European Attitudes to American Soccer

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'm getting the impression that (competitive) sports in the US are (almost) exclusively practiced at school.

Yep... but US Soccer is trying to get young players with talent into their own youth acadamies (not through schools).

[DanS]

As far as I experienced, competitive sports attached to schools starts in grade 7 and goes through college. Before that, it's community-based.

Might be different in other places and in different sports.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Mercator
I'm getting the impression that (competitive) sports in the US are (almost) exclusively practiced at school. This is completely different from how it works in Europe. There are no school sports teams. Instead you have amateur sports clubs.

Because of this difference, I don't think sports academies can work in the US. Having sports academies would basically kill off the college sports (as you know them).

It's more complicated than that. Certainly in the early years children sign up for teams in their general area and play in after school or weekend leagues. This is done for almost every sport, from little league baseball to Tae Kwan Do to soccer etc. Individual sports like ice skating are typically done on an individual basis or in small groups.

In some parts of the U.S. organized school sports start at the Jr. High School level (roughly ages 12-14). By high school every part of the country has organized sports. Still, this does not preclude participation in private youth leagues (typically off-season so as not to interfere with the school team). Indeed many if not most good players on a school team in a sport will participate in elite leagues and / or summer camps where the sport is played intensively.

The school team is most important in terms of getting exposure and experience with large tournaments (every state has championships for soccer at the high school level afaik), but typically players spend much more time and learn more from their private teams / camps over the years.

Once kids have graduated from high school / become adults their options are a little more constrained. If they are phenoms, they may get contracts from professional teams, but this is still exceedingly rare. Most good players will go to college and play there. Again like high school there is a limit to what can be taught in less than half of each year part time, but the upside is that the player gets even more exposure and potentially national tournament experience.

[DanS]

Btw, Freddy Adu easily got MVP for the match yesterday against Columbus. Two beautiful assists and a goal. Lots of other very nice, imaginative passes that didn't pan out. It was the kind of play that is rare in the MLS.

It was one of the first matches that he was in the starting lineup and it was the first match that he put everything together. It was also the first match that he wasn't pushed around. Before now, he was too small for the MLS. It reminds me of my sophomore year in high school where I put on 35 pounds in about a month.

I don't know how much longer the MLS can keep him at this rate. The coach of DC United, Novak, will have to start him for the rest of the season. I would be surprised to see him at DC United next year, but I don't know the mechanics of how he would fit into the European leagues (e.g., how he would get a work visa, since he's under 18).

[reds4ever]

DanS, what sometimes happens in South America with some kids that age is that a big European club signs the player and then immediately loans him back to the club they bought him from.

[DanS]

Thanks for the explanation. I'd like to see him play in DC for two or three more years, although I wonder whether the level of MLS play is high enough for his development.

Here's the highlights for the game. 384k stream.

Next stop, the U-20 world cup. Is it typical in other countries to start a 15 year old at the U-20 world cup?

[reds4ever]

It's better for everyone, the buying club gets the player they want, the kid doesn't get uprooted at too early an age and the selling club gets to keep a star player for another season or two.

Liverpool did it with le Tallac and Pongole, signed them at 16 from Le Harve in France, then loaned them back for anoter season and a half.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by notyoueither


I've wondered how much of a problem for the rest of the world it may be that only Euro teams have access to the best competitions.

Champions League, European Cup, etc...

That's immensely important. The teams that regularly participate in these leagues almost automatically perform best. They get a lot of prize money and publicity which gives them a huge advantage on other teams. In England nearly all teams have huge budgets, but in Belgium smaller teams can't really compete with the small number of big teams. That's mainly because of the fact that we're such a small country that we can't maintain a league with a lot of good clubs, but also because of the money. On the other hand, because our top clubs don't compete in a league with other good clubs, they can't up their level with experience unless they play the international leagues. Because of that teams from smaller countries in general are worse than those of the biggest countries (England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy). There are exceptions of course like PSV right now... but it can't be maintained all the time.

The bottom line is: Being surrounded and competing with great teams, raises your own level too. I don't see that in the US.
Unless football gets as popular with the masses like it is in Europe or Brasil, it will never ever reach the same level, no matter how much money you spend.
That's not really a big deal anyway, because due to the isolated location of the US it's impossible to organize international leagues. I mean your country is so big already.. European players travel less far for international matches than US teams competing eachother!!