Recently in Soccer Category

Have thought this for a long time.
As someone who forks over cash to watch the Chicago Fire play, and someone who enjoys watching soccer on TV as well as the preps in person, it seems like U.S. soccer is not developing at the pace one would think it should, based on the number of people playing.

Watching the under-23 men's team do a belly-flop in the Olympics was the latest example of our up-and-coming players not being as good as other countries' up-and-coming players.

The baffling thing is, WHY?

One would think that nearly 30 years after soccer was to become the sport of the 1980s in the U.S, that we would rule the sport. Instead, we don't seem to be serious players on the world stage. Sad.

There are two keys to having a quality prep soccer program, and neither key has to do with having a great coach because we are going to assume, for the sake of argument here, that all prep coaches are created equal. We know they're not, but we're going to say they are.

Key No. 1: A very, very strong travel soccer program in your community.

That's why Libertyville High has been good for so long, and that's why Lake Forest's girls program is so strong this season. In fact, there are two good travel soccer programs in Lake Forest.

Key No. 2: Getting your elite players to play high school ball during the season rather than travel ball. Actually, Lake Forest has been stung by this, with a couple of their better players taking a pass on prep soccer in order to concentrate on club soccer. Still, ehough are playing with the Scouts that they are the feel-good story of this spring at 9-0-0.
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It’ll be interesting to see how many of us pour into the Lake County Sports Center in Waukegan for Sunday’s 3 p.m. professional indoor soccer match between our Waukegan-based Rebels and a team from Massachusetts.