Soccer, Again

My brother asked me for my thoughts on soccer as he pointed me to an article on Yahoo! News. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061104/ap_on_sp_so_ne/soc_nancy_armour

My response is as follows:

Hey, I liked the article. Do I think the US will get into soccer enough to dominate by 2010, no. I'd love to see a WC trophy for the US in Africa, but realistically, I don't think it'll happen. However, I do think that we'll make it out of the group stages and into the round of 16, maybe even out of the round of 8 (finger, toes, eyes crossed). With the US Soccer trying to get a hold of Juergen Klinsmann, I think that the US would finally have the coaching necessary to get into the elite stages of the World Cup. I also think the sponsors can come in line, and I think TV will pick up on it if people will watch MLS Soccer Saturday more consistently.

In the next 10 years though, I think there will be a major shift in sporting money. I think soccer will take a huge gouge out of the Trifeca of Tragedy i.e. baseball, basketball, and football. Soccer is a poor man's sport, you need a round ball, and a couple of shoes, and flat space to play. In this nation, there are a lot of places that are breeding grounds for brilliant soccer players. Unfortunately, the way players are tapped is by going through ODP where creativity is quashed in favor of X's and O's on a chalkboard. If recruiters visited the slums where people have nothing else to do other than play soccer, I think we'd have our picks of Ronaldinhos, Peles and Maradonas. Our midfield would be as good as any other in the world. Our defense is pretty solid, and poaching strikers can be found anywhere. Soccer can be broken into thirds. First, solid defense. We have three keepers playing in the Europe. Our defense is pretty solid if a little inexperienced (read, the US got knocked out of the World Cup by a diver and a bad ref watching the US defense.) OK, the past is behind us, live and learn. Next third is the finishing third. Basically, you can play soccer two ways, Long ball over the top to a creative striker who can make hash out of a defense. Second, midfield works the ball through the field and sets up a poacher for an easy tap in. Always, there's Brasil (when it's anybody but Zinedine Zidane) i.e. can do either. Creative strikers make hash out of a defense after the midfield makes hash out of the midfield after the defense gives them the ball and goes back for more milk, cookies and settles down to watch the rest of the game. I've watched several plays where Brasil has six men in the opponent's penalty area, they play keepaway for about 10 passes, and finally tap it in. It's absolutely amazing. Having said all that, I'm still a die-hard American soccer fan. The final third is of course, the midfield. The midfield must be creative to slide the passes through that will set up the poachers. If you bypass the midfield, you need strikers who can do the same thing.

Scoring at some point is going to be about creativity. If you don't have it, you don't score. Look at the US record in World Cups. I don't know about 90 and 94 but that's not important. We barely score 8 goals where Argentina scores six in one game (against a tiny country, but still...). In our spectacular showing in Korea-Japan, we scored 8 goals to make it to the round of 8. Germany scored 8 goals against Saudi Arabia; you get the idea. Americans lack creativity. Some of that is tactical, but there is a huge technical part to it. American footwork is not anything like Brasilian, English, or Cristiano Ronaldo (NOT Brasil's Ronaldo, this guy is from Portugal). If we visit the slums, that's where you find the footwork, instead of ODP where fitness is the watchword. Fitness can be created over a couple of seasons, footwork and the ability to "see" opportunities takes a lifetime. Landon Donovan was shut down in this 2006 because people knew they had to watch for him. They knew he was quick, but you can stop that by getting in his way. Zidane was unstoppable. His vision, passing, crossing, and footwork was beyond unreal. His fitness, well, he's 34, fitness ain't what it used to be. The result? France v. Italy in the final instead of in the Group of Death.

Back to ODP, I think it's a great system, but needs more scope. More people need access to it, not just kids whose parents can pay and travel for it. I think the grass roots are strong for soccer, I just think that there's a gap between planting and harvesting. The US can plant and harvest, it just needs to learn to cultivate better. As to cultivation, I think the knowledge of soccer has finally past the first generation. I read an article on soccernet.com about some of the US players and how soccer was a family thing. Clint Dempsey was introduced to soccer by an older sibling (I think brother but I can't remember details, don't bug me for them). Not only was he introduced, but he was trained by that brother, i.e. bigger brother made Clint work harder to be competitive with him. As for me, I'm already teaching Jack how to kick the ball. I hold his hands and he walks around chasing the ball. He has even learned to alter his stride length in order to have his foot hit the ball midstride. He's not perfect, but he's not even a year old yet. The point is that as a parent, I'm beginning to train my little boy to play soccer. I think there are other parents out there with soccer skills that will be passed (ha, ha!) on to the next generation. I'm excited to see what the next generation has in store for US soccer.

Short question, long answer. I hope you enjoy it.