The thoughts below are 100% based on my personal experience. I write as passionate fan; as a and adult with fond memories of playing club and high school soccer and as a parent of three young soccer players.
In my opinion, the United States has the most potential of any nation in the world to produce world class talent and to achieve the ultimate gol (pun intended) of winning the World Cup. That might sound crazy now that the USMNT failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, but its what I believe.
To give the reader some perspective of where my views come from, I'll share a bit of my soccer experiences. I grew up in South Florida during the 70's and 80's. I enjoyed the sport as a player from my earliest days and all through High School. At that time soccer was a sport I played for fun. I was good at it. I truly loved it. Unfortunately for me, injury took me off the field at age 17 and I never played competitively again.
During my early 30's I became a soccer dad and coach at the local YMCA. It was all recreational at first, a few week nights and a Saturday here and there at the Y. Trophies were given to all participants. Despite the inclusiveness and esteem building of the local YMCA program, I began to see the first and worst obstacle in US Youth Soccer...(ominous music in the background) the HELICOPTER Parent.
I say this as a willing participant in the parental fiasco. As a coach (U9-U12), I became frustrated by parents yelling instructions to their child from across the field; I became frustrated with the post match phone calls with "suggestions" on how the team could win or the more common "my child doesn't play enough" etc, etc etc. I loved the interaction with the players; I loved sharing a bit of my knowledge and skills with 8 and 9 year olds. I loved the competitive side...but I hated the parents. Parents who had been my friends at the start of the season became the most dreaded part of my weekends. At a Friday evening Happy Hour amongst friends, I literally put my arm around one of the dads and told him how the other coach and I would argue about which one of us was going to cross the field and punch "that dad" in the "fucking face." Needless to say, that was the end of my coaching days.
My conclusion: Let someone else, better than me, coach my sons. Let's hold US Soccer to a higher standard of coaches and eliminate the parent as a coach model. Let's train and hire the best coaches for the formative years (U9-U19)
More to follow
