Month: September 2015

soccer

Single-Digit Soccer: Is softball different?

Posted on by Beau Dure

It’s official — U10 sports are front-page news.

IMG_1370Granted, the Vienna Connection isn’t The Washington Post. It’s a weekly community paper.

And there they are — the Vienna Stars, national U10 softball champions! They won the Virginia title and moved on to beat teams from Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

The team has two players from Great Falls, one from Lansdowne, one from South Riding, one from Leesburg, one from McLean, one from Warrenton, one from Bristow, and one from across the river in Potomac. Oh yes … and one from Vienna.

(For those who don’t know NoVa geography — these towns really aren’t that close to each other.)

Here’s how they did it:

The girls practiced twice a week as soon as Levin selected his team during a tryout period in August of 2014.

During the winter, the 10-year-old girls practiced in a warehouse.

Some players drove more than an hour to get to practices in Vienna.

So if you’ve read Single-Digit Soccer or Tom Farrey’s Game On or John O’Sullivan’s Changing the Game (and you should), you’ve probably spit out your Gatorade by now. This is exactly what we are not supposed to be doing, isn’t it?

Here’s the legendary quote, as reported by Soccer America‘s Mike Woitalla in 2007:

”National youth championships in the USA are the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” says Horst Bertl, the Dallas Comets longtime director of coaching. ”Whoever thinks these up should be stoned.”

And the turf war Woitalla describes, with multiple national championships, is true in softball as well. The Stars won the U.S. Specialty Sports Association Fast-Pitch National Championship. You can also play in another organization’s fast-pitch “nationals” in four convenient locations! The ASA / USA Softball also has championships down to U10.

In Single-Digit Soccer, U.S. Club Soccer’s Christian Lavers defends the concept of national championship — but not at this age:

At US Club Soccer, we believe that regional competition at U-13 is a good thing, and playing teams from different areas of the country in meaningful games at U-14 is a good thing.

So here’s the question: Are national championships at U10 a bad thing in soccer because of something unique to soccer? Or are they a bad idea, period, even if we don’t want to spoil the fun of the Vienna/South Riding/Leesburg/Potomac Stars?

Part of the answer is easy — “winning” in U10 soccer is a lot easier if you sacrifice development. Put players in set positions, where they’ll learn fewer of the skills down the road. Have the big player blast the ball downfield to the fast player. Find players with the aptitude and love of the game to learn, I mean, find the biggest and fastest players.

Does softball face the same issues? Or is there no harm in having U10s playing a bunch of different tournaments and calling a couple of them national championships?

Single-Digit Soccer is available electronically now and soon in print. Learn more and order here.

0
soccer

Do U.S. Soccer’s divisional standards make any sense?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Or, to rephrase, are they necessary?

Northern Pitch, an essential soccer blog you should all add to Feedly or Twitter notifications or whatever you use to keep track of things, has a good take on The Broken Logic of USSF’s League Rules. The Northern Pitch folks are in Minnesota with one foot in the NASL and one in MLS, so they have a good perspective on such things.

So, of course, I feel compelled to be nit-picky …

First, the history.

In 2009-2010, the USL–at that time the 2nd division–experienced a schism: owners who wanted to spend more and up the level of the league broke off and formed what would become the NASL. USSF tried to make the two leagues play nice for 2010, but that didn’t last long.

I’d argue that USSF wasn’t trying to make them “play nice” as much as they were “trying to keep these clubs in existence.” Neither the NASL group or the USL group had a critical mass that could sustain a league. USSF, in what you might call a rare bit of common-sense intervention, banded them together for a special edition, one-time only D2 league.

Again, that’s nit-picky and not even all that relevant. The more important part of the history: USSF then unleashed a comprehensive set of standards designed to keep the riff-raff out of pro soccer so we wouldn’t have a revolving door of uncapitalized clubs coming and folding. (If you’re of a certain ilk, you might find such standards an important part of this complete conspiracy theory against promotion and relegation, but in reality, these standards have stabilized things. So well, in fact, that now people really think we can have promotion and relegation sometime soon. See, Alanis? Irony is everywhere.)

But the USSF has decided to upgrade these standards. And they’re run into some pushback, both illegitimate and legitimate.

The NASL has pushed back by unleashing sports lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, last seen in soccer circles drawing the ire of the court by trying to muddy everyone’s understanding of the English league structure, to fire off a nasty note. That’s a bit like bringing in Miley Cyrus to lend credibility to your jazz/prog fusion band — it ain’t gonna work, and it’s surely costing a lot of money.

The Northern Pitch argument is much stronger. Raising the population threshold for 75% of your league to metropolitan areas of 2 million would make a soccer league think twice about going to Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City or other places that easily support major sports teams already. (Charlotte, though, is over 2 million, according to Census estimates.)

And that’s where the USSF looks like it’s just being officious.

It’s not that USSF should ignore population size in its criteria — as one astute commenter points out, market shares are important for TV, and TV may be just as important to long-term league survival as the deep pockets upon which these criteria insist.

But 2 million? Really?

Here’s another argument from former NASL PR man Kartik Krishnaiyer: He asks why we need such divisional designations at all.

And perhaps we don’t. The trick, though, is that we need to apply some sort of criteria, and it’s only sensible to apply different standards to an MLS club than to the Wilmington Hammerheads. (I always use them as an example because I’m still in wonder over the continued existence of professional soccer in the town where I spent my first three years out of college.)

I frankly don’t care what divisional designation the NASL has, and like another astute commenter at Northern Pitch (wow, these guys are lucky), I don’t think the NASL suddenly takes off if the USSF calls it D1. MLS has a pretty big head start.

And I hate to argue with Peter Wilt, who’s a big fan of the folklore of competing sports leagues in other U.S. sports, but I’m not sure I see the NASL being able to offer anything to distinguish itself from MLS. The ABA, AFL and so forth offered up different rules. Can’t do that in the NASL — not without alienating the “everything must be just like Europe!” fan base it apparently covets.

To me, the NASL’s best bet is either (A) start its own pro/rel pyramid and force the issue, as I’ve said a million times before, or (B) just focus on bringing quality soccer to markets MLS isn’t in. (Yes, I still miss my days as the one-man supporters section at Carolina Dynamo A-League games.)

Nor do I find it particularly unfair that the USSF is raising the standards. That’s because I simply don’t know of another federation that is under the obligation to smooth the path for a second D1 league. If I go to England and say I want to form another league system — and I’ll even open it to promotion/relegation through as many tiers as we can, based on how many clubs sign up with me — could I sue the FA if they put up any hurdles to me calling my leagues “Division 1, Division 2, Division 3”?

Now that would confuse the jury from the old MLS lawsuit, wouldn’t it?

 

2
youth soccer

Single-Digit Soccer reference material

Posted on by Beau Dure

Here’s the raw form of all the links in Single Digit Soccer for easy click-through access:

FOOTNOTES

[1] http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/pro-prospects:-eight-year-old-heads-abroad_aid28264

[2] You’ll see Game On cited a few times in this book. Farrey also is the executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program, which launched a program called Project Play to address many of the issues of accessibility.

