The one problem being that to play soccer and get good at it takes a lot of money here in the states. He can't just go out to the corner and get in a pick up game of soccer. Basketball they can do that. Soccer will be tougher to find something like that going on and if anything his parents would have to have the resources to put him in soccer leagues and let him get better until he makes it to the highschool level and stuff. It's not like other countries where he can go to the park and everyone is playing soccer. That's one thing that is holding soccer back here. I remember a study they did about baseball players and why there aren't as many urban players playing these days and they came to one major conclusion that it was the cost to play the sport as a kid that denied inner city kids the ability to join the leagues and play because they needed gloves, bats, etc....but with basketball all they had to do was go to the park and play a game.
I don't think he has been playing all that bad..he has scored a goal for Holland...maybe not his best play but why would you sit him?
Stack24... if you lived in a Hispanic neighborhood, you shouldn't run out of people to play with... EVERY WEEKDAY there is a high school and/or park nearby with soccer players... every weekend there are about 20-30 leagues playing soccer ALL YEAR ROUND... I guess since Hispanics are now the plurality, you WON't run out of teammates with whom to play. Also, I didn't understand why people sit their players out... throw all your meat out on the bar-b-q... you don't have ANOTHER GAME to think about it... it's WIN or lose...
Yeah i see that all the time in the Hispanic communities during the weekend. But if we are talking about the regular old american boy growing up in the suburbs he is not going to be able to find a pick up game of soccer. So that is one of the main reasons your not going to find random talent here or there in soccer. They are going to have to have come up in leagues as a kid and some kids don't have that type of money growing up.
I think I see why... most Hispanics here playing regularly either came as immigrant teenagers or their parents came here already playing, and the kids went to their games, and learned to play or at least developed a liking for the sport. On top of that, kids as young as 12 are now playing in leagues with older men and women. Nonetheless, you're right about cost and skills sets... the only kids' league I know of that is more popular is FFPS...
Which makes me wonder why there aren't more Americans of hispanic origin on our national teams. I see tons of hispanics playing soccer everday in my area. You figure some of them would try to get noticed by the MLS which would open up the chance for playing for the US. I know some of them might not put the US first on their list but I'd say a lot of them are more likely to get a spot on the US roster than the Mexican/Argentinian/etc. squads. The lone bright spot from this WC, Dempsey, grew up in Nacogdoches and learned the game from hispanic kids in his neighborhood.
Yeah a lot of my friends played in some semi pro leagues up in bear creek park every sunday in those leagues...but of coures you pay to be in the league unless you have sponsers which most can find. But a lot of the teams are made of hispanics, middle eastern, and players that played through high school and stuff... Like Halfbree said if you don't have a group of friends that happen to like soccer and play as well to get into games your probably not going to find free games and pickup games living in the suburbs of America.
So did Landon Donovan. He even learned Spanish while playing with hispanic kids. I see nothing wrong with kids born in the US playing for the US, but when you're born somewhere else, you shouldn't be playing for the US (or any other country other than the one where you were born, for that matter). I'd really like to see the ORANGE machine win today. Just like there was a CF.net pick up basketball game, I'd like to host a CF.net soccer day for all of us Soccer enthusiasts... the heavier people can play football on the other fields... jk...
