Tales of Bob Bradley, Dennis Bergkamp and my local park

I drive by a local park a few times a week and frequently see a youth soccer practice. On the one hand, it’s simply a beautiful thing. Kids. Soccer. Community. Diversity. Norman freakin’ Rockwell himself would throw aside the old people and pitchforks to paint this scene.

On the other hand, what I see has a lot to do with Bob Bradley, the U.S. national team, World Cup fortunes and all this acrimony in some corners over the once- and future-manager’s contract renewal. And yes, as the headline suggests, Dennis Bergkamp is involved, too. (His involvement has nothing to do with any man-crushes I may or may not have on the former Arsenal man, which is totally a separate issue.)

Follow along here. I’ll go as quickly as I can.

What I see in those kiddo soccer practices are lines and drills. And I see coaches explaining about positions. (And then yelling “spread out!”)  I see a lot of wholly ineffective coaching. In short, I see very good people who are spending quality time with kids, which is a wonderful thing. But they are doing these kids no favors in terms of learning the game.

Fast forward … the younger kid may or may not go to a youth soccer club. Here, the child will get better coaching. Probably. But I’ve long said that the big problem with youth soccer in our country is that most decisions are made with the club or the coach in mind. I don’t mean to imply anything sinister, because at a personal level I’d say that most soccer coaches I know are fine people with balanced personalities. It’s just that the establishment protects itself.

So youth soccer in this country tends to be more about winning and less about player development.  I think there are plenty of other problems with youth soccer, but let’s go back to the park and the younger players. (FYI, I do coach youth soccer. But I hardly consider myself an expert; dealing with the politics and some of the insidious practices – like practically demanding that players abandon other sports if they are “serious” about soccer, a practice which benefits the clubs far more than it will benefit most players – has always kept me from being more involved than I am.)

What if players got better instruction right from the start? What if more coaches at the youngest levels taught skills? What if they strictly adhered to the better tenets, like small-sided games and practices that blend skills, teaching, fun and problem solving?

Honestly, youth soccer in this country has come a long way, but it just isn’t there at the moment. We’re not at a place where, in the big picture, the collective insight is present to consider teaching elements as they relate to age, skill level, philosophy and a shared vision.

That’s just where we are. It’ll keep getting better. But it’s not there now.

That’s why our players are behind from the start. We have athletes, but we sometimes trail behind in developing “soccer players.”  It goes all the way through the developmental phases, right up to the highest levels.

That’s why I see smart, sharp, early passes coming out of the Germany back line at the highest level. I don’t see that as often coming from the U.S. back line.

And that’s not Bob Bradley’s fault. Period.

That’s why so much of the criticism aimed at Bradley is poppycock. Is he the perfect manager? No. Did he do about what he could have in the last four-year cycle, given the talent available last summer in South Africa? Probably – although the contest with Ghana will always be seen as the big fish that squeezed through the net.

(RE Bradley: I’m on record as saying that I have no problem with his re-hiring in the absence of an innovative figure with a unique skill set and cross-cultural understanding who could reasonably be expected to move things forward. Beyond a certain German, those characters aren’t exactly growing on trees out there.)

There’s your Bradley. What about Bergkamp?

I talked recently to FC Dallas director of youth coaching Oscar Pareja. He’s a guy I respect a lot for his knowledge, passion and gentlemanly disposition.  We talked about how often young kids should practice, about when to introduce certain concepts, about endemic burn-out in youth soccer, about recognizing players at very young ages who “get it.” And we talked about Bergkamp.

He recently took a young team to the Netherlands, and he reminded me as we talked of something I read a year or two back: That Bergkamp is the under-12 coach at Ajax.

Brilliant! What seems incongruous at first glance makes perfect sense when you put it all together. This man of world class achievement, with such a brilliant soccer brain, with such sublime touch, with such a rich history of accomplishment, should be teaching the talented 10- and 11-year olds! That’s the perfect age to help nurture good habits.

Pareja said he regularly gets 13-, 14-, and 15-year-old players who come to him with bad habits. He can probably correct the habits with time. But that’s time lost. That’s time he could be spending teaching more advanced concepts – if only the players were arriving with the proper base of skills in the first place.

I also asked Pareja about the proper time age to move shift young defenders out of the easier-to-absorb sweeper-stopper model and into zonal marking, flat backs and such. His answer had a lot to do with amount of practice time available. Generally, he said, around age 14 they can begin to comprehend more complex defensive concepts.

On the other hand … Pareja told me about being in Colombia recently. He saw a team of 10-year-olds playing a beautiful flat four. He told me the goalkeeper was a little chatterbox, constantly providing information to he back line. At 10 years old!

Most 10-year-olds here are dribbling through static cones and wouldn’t know a silky flat four from a syrupy flapjack. Again, that’s nobody’s fault. That’s just where it is … and it’s something that I know Claudio Reyna is keen on addressing in his new role as U.S. Youth Soccer technical director.

So there’s some food for thought for anyone tempted to weigh in on the Bradley debate. Think a little about the words above. Heck, drive out to the park near you and check it out for yourself.