[3] That’s the horrifying conclusion to the Game On chapter called “Age 9”

[4] Originally published in an ESPN piece I wrote from the convention on Jan. 27, 2011: http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6061681/us-soccer-matter-style

[5] As cited by John O’Sullivan: http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-posts/four-reasons-why-adultification-of-youth-sports-is-hurting-kids-and-damaging-love-for-the-game/?loc=psw

[6] http://espn.go.com/espnw/video/11678466/the-making-elite-athlete

[7] http://www.socceramerica.com/article/42752/when-they-were-children-world-cup-women.html

[8] http://www.socceramerica.com/article/47291/kristine-lilly-have-fun-and-go-after-it-qa-part.html

[9] “Report on Youth Academies in Europe.” European Club Association, August 2012. PDF online.

[10] Quick-witted English soccer commentator

[11] GOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLL!!!

[12] SoccerTots handed out a fun brochure at NSCAA one year

[13] If you’re really curious, find the 1991 volume of the journal The Physician and Sports Medicine. Or just check the abstract http://journals.lww.com/jpojournal/Citation/1991/07000/Developmental_Skills_and_Children_s_Sports.71.aspx

[14] Sure, I spoiled the ending, but check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtAwOpQBYPI

[15] http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/us_youth_soccer_introduces_practice_guides_for_the_u6-u8_u-10_and_u-12_age_groups/ … similar characteristics are given in U.S. Youth Soccer’s Player Development Model.

[16] One exception: U.S. Youth Soccer’s site has the slideshow from a 2012 presentation “Behavior modification during training,” by Chris Hershey. It addresses characteristics of autism, Down syndrome, ADHD and more. Go to http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/coaches/coaches_document_center/ and search “behavior.”

[17] Feb. 15, 2014 LAT column by Kevin Baxter on Christen Press and Whitney Engen; online at http://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/15/sports/la-sp-soccer-baxter-20140216

[18] Changing the Game

[19] 2015 NSCAA Convention

[20] Gridiron tools can be used in soccer training as well. Washington Spirit goalkeeper coach Lloyd Yaxley once gave Ashlyn Harris and Chantel Jones a blocking dummy so they could knock into each other while collecting crosses, simulating the bumps they would get in a game. The keepers eventually decided to ditch the pads to have more realistic collisions. Do not attempt this with youth players.

[21] Snow did a February 2014 webinar for the NSCAA.

[22] Again from Snow’s February 2014 webinar

[23] One of the funniest videos on YouTube is a semi-fictional account of a conversation between a beleaguered coach and an overbearing parent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gETP14z515Q

[24] The link: http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-posts/the-fourth-path-rethinking-early-player-development-in-the-united-states/

[25] I caught up with Fraser at NSCAA 2014, specifically seeking out the cerebral coach as someone whose input I wanted.

[26] 2015 NSCAA convention

[27] Look around and find any study you want. One of the better roundups is from Slate writer and youth soccer coach Stefan Fatsis: http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2014/02/soccer_headers_and_children_why_kids_shouldn_t_be_allowed_to_hit_the_ball.html

[28] One such teaching resource: http://coachingamericansoccer.com/introductions-to-skills/soccer-heading/

[29] http://www.phillysoccerpage.net/2015/02/05/youth-soccer-were-doing-it-wrong-part-3/ — Pugh draws heavily from the book Coaching Outside the Box by Paul S.A. Mairs and Richard E. Shaw

[30] Founder Scott Leben explains the video game-to-soccer connection at http://inside.playisoccer.com/great-articles-and-testimonials/how-to-use-gaming-psychology-in-practice/

[31] Sept. 27, 2007 column for Soccer America: http://www.socceramerica.com/article/23614/reviving-the-pickup-game.html

[32] David Leon Moore, “Q&A with Jürgen Klinsmann: ‘I Am Honored’ to Coach U.S. Team,” World Cup 2014, USA TODAY Sports, p. 20

[33] Changing the Game

[34] Article 18.4 of the youth club standards as of February 2012. See http://www.usclubsoccer.org/resources/youth-club-standards/

[35] Jack McCallum’s “Chaos Theory” story in the Feb. 25, 2013, issue of Sports Illustrated. In the SI vault at http://www.si.com/vault/2013/02/25/106289690/chaos-theory

[36] http://secondnaturesports.tumblr.com/post/60266341249/bee-hive-soccer

[37] Club Champions League: http://www.soccerwire.com/news/clubs/youth-boys/club-champions-league-scrimmagefest-features-street-soccer-atmosphere-for-u9s-u10s/?loc=psw

[38] http://www.ecaeurope.com/Research/ECA%20Report%20on%20Youth%20Academies/ECA%20Report%20on%20Youth%20Academies.pdf

[39] This is the same face-to-face interview mentioned in previous chapters, and it’s important to note that I wasn’t asking Fraser about any specific program.

[40] http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/23/germany-bust-boom-talent — Same story also says teens in Germany academies get 34 hours a week of actual school, which English counterparts who were used to nine hours a week found astounding.

[41] This quote was widely distributed. One instance is from the Guardian Sports Network: http://www.theguardian.com/football/these-football-times/2014/aug/29/ireland-irish-players-premier-league

[42] Start at http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/us_youth_soccer_introduces_practice_guides_for_the_u6-u8_u-10_and_u-12_age_groups/ for the 2013 version; also see the U.S. Youth Soccer Player Development Model.

[43] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130423172601.htm

[44] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24427397

[45] http://nyshsi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Competitive_Youth_Sports_in_Society-Malina-CSMR-2010.pdf

[46] The paper is “Intensive Training and Sports Specialization in Young Athletes,” in the journal Pediatrics, Vol. 106, No. 1, July 1, 2000, pp. 154-157. The policy was reaffirmed in October 2014. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/135/2/e558.short

[47] This is in the “Age 2” chapter.

[48] Start with Salon at http://www.salon.com/2014/07/15/is_malcolm_gladwell_wrong_scientists_debate_the_10000_hour_rule/

[49] http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-posts/the-fourth-path-rethinking-early-player-development-in-the-united-states/

[50] https://twitter.com/D6MERIT/status/572552468590030848

[51] http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-posts/dismantling-the-dagwood-sandwich-an-equation-for-healthy-youth-sports/

[52] Also from the “Rethinking early player development” post

[53] 101 Ways to Be a Terrific Sports Parent: Making Athletics a Positive Experience for Your Child

[54] Check the July 8, 2013, ESPN magazine story “Miracle on Ice” or check http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/9418183/usa-hockey-encourages-kids-nhl-dreams-play-other-sports-espn-magazine

[55] http://www.teamusa.org/About-the-USOC/Athlete-Development/Coaching-Education/American-Development-Model

[56] http://www.socceramerica.com/article/59821/shannon-macmillan-a-world-champs-view-on-coachin.html

[57] Find a bit called “Tommy Salami” on Spotify or Comedy Central’s site. You can start at the 50-second mark at Comedy Central — http://www.cc.com/video-clips/v6wqiq/comedy-central-presents-tommy-salami — but the Spotify rendition is more apt.

