Coaching Soccer in the USA

I was an unlikely coach for my son's soccer team.  I figured since I had some time, I would volunteer for assistant coach and help out however I could.  Little did I know that it meant I would become the real coach, that "assistant coach" really just meant "coach."  But, so be it, I figured I would give it my best shot. I have learned a lot about coaching a team of under 6 players (all of them around 5), and even more about the way soccer is viewed in the USA.  The former was noteworthy for the fun it provided for me, and for the winning season and increase in abilities that it gave to my team of 8 players.  The latter is a bit of a disappointment for me, since I grew up in Brasil and to me, soccer is really the only game that matters.  Not so much here in the USA, as I was to find out.

I will leave my tips and training methodology for another day.  Needless to say, a lot of the training ideas came off the internet, and the practical approach was hit or miss with my team.  There is a lot of good info out there, although it needs to be sorted through carefully since some of the training methodology goes hand in hand with the American philosophy of teaching and playing soccer. 

Which brings me to what I have come to find out...  Soccer in the USA, at the youngest levels, is seen as a place where anyone and everyone can play, but beyond that, that soccer is a dumping ground for other sports' untalented players.  The everyone can play philosophy is a good thing:  everyone  can and should play.  The bad part reminds me of an old Vonnegut play about handicapping the beautiful and talented people so that they are more "normal" and everyone is more equal (in other words, a perfect communist society!).  Here in the US, everyone who is talented should "dumb their skill down" so that they don't score too many goals, hurt the other teams feelings, or, indeed, hurt their teammates feelings.  What the fuck is that about?  Let me give you some real life (other) coaches examples, when our team plays them:

We played a team that was pretty bad, so I offered to take one of my players off the field so we didn't humiliate them (as I was taught to do, although if I had my way, I wouldn't even have offered).  The coach turned to me and said:  It doesn't matter, I told my team they get two points for every goal you guys score... (!).  And she said it with a straight face!  I mean, what is she teaching the kids?  The rules of the game are forfeit, and from that point on, any of her players that want to continue playing in a later league will think it is OK to lose since they are (sneakily) actually winning!  I cannot imagine any other team sport where a coach, any coach, would say it is not only OK to lose, to not properly practice, to just be incompetent, because the rules are different in their own heads.  Craziness!

We played another team that was pathetic, and at that time I was just letting the kids have fun and score goals.  Towards the end of the game, the other coach came up and asked me if I could tell my team not to score, but to just pass the ball around (he never mentioned the reason which was that he wanted his kids to feel better about themselves till later).  I explained to him that I just coached the team to win, to score goals, and to have fun.  He got all red in the face, picked up the ball, and went to his team to say the game was over.  It reminded me of those kids in pre-school who grab their balls when they feel slighted or upset, and tell the other kids they are just gonna "take my ball and go home!"  I mean, what is that teaching the kids?  I went up to try to make nice, which is when the coach explained he was part of the Board of Directors and that in "this league, we teach the kids to play fair."  I was flabbergasted!  Play fair is one thing, play stupid and to lose something else altogether.

The funny thing is, when talking to parents around Santa Cruz whose kids   play in other leagues, they say how afraid they are to go down to play the teams from Watsonville (a more Mexican area), since the Santa Cruz teams usually get destroyed.  And I think to myself, well of course they are destroyed, they are not taught to play very well up here!  And I am sure the Watsonville teams both don't allow everyone to play (conceptually they only allow the BEST players to play) and actually encourage good, talented play. You know, like a real sport and all...

So, I sadly shake my head to myself.  On the one hand, I get it that everyone good or bad should play, at least for a bit.  But soccer shouldn't be the dumping ground for untalented players from other sports only because it is soccer.  And the coaching staff, the board of directors, and anyone else involved in Excel Soccer should think of how to make the game fun for everyone, but have different levels of experience and/or talent play together, one set of teams on a "competition track" and the others on a "fun track."  That way, soccer can become the serious sport and the serious competition that it is, and not a place where everyone is dumbed down to the level of the least talented on the various teams (coaches included!).

But hey, this is my first time exposed to this type of philosophy.  In the back my head, the Brasilian in me hopes the USA continues to flounder in their development of a good soccer philosophy and eventual professional play.  Because if the USA put its mind to it, the talent and ability of the good players could be nurtured, and their standing with the rest of the world as a soccer power would increase... and that wouldn't be good for Brasil or any of the other countries where soccer is sport.