Soccer in the United States

Soccer in the United States


    With soccer been the number one game around the globe it is hard to fathom that it is not a hit here in the United States. This is until you take a closer look. The United States has always been known for doing things their own way, becoming the most powerful nation on the planet in what historical terms would define as a very short period. This is also true when it comes to sport. The US has never been one to follow suit with the rest of the world, preferring to keep everything ‘in house’, while
maintaining the fact that they are playing for a so called ‘world title’. This is the epitome of the US and its athletic associations, too afraid to try and compete with the rest of the world, whilst still claiming that they are the best around. This is until it comes to soccer. Then it is not quite that simple. The US are relative ‘virgins’ to the beautiful game, and although confess no desire to compete on a global market, they have all the makings for a international powerhouse. Nowhere else in the world are there better facilities or opportunities than in the US. Lets be honest, if the US decided to have the worlds best soccer team then with the opportunities there athletes would have they would likely achieve this. So why don’t they? Why does soccer continue to be undervalued in a society that loves its sports? These questions and more will be answered in the pages that follow. This is an opinion paper, so please read with an open mind. There are many that will disagree and they have a right to that opinion. But it is also their opinion that is holding back the development of the greatest game on the face of the earth.

    Firstly, here is the biggest problem for soccer in the US, the people who are running it. Whilst those at the top of the soccer ladder in the US wouldn't know a soccer ball from a tennis ball they are not the main problem. The main problem is the influx of people coming in and claiming they have all this knowledge and yet possess non. People claiming they have relative experience and yet providing nothing more than an unstructured, unrefined method of coaching. Its generic, take ball, kick it high in the air, and watch the players run after it like an eagle after its prey. These Practices offer no benefit to soccer at all. Kids stood around kicking a ball every five minutes, or doing a shooting drill where they get a shot every twelfth turn. Most of these drills have come straight out of the 1980‘s and onto a field near you. Why do we continue to accept this? The reason is because nobody knows enough about soccer to really bother making a stand. These coaches and directors could come in and tell parents that having their kids stand on their heads for 30 minutes a day will develop their passing ability, and I sure there would be some that tried it. These same coaches and directors are the ones that are really sticking the knife in the coffin. They refuse to move over or listen to anybody who may have a novel or innovative idea, preferring to take there paycheck and keep everybody else out of the way. The question has to be asked, would this be allowed in any other sport in the US? A country that has done more to innovate sports with the use of technology and design than any other. What should be happening is coaches should be looking for new ways of getting their point across, and looking to the rest of the world for guidance rather than seeing it as a hindrance. And this is just the grassroots level. As you look around the soccer fields of America you can see the problem straight in the eye. Kids wearing extortionately priced uniforms, wearing brand new soccer cleats, and kicking brand new soccer balls. Along with this, soccer here is as much about your social class as the car you drive. Teams are selected based upon how well parents are in with coaches and board members, not based on the ability or potential of the people playing the game.

    The collegiate level is even more disturbing. Chances are handed out to coaches with so called ‘experience’ rather than based upon somebody's knowledge of the game. I'm sorry, this is not the way things should be done. I have a lot of experience sleeping on a mattress, I have done it nearly every night since I was born, yet this does not mean I know anything about the mattress I sleep on. Experience is a term used by the powers that be because they are too scared that if they appoint someone who will take their soccer program to the next level it is going to cause a problem within their athletic department. Nobody wants soccer overtaking basketball or football as the most successful sport. What would that say about the school. It would have everybody asking the question as to how much support soccer is getting over the ‘main sports’. Along with this we must look at the reason behind soccer really been a college sport. The only real reason, once all facts have been drawn out must be Title 9. Why else would a school have a need to play a sport that nobody, including many colleges and universities have no interest in. I have been involved in college athletics for 6 years and it is clear that the majority of colleges at least at NAIA level have no interest in their soccer programs. These programs merely exist because of a law that was made to bring equality to athletics, and yet all it brings is more inequality. I can only speculate that the NCAA level is similar with schools offering some semblance of a larger budget, but in the grand scheme of things a shoestring. I am not going to sit here and argue that schools should give more money to soccer in the current run of things, that would be ludicrous. Without support or promotion why would a school want to give more money to something that brings nothing in return. This is why the very fabric of soccer must be changed in this country. These so called coaches with ‘experience’ must be replaced by the next generation, a generation that is willing to progress soccer. A generation who has a genuine passion for soccer, and not just a desire to get by under the radar. I know too many college coaches who are happy to do the bare minimum because they know that there are no consequences for their actions. The school doesn't care if they have winning seasons or not, it’s just SOCCER!!!

