State of Affairs for American Football/Soccer

First of all, I don't have all the answers at this point and I am sure after reading this somebody in the U.S. will mutter to them selves that it is more complicated than that bla bla bla. The World Cup is almost here and most of the media are looking at the recently released roster of the U.S. national team and commenting on how very average they are.  That does not bother me, they are average for the most part except for a few players like Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley and Tim Howard. Then Charlie Davies would have been included but he was left off the roster and there is some controversy surrounding that issue, Davies spoke about some of the reasons. Then many people say that Bob Bradley, U.S. Coach, is another contributing weak link that does not really know what he is doing fully. Put that all together and you get a mediocre team. Although they qualified for the World Cup, so they couldn't be all that bad, there is that. 


So what the hell am I trying to say here?? When a river is polluted where do you go to find the pollutant? You find it up the stream, you keep going up the stream until you find the source. I guess what I am saying is that the United States is not up to par  in Football around the world because where football starts in American's lives. The source is how Americans are taught to think.


As a point of reference I read Wayne Rooney's autobiography (dont worry, I'm not a Manc at all). Like Rooney, many kids in the UK grow up surrounded by football, their parents are supporters of the big club, their friends, the people down the street, it is every where. The sports that compete with football to take away from its lime light in a child's path are cricket, rugby, tennis, maybe darts or golf. From what I can tell though, a football family is a football family like maybe a rugby family is a rugby family and so on. Maybe I am wrong at this point, this is just observation, right. Maybe some families are just into sports, but there is something strong in the air for football and I talk to rugby people, there is something in their air as well. 


In the United States kids grow up with similar circumstances with the sports: basketball, baseball, American football and hockey. These are what people think of as the American sports. Football or Soccer (I will continue to call Soccer Football because that is what most of Europe calls the game) are not included as American, some jack asses think that Football is Un-American, a sissy sport. We who watch the game know that there are sissy's who play the sport, but this is not a sissy sport at all. This  is the place where the polluting begins in the U.S., the thought process of young Americans has been polluted and corrupted because it is all we know.  


In 1950 the US qualified for the World Cup, played and was eliminated in the third round by a defeat to Chile   5-2. To get there they beat England and lost to Spain. Ok, big deal, but the US fell off the radar for several decades after that. What happened?? I am not going to get to far into that but I will say it is what sells and football (soccer) was not on the radar. That is what happened, the game baseball became more popular along with America football, basketball and hockey. Business and advertising promoted the likes of these sports and a thought process has been ingrained into a couple of generations of people fairly hard. Ok, yes, Americans have been brain washed, there I said it. Professional sports figures were idolized through these practices and every kid then wants to grow up and be a Professional Quarterback and play for the New York Jets or who ever. Things have not changed to much in that strain of ideas. I mean, in London kids want to be Wayne Rooney or Fernando Torres, you know what I mean.


Things have changed in the last twenty years but it has been slow as far as recognizing football as a sport that American kids play through high school. The system is lacking before high school but it is not so bad. There are many good clubs (not Professional) that are competitive for  kids before high school to develop in but then there is high school. Kids get to high school and play right back into the system, they end up playing one of the four American sports and not football. Why?? Because in the United States, high school is  a popularity contest and the best young athletes flock to what makes them popular. That is one idea, then coaches at these high schools go after and recruit the best athletes to play in their programs that is not football, so many great athletes who could have been great football players are now shooting hoops or catching fly balls. There are many other reasons than just that, the point is that the focus is else where because the basic thought process of most Americans does see football in the lime light of sports. 


Then there are the high school players who go onto college and play. Lets talk about college to professional sports in the United States for a second. In professional basketball, football, hockey and to a lesser extent in baseball (baseball has a farm system that pulls players from all over that are not in college), most of the players come from college. So how good you do in your college sports dictates if and where you play professionally. So you apply that to college football (soccer) and you come up with a weak system of players. The college system does not work for football, not sure why.Compared to what I know about how things are done in Europe it is different.


What I know about Europe is that players are developed at the club level from a very young age. Liverpool F.C. for instance has a youth system that starts at around 9 years old or younger. These players  play for the LPFC club and any other school team. They spend hours and hours of time developing skills at their club (LPFC). The club  decide as they get older whether they make the cut into the older teams, some kids make it and some don't. At some point the kid becomes a young man playing in the reserves and from there the first team. Some players go to other clubs, some get sold and others walk away. On top of that, there are large sums of money involved that fuel the whole process from  beginning to end. You put all that together with top class talent and you get the best football in the world. I could be wrong about all of this, this comes from reading and listening to radio (as for the European development) , so... You guys  across the pond feel free to correct me, but I think I am dam close with out being there. 


Then there is the money,  this idea  goes back to the business and advertising aspect that football in the United States falls short in. This, in my opinion is the true root of the problem, the MONEY. Football failed in the U.S. because business went with sports they felt they understood and would attract people. The truth is that anything they threw there money at would attract people. People go where advertising tells them to go, that is the American way in the end. Money is the driving force behind almost everything in most places. I know, that's arguable, but lets do that another day. Nobody is throwing billions of dollars into the football system in the United States, another huge reason why the United States National Soccer Team is average. Opps, did I say soccer, sorry, but that is all we know. I hate that there is a divide in the naming of a sport. I wish they would change American Football to Throw Ball or Carry Ball, much better (another debate, another day).


Then there is a the fan base, the being part of the club. I have not fully experienced this yet because I have not been to Anfield and sat in the Kop, but belonging to a club like Liverpool F.C. is a big feeling. To be there and be a part of the collective around you can make you go through every emotion in your body. This is just another element I can say does not quite have the strength it does in Europe. 


Until any of that changes and a the U.S. professional teams start a development system like that of clubs in Europe, the U.S. will continue to be mediocre when it comes to the game of Football.  The children of today have a chance for the sake of tomorrow if the changes continue. Hopefully in the future you will see more and more Americans playing in Europe.