World Cup 2026 Thread

[GAME05]

Getting into the particular sport early isn't really a requirement for greatness. Many if not most top-level athletes did the multi-sport thing and only got into their particular one late. There's a thought that they've come to be so good because they pull from the movements of the other sports, plus it helps them think more creatively when they play. Plus focus on only one sport when really young can cause burnout. It's not getting the seven-year-olds into soccer academies early that matters as much as the 14-year-old future greats deciding to focus on soccer.

[homer]

2 hours ago, GAME05 said:

Getting into the particular sport early isn't really a requirement for greatness. Many if not most top-level athletes did the multi-sport thing and only got into their particular one late. There's a thought that they've come to be so good because they pull from the movements of the other sports, plus it helps them think more creatively when they play. Plus focus on only one sport when really young can cause burnout. It's not getting the seven-year-olds into soccer academies early that matters as much as the 14-year-old future greats deciding to focus on soccer.

Great book on the topic called Range by David Epstein. 

[NeedMoreFans]

We could probably start a separate youth sports topic as we diverge from the World Cup discussion, but I'll say as a parent of youth swimmers- there is so much pressure on kids to excel in their sport.  Our kids attend arguably the best swimming high school in the state, but are not the best swimmers.  So many kids go out for swimming that they have to cut swimmers, so they have to swim club year-round to keep up just to be on the high school team.  If we put our foot down and forced them to do another sport, they could fall behind and not be able to continue on the high school team.  

We have seen first-hand that swimming 42 weeks a year on multiple teams can cause muscle and joint fatigue because they are being overused.  I really want my daughter to do another sport in the spring instead of club swimming, but she doesn't want to get left behind. 

[Joseph Zarr]

2 hours ago, NeedMoreFans said:

We could probably start a separate youth sports topic as we diverge from the World Cup discussion, but I'll say as a parent of youth swimmers- there is so much pressure on kids to excel in their sport.  Our kids attend arguably the best swimming high school in the state, but are not the best swimmers.  So many kids go out for swimming that they have to cut swimmers, so they have to swim club year-round to keep up just to be on the high school team.  If we put our foot down and forced them to do another sport, they could fall behind and not be able to continue on the high school team.  

We have seen first-hand that swimming 42 weeks a year on multiple teams can cause muscle and joint fatigue because they are being overused.  I really want my daughter to do another sport in the spring instead of club swimming, but she doesn't want to get left behind. 

Man. That's real talk right there. I wish you the best navigating all that!

[OldSchoolSnapper]

On 7/9/2026 at 8:12 AM, GAME05 said:

Getting into the particular sport early isn't really a requirement for greatness. Many if not most top-level athletes did the multi-sport thing and only got into their particular one late. There's a thought that they've come to be so good because they pull from the movements of the other sports, plus it helps them think more creatively when they play. Plus focus on only one sport when really young can cause burnout. It's not getting the seven-year-olds into soccer academies early that matters as much as the 14-year-old future greats deciding to focus on soccer.

Ehhhhh, yes and no. The data strongly suggests otherwise. If you don't have strong foundational foot skills by 14, you're not learning them. If you are playing rec soccer a few months a year and doing other sports, odds are very high you're not getting exposed to that level of training, you just have a well-intentioned Dad doing what he can to beat the neighboring town.

You can definitely play 3 or 4 sports and have those foot skills, but soccer is going to be much, much, more difficult to get really into at 14 and be elite than something like American football, where your success is hugely determined by post-puberty growth and the technique basics can be learned in a season. It would be more akin to something like wrestling that has a very high technique demand and can't just be picked up at 16 for 99% of people. The technical requirements of elite soccer are simply too high not to specialize fairly young.

You can watch just about any NFL game and see a good, starting player with poor tackling technique skirting by on speed or aggression. Not a chance you'd see something like that in the EPL.

