Hope Solo: Youth soccer in United States has become 'rich, white kid sport'

[elartman1973]

http://www.sportingnews.com/soccer/news ... zkvfr5hiyc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[LookAway]

True

[elmouse03]

Thanks Trump for making everybody rich.

[FPL]

This is probably true. If we got our best athletes to play, I imagine our team would be significantly better. I don't know what our ceiling would be though, since from my understanding we don't have the infrastructure (in terms of youth academies, talent scouts and club teams) that a lot of other countries do. Just based on the size of our country, you'd think that if it was prioritized, we could do some damage (China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh are huge too I guess is a counterpoint, though there are differences in the populations).

[griffmoney]

how do you need to be rich to play soccer


you can tie a ball of shirts together and kick it between 2 trash cans

[somberbostonian]

This is probably true. If we got our best athletes to play, I imagine our team would be significantly better. I don't know what our ceiling would be though, since from my understanding we don't have the infrastructure (in terms of youth academies, talent scouts and club teams) that a lot of other countries do. Just based on the size of our country, you'd think that if it was prioritized, we could do some damage (China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh are huge too I guess is a counterpoint, though there are differences in the populations).

Problem is not necessarily getting more kids to play the sport. It's more about maximizing the ones who are already in it with better youth coaching/scouting. Even as the #4 sport in this country (330 million people), US soccer still has more raw materials to work with than say, Croatia (4 million people) who could make this year's quarterfinal, while also producing a ton of talent in basketball, tennis and Olympic sports with that tiny population.

A lot of poorer kids have to drop out of the sport in their early teens because they can't afford travel/club ball, while the richer kids are the ones who move on to play for these exclusive travel teams. If you're playing HS soccer but not for one of these expensive travel teams, you're never going to get noticed. Pay-to-play is a problem across almost every youth sport these days because of earlier specialization. Just that the negative consequences are more noticeable in a sport where you're competing with 200+ other countries as opposed to just a dozen countries (baseball) or a relatively newer global sport that didn't become popular around the world until the 1990s and 2000s (basketball).

[Chooch]

Its always been a rich white sport.

[vcsgrizzfan]

It doesn't really make sense to me. All you need is a pair of shoes and a ball. It's inexpensive compared to many sports. Hockey is extremely expensive, football is expensive, but soccer?

[Da Stars.]

It doesn't really make sense to me. All you need is a pair of shoes and a ball. It's inexpensive compared to many sports. Hockey is extremely expensive, football is expensive, but soccer?

PUck you. LOL. I was going to post the same thing.

[elartman1973]

It doesn't really make sense to me. All you need is a pair of shoes and a ball. It's inexpensive compared to many sports. Hockey is extremely expensive, football is expensive, but soccer?

Talking organized soccer....yeah its cheap but those kids aren't playing in the school leagues

[Da Stars.]

It doesn't really make sense to me. All you need is a pair of shoes and a ball. It's inexpensive compared to many sports. Hockey is extremely expensive, football is expensive, but soccer?

Talking organized soccer....yeah its cheap but those kids aren't playing in the school leagues

Really, most of those kids play soccer for the Junior Highs and High Schools at a very high level. These kids that play at that level are usually the kids that go to Soccer camp, or a summer league. The good ones most likely play soccer 12 months a year, including school leagues.

[elartman1973]

It doesn't really make sense to me. All you need is a pair of shoes and a ball. It's inexpensive compared to many sports. Hockey is extremely expensive, football is expensive, but soccer?

Talking organized soccer....yeah its cheap but those kids aren't playing in the school leagues

Really, most of those kids play soccer for the Junior Highs and High Schools at a very high level. These kids that play at that level are usually the kids that go to Soccer camp, or a summer league. The good ones most likely play soccer 12 months a year, including school leagues.

How come the brown kids don't escalate to pro USA?

[FPL]

Artman do you watch soccer? What's your favorite club and national team to watch?

[elmerjfudd]

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[vcsgrizzfan]

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Wow. That's kind of sad. It just shouldn't be that expensive. I get hockey. Maintaining ice rinks is expensive. Good skates, sticks and pads are expensive. There's no good reason for soccer to be priced out of even poor peoples' families.

[PhutureDynasty]

I believe it's the travel costs, more so than equipment?

[somberbostonian]

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Wow. That's kind of sad. It just shouldn't be that expensive. I get hockey. Maintaining ice rinks is expensive. Good skates, sticks and pads are expensive. There's no good reason for soccer to be priced out of even poor peoples' families.

If you're a promising football prospect playing HS football, you'll eventually get discovered by scouts/coaches. If you're a promising soccer prospect playing HS soccer, you're going to slip through the cracks if you're not playing for one of these expensive youth club teams. The kids playing on these clubs are not necessarily the most skilled or promising. They're just the ones who can afford it.

The US Latino population is larger than the entire countries of Spain and Argentina, and you have a lot to work with if you can fully tap into this population (plus working class people of other demos). But the way the US scouts/develops players in the crucial age range of 14-21 is so drastically different from how the elite countries do it, that it will take significant overhaul for any noticeable progress to happen. Similar situation has infiltrated baseball in this country: both *should* be blue-collar/working-class sports but the cost to play on these travel teams is a huge obstacle if your family is not as well off.

[CleveTown™]

you have the poorest countries in the world being the best soccer players. liberal logic is cancerous.

[LNS]

The real problem is soccer is boring as fuck

[CleveTown™]

The real problem is soccer is boring as fuck

no is not you faggot. NFL is similar to soccer.