[58] http://ceribowley87.blogspot.com/2014/12/developing-club-philosophy.html — at NSCAA 2015, he cited numbers in detail: 62% of players sought social skills, 23% soccer skills

[59] The curriculum is getting hard to find online. For now, try https://ussoccer.app.box.com/s/1z1gjgwhlyhxvamfq8s53utck8nnrtl2

[60] Originally published in my ESPN.com piece on the matter at http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6061681/us-soccer-matter-style

[61] http://www.socceramerica.com/article/50729/crazier-than-its-ever-been-jimmy-obleda-fulle.html

[62] http://www.socceramerica.com/article/42202/us-club-soccer-has-changed-radically-in-10-years.html

[63] Seriously — it’s a registered trademark. Also notable on AYSO: Though its philosophies make it sound like a rec league, it has produced some strong national team talent, including Landon Donovan, Julie Foudy, Eric Wynalda, Alex Morgan, and Brian Ching. See http://www.ayso.org/aboutayso/alumni/ayso_famous_alumni.htm

[64] See http://infinitysc.org/parents/education/helping-parents-navigate-the-maze-of-youth-soccer/

[65] http://www.socceramerica.com/article/45567/another-curriculum-us-youth-soccers-is-worth-a.html

[66] http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/news/encouraging_the_pass__when_the_time_is_right/

[67] Gratuitous Romeo Void reference. Look it up, though the song is PG-13.

[68] Email

[69] https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/blog/index.php/should-we-teach-basketball-skills-to-kids-under-the-age-of-10/

[70] See http://www.nscaa.com/education/clubstandards

[71] David Newbery presentation on characteristics of good clubs at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItGkdm4eFmg

[72] See http://www.usclubsoccer.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/US-Club-Soccer-Youth-Club-Standards-2012-02-16.pdf

[73] Email

[74] http://www.socceramerica.com/article/51171/usl-widens-the-net-tim-holt-qa-part-1.html

[75] Like the Arena quotes, this is from my ESPN story off the 2011 NSCAA convention and the curriculum unveiling: http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6061681/us-soccer-matter-style

[76] Parenting Young Athletes the Ripken Way: Ensuring the Best Experience for Your Kids in Any Sport, by Cal Ripken Jr. and Rick Wolff (chairman, Center for Sports Parenting).

[77] Email interview. Learn more about Rick Wolff (a very busy guy!) at his site: http://www.askcoachwolff.com/about/

[78] The PDF is at http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/assets/1/3/US_Youth_Soccer_Player_Development_Model.pdf – skip to p. 66-67 for this bit.

[79] From Snow’s blog: http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/blogs/blog/?BlogPostAlias=role_of_competition_in_soccer_development&BlogAlias=coaches_blog

[80] Game On

[81] Boston Globe magazine, May 4, 2014: “How parents are ruining youth sports.” The awkward URL: https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/05/03/how-parents-are-ruining-youth-sports/vbRln8qYXkrrNFJcsuvNyM/story.html

[82] Forbes online columnist Bob Cook cited this on his blog Feb. 3, 2014: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/2014/02/03/as-the-middle-class-fades-the-casual-youth-athlete-dies-out-with-it/

[83] Check out the roster at http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/u17worldcup/finland2003/teams/team=1882394/index.html

[84] Email interview

[85] The O’Sullivan piece is at http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-posts/our-unhealthy-obsession-with-childhood-athletic-success — for background on Barnsley and his research, he links to http://www.sportsscientists.com/2009/01/the-matthew-effect/

[86] A different O’Sullivan piece: http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-posts/our-biggest-mistake-talent-selection-instead-of-talent-identification/

[87] http://changingthegameproject.com/the-tipping-point-in-youth-sports/

[88] The Georgia Soccer “Academy” program: http://www.georgiasoccer.org/schedules/academy_program_scheduling/

[89] See Michael Calvin’s book, The Nowhere Men

[90] Found on the D.C. Urban Moms’ message boards. No point in citing beyond that — everyone’s anonymous. “DS” is a common abbreviation for “Dear Son.”

[91] Just search YouTube. You’ll find plenty of versions of the speech, including some “remixes.” People on the Internet are clever.

[92] NSCAA webinar

[93] Email

[94] http://www2.tsn.ca/blogs/jason_de_vos/?id=416455

[95] The Current keeps up a wonderful archive, but when I did my final footnote check, I found this discussion was no longer there. If you’re able to search some other way, look for the episode of March 6, 2013.

[96] http://www.socceramerica.com/article/59821/shannon-macmillan-a-world-champs-view-on-coachin.html … and yes, I’ve voted for MacMillan for the Hall of Fame.

[97] ESPN.com interview with Reyna: http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/7790903/us-soccer-claudio-reyna-vision-fixing-us-youth-soccer-arch-bell

[98] http://www.nscaa.com/news/2013/10/winning-v-player-development—pt-1

[99] Mike Woitalla, Soccer America, Feb. 6, 2007, My View:Youth Soccer Turf War – http://www.socceramerica.com/article/20462/my-viewyouth-soccer-turf-war.html

[100] Email interviews with Lavers and Snow account for this and the next few paragraphs.

[101] http://www.socceramerica.com/article/54328/gotsoccer-insanity-ranking-9-year-olds-really.html

[102] http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-posts/hummer-gotsoccer-com-has-jumped-the-shark-by-ranking-u-10s-u-11s/ — two disclaimers are necessary here. First, Hummer’s site also produces youth soccer rankings, though not down to this level. Second, I’ve written for Soccer Wire as a freelancer.

[103] How Children Succeed talks little about sports — it’s mostly an education book. But it’s an interesting read for those who want to see which lessons apply to sports. Or if you just want to learn about parenting.

[104] The quote is from the book Changing the Game. O’Sullivan goes into detail on the two mindsets as they apply to soccer at http://changingthegameproject.com/the-mindset-of-high-performers/

[105] Some historians think Vince Lombardi, the legendary NFL coach to whom this quote is attributed, actually said something about “the will to win” or “making the effort to win.” Some say UCLA football coach Red Sanders should get credit for the quote. And some say Lombardi’s comment was taken out of context, anyway, and that he goes on to talk about sportsmanship.

[106] http://the11.ca/2013/02/20/to-keep-score-or-not-keep-score-why-both-sides-are-right/

[107] http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/2014/12/26/it-doesnt-have-to-be-a-crisis-when-kids-give-up-sports/

[108] 2015 NSCAA convention

[109] Interview at 2014 NSCAA convention

[110] http://www.socceramerica.com/article/25076/beware-of-tournamentitis.html

[111] See “Relative Age Effect” in Chapter 8.

[112] http://www.ayso.org/For_Volunteers/coaches.htm

[113] http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/coaches/Education/

[114] http://www.nscaa.com/elearning

[115] http://www.ussoccer.com/coaching-education

[116] http://read.uberflip.com/i/277639

[117] http://changingthegameproject.com/the-race-to-nowhere-in-youth-sports/

[118] http://www.uslacrosse.org/multimedia-center/blog/postid/554/college-lacrosse-coaches-sound-off-on-multi-sport-participation.aspx

[119] 2015 NSCAA Convention: “Honest Answers for Soccer Parents”

[120] http://brsoccer.org/programs/recreational/how-to-start-a-team

[121] 2015 NSCAA Convention panel

[122] http://articles.courant.com/2013-11-09/sports/hc-soccer-choices-1110-20131109_1_u-s-soccer-development-academy-soccer-pioneers-academy-program

[123] Email interview

[124] The NSCAA’s David Newbery encourages mixed-age groups in his 20 Common Characteristics of Successful Youth Soccer Clubs. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItGkdm4eFmg

[125] Both quotes in this section are from Changing the Game

[126] What? See http://chess.about.com/od/rulesofchess/a/What-Is-The-Swiss-System.htm or Google “Swiss system” to find an explanation you like.

