Commentary
TCM Survey: Youth soccer players who don’t practice at home are more likely to quit
Results from The Coaching Manual's survey.
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All Commentary Articles
Dure: Are pro coaches really better than parents?
It's been said that soccer coaches get better when they become parents. Beau Dure wonders: Are professional coaches, with no kids on the team and often no kids back at home, really an improvement over parent coaches?
Dure: Coaches need to get a grip on goal-kick fever
We’ve seen it in Under-9 and U-10 games, over and over: Goal kicks are all too often the opposition's best chance to score. Beau Dure investigates this recurring bugaboo and its disastrous effects on player development.
Eden Hazard showed his kid no mercy: Can soccer parents learn from him?
You may have seen the viral video of Chelsea FC star Eden Hazard and his 3-year-old son that's making the rounds this week. It got us thinking here at SoccerWire: What might the typical North American soccer parent think of an elite professional like Hazard taking a no-coddling approach to his wee lad's earliest exposure to the beautiful game?
Lucas Mendes’ POTY award shows absurdities of club-high school battle
Congratulations are due to Lucas Mendes, the 2015-2016 Gatorade National Boys High School Player of the Year. But through no intention or fault of his own, he's also highlighted one of the many absurdities of the current youth soccer landscape -- and it's one that the U.S. Soccer Federation specifically set out to address several years ago, but seems to have merely made more complicated and contentious.
Hall of Fame shame? Briana Scurry snub sparks doubts on voting process
The U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame's 2016 class of inductees was announced Thursday, and for the third year running, one of the best goalkeepers in U.S. soccer history – men's, women's or otherwise – finds herself on the outside looking in. Why has this honor eluded Briana Scurry? Charles Boehm investigates.
Letter to the Editor: True ‘Sports-Mom-Ship’
Arlington Soccer Association parent Wendy Green penned a Letter to the Editor after another mother from an opposing team floored her with an unexpected gesture of kindness, passing along a video of her daughter scoring an exceptional goal in a Virginia State Cup quarterfinal match.
Dure: Mapping the chaotic youth soccer scene
How far are you willing to go for a competitive youth soccer game? This week Beau Dure goes in-depth to depict the sprawling, chaotic, multi-layered map of select soccer clubs and leagues across the Mid-Atlantic region, where even second- and third-tier teams routinely drive hours for games. It's can't-miss reading for all soccer families.
O’Sullivan: Can Players First fix American youth soccer?
'Changing the Game Project' founder and longtime coach John O'Sullivan conducted a Q&A with US Club Soccer CEO Kevin Payne on the organization's new 'Players First' initiative, which they are calling a "branded, holistic club soccer experience for parents and players." Read the full transcript along with O'Sullivan's take on the program.
