Happy Daddy.....I read the articles and got the info about Philly Union Academy from the article.
I don't know the facts of the story and would love to have all of the holes filled in with a timeline!!!! Still, a good series....interesting story. One most of can pick parts out of and closely identify with.
I definetely think youth soccer is getting better in this country.
I have the vantage point of have 3 older kids (21,19,17) and a 7 year old. The soccer enviornment for my 7 year old is vastly different that the one my older kids started in. Differences at the u6/u8 level.....smaller teams, smaller sided games, 1 night a week of skills driven pool training, more investment in coaching training, introduction of summer based 3 v 3 games, etc.
I also think the move a few years ago...which I whined about...to extend small sided format has beena huge benefit. Keeping older kids on a smaller field with fewer players encourages and rewards technical development and cleaner, better soccer. I don'tsee how anyone now, after the fact, would argue that putting 9 and 10 year olds on a full sized field with 21 other kids.....probably wasn't the best thing to do in terms of development.
Problem is....our culture here will never approximate that of Germany or Spain or Mexico or England. We will never be in a situation where a talented player can live in a town of 40,000 people and have multiple talented teams to play for and not have to travel for games.
We don't have that depth....probably never will. Nor will we probably ever see kids having neighborhood pickup games. Again, the culture is geared to doing that with football or basketball. And in terms of pickup games...I'm not talking about kids who play agreeing to meet at X field at a certain time. I'm talking about true backyard games. Neighbor kids. Use old shoes as goals. Sidewalk is one touch line, road is the other. Don't think we'll see that.
