Michael Boyle
This is a great, must read, piece on youth sports from Mark Ziegler of the San Diego Tribune. The author hits the nail right on the head as it relates to soccer but the reality is that you could substitute just about any sport you know for soccer. I know both hockey and lacrosse have become rich kid sports that effectively exclude lower socio-economic groups. Join StrengthCoach.com today to learn more about youth sports training..........
"In 1998, U.S. Soccer brass proudly rolled out Project 2010, a $50 million plan to win the men’s World Cup in 12 years. There were flow charts and speeches, pledges to open residential academies and hire more talent scouts, incremental goals and big dreams.
Someone raised his hand and asked, in the spirit of Title IX, if it applied to the U.S. women’s program, which had already won the inaugural World Cup and would win another a year later.
The plan for the women, the national team general manager stuttered, was to “win forever.”
Fast-forward two decades, to a Twitter account belonging to an American man who married the daughter of Dutch soccer legend Johan Cruyff and now runs the respected TOVO youth academy in Barcelona. The U.S. women were about to face Spain in the final group game of the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in France, with a spot in the quarterfinals at stake. The U.S. needed a win to advance, Spain a tie.
Todd Beane warned about a rapidly improving Spanish program despite finishing 20th in its only World Cup appearance and suggested the American women might want to innovate “NOW” despite the perception that they rule the sport based on the senior team’s No. 1 world ranking.
“Complacency,” Beane tweeted, “cripples progress.”
Prescient words. Spain took a 2-0 lead in the first half, then hung on for a 2-2 tie after the Americans equalized in the 87th minute on a deflected shot. It was enough to eliminate the mighty Yanks in the first round for the first time since FIFA began hosting U-20 Women’s World Cups in 2002."
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