[127] http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/23/germany-bust-boom-talent

[128] Changing the Game, again

[129] http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-posts/creating-an-early-engagement-model-in-north-american-youth-soccer/

[130] http://youthreport.projectplay.us/ — Game On author Tom Farrey is the executive director.

[131] http://goalnation.com/identifying-watching-developmental-saboteur/

[132] Mike Woitalla at a 2015 NSCAA panel: Don’t be frustrated if these fancy things you see at the NSCAA Convention don’t work with your kids

[133] 2014 NSCAA webinar

[134] 2014 NSCAA webinar

[135] http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/assets/1/15/2012_coaching_manual_for_web.pdf (p. 12)

[136] http://soccercoachingguide.com/coaching-youth-soccer/should-a-youth-soccer-coach-discipline-your-child-2

[137] Email interview

[138] Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Soccer; Lindsey Blom and Tim Blom, 2009, Human Kinetics.

[139] http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/coaches/Help_Volunteered/

[140] http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/assets/1/15/2012_coaching_manual_for_web.pdf

[141] http://www.greensborounited.org/

[142] Search “hockey canada psa” at YouTube. They’re all good. My favorite is the Pin the Tail on the Donkey Mom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbcEZxq6uqA

[143] Changing the Game

[144] O’Sullivan moderated this forum, called “Youth Soccer in the Real World.” Thompson is director of coaching for Maryland Youth Soccer.

[145] 101 Ways to Be a Terrific Sports Parent

[146] Changing the Game

[147] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vhBZnUA3Ic

[148] https://www.nscaa.com/user_images/education/curriculum-material/Levels3-6-10.12.12.pdf

[149] One good take along the same lines: https://www.youthletic.com/articles/the-right-way-to-handle-a-referees-bad-call/?page=1

[150] The episode is “Bart Star” from Season 9, guest-starring Joe Namath

[151] This is No. 53 of the 101 ways in 101 Ways to Be a Terrific Sports Parent

[152] 2015 NSCAA convention

[153] How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character

[154] Dweck wrote the book Mindset and sums up her ideas along with some interesting interactive tools at http://mindsetonline.com/

[155] http://changingthegameproject.com/the-mindset-of-high-performers/

[156] Changing the Game

[157] http://www.phillysoccerpage.net/2015/02/12/youth-soccer-were-doing-it-wrong-part-4/

ESSENTIAL BOOKS

Blom, Lindsey, and Tim Blom. Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Soccer. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2009.

Calvin, Mike. The Nowhere Men. N.p.: Random House UK, 2014.

Epstein, David J. The Sports Gene. N.p.: Current, 2014. Print.

Farrey, Tom. Game On: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children. New York: ESPN, 2008.

Fish, Joel, and Susan Magee. 101 Ways to Be a Terrific Sports Parent: Making Athletics a Positive Experience for Your Child. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.

Hyman, Mark. Until It Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids. Boston: Beacon, 2009.

O’Sullivan, John. Changing the Game: The Parent’s Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes, and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids. N.p.: Morgan James, 2013.

Parr, Robert, Terry Eguaoje, Tom Condone, and Matt Fansher. Developing a Model Soccer Club. N.p.: SoccerROM LLC, 2012.

Ripken, Cal, and Rick Wolff. Parenting Young Athletes the Ripken Way: Ensuring the Best Experience for Your Kids in Any Sport. New York: Gotham, 2006.

Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. N.p.: Mariner, 2013.

INTERVIEWS

In person: Robin Fraser

By email: Julie Foudy, Garth Lagerwey, Alexi Lalas, Christian Lavers, Sam Snow, Tiffany Weimer, Rick Wolff

Via the Houston Dynamo communications staff: Bobby Boswell, Mike Chabala, Andrew Driver, Kofi Sarkodie

RESOURCES FROM YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS

From U.S. Soccer:

From U.S. Youth Soccer:

From the NSCAA:

From U.S. Club Soccer:

From AYSO:

Other general resources mentioned in this book:

The European Club Association’s Report on Youth Academies in Europe was released August 2012, though you can feel free to check for an updated version. The 2012 edition: http://www.ecaeurope.com/Research/ECA%20Report%20on%20Youth%20Academies/ECA%20Report%20on%20Youth%20Academies.pdf

The U.S. Olympic Committee has devised an American Development Model: http://www.teamusa.org/About-the-USOC/Athlete-Development/Coaching-Education/American-Development-Model

Project Play: http://youthreport.projectplay.us/

NSCAA Convention sessions

2013
“Understanding Players with Disabilities,” Mike Barr

2014
“Coalescing the USSF, USYS, and NSCAA Curricula for U8-U10: Can it be done?” Mike Singleton
“How Can We Improve Our Recreation Program?” Lee Smith
“Kindersoccer,” Ron Quinn
“Implementing a Curriculum for Player Development,” Robert Parr, Terry Eguaoje, Ryan Lakin
“Better Player Development Option: High School or Development Academy/Elite Clubs National League,” Kevin Sims

2015:
“0.0017% vs. 100%: Sharing Player Development,” Ceri Bowley
“Project Play – Re-Imaging Youth Sports in America with an 8 Point Plan,” Tom Farrey
“Honest Answers for Soccer Parents,” Mike Barr
“Parent Coaches: What They Are, What They Should Be,” Eric Redder
“Building Champions: German Player Development,” Bernd Stoeber, Anouschka Bernhard, Frank Tschan
“Get Real: A Realistic Approach to Player Development,” Scott Snyder
“Changing the Game: Building a High-Performing State of Mind in Your Players,” John O’Sullivan
“Youth Soccer in the Real World: A Discussion of the Issues Faced by a Modern Day Club DOC,” John O’Sullivan, Brett Jacobs, Charlie Slagle, Karla Thompson, Mike Woitalla, Sam Snow
“TOPSoccer-Overcoming Barriers to Participation,” Libby Anderl
“How to Incorporate Recreation and Academy Programs – Steps for Success,” Eric Landon

soccer

Ali Krieger and the case of the missing midfielder

Posted on by Beau Dure

Ali Krieger won’t be with the Washington Spirit for the NWSL semifinal at Seattle. Does it matter?

Her absence, to attend her father’s wedding, is certainly a surprise. Her father, Ken, is a Virginia Youth Soccer Hall of Famer and the type of person you’d think would cut off his arm to be at an important soccer game. And he’s lucky that the D.C. United Academy team he coaches has the week off.

Women’s soccer fans love a good debate. Sometimes. Other times, they’re furious that anyone would even dare to question the noble intent of their favorite players. Or any players. So we can imagine the screaming in the wake of this news. The rough consensus on my Twitter timeline: “Leave Krieger alone! Blame the NWSL for not scheduling things farther in advance!” (I’m not sure what to make of the latter point — if they set the date a year ago, not realizing the NWSL would run into September, then it makes sense. But if they were scheduling it — or hadn’t even made a lot of nonrefundable deposits — over the winter, you’d think they might have figured a playoff game was a possibility.)