    Lets look at the experience factor. If we look at the modern professional game (barring the MLS, for obvious reasons) we will see many coaches who have got to where they are through ‘experience’. This in and of itself is fine, many have developed sound philosophies and have worked hard to get where they wish to go. The experience that they have gained has been in the right setting and with the right people (unlike in the US). But lets look at one man in particular. If I had told you 10 years ago that one man with only one year of true coaching experience would go on to manage the most successful side quite possibly the world has ever seen you would have stopped reading immediately. However, there lives such a man. Enter Pep Guardiola!!! Now, obviously it must be said that ‘Pep’ had a very distinguished playing career and achieved many things, but we must remember this does not necessarily translate into coaching ability, nor does it qualify as experience. If playing experience quantified into coaching experience then think how many ex-professionals would be flooding the system. Since becoming manager of Barcelona, who have a little bit of history behind them before Pep’s reign, Pep has won 3 La Liga tiltes, 1 Copa Del Ray, 3 Spanish Super Cups, 2 UEFA Champions Leagues, 2 UEFA Super Cups, and 2 FIFA Club World Cups. This along with the fact that Pep has only been in charge going on 5 years. This is a careers worth of trophies in his first few years as manager. A manager with no ‘experience’ at any other level. The reason Pep is successful is not because he has gained experience, but because he knows what he’s doing. He has studied and worked hard to get where he is. He has taken the time to develop his way of thinking and is ruthless in his execution of it. Not only has he done this, but with his philosophy he has revolutionized the game. He has never followed protocol with his training or game style. He has done it his way and the only way he knows how. Sure, he has picked up things here and there, and has obviously got the highest qualifications possible, but fundamentally he listens to himself. So here is the million dollar question, If Pep had of come to the States and aimed to get a coaching job based on just his coaching resume, where would he stand? I think we all know the answer is at the back of the line. Yet, he can work for and run a club to the heights of which even Barcelona has never even seen. The formula is all wrong, you cannot base decisions on who the best coach is on ‘experience’. We must look at the big picture and understand that the next generation of coaches must be ready to formulate game plans and watch game film, much like American Football. Soccer is a very technical game these days, one that requires masses of time scouting and planning formations and set pieces. Soccer has moved on from days past and the US it seems has no interest catching up. By choosing experience over innovation the game of soccer is stagnant.
   
    Whilst gates have increased at MLS games the standard of soccer has stayed the same. This is the reason I mentioned leaving the MLS out of the previous conversation. Yes, the MLS is aiming to bring over seasoned players, players who have had very distinguished careers and achieved things that only a handful of people have done on the planet. But, how well have they done? David Beckham is in a class of his own when it comes to passing and work rate, yet how can he make the kind of passes he made for Manchester United and Real Madrid when the players around him don’t understand the game. How can Thierry Henry be expected to score the goals he scored for Arsenal and Barcelona when nobody understand the runs he will make. This all resorts back to the coaching, and not just at the professional level. I do not believe that the coaching in the MLS is of any standard, but this is not where players develop their soccer brain. A players soccer brain must be nurtured from a young age in order for them to not just understand what they are doing, but also to do it without thinking about it. The majority of players in the MLS just do not have a soccer brain, and to be fair its not their fault. Its the fault of the people put in charge who allow these non soccer people who have ‘experience’ to run our game.