Getting the 7 /yos into academies absolutely matters, just not for the majority of kids. A ton of the great players in the world do exactly that. If we're talking about making good high school players, then sure, if we're talking about the best of the best, then yeah, unfortunately, they really do have to specialize in soccer early due to the extremely high technical requirements,

The norm for the greats is that they are scouted by 9 and in those academies. 6 and 7 are normal ages for that to happen. The vast, vast majority are in fact in said academies between 5 and 8. Several players on the USMNT are birthright citizens or the children of servicemen who grew up in Europe going to those schools. The gap between Barcelona Youth and anything in the USA is staggering. Lamine Yamal's youth games are on YouTube. His team at 10U is more technically sound than any high school-aged team I've ever seen in this country.

So, my TLDR is that for most kids moving on to office careers, who want to play college soccer, specializing doesn't need to happen. But if the goal is getting US Soccer competitive in Europe, then our best 50 kids should be in those academies.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I think this thread is proof of what actually ails American soccer and it's a topic Landon Donovan has touched on before. I have been coaching youth soccer here for a decade + but guys who watch every 4 years can diagnose the "real problem" and know it better than I do. 

 

The issue is that this thesis is common water cooler talk but it falls apart upon any critical thinking.

 

"There isn't pick-up soccer in the US, the kids overseas learn from the street!"

 

There is pick-up soccer in the US, my kids play it every week. The best players in the world are boarded in elite academies learning technique when they are 6. They are not grabbing Yamal from a street game when he's 12. And he's not playing 4 sports. To be clear I encourage kids to play multiple sports and put the soccer ball down for a season (can do 20 minutes of dribbling or whatever, but don't have to be playing)

 

"It's just not a big deal in the US."

 

It isn't the most popular sport...except it is in youth. And we have more kids playing than ever before. With better (not the best, but better) coaching opportunities. Better facilities...and yet...we're not getting better.

 

"It's pay to play" 

 

This one is closer than the others, but all our sports are pay to play. And to be honest, I don't know of a single youth club that won't absorb the fee or work something out for a special kid. 

 

The real, actual issues I've come across are here, in no particular order:

 

Specialization in a position too early due to an emphasis on winning youth games.

 

All kids should be positionally rotated through age 12. The number of "defenders" on a U9 team is insane. You have to do it all to be a strong player. Aaron Rodgers doesn't have to throw 25% of his touchdowns with his left hand. In soccer you need to be able to use your other foot. Kids grow and change and when your cender mid turns 15 and suddenly isn't that fast, that's a problem because he doesn't want to go anywhere else and doesn't know how to play.

 

But we need to beat Brown Deer this weekend so Ralph needs to play CM for 45 minutes. Running down the field faster than everyone works in American youth soccer. Those kids completely flame out when they have to have ball skills to succeed.

 

Parents interjecting in development

 

This one takes many forms. Can't count the number of times a Dad has asked me why Jonny is playing defense. "He's not a strong defender." Nope, he's not. That's why he's there. Or intervening to get their kids on teams with friends that they should not be on. Clubs usually cave to them. This is where pay to play actually hurts, not in the conventional way you'd think. Clubs don't want to lose registrations so the parents are actually running the clubs. 

 

If I want to teach 12 kids the Cryuff, I need 12 kids with the coordination to do it. If 4 just aren't there, I can't spend 1/4 of practice doing that. It's a waste of time for the 4 who aren't ready and the other 8 get bored. I'll coach those other 4 kids, but I need 12 of them then so I can develop training that's appropriate for where they are.

 

Coaching has tons of red tape

 

You don't have to have been a high level player to be an excellent coach, but we have all kinds of red tape to coach after rec that our other sports don't require. We lose coaches who don't have time or desire to get professional licenses, attend grassroots sessions etc., that are frankly a pain in the butt and provide little to no value when most of the best information is available free online.

[da swedish german]

so much trouble and hassle for such a stupid sport 

my 2nd cousin just made his "professional" debut at age 17.  parents just bought a 2nd house to be  closer to his "academy". what a disgusting culture

I get kids trying to escape the 3rd world