He is sometimes funny and sometimes an idiot. He wishes to go back to the good old days of soccer, but that isn't happening.
You have expressed in the past that American soccer could be fixed with high school. I am sure TSG would be right there with you. Huffycane and I have both howled out loud at that notion. It is because you have never watched MLS Next games and how they are conducted, let alone reffed one. You just don't understand.
They are conducted in professional environments. Given your penchant for not liking to be bitched at, I can only imagine what would happen if you stepped onto the field with those coaches and players.
The difference between ENCL-NL and RL is also a big chasm.
He seems to never talk about soccer needs to be talked about getting what you want out of the sport. He likes to bitch about clubs. But I don't believe he understands the national landscape or what it takes to compete at the highest levels. He just wants to bitch about clubs and be a
-stirrer.
There are a bunch of levels now I believe. Rec, Competitive State, Competitive Regional, Competitive National. Parents have a hard time dealing with this. There should probably be an expanded rec team with less competitive teams. Many "competitive teams" are glorified rec. They want their kids to play at the highest levels but don't realize what it takes. The sport starts earlier, and it is more technical from my perspective. I played for promising high school teams and was offered D1 scholarships. My competitive team won state championships and would take games off of teams from Dallas with MLS players like Drew Moor and Stuart Holden. It starts earlier. I truly believe the players are better and more technical overall than they were. This is why Americans are doing better internationally now. Goalies sucked with their feet. Now they are regularly integrated, etc... I could continue on forever.
I don't think the dad is an idiot for saying that. Do you know what they are doing in Baseball with Travel ball, basketball with AAU, or volleyball these days? This is not unique to soccer.
One interesting thing: Your love for the super huge high schools contributes to the pay-for-play. You aren't going to get a game at Union, Jenks, or Broken Arrow if you don't play club soccer. I am sure you will testify to one-off, but let's get real—it is one out of 30, and most of the time, you have to be a pretty good club player even to see the field at those schools. But let's get them even more significant. Broken Arrow had 6,059 kids in their last Average daily attendance survey for 6A. That is INSANE. If it broke in half, it would be sixth and seventh ahead of Yukon (2,913).