    If we take a look at comparisons between soccer and ‘American Sports’ just at the college level we can see what level of interest these institutions have in soccer. A fine example of this is the University of Kentucky (UK), a school that bases its athletic performance on basketball. This is all well and good. They are successful at it, and this is what people want to see. I understand that Kentucky is a basketball state, and this is not going to change anytime soon. UK is one of the most successful basketball programs of all time, understood. Lets look at the past 20 years. In the past 20 years UK has had 4 coaches (Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith, Billy Gillespie, and currently John Calipari). Throughout this time Uk have won 2 national championships, one in 1996 under Pitino, and one in 1998 under Smith. Although the Kentucky faithful would obviously demand more, 2 championships in the grand scheme of things is not a bad haul. Whilst Pitino left to manage the Celtics, we must look at the other 2 coaches who have since departed. Tubby Smith brought home a championship banner to Lexington, and yet 9 years later he was fired. Billy Gillespie, while his time in charge was floured with controversy was also fired. I am sure everybody reading this can understand why these coaches were fired, 9 years is a long time to go without a championship at UK, and Gillespie failed to bring the stability that the program needed. Now lets look at the UK Mens Soccer Program. For the last 19 years UK Mens soccer has been head coached by Ian Collins, and until his departure after the 2011 season he was the one and only head coach of the mens soccer program. Now, I'm not going to sit here and say Coach Collins wasn’t a good coach, I have very little information to base an assumption such as that on. All I am going to state is that in his time as head coach, Coach Collins won not a single national championship. Now, Obviously this is not all you can base success on, as a college coach you must strive to provide the best environment for your athletes to succeed both academically and athletically. But, if Coach Collins was the head basketball coach would he have been there 19 years without bringing home a banner, I seriously doubt it. This is the double standards that are plaguing Soccer in the US. We accept mediocrity because we have no stance on which to base or build success. If UK wouldn't accept 19 years without a basketball national championship, why should they accept it with soccer! Needless to say, this is not the only school like this. It is clear in many institutions, and if you care to look you will see that the majority of the hirings that have been put in place over the past few months, I’m sure you will see more of these coaches with the so called ‘experience’ getting the jobs that the next generation should be getting.
   
    College coaches should not just be focused on developing athletes, they should also be focused on developing individuals and students. Athletics can teach us many things that we can relate to our daily lives, and this is no more evident than in college athletics, where the balance of time plays a big factor in the decisions coaches must make. College coaches must work to provide the best environment for their athletes to succeed, both in athletic competition, and also in the classroom. It is a job that should not be taken lightly or a job that you should ever feel secure in. College coaching should be a job that when you wake up everyday you look forward to getting into the office and aiming to help and aid the lives of the athletes you work for.
   
    Now I understand  am not the best coach in the world. Not yet anyway, I still have a very long way to go. But that is also what I’m striving for, because if we don’t strive to be the best at what we do then why should we bother at all. I am also not saying that American Soccer is irreparable, far from it. The reason I have written this is because I believe that American soccer has the opportunity to be an international powerhouse, and has the ability to provide the structure needed to produce world class soccer players, but first things do need to change. I am also not saying that America is the worst offender, been from England where Soccer is in an even bigger decline. All I am saying is that with all the opportunity for soccer to grow, we need to take soccer out of the 1970’s and into the present day. We need to get rid of the old school and replace it with the new generation who can promote the sport and develop it. New ideas are needed, soccer is not a simple sport anymore, it has become complex as technology and facilities have advanced. This will not happen overnight, and I am under no illusion that it will, but it must start somewhere. In order to change the perception of soccer here in the United States, we must change the very fabric of its being. It can no longer be a recreation sport played by kids, and coached by parents who once saw a soccer game when they were 12 and now are considered experts. There are plenty of good and able young coaches out there dying to make a difference and be involved in the revolution, but a revolution must have followers, and we all must make a decision on which side we lie.

    There are some truly great coaches out there itching for an opportunity to prove their worth, but these coaches are been blocked by a hierarchy involved in soccer who are more concerned about self preservation than they are about developing the game and the athletes involved. At the root of all evil, soccer is a political mess, as is the same in most sports. But at the fundamental level it has the ability to transform into a truly exceptional sports in the United States. By giving the right opportunities to the right people soccer in the United States can grow to unparalleled levels.
   
    My name is Joseph Townsend. I am 25 years old and I am originally from Halifax, England. I came to the United States to play soccer at Cumberland College (now University of the Cumberlands), KY, in 2004. I graduated in the spring of 2008 with a degree in Exercise Science and a minor in Psychology. Upon graduating I worked for FC Alliance Soccer club in Knoxville, TN, and also played in the Premier Development League (PDL) with the Fredericksburg Gunners, VA. In the summer of 2010 I took a job as the Graduate Assistant for the University of the Cumberlands Women’s Soccer team, a job that I completed after the fall of 2011. I am currently working towards getting a full time college coaching position, and aiming to work on my coaching badges. I currently hold My English Football Association Level 1 and 2 in Coaching, and my USSF National D license in coaching.