That fool drinks too much.
lol
Posted 28 June 2011 - 01:01 AM
That fool drinks too much.
Posted 28 June 2011 - 01:19 AM
Posted 28 June 2011 - 10:04 AM
If you're not creepin', you're not trying...
Posted 28 June 2011 - 03:58 PM
setting polical correctness aside . . . what is incorrect about what eric said? mind you, like many of us he does indeed drink too much (myself included).That fool drinks too much.
Posted 28 June 2011 - 05:09 PM
setting polical correctness aside . . . what is incorrect about what eric said? mind you, like many of us he does indeed drink too much (myself included).
A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
Twitter: BigTony_42
Posted 28 June 2011 - 07:56 PM
i see it more like this . . .Eric is lumping all of the fans together, while in reality, only a small portion are the unruly idiots. By his statement, he is lumping Caasi, Esco and Ramses along with any other Mexico fans and saying they have no class. Sure that may be true of Esco (), but you shouldn't cast aspersions on Caasi and Ramses. Such blanket statements really doesn't say much about the speaker.
Posted 28 June 2011 - 08:53 PM
A crowd is a crowd. When you have 1,000's of people booing another country's national anthem I don't think you can say it was a "small number of miscreants." As long as it is being booed so loud that you can't hear I think it's a fair statement to say that the crowd lacks class. As long as throwing bags of urine, bottles of beer, and batteries is tolerated the crowd can never be considered classy. Sorry. It isn't to say that Ramses, Esco and Caasi lack class. I may be biased as well as Wyno. I don't blame the guy, he was busy getting bottled and hit with other flying objects continually whenever he played Mexico. It is a long running and popular trend among El Tri fans. A 1/4 of the fans isn't a small portion. 1/5 isn't even small. No one can deny that a large number of Tri fans are idiots willing to do stupid shit. As long as it's tolerated and there isn't anything done to curb that kind of behavior I don't think there's any possible way you can say that it's a classy crowd.Eric is lumping all of the fans together, while in reality, only a small portion are the unruly idiots. By his statement, he is lumping Caasi, Esco and Ramses along with any other Mexico fans and saying they have no class. Sure that may be true of Esco (), but you shouldn't cast aspersions on Caasi and Ramses. Such blanket statements really doesn't say much about the speaker.
Posted 28 June 2011 - 09:29 PM
Posted 28 June 2011 - 10:35 PM
Posted 28 June 2011 - 11:37 PM
Posted 04 July 2011 - 02:32 PM
My email to Mr. Gulati:
Hi Mr. Gulati,
I write to express my great concern over US Soccer's direction and approach, particularly with regard to the US National team.
I have been involved in soccer at many levels as a player at Westmont College, a youth and high school coach for 27 years and an occasional journalist. One of the players from our high school program, Sean Franklin, currently plays for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Currently I am pursuing my doctorate in Learning and Mind Sciences at the UC Davis School of Education. To get my daily soccer fix, I frequent the LA Riot Squad discussion boards where I am known as Catamount.
I have lived US soccer in Southern California for more than a quarter century. When I graduated from college, professional soccer opportunities for American players were nearly non-existent. It has been a source of great encouragement for me to participate in the rise of the of soccer in the United States in recent years. However, I can not say the same for the progress of US Soccer as an organization and the US Men's National Team in particular.
An attempt to express all my concerns would require a full article, perhaps a white paper, maybe a book. Here I will focus on the relationships between the US Soccer Organization, youth development and the US National Team.
Five attempts at a professional US soccer league failed until the creation of MLS. To fill the void parents created a powerful and pervasive system of youth leagues. These leagues coalesced into the Coast Soccer League in Southern California. Gradually the parent-run soccer system became US Soccer. Out of this foundation Bora Mulitinovic and his team raised the profile of US Soccer (a lot can be said about the role of high school and college soccer here, but that is another topic).
The accomplishments of parent-inspired soccer should not be devalued or underestimated. However, the motivations and forces that created the system also brought fundamental problems that have become reified and institutionalized. These problems surfaced in recent years particularly in the 2006 World Cup, the 2009 Confederations Cup, the 2010 World Cup and the recent loss to Mexico in the 2011 Gold Cup. These results aren't aberrations, they are the result of systematic issues that must be addressed, or US Soccer or the Panama's and Guadeloupe's of the world will begin to beat the United States with more regularity, and Mexico will become dominant.
