By Mike Woitalla The deadline to name rosters for the2015 U-17 World Cup that kicks off Oct. 17 in Chile isn’t until Oct. 5, but Concacaf champion Mexico has already named its 21-player squad. Included are two U.S. products, Northern Californian outsideback Edwin Lara (who moved to Pachuca in 2014) and goalkeeper Abraham Romero, a […]
Youth Soccer Insider
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
Remembering Dettmar Cramer reminds us: It's all about the ball
By Mike Woitalla The legendary German coach Dettmar Cramer once joked he felt sorry for the ball when he watched soccer by players with poor technique. Ididn’t know he said that when, as an 8-year-old, I met Cramer. The meeting came in Dallas, where my father was getting his U.S. Soccer Federation “C” license from […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
Treating the common 'growing pain' known as Osgood-Schlatter syndrome
By Dev Mishra, M.D. Over the summer a lot of kids came through the office to get “tuned up” for summer activities. Typically we’re dealing with a number of nagging overuseinjuries, and one extremely common type is pain in the front of the knee. Pain in adolescent athletes is often called “growing pain” but there […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
Now What Do We Do? Transitioning to small-sided games and birth-year registration
By Vince Ganzberg Being a former club and state director of coaching, I dreamed of this day! As did many who are in leadership positions in American youth soccer. Finallywe can tell the “membership” that the reason why we are playing small-sided games is that it has been mandated! No more having to convince membership […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
Two U.S. U-17s score in Europe as squad prepares for World Cup
By Mike Woitalla For the U.S. U-17 national team’s last gathering before the U-17 World Cup in Chile in October, U.S. coach Richie Williams has named a24-player roster for a Mexico City training camp that includes games against fellow qualifier Mexico on Sept. 23 and Sept. 25. The USA faces Nigeria, Croatia and host Chile […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
The fall season's underway. Is your first-aid kit in order?
By Dev K. Mishra, M.D. With the fall season underway, you’ve made sure your team’s first-aid kit is in order, right? Every youth coach should have a very basicsideline first-aid kit. You should have this at each training session and game. Remember that this is not meant to be used for comprehensive treatment, but only […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
Kevin Hartman: 'Player growth has to be timed properly'
Interview by Mike Woitalla Kevin Hartman holds the MLS record for most games played at 416. The 41-year-old goalkeeeper, whose playing career spanned from1997 to 2013 and included two MLS Cup and two U.S. Open Cup titles, is the Technical Director of the IMG Academy, a residency program in Bradenton,Fla. IMG fields teams in the boys […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
Colorado emerges as girls soccer hotbed
By Mike Woitalla Seeing several players from the same state on a U.S. national team roster isn’t surprising when they hail from California, which has the nation’s largestpopulation, nearly 40 million, and year-round soccer-playing weather. But Colorado? That’s a state of 5.6 million with a real winter. Yet the current U.S. U-17 girls national team’s26-player […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
The case for compensating youth clubs — a lawyer's view (Cory Roth Q&A)
By Mike Woitalla Non-MLS American youth clubs are pushing hard to have access to training compensation and solidarity payments, which are paid according to FIFA regulationsin other nations to amateur youth clubs and academies associated with professional clubs when their players make it to the pros, and deliver even larger sums if those players switch […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
'Little tips lead to more confidence' (Q&A with McGuire Cup-winning coach Tobias Bischof)
Interview by Olivia Ruiz In July, Massapequa Arsenal became the first New York team since 1959 to win the McGuire Cup, the U-19 boys nationalchampionship that launched in 1935. Massapequa Arsenal coach Tobias Bischof, who is also a Massapequa SC director and theassociate head coach of the Hofstra University women’s team, spoke with us about […]