The rough consensus at The Equalizer is a little harsher.

(I have to give credit here to Jeff Kassouf for this marvelous and completely apt turn of phrase: “The deja vu seemed so ludicrous that Dure asked Parsons if he was joking.”)

So that’s the off-field debate. What about on the field? Perhaps this is an even more controversial point, which may explain why I’m phrasing it with so many qualifiers that a good editor would lop out of the story: The Spirit might not really miss Ali Krieger this weekend.

Make no mistake — you can’t talk about the best right backs in the world without talking about Krieger. She might be No. 1. She didn’t make FIFA’s Who-Voted-On-This-Stuff Team from the World Cup, but neither did Becky Sauerbrunn, which should be enough to send all of those voters to a therapist or an optometrist. Krieger was surely squeezed out because voters didn’t feel comfortable naming all four defenders from one team, no matter how well deserved. So forget the voting and look at the results — Krieger got into the attack on occasion (more effectively when Jill Ellis suddenly ditched the “whack it to Wambach” tactics), and every player on that line had to be in world-class form to stifle Germany as effectively as they did.

But Krieger hasn’t been playing right back for the Spirit. She has been playing defensive midfielder. And she might not be the best defensive midfielder on her own team.

It’s not quite the typical 4-5-1 or 4-1-2-3 or whatever you call it on Mark Parsons’ team. He has Crystal Dunn, Francisca Ordega and Diana Matheson at forward and on the wings, somewhat interchangeably. The three midfielders behind them also have overlapping roles.

Krieger has been in that mix. And though the view from the pressbox doesn’t always tell you everything, she hasn’t seemed as comfortable going forward as Christine “I WILL SHOOT FROM 30 YARDS AND TERRIFY THE KEEPER” Nairn or whichever midfielder Parsons selects from Joanna Lohman and Angela Salem.

Parsons has patiently told the assembled Washington-area media that Krieger has contributed in ways we really haven’t noticed — specifically, marking another player out of the game. Maybe Carli Lloyd. Maybe Kim Little. (Repetition alert: This point was also in my SoccerWire preview, which was obviously written before the Krieger news broke in the conference call. That’ll teach me to wait until the conference call.)

She’s not even playing a traditional No. 6. It’s as if Parsons is channeling Jim Valvano and turned Krieger into the “one” in a box-and-one.

That’s an important role, of course. But can the Spirit get some of that defensive tenacity, maybe by committee?

We the media botched the conference call yesterday in one important sense — we forgot to inquire into the health and form of one Tori Huster. The versatile player was a cornerstone in whatever the Spirit did right in its first two seasons. But she hasn’t been at full health or full form this year, perhaps feeling the effects of spending her offseasons playing in Australia or just dealing with nagging injuries here and there.

Maybe Parsons, who joked that he wished I hadn’t asked the “surprise news” question and forced him (not really) to reveal the Krieger news, is holding Huster in reserve and is sitting somewhere with a relieved smile that none of us thought to ask?

Or maybe Huster isn’t ready to go, and he’ll just put Lohman and Salem on the field together. Less surprising, but possibly effective as well.

If you’ve watched Krieger off the ball at Spirit games recently, you’ve noticed that she often seems a little less than fully engaged. WoSo fans might debate whether that’s a lack of motivation or just a sign that she’s worn down from the World Cup summer. That only matters if you’re dead set on putting Krieger on trial, and really, what’s the point of that?

The only practical concern here is that Krieger’s absence shouldn’t be a crushing blow for the Spirit. They have other defensive midfielders, maybe not as capable at 1v1 defense as Krieger but perhaps more comfortable giving some depth to the Spirit attack. They have other leaders — the quiet but inspirational Diana Matheson, the much louder and also inspirational Ashlyn Harris.

And if Seattle mastermind Laura Harvey thought she had the Spirit figured out last week, now she has to wonder what her good friend has in store now.

Said it last week — I’d pay to watch Harvey and Parsons play chess. This semifinal ought to be interesting.

1
soccer

Yet another promotion/relegation idea you’ll all ignore

Posted on by Beau Dure

Imagine there’s no NASL. Imagine there’s no USL. The brand names and any baggage associated with them are gone.

Instead, you have the U.S. Pro League. (OK, I’m not good at coming up with names, but I think it should be something generic, and “the Football League” is taken. Maybe just get the sponsor’s name: “The Bud League” or something like that.)

This would be the league that fills the USA’s D2 and D3 designations.

And yes, it would have promotion/relegation.

With caveats. The MLS reserve teams would stay in D3, which would be largely regional. But the top D3 teams could move up to D2, and the bottom D2 teams would drop.

Here’s what we accomplish with this system:

  1. We have a clearly defined top level of play below MLS for clubs that aren’t quite ready for MLS but maybe a little too big to consider “LA Galaxy II” a rival.
  2. That top level of play is defined by how well a club is doing at that period in time. The 1999 Rochester Rhinos would clearly be in that top level. The 2015 Rochester Rhinos might not. (Or maybe they would — they’re leading their USL division at the moment.) If my beloved Wilmington Hammerheads put together a good run, they get to run with the relatively big dogs.
  3. We get a chance to experiment with pro/rel at the highest level possible before we consider doing with MLS, which has, it bears repeating, invested hundreds of billions of dollars to jump-start professional soccer in this country. (I took out the “hundreds of.” Not sure it would add up to that much. But I think 10 figures is safe. MLS had lost $250 million at one point — lost, not just spent — and it’s still investing at a loss today.)

After a couple of years of this system, perhaps we ease into some pro/rel with MLS. I’d suggest doing it the same way England did for years — not with full-fledged pro/rel but with elections.

A few things I’d suggest:

  1. U.S. Pro League clubs have the option of declaring themselves promotion candidates. That would mean, over a two- or three-year period, they have to meet certain criteria for Division 1.
  2. MLS can put certain underperforming clubs (“underperforming” in many senses — financial, lack of academy development, etc.) on notice that they risk being voted out.
  3. When you have a year in which a promotion candidate is in the top three of USPL and an underperforming club is in the bottom three of MLS, you have an election. Could have multiple clubs involved in a given year.

So this way, you’re not simply tossing down a club that’s having a bad year and decided to experiment with young players and new tactics in its last few games. A relegated club will be one that clearly deserves it. A promoted club, conversely, will be up to MLS standards.

Eventually, perhaps, you move into simpler pro/rel — three up, three down. But then you’d do what I think the Premier League desperately needs to do, forming a second tier of the top league so that the drop is not so perilous.

That said, maybe we make the drop “not so perilous” in the first place by offering up a good revenue stream — shares in Soccer United Marketing. An MLS promotion candidate would be expected to buy a share in SUM, which would entitle it to the revenue it produces whether the club is promoted on not.

This isn’t the first pro/rel idea I’ve suggested, and no, I’m not really sure why I do it. We’ve established there’s no pleasing the contingent within the pro/rel advocacy subset that defines itself has smarter or hipper than thou. If we suddenly re-created the German league structure in the USA, they’d probably become rugby fans.

But it’s fun to kick around ideas every once in a while. Have fun with this one.

