Uswnt

[Beachbum]

Not for nothing, but anyone questioning Marta's size....?

Game, Set, Match to our USWNT coaches and evaluators.

You got your ass handed to you by one of the smallest players on the pitch....

[Unregistered]

Not for nothing, but anyone questioning Marta's size....?

Game, Set, Match to our USWNT coaches and evaluators.

You got your ass handed to you by one of the smallest players on the pitch....

Hockey has fallen into the same size and speed obsession trap as soccer. This is how future Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis went undrafted. Very few talented scorers in the NHL these days - lots of 103MPH slapshots ripped into the netting above the glass. See lots of the same things in soccer - players who run like nuts on the edge or partially out of control frantically buzzing through the field like border collies who have od'd on Red Bull and frenetically passing the ball to and fro without any purpose or objective. Size and speed should be irrelevant. Scouting should look at a player initially through a very simple and basic lens, to wit... can they play the game?

- Cujo

[Unregistered]

Not for nothing, but anyone questioning Marta's size....?

Game, Set, Match to our USWNT coaches and evaluators.

You got your ass handed to you by one of the smallest players on the pitch....

Not fair...you can write ass and I can't. :)

[Beachbum]

Not fair...you can write ass and I can't. :)

you just did... :)

[Unregistered]

36 years between WC titles.....calm down.

Watcha talking about Willis?

Germany men won in 1954, 1974, 1990 and in 2014....

Germany women won in 2003 and 2007...

US men won...never mind

US women won in 1991 and 1999

[Beachbum]

http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2014...ment-brasilia#

[Unregistered]

Though many consider it the first FIFA women's world cup, I don't believe 1991 was a real world cup. FIFA was worried it would be an epic fail so they couched their bets and if it had been weak they could have withheld the world cup designation. Officially it was the FIFA World Championship for Women's Football for the M&M cup. Fortunately the Chinese embraced it and the event was better received in China than in their own US where the champions returned home to an empty airport and 0 fanfare.

[Unregistered]

Though many consider it the first FIFA women's world cup, I don't believe 1991 was a real world cup. FIFA was worried it would be an epic fail so they couched their bets and if it had been weak they could have withheld the world cup designation. Officially it was the FIFA World Championship for Women's Football for the M&M cup. Fortunately the Chinese embraced it and the event was better received in China than in their own US where the champions returned home to an empty airport and 0 fanfare.

[Unregistered]

The truth lies in the middle. We have talented players but the people who evaluate them are awful. In the past we won because we out muscled every other teams. Not the case anymore. Many countries now have the players to compete with us in term of speed and strength. They also have more technical skill players and systems or style of play to neutralize our strength. I still believe we have the talents but talents alone don't won game if the other teams are as equally talented as us. Our biggest enemy is ourselves. We lack the patience to development the world class players because we are a result oriented society. We are judge by wins or loses in the age groups where we should focus more on development. Also since we don't have a national style of play players come to the national team with different skill set and philosophy of how the game should be play.

I'd add another enemy - clubs and the play-to-play system here. ECNL is supposed to be "the best" place to play women's soccer, if you can afford it. Sure there's the odd scholarship here or there but even then there's still travel costs, etc. Like someone said - DAP aint' perfect but it's trying to get it right. ECNL is run for clubs by clubs. DAP tuition is either free reduced, along with an announced for more scholarship aid soon.

[Unregistered]

The whole system is broken in large part it is based upon giving all the little Clints and Abbys out there all the exact same opportunities but all that does is just swamp the system with layers upon layers of marginal players which makes it harder to find and polish the real diamonds amongst them. The process we have come to now never really focuses in on putting the best players in groups together and training them. Bringing a small select group in a couple of times a year for week long training camps is wholly insufficient. It's just not enough training and they are not reaching enough players with it. If you want to do it right you have to go back to an ODP type structure where you put the absolute best player in a geographic area into training pools that build upon each other like the regional pools did and really train the heck out of the players following a consistent curriculum. The problem with ODP wasn't the structure it was the execution. Relying on the knuckleheads in MYSA and Region 1 to run the whole thing is what destroyed that. The solution is instead of having all of these different id programs do their own thing, they should simply use them to identify the best players in a given state and then push them all together into a truly select training group that US Soccer (not one USYS or USCS) oversees. Sort of like the NTC's but do it a heck of a lot more than just a few times a years. More like every other week with regional group training quarterly. It should be an honor to be selected for a state pool and selection should supersede the individual clubs which hopefully would get rid of them holding players back just so they can win a few league games. The funding for the whole program should come from the clubs in the form of a small national registration fee not from the individual players that get selected. It's all doable, somebody just has to have the leadership ability to cut through the mess we now have and replace it with something that will actually have some impact.

