued to play for his school. Once, he played an out-of-state game with the Sounders on a Friday, then flew home to Seattle the next morning in time to drive from the airport to an O’Dea game he could enter at halftime.
...unlike many other young American players — Agudelo, Altidore, and Shea among them — Yedlin went to college. He enrolled at the University of Akron, more than 2,000 miles from home. There, he played for Caleb Porter, a coach who had no pretensions about the sanctity of college sports. “I was preparing my players to be pros,” Porter says. “The way I ran my program was similar to the way John Calipari runs his [basketball] program at Kentucky. They came to play for me because they wanted to be pros and because I let them know that I wanted them to be pros, too. Everything we did — from the way we trained to the schedule we kept to our nutrition and everything else — everything was about winning, yes, but also about getting these guys ready for life as professional soccer players.”
...Yedlin’s athletic growth mirrored the typical American experience — soccer as a young child, Little League baseball as an older boy, football as a postadolescent, single-sport specialization in high school, then college, then the pros. But along the way, he took advantage of advancements in American soccer’s infrastructure — playing for elite youth clubs, then the Sounders’ academy, then going back to the club that trained him through a rule designed for cases like his.
And if some of Yedlin’s success can be attributed to the growth of soccer culture in America, some of his shortcomings can be attributed to that same culture’s flaws. In the past, an athlete of Yedlin’s caliber would have been less likely to focus on soccer. But here’s the short version of any Yedlin scouting report: Strengths: Athleticism, fearlessness. Weaknesses: Everything else. Yedlin didn’t even really begin sharpening his technique until he arrived at Akron. “He was always a freak athlete,” says his uncle Dylan. “Akron was where he really learned the game.”
Americans — especially during the World Cup — like to wonder what would happen if our greatest athletes played soccer. But as with any other sport, speed and agility can only take a player so far...
Some have suggested that Yedlin move full time to midfield. But his skill set, built on quickness and speed more than creativity and technique, would have a defined ceiling if he moved farther upfield. “Could he be a winger? Yeah, sure,” Porter says. “But when you look at the top wingers, he’s never going to be more technical and more clever off the dribble and in his combination and movement than those guys are. He just doesn’t have that. But at right back? With his athleticism, bombing forward, going box to box? Right now, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, he obviously already looks like the right back of the future for our national team. Beyond that, he can be a Champions League right back. He can be that good.” The difference, says Porter: At age 21, it may already be too late to master the finer points of midfield technique. But defending? “Yeah,” Porter says, “that can definitely be taught.”
Soon, it seems, a foreign coach will have that responsibility. As of this morning, Yedlin’s future remains uncertain. In recent weeks, he has been linked to clubs ranging from Liverpool to Roma to Napoli. The latest reports have him finishing the season in Seattle, then going to Tottenham."
http://grantland.com/features/deandr...ub-mls-soccer/
Comment