3
soccer

Single-Digit Soccer: Requiem for the Ajax academy?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Perhaps this is a leap of logic — a thin correlation between two items that aren’t quite related. Maybe so. But when you look at Dutch soccer today, it’s easy to spot two things that, related or not, have gone wrong.

First: The Netherlands national team is an utter mess, now looking less likely to make a Euro field that seems to be welcoming everyone else on the continent.

Second: How is the vaunted Ajax academy doing today?

On a message board I frequent (for local parents), someone recently dug up a 5-year-old NYT profile of Ajax as a frightening example of what happens when professional goals go overboard. The whole experience seemed devoid of joy, compassion and all the things you would hope every teenager has a chance to experience — particularly when they’re playing a game that is supposed to be full of joy, not a rote exercise in doing the same bloody thing over and over like you’re in a 1980s Eastern European rhythmic gymnastics barracks.

One comment from the board: “Yeah, my reaction to that article was that I’m fine not having a champion MNT if that’s the way you have to go to get it.”

My memory might be hazy, but was Ajax always that way? I thought it used to be considered intense but also a place of wonder, where creative geniuses met like some sort of Algonquin Roundtable of Total Football.

Maybe Total Football has given way to rigid tactics and player roles? Or have we stopped viewing our kids as kids and started seeing them as people to cast off or sell to keep a corporate operation moving?

Even when kids emerge as the rare few to succeed at a high level from such places, they have regrets. See Steven Gerrard’s poignant comments about wishing he had devoted more effort to his education.  (And bravo, Mr. Gerrard, for speaking up so honestly.)

Then let’s look at the USA for a minute. We’ve gotten more serious over the years, haven’t we? We have Development Academies. We’re telling kids not to play college soccer or even high school soccer. And we’re getting skunked.

In the New Era, we herd our kids into camps and soccer-specific residencies so they can develop away from the public eye. Meanwhile, college soccer continues to offer experiences like this:

Those kids will never forget that moment. And it’ll help some of them develop a sense of joy (or, on the flip side, a sense of mental toughness) you’re not going to develop playing for a bunch of dudes with clipboards.

Surely it’s time to strike a balance, yes? Maybe we’ll figure it out before the Netherlands do and pass them in the FIFA rankings!

0
soccer

National Weird Soccer League: The Spirit-Reign regular season finale/Part 1

Posted on by Beau Dure

I would probably pay good money to watch Laura Harvey and Mark Parsons play chess.

It’s not just that they are, as their fellow Englishpeople would say, bloody brilliant. It’s the fact that entertaining eccentricities and stunning plays just seem to follow them around.

Consider tonight’s game, where the turning point apparently came during the pregame introductions, when the Spirit’s PA announcer gave Hope Solo’s number the wrong number: No. 2 rather than No. 1. A quick correction, drawing a thumbs-up and a smile from Solo, apparently didn’t appease fiery Reign player Jess Fishlock.

“I think it got chippy because — I have so much respect for Washington Spirit as an organization, and I have so much respect for Ashlyn, but what they did at the beginning of the game to disrespect Hope Solo, a goalkeeper that’s won the Golden Glove in the World Cup, is actually a little bit disgusting. So that’s why we had a bit of a chip on our shoulder, because we protect our teammates, and it’s just unnecessary to do that.”

Wait a minute — what? Was it something the Spirit Squadron said? Was it the incident late in the game in which Solo was banged up in a multiplayer collision, though it didn’t seem upon live viewing that any one person was to blame. (The ref had a different opinion, but based on the absurd calls and non-calls throughout the game, I refuse to take that opinion seriously. Some serious conversations need to take place between the NWSL and PRO. This is ridiculous. Are we going to wait until a game gets totally out of control and a national team player breaks a leg?)

No.

“They announced Hope Solo as No. 2, and I think that’s a little bit disgusting.”

A couple of us who have been to a lot of Spirit games were compelled to tell her it absolutely could not have been intentional. That’s not the first idiosyncrasy we’ve heard over the PA at a Spirit game.

Here’s the deal: The announcer writes a few numerical cues on the margin of the paper to get the order correct. The captain is the first person announced — so, No. 1. Goalkeeper is second, No. 2. Easy to transpose the two columns — the order in which players are announced, and the jersey number.

And that’s easier to believe than “Hmmm, maybe I can make a subtle jab suggesting Solo should be Ashlyn Harris’ backup on the national team. I’ll say she’s No. 2.”

The other curious thing about it, as Spirit broadcast commentator Danielle Malagari points out:

But as puzzling as Fishlock’s comments were, Harvey pointed to some weird, wild stuff on the Reign’s trip to the nation’s … distant suburb of the capital.

“If you’d looked at our Washington trip, you would’ve thought everything went against us. We couldn’t train yesterday because of lightning, we had wake-up calls at 8 a.m. from the hotel … I joke with Mark, I know that’s not him. But maybe the announcer thing is the icing on the cake.”

If you really want to draw out the conspiracy theory, you’d note that all of the league’s hotel information was recently posted by a reporter … in Portland! Seattle’s big rival!

But who would call and leave a prank wake-up call for 8 a.m.? Is that considered early by some people? I have kids and dogs. By 8 a.m., I’m sometimes considering a nap.

Harvey, though, clearly wasn’t taking such talk seriously. The game, on the other hand, was something she took quite seriously despite having nothing at stake, while the Spirit needed a win to have a chance to host a playoff game.

“I actually spoke to Mark in the week. We speak daily. And we joke around. But I said to him I’m going to come and try to win the game in the sense that I think that’s the right thing to do. I could’ve come here and not played Hope, not played Pinoe (who was subbed out early in the second half, perhaps as much because her tackles seemed hell-bent on getting a nice suspension for the playoffs as any need to rest), not played Jess and not played Kim. The reality is people have paid good money to watch a good game. I’m sure they want to see the Spirit again at home (in the playoffs), but it wouldn’t have been right or fair on my team or the league if I hadn’t have come to win.”

And early on, Harvey’s game plan worked beautifully. Defenders were in place to stop the Crystal Dunn counterattacking menace. The Reign swung the ball around, playing a semi-direct style to put attackers in against Spirit defenders, who struggled to contain them. They were running the Reign attack toward defenders other than Megan Oyster, whom Laura Harvey touted for league Rookie of the Year honors.

Fishlock thought the tired Reign players didn’t execute quite as well as fatigue set in. And the Spirit indeed had some good moments late in the first half and early in the second.

Every other aspect of the game seems debatable. Parsons and Diana Matheson were pretty positive when talking about the Spirit’s performance. Ashlyn Harris was not. Parsons is still bullish on playing Ali Krieger in midfield, saying she contained Kim Little. I still don’t think Krieger looks comfortable there, and I know others agree. (That said — Little didn’t have quite as much impact on the game today as she has in the past.)

A few stray notes:

Predmore vs. the fourth official and others: Reign owner Bill Predmore was behind the Seattle bench tonight. Some Spirit staffers objected. The fourth official had a prolonged conversation with him right around the time the Reign scored their second goal.

I don’t know NWSL protocol for that situation. I just hope the Spirit volunteer got her phone back.

Seen in the stands: Former Philadelphia Independence owner David Halstead.