In Brazil, Unpaved Path to Soccer Excellence By LARRY ROHTER Published: June 25, 2006 RIO DE JANEIRO, June 24 — How does Brazil do it? Year after year, World Cup after World Cup, soccer stars seem to roll out of here like cars off a factory assembly line. First came the generation of Pelé, Garrincha, Tostão and Rivelino, followed by Zico, Falcão and Socrates. Since the mid-1990's, Romário, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and now Kaká, Adriano and Robinho have further burnished Brazil's reputation for unmatched excellence. To the average fan around the world, Brazilian soccer appears to be a powerful, well-oiled machine. But those who know it best are aware that the reality is far more complicated, that the country's record five World Cup championships are more a result of popular passion for the beautiful game, as it is often called here, than of any organized apparatus that methodically finds and develops players. "There is no system in Brazil," said Carlos Roberto de Oliveira, who, playing as Roberto Dinamite, was a member of the Brazilian national team in the 1970's and early 1980's. "Everything happens on a random, haphazard basis." To hear Brazilians tell it, organized professional soccer here is chaotic, corrupt and in perpetual disarray. But the game itself is so deeply ingrained in daily life — and in Brazilian identity and self-esteem — that its strength at the grass roots more than compensates for those deficiencies at the top. Familiarity with soccer begins early, producing a bottomless pool of talent. By age 3, a boy has probably learned how to dribble the ball, and by 7 he is playing the informal sandlot version of the game with his pals in any open space they can find — a clearing in the jungle, an empty lot in a large city, a pasture or on the beach — and maybe sleeping with the ball, if he is fortunate enough to afford one. Despite the considerable economic advances it has made over the last generation, Brazil is still a country with millions of poor among its 185 million people. And it is the poor who have traditionally seen success in soccer as their fastest ticket to prosperity and prestige. Of the 23 players on the national squad competing in Germany this month, only three come from a background that would be considered middle class here. Most of the players, whether they were born in cities or in the countryside, come from families that are humble, the preferred term for poverty here. Their success breeds only more success, especially now that the globalization of soccer has made Brazilian players increasingly in demand for teams all over the world. When a poor boy sees that a player like Ronaldinho, considered the best in the world going into the World Cup, can earn 28 million euros (about $35 million) a year, it encourages him to aim high and devote himself to the game. "There are now so many role models, and no glass ceiling," said Alex Bellos, the author of "Futebol: Soccer, the Brazilian Way." "Go into any shantytown or urban center, and you're sure to find someone who had a mate at school who played with Ronaldo or knows someone else who is a pro footballer. The idea is more than a dream, it's a reality." That hunger for success, however, does not explain the extraordinary inventiveness and fluidity with which Brazilians play the game. Some of the country's most knowledgeable analysts see that skill as a response to the confusion and unpredictability of daily life here, which has made Brazilians adept at what is called dribbling around rules and barriers. "We Brazilians are accustomed to having to improvise, to being creative when we are in a tight spot," said Tostão, now a popular commentator whose real name is Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade. "It's the foundation of our music and art, too, and that intuitive ability to sidestep the rules and improvise on the spot is what distinguishes the great player from the excellent." As Brazil urbanizes and as it becomes harder to find open spaces, the game is also moving indoors, to gymnasiums in a form known as futsal. Ronaldinho and Robinho came out of that setting — the soccer equivalent of arena football in the United States. "Futsal teaches players a capacity to create in a small space," said Juca Kfouri, one of Brazil's most influential and outspoken soccer commentators. "Then, when they get to play on the grass, on that larger stage, they can glory in really having room to create." Traditionally, the path of a Brazilian player was clearly defined from the moment he was spotted playing sandlot ball, usually by an amateur scout who was often a fan of a local team. He was signed by that team as a teenager, passed on to a larger regional club if he showed promise, sold to one of the 20 or so teams with large national followings, and finally, if he was very lucky, ended his playing days in Europe. Throughout his career, however long it lasted, a player was little more than a piece of merchandise. If he offended management or wanted too much money, he could easily be replaced because he had few contractual rights and there was always more talent waiting in the pipeline. But when Pelé, the country's greatest player, became sports minister in the mid-1990's, he made an effort to change the system. Using his prestige, he managed to push legislation through the Brazilian legislature that was meant to reduce the power of clubs and give players more control of their careers. The so-called Pelé Law has weakened the clubs, commentators agree, but it has also ended up benefiting agents more than the players. The agents, or impresarios, as they are known, have increasingly assumed responsibility for finding promising players, who are signed to personal management contracts and parked at clubs willing to showcase them until their value increases and they can be sold to a European club, sometimes while still teenagers. "In the last decade, this has become an industry," Tostão said. "The clubs don't have as many scouts out there as they once did, people who will call out of love for a club and tell them they have to see a kid. Today, it's all the impresarios and their personal networks of scouts, which I think is a bad thing because