The New Zealand Herald had a story on English national soccer team's tour of the United States later this month. Unfortunately, England will be missing many of its top players due to injury and possibly to club committments; the English soccer community is notoriously hostile to the whole concept of friendlies (exhibitions) anyway. I hope England is able to have a strong squad for their 28 May match vs the United States, as there is no national team I dislike more, save Mexico.
Anyway, England boss Sven Goran Eriksson said, "I know soccer has grown immensely in the US... lots of young people are playing but I'm not sure what happens to them when they get to 21."
I beg to differ with Mr. Eriksson. The key age range is 12-14. Many youth soccer programs are run with an overemphasis on winning at all costs, even for young (pre-adolescent) age groups. As a result of messed-up priorities by some coaches and parents, many kids get burnt out before they even hit high school. Fortunately, most major American soccer organizations such the US Soccer Federation and US Youth Soccer have strongly discouraged that counterproductive mentality, but it still persists.
Even so, soccer remains one of the most popular participatory sports in the country. The main challenge remains transforming those avid players into fans of the professional game. As I've mentioned before, many players are usually so busy actually PLAYING on the weekends that they don't have time to watch professional games on television, let alone attend them.
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