What They're Saying: Dave Sarachan
- by Soccer America , Mar 26, 2018
-- U.S. national team interim coach Dave Sarachan, saying it is too soon to pile expectations on the young group he is working with for Tuesday's friendly against Paraguay. (ESPN FC)
Good luck tomorrow coach. Oh, by the way, they are the next generation and they aren’t afraid. Don’t let your insecurity influence this group, which also means not bringing back some of our failed vets. It is move forward time.
Has this been a closed camp Soccer America? If not, I’d much prefer a daily reporting rather than some of the more obscure articles. The national teams are of much greater interest.
R2, good points..This is what Cruyff stated about youth development is that coaches who see winning and success as a way for them go up in the ranks. And this is what we have here in youth soccer. A good youth coach here is one who wins, not develops...At Barcelona and Ajax they look at development and growth of the player, not winning. It is all about playing good soccer as Alexanco who once headed La Masia under Cruyff, stated and 'winning' is not even mentioned.
Winning in stupid youth competition is meaningless. How many players after 8years of AD come out and play with feet...just for starters....THis is what all the clubs do in Europe do, having older ,retired players involved in developing the youth.
unrelated, but I don't seem to be able to find a better place to post these comments from Landon Donovan on coaching and youth development:
"All I see is at Leon, and their teams start at under-15, but they have seasoned coaches who dedicate their lives to coaching kids," he said. "I think part of the issue in the U.S. still is that you have people coaching the under-14s who really want to be the coach for the full team. So their focus is on winning, results, performances versus developing players."
Donovan recalled how, when he was just starting his professional career with Bayer Leverkusen, there were "50-year-old men" whose life was dedicated to developing young players.
"They had no desire to be the first team coach," he said. "They just liked developing and helping the academy kids or whatever. They made a living at it. But that's where their desire was.
"I don't blame [U.S. youth coaches] for having ambition and wanting to be a first-team coach. But you really need people who are focused just on the development and not focused on the winning."
Glad you posted it here R2.