[Unregistered]

The whole system is broken in large part it is based upon giving all the little Clints and Abbys out there all the exact same opportunities but all that does is just swamp the system with layers upon layers of marginal players which makes it harder to find and polish the real diamonds amongst them. The process we have come to now never really focuses in on putting the best players in groups together and training them. Bringing a small select group in a couple of times a year for week long training camps is wholly insufficient. It's just not enough training and they are not reaching enough players with it. If you want to do it right you have to go back to an ODP type structure where you put the absolute best player in a geographic area into training pools that build upon each other like the regional pools did and really train the heck out of the players following a consistent curriculum. The problem with ODP wasn't the structure it was the execution. Relying on the knuckleheads in MYSA and Region 1 to run the whole thing is what destroyed that. The solution is instead of having all of these different id programs do their own thing, they should simply use them to identify the best players in a given state and then push them all together into a truly select training group that US Soccer (not one USYS or USCS) oversees. Sort of like the NTC's but do it a heck of a lot more than just a few times a years. More like every other week with regional group training quarterly. It should be an honor to be selected for a state pool and selection should supersede the individual clubs which hopefully would get rid of them holding players back just so they can win a few league games. The funding for the whole program should come from the clubs in the form of a small national registration fee not from the individual players that get selected. It's all doable, somebody just has to have the leadership ability to cut through the mess we now have and replace it with something that will actually have some impact.

Thanks buddy. Why don't you apply for Director of US Soccer?

[Unregistered]

Thanks buddy. Why don't you apply for Director of US Soccer?

You are most welcome SFDB. Is that response the sum total of your intellect or for once might you be able to add something intelligent to the discussion?

[Unregistered]

You are most welcome SFDB. Is that response the sum total of your intellect or for once might you be able to add something intelligent to the discussion?

No, you go right ahead and write another negative, critical post about every topic you can imagine.

[Unregistered]

LMAO. Bet SFDB's plan is to abolish the NT and just have all the players go to NESCAC schools instead.

[Unregistered]

The whole system is broken in large part it is based upon giving all the little Clints and Abbys out there all the exact same opportunities but all that does is just swamp the system with layers upon layers of marginal players which makes it harder to find and polish the real diamonds amongst them. The process we have come to now never really focuses in on putting the best players in groups together and training them. Bringing a small select group in a couple of times a year for week long training camps is wholly insufficient. It's just not enough training and they are not reaching enough players with it. If you want to do it right you have to go back to an ODP type structure where you put the absolute best player in a geographic area into training pools that build upon each other like the regional pools did and really train the heck out of the players following a consistent curriculum. The problem with ODP wasn't the structure it was the execution. Relying on the knuckleheads in MYSA and Region 1 to run the whole thing is what destroyed that. The solution is instead of having all of these different id programs do their own thing, they should simply use them to identify the best players in a given state and then push them all together into a truly select training group that US Soccer (not one USYS or USCS) oversees. Sort of like the NTC's but do it a heck of a lot more than just a few times a years. More like every other week with regional group training quarterly. It should be an honor to be selected for a state pool and selection should supersede the individual clubs which hopefully would get rid of them holding players back just so they can win a few league games. The funding for the whole program should come from the clubs in the form of a small national registration fee not from the individual players that get selected. It's all doable, somebody just has to have the leadership ability to cut through the mess we now have and replace it with something that will actually have some impact.

The "system" as you call it is nothing more than a money grab so a bunch of unemployable soccer coaches can grab their slice of the American Dream. Has nothing to do with development, just making money.