Plex problems: We’re now keeping our food out of the pressbox because food might attract critters who might chew through the cables that keep the Spirit’s fine broadcast connected to YouTube. That speaks volumes about the state of the Soccerplex right now.

It’s a beautiful field. It’s a beautiful venue. It’s fun to have fans so close to the action. The air always feels fresh.

But the facilities are in dire need of upgrades.

Also, new this season, traffic! I left the parking lot at 9:45 p.m., about 45 minutes after the game ended. Took me 15 minutes to get out of the Plex.

Behind me — the Reign’s bus.

Yeah, their strange trip continues.

See you again in eight days — this time in Seattle, this time with a trip to the final at stake.

 

4
soccer

Single-Digit Soccer: The definitive word on Germany

Posted on by Beau Dure

How do they do things in Europe? As we saw with birth-year age groups, perhaps not what we think.

Single-Digit Soccer makes multiple references to a terrific piece from The Guardian (disclaimer: I’m now writing a bit for the excellent UK newspaper) on the way Germany revamped its youth system after falling short at Euro 2000.  Today, The Guardian has an excerpt from a forthcoming book on German soccer called Das Reboot.

The only information I saw in this excerpt that contradicts the previous Guardian piece — the reboot actually started before 2000. Everything else hits and expands upon familiar themes, though the excerpt takes a while to get to the youth programs of interest to Single-Digit Soccer fans.

A few highlights:

– In 1996, the German DFB only worked with the national teams, while regional federations did the bulk of the education. Berti Vogts sought to put a DFB coach “inside each regional federation to conduct additional sessions for gifted kids who weren’t part of the club system.” At the time, it was turned down.

– After World Cup 1998, a modified plan went into effect: 121 regional centers to do weekly two-hour sessions for 4,000 kids in the 13-17 age bracket. Another program would reach 10,000 boys (and yes, we should specify *boys*, though I’ll be curious to see what the book says about the impact on women’s soccer) under 12.

– The goal: Everyone should live within 25 kilometers of a regional center.

Think about that for a second. Twenty-five kilometers. A little more than 15 miles.

Imagine that on the East Coast. You’d have multiple centers in Fairfax County, Va. The Triad area in North Carolina would have at least three — Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point. The Triangle would probably have a couple in between the Durham/Chapel Hill and Raleigh metros.

– There was some push and pull between elite and what I guess you’d call recreational.

The DFB made it compulsory for the 18 top teams to build performance centres by 2001–02. Money was the main obstacle: “How much will it cost? Is that really necessary?, were the reactions,” says Schott. But there was also some resistance at the ideological level against fostering the elite. “Werder Bremen doesn’t want to follow the principle of selection,” the former Werder general manager Willi Lemke, a Social Democrat politician, said in 1998. “We have a social responsibility. We are obliged to provide leisure activities for children, promote the motivation to perform, teach them solidarity and team spirit.”

At the same time, the federation was making sure to reach beyond the chosen few in pro academies. Go back to the previous Guardian piece and its comments on a program for ages 8-14 in 366 areas with 1,000 B-licensed part-time coaches:

Some youngsters attending the development programme are already affiliated with professional clubs but others may be only turning out for their local junior side, which means the weekly DFB sessions are also a chance for Bundesliga teams to spot players.

The clubs also have some flexibility to reach out across a wider expanse without herding the “best” youngsters into their academies at an early age:

Across a sizeable area where they face little competition from other Bundesliga clubs, Freiburg work closely with five amateur feeder teams who receive a part-time coach to train children aged 8 to 11 twice a week. The most promising players are invited to attend the academy during school holidays and for occasional tournaments at weekends. “We believe it is not good for a nine-year-old to play [regularly] for a professional football club because it changes the reasons why he plays football,” says Sebastian Neuf, a member of the football school’s management.

National competition starts at U17. It’s regional at U15. That’s typical — check the European Club Academies report.

(Edited to add: What about young women? Through U15, a lot of them are playing on the boys teams!)

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soccer

NASL pushes lawyer Jeffrey Kessler into another rematch/mismatch vs. MLS

Posted on by Beau Dure

The first time lawyer Jeffrey Kessler tangled with Major League Soccer in court, it didn’t go so well.

From my book, Long-Range Goals: The Success Story of Major League Soccer, and the account of the players’ antitrust lawsuit against the league:

The players left themselves open for withering cross-examination when making another point about Europe. Dodd was the first of several to claim that England’s Premier League and First Division were both Division I leagues. Anyone who follows soccer, much less a U.S. Soccer or MLS lawyer, can easily refute that argument by pointing out that teams are relegated from the Premier League to the lower division. … In cross-examination, Kessler grilled Gulati on England’s leagues to such an extent that MLS lawyers cried foul. “They questioned me very aggressively on what, as it turned out, was completely misinformation and ended up, in front of the jury, having to apologize to me for having no basis for what he was saying,” Gulati says. “That was pretty important.”

Don’t want to take my word for it? Read Paul Gardner’s withering take on the lawsuit and the absurdities its legal team tried to put forth. Check the transcripts to see the contortions goalkeeper Mark Dodd went through to avoid saying England only had had one Division I league. Then see what happened when Kessler had Sunil Gulati (there in his capacity as a former MLS executive) on the stand:

              MR. KESSLER:  Okay.
 3     Q   Mr. Gulati, you don't recall now -- because we're going
 4     to get it up because we have it on Livenote, fortunately --
 5     you don't recall testifying with Mr. Cardozo that you
 6     testified that the First Division changed its name to the
 7     Premier League and that the Second Division changed its name
 8     to Division I?
 9              You don't recall that testimony maybe 25, 30
10     minutes ago?
11     A   No.  It's now different than what you just said 30
12     seconds ago.  What I said was the First Division became the
13     Premier League, that most of those teams became part of the
14     Premier League.
15     Q   Listen to my question, please, Mr. Gulati.
16              Do you recall testifying maybe 25 or 30 minutes
17     ago -- I think the jury recalls -- that the First Division
18     changed its name to the Premier League and the Second
19     Division changed its name to the First Division?
20              Do you recall saying that with Mr. Cardozo?
21     A   I don't know if those are the exact words, but something
22     like that, yes.
23     Q   Okay.
24              And now tell the jury, is it a lie or is it true
25     that they changed their names?

                                                                        2198
                                  - GULATI -

 1     A   They became -- they became -- they changed their name,
 2     but they became the First Division.  Most of the teams, as I
 3     also said 25 minutes ago, became part of the First Division.
 4     Q   Okay.
 5              Did they change their names?  Just focus on that.
 6     A   I believe the answer is yes.
 7     Q   Okay.  You think that's yes.  Let's focus on what
 8     happened.
 9              Before there was a Premier League, there was
10     something called the First Division, right?
11     A   That's correct.
12     Q   Okay.
13              And then there were about 32 teams in the First
14     Division, right?
15     A   I don't know the number that were there, but there
16     was -- there was a number of teams in the Premier League.
17     Q   And at that moment, all of those teams you would
18     call First Division?
19              There was no Premier League, right?  That was the
20     highest division?
21     A   All of the teams that were in that division were part of
22     the First Division, yes.
23     Q   And those teams were some of the best teams in the world
24     at that time, right, before the Premier League?
25     A   Some of them, yes.