they grab the kids and put them under their personal control." In hopes of getting an early look at future stars, teams in Italy, England, Spain and Belgium have either bought pieces of Brazilian clubs or signed development deals with them. They are also bypassing the clubs and the player agents by sending their own scouts to scour the backlands and the urban slums for exportable talent, as Major League Baseball teams do in places like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Brazilian law and international rules forbid teams to sign players who have barely entered their teens. But to get around that restriction, European teams are now offering jobs as drivers or cooks to the parents of promising young players, who are then taken to Europe and enrolled on their junior squads. Private soccer schools are also growing in importance as sources of players. These operate independently of clubs and for the most part do not receive support from the Ministry of Sports or the Brazilian national confederation. The confederation has a $165 million contract with Nike, but is widely criticized for contributing little to development programs for Brazilian youth. Roberto Dinamite is one of several former players who operate such academies. Born and reared in Duque de Caxias, a working-class suburb of Rio, he has established the headquarters of his Roberto Dinamite Institute across the street from the rutted field where he was first spotted at age 10 by a scout for the Vasco da Gama club. His school in his old neighborhood has functioned for little more than a decade. But it has produced one player who is on the Brazilian national junior team, another who plays for PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands and two who are signed to teams in Rio. More than 150 boys, ages 7 through 16, participate in the program. On a cool and windy afternoon the day before Brazil's debut in the Cup, a group of 13-year-olds was going through a drill that required them to run a zigzag among a row of traffic cones, then take a pass with the right foot, dribble and finally kick the ball with the left foot. "All of these kids know how to play, and every one of them wants to be the next Ronaldinho," Roberto Dinamite said. "But if there is even half a Ronaldinho here, or at some other school like this, then Brazil is going to remain atop the heap." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/sports/soccer/25brazil.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Commission Will Evaluate Lavolpe's Future By STEVE BRISENDINE AP Sports Writer June 25, 2006, 2:10 PM CDT GOETTINGEN, Germany -- A commission will decide whether to renew Ricardo Lavolpe's contract as Mexico's coach when it runs out on July 30. Lavolpe, a native of Argentina who took over for Javier Aguirre in 2002, is Mexico's longest-serving coach. He has not been popular in Mexico, however, and his stock appeared to drop sharply when El Tri went 1-1-1 in group play and struggled to score goals after opening with a 3-1 victory over Iran. However, fans at home and in Germany were in a more forgiving mood after Mexico, playing some of its best soccer of the tournament, took favored Argentina into extra time Saturday night before losing 2-1. "We are pleased and proud with Mr. Lavolpe's work," federation president Alberto de la Torre said Sunday. Still, Lavolpe's future is cloudy after Mexico's fourth straight second-round loss -- in a year when the team had expected its first semifinal berth. On Saturday, the coach said Mexican club owners and de la Torre would decide on a contract extension. Chivas de Mexico president Jorge Vergara has never been a supporter of Lavolpe, telling an Argentine radio station last month that the coach was "drunk," "insecure and paranoid" and should be replaced before the start of the World Cup. But on Sunday, de la Torre said the commission would decide Lavolpe's future. "I insist that it's not my decision," de la Torre said. "It's not a personal decision, not Mr. Lavolpe's. It's the decision of the national council." De la Torre also said the commission would look at the body of Lavolpe's work, which included leading Mexico to a No. 4 FIFA ranking going into the World Cup. "It's very difficult to evaluate a job on one game, or two, or three, or one single World Cup," he said. -------------------------- I'd give him an extension. At first I was against foreigner coaching our team, but he did a great job at the end, there. I don't see why he should deserve not getting his contract extended.
Ok i'm not that happy, That goal was not needed they gave them 2 good opportunities. I do think we are still going to win. I have confidence. They benched van nistelrooy because he was not playing good, his problem is that he cannot hold a ball, he is a scorer nothing more, and since our two wingers need a striker who can play in their assistance who can hold a ball and distribute it. Kuyt is perfect for that, he also works like a horse, i'm happy with how he plays. ok now i'm going to watch further, i'm nervous
Typical. HOLLAND dominates but cannot score. Please bring Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuud into the match now dammit. And where is Van Der Vaart? HOLLAND needs to take more shots instead of trying to pass it around and walk it into the goal
LOL how did the Netherlands dominate. Not typical at all. This is the worst team since... forever, since 2004 I guess. Needs another note. Don't cry when your opponent literally kicks you out of the game because you are good.
I agree, they need to shoot more, and faster. i do not want van nistelrooy(because kuyt is playing pretty good) in, i want van der vaart, and they can take sneijder out, he is playing terrible.
Well im sure you follow your team a lot better than i have, so thanks for the analysis...do you think it's a good time to bring in Ruud right now considering they have an advantage of being a man up and need a score right now. I have confidence in Robben but i haven't seen anything else...like Rivaldo said...too much passing when they can take a shot on goal.
The same reason he lost his place at Man United and will be sold after the World Cup. He's hasn't been very good at all lately.