Issue #1: Youth Development
Parents either manage or coach the vast majority of players in the youth development system. Winning creates exposure, which generates opportunities for youngsters. The influence of parents is fundamental to everything about youth development in the United States. Parents care about winning primarily because of the opportunity it creates for their own child. This means that real development takes place for only one or two players on a team, the children of the coach and manager (who are often husband and wife). Other players used as tools to create the best opportunities for these favored children, whether this is intentional or not. Parents develop systems of play that feature certain players and are rigidly enforced for everyone else. Youngsters adapt and learn to do the best they can in this system.
Sean Franklin provides an interesting case study of this process. As a young player you could find Sean in the middle of the park, an expansive creative player who could find the ball and make creative things happen. His athleticism made him a threat on goal, explosive on the counter attack and able to beat other midfielders box to box all game long. He had 360 degree vision, excellent control of the ball at pace, great ability to read and win the ball, and exceptional range on his passing for a young player, all the qualities you want in a two-way central midfielder. We used him as a central player in high school which resulted in a quarterfinal run in the highly competitive large school Southern Section CIF championships. The team lost to the eventual champions.
During high school, Sean and his parents decided to move him to a club team in the San Fernando Valley to create more exposure and opportunities. Terry Avila, the coach at CSUN, was the coach of the club team. Like always the coach sought to fit Sean into an already existing team that needed a right back. Because of Sean's athleticism, power in the air and high work rate, Avila converted Sean to defense. Sean is an exceptional athlete and has a great soccer mind, so he was able to adapt to the new role. However, all those qualities that made him special have been suppressed. Occasionally you'll see them when he plays a brilliant splitting ball or rainbow's a defender, but for the most part he's become an athletic automaton that keeps his starting role because he's can run and because he has enough vision and skill to be better than your average professional right back.
It is interesting to note that Sean won Rookie of the Year in MLS as a central defender where his ability to read the game was in full display. Ruud Gullit had too many issues to be a successful MLS coach, but he was able to see beyond the surface athleticism to the special qualities Sean brought to the game. With the hiring of Bruce Arena, Sean himself now believes he's a right back.
Issue #2: US Men's National Team
The current US National Team setup reeks of the parent-run system. The coach decided four years ago that his son would be the featured player. I do not fault Bob Bradley or his son for this decision. They are the product of the system that produced them. There has been a four year search for the "right partner" for the featured player in the system. For one 45 minute period Jose Francisco Torres and Maurice Edu produced the best half of soccer by a central midfield paring in more than a decade in the lead-up to the 2010 World Cup. I honestly thought that this would put Torres and Edu in the starting lineup for WC 2010. I couldn't have been more wrong. The decision had already been made about one central player, any other possibility wasn't even considered.
This is parent-run soccer in a nutshell, systems of play created around 1-3 featured players. Throughout the system players are moved away from their natural positions. The most creative players quite often disappear because they aren't the oldest or most athletic, and they "try stuff" that causes their U12 or U14 team to lose. Now this approach has become entrenched in the US Men's National Team set up. Take a look at the video of the Gold Cup Final and both games against Panama. See how teams played through the US center, how many times US central midfielders were out of position, how often the central midfielders gave up possession, played negative or failed to combine. The US pool has combinations of central players who bring a much wider variety of qualities than the pair we see for the USMNT setup right now. See how Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey (the US best players) are moved around, and used in roles that suppress their best qualities. See how they must step outside the system to become effective, yet one player always plays.
I have suffered through years and years of parent-run soccer. I know this phenomenon so well I have nightmares about it. I have spent countless hours trying to figure out how to bench the manager of the team's son or daughter without destroying the team. There are coaches in the system, such as Jason Kreis, Hyndman, Nicol, Kinnear and others that stand in opposition to the parent-run approach. Jurgen Klinsman is a possibility that brings a hybrid of German and American thinking. Guys like Hiddink, and even Mexican managers like Lavalope, would bring a set of principles the situation. Quite a few Scottish managers like Moise, Strachan, and even Alex Ferguson, are perhaps the most flexible and successful breed, that may reflect the American mentality quite closely.
Issue #3: US Soccer
I have done explain what I see. You and the US Soccer board are the only ones in a position to make the tough but necessary changes needed to allow US Soccer to emerge as it should. The current system has outlived its usefulness and needs to be revamped immediately, or another generation of creative, expressive young players will be eliminated from the system before they reach U14. It needs to start with the US National team and go from there. MLS and the academy system won't be ready to take over for quite some time. US Soccer needs to take the lead. Right now it is sitting on the sidelines letting the parents run the show.
Highest Regards,
Scot M. Sutherland
PhD. Student, Learning and Mind Sciences
UC Davis School of Education
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