                                                                        2199
                                  - GULATI -

 1     Q   Okay.
 2              And then what happened is some of those teams left
 3     the First Division and formed a whole new organization
 4     called the Premier League; isn't that correct?
 5     A   Some of those teams became part of the Premier League,
 6     that's right.
 7     Q   And there was no changing of names.
 8              Some of the teams left the First Division, and they
 9     became a different league, about 16 of the 32, right?
10     A   I don't remember if it was 16, but, yes.
11     Q   Okay.
12              And the 16 teams who a moment before the Premier
13     League were First Division, they didn't change their name?
14              They stayed the First Division, right?
15     A   They -- the bigger and better teams, in most cases,
16     became the Premier team.
17     Q   Okay.
18     A   Not a --
19     Q   You have to --
20                   MR. CARDOZO:  Wait a minute.
21                   MR. KESSLER:  Objection.  It's not responsive
22     your Honor.
23                   THE COURT:  Go ahead.
24     A   Became the Premier Division.  The other teams became
25     what continued or changed their name or however you want to

                                                                        2200
                                  - GULATI -

 1     characterize it, part of First Division in this reformatted
 2     league.
 3     Q   Okay.  I'll try to ask the question very slowly.
 4              The teams who stayed in the First Division, about
 5     half that league, that league didn't change its name.
 6              It stayed the First Division, right?
 7     A   I don't know if it was -- I mean, some of these teams
 8     became part of the Premier League.  Some of them were part
 9     of the First Division.
10     Q   The league never changed its name.  No league ever
11     changed its name in England, right?
12     A   We had a league that started that became the Premier
13     League.
14     Q   Mr. Gulati, you believe that the First Division League
15     changed its name to the Premier League?
16              That's what you believe?
17     A   No, that a lot of the teams, as I said earlier, became
18     part of the Premier League.
19     Q   Okay.
20              And no league ever changed its name, correct?
21     A   No, that's -- we've had a number of leagues in the
22     English league that have changed their league name by having
23     a sponsor affiliated with it and so on.
24              And this -- let me finish.
25              In this characterization, I'm not sure if they

                                                                        2201
                                  - GULATI -

 1     changed when those 12 or 14 or 16 teams were left or not, in
 2     that framework that you've just outlined the question.
 3     Q   Right.
 4              And, in fact, the Second Division in England never
 5     changed its name to the First Division, right?
 6              The league?
 7     A   You characterize it that way, that's correct.
 8     Q   Thank you.
 9              What happened was there was a First Division League
10     of 32 teams.  Sixteen of them became a new league called the
11     Premier League, and the other 16 teams, which were
12     still first division, called themselves still the First
13     Division, right?
14              There's nothing complicated about that?

Got a headache yet? I’m not even sure what point Kessler is trying to make other than trying to play gotcha with Gulati over the existential question of whether the Premier League used to be the First Division and the First Division used to be the Second Division. Good thing this was done before we had the Premier League, the Championship and League One — which is the third division in England but the first division in France. I don’t know if Kessler was trying to baffle the jury into thinking England really had two equal “first divisions” or possibly laying the groundwork for the Chewbacca defense.

So the next morning, MLS’s legal team called Kessler to account for badgering Gulati over a point on which Gulati was clearly correct. That led to this amusing exchange.

16    Q   Mr. Gulati, there was a point yesterday that we 
17    discussed in your examination which I'd like to give you a 
18    chance to clear up because I want to make sure that I didn't 
19    say something that I misspoke about something, and that has 
20    to do with the naming of the Premier League.
21             Is there something you learned about that that 
22    you'd like to tell the jury or explain?
23    A   I learned that what I had said to Mr. Cardozo yesterday 
24    was correct, that virtually all of your comments about how 
25    the Premier League was formed and the number of teams and 

page 2227

 1    the renaming were all, in fact, absolutely incorrect.
 2    Q   Okay.
 3             The Premier League did rechange its name?  That's 
 4    what you learned?
 5    A   And that the first division had been previously the 
 6    second division and so on.
 7             So everything I said to Mr. Cardozo was correct.
 8    Q   Okay?
 9    A   And all of the questions and issues that you raised at 
10    the end of the day were, in fact, wrong.
11    Q   Okay.  Mr. Gulati if, that's true, I want to apologize 
12    to you because we got a little sidetracked on the Premier 
13    League and I want the jury to get every fact exactly 
14    correct, okay?

So now Kessler is back, ready to argue the meaning of “first division” again, this time on behalf of the NASL, a league that has been making the argument that divisional status just doesn’t matter:

And he also sees space for multiple leagues: “I think there’s room for us to be successful and MLS to be successful and maybe others to be successful. Trying to copy from England or Europe is going to be a little short-sighted.”

Yet Peterson isn’t interested in hearing the MLS is “first division” and the NASL is “second division,” though that’s the official status U.S. Soccer has conferred upon them.

“There should be a system in this country where every community can put its team into the pyramid and one day be at the top of the pyramid,” Peterson said. “I’m not sure what divisional status means without promotion and relegation.”

I’m not either, and I’m not really sure why USSF is bothering to change the D1 criteria. Then again, I’ve never understood why the D2 criteria are so onerous, particularly in terms of having a single person with a whole lot of money running a club. I get that they’re trying to avoid having clubs go all Saint Louis Athletica on us. But beyond that, I’m not sure the rules have ever been explained. (Yes, I’m pursuing an explanation.)

I’m also not sure why the NASL is interested in fighting what’s sure to be a losing battle over an issue that they’ve already said isn’t important.

If the NASL puts forth a good product, that speaks for itself. And if they override their own current reluctance to set up a pro/rel pyramid with the NPSL, then maybe they can create an alternative that forces MLS to take notice.

Or we could just re-fight the Soccer Wars and let everything fall apart, right?

The NASL may have a legitimate grievance here and there. Perhaps the league does need more representation within USSF. But I don’t see why they’re dredging up the lawyer who tried and failed to muddy the waters on Division I in the past.

If you’re hoping to see the NASL rise up and succeed in a way that forces (or encourages) MLS to open up a bit more, you might be disappointed in this move. From here, it looks like a step backward, all the way to 2000, when the Rhinos just beat MLS on the field where it mattered.

5
olympic sports, track and field

Why the USA fell flat in track and field World Championships

Posted on by Beau Dure

The knee-jerk reaction is to find one small group of overlords to blame. But when knowledgeable folks like those at Daily Relay chime in, you get a different reaction:

So what will be the response to the lowest medal total since 2003? Not much probably. Outside of the relays, there is no centralized control in American track and field. The majority of the athletes have their own coach and training system, independent of the national team. As a result, the governing body gets too much credit when the medal total is high and too much blame when it is low. There won’t be any massive changes because of this performance because there really are no changes to make.

I feel like I have to offer a disclaimer when I respond to unfair criticism of USA Track and Field because one of their execs is a friend of mine. Then again, she’s a friend of mine because we worked together, and I found her to be a good, honest co-worker who’s smart as hell.

I had been thinking of doing a full examination of what went wrong for the USA in Beijing, but Daily Relay did it better than I could. I bow to their expertise …

Source: Monday Morning Run: A World Championships in 15 nouns | Daily Relay

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