The New York Red Bulls of the MLS – whether they realize it or not – have embarked on a project that will change North American soccer forever. Earlier this summer they signed French allstar Thierry Henry and recently confirmed that they have added the Mexican legend Rafael Marquez to their lineup. For the New York Red Bull, at a micro-scale, this project involves creating a team that is built to make a championship run. At a macro-scale, they are raising the bar for soccer in North America as a whole. Marquez and Henry are both coming from arguably the best team in Europe: FC Barcalona.
One of the beauties of soccer is that it is never too late to start the sport or improve your skills and knowledge of the game. A trend we are seeing for many soccer players in North America is they are learning and improving their games later in life. What is happening though is instead of focusing on developing a complete understanding and skill for the game, players and coaches are simply worried about winning games week in and week out. What has been proven is that there is a direct correlation to perfecting your trait and developing all aspects of your game at an early stage of your career and the success you will have later in your career. Teams in North America need to train their players to be complete players so that as they physically develop they will become more dominant on the field and have more successful careers.
If you want to play soccer in college, obviously the best situation is to be recruited by a top school, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. Whether due to injury or not getting in front of the right coach, some players just don’t make a connection with the coaches at a school they want to attend, yet they want to play soccer in college.
In that case, the player might try walking on.
What Does “Walking On” Mean?…
Your team scores 2 goals and it is 2-0 at halftime. You have completely dominated the game up to this point and you can’t help but think the win is penciled in. The coach sits everyone down at halftime and touches on some good characteristics of the half but is very clear in saying that 2-0 is a dangerous score. “Don’t get comfortable, the game isn’t over” is what you will usually hear from a coach in this situation, “and don’t let them score a quick goal.”
“Put your nose down and do some work, you’ll succeed at whatever you want.” Comedian – George Carlin
Like many things in life we set goals for ourselves to achieve and are all pumped to see them become a reality. Some of the goals are short term, others medium term and some long term. However, for many of us at a certain point in our lives our motivation might drop. Unfortunately, some people never regain the motivation to achieve their goals. This blog shares what myself and different people do to stay motivated to achieve their goals and how you can do the same.
Each of us has our own goals and strives to achieve them. We spend much of our time doing everything we can in order to accomplish what we set out to do. However, when it comes down it, the moment we are about to connect all the dots for some reason we begin to second guess ourselves. The only thing preventing us from moving forward is ourselves. We become our biggest weakness. Why is that? Perhaps because we are scared of the unknown? It could be that we don’t know how things will turn out and are not sure if we can handle failure or the unknown future. This may not occur to all of us but for many people the final stumbling block come from within.
Winning the respect of your teammates and coaches is hardly ever discussed yet it is very important in order to have a proper functioning team on and off the field. Below are my top 10 areas in order to help you win respect from your fellow teammates and coaches.
All too often soccer players do not have a plan that clearly explains how they will achieve their soccer ambitions. Think of your plan like a resume. You must be constantly reviewing your plan to make sure there are no wholes, red flags or issues that may arise. Once you have covered all grounds you will be much closer to realizing your dreams. Having a plan and constantly re-visiting it will bring you comfort in knowing you are on your way. You’ll also be able to measure how close or far off you are from achieving certain goals of yours. Also be sure to share your plan with other people who can help you achieve them.
I was recently browsing one of my soccer friends facebook page and noticed he put the link to his personal soccer website. Like many young soccer players, he is trying to be noticed by professional clubs, make a name for himself and play at a higher level. After looking through his site I noticed a number of areas where he could greatly improve his site. These areas aren’t so much about design and colour but the content of his site.
Every athlete deals with pressure in a different way. However, the pressure in a soccer game cannot be put into words as there is often more than the game itself riding on that particular match. There are different ways to pre-prepare yourself for the pressure you will face in a big game.
The sport of soccer is growing in North America and more kids are beginning to dream of playing at a higher level. With that being said you’ll need to separate yourself from the competition and below are some areas you can apply to your game which will help you do so.
Athletic scholarships drive college searches more than they should. Some parents seem to think the money they’ve “invested” in training, teams and travel should come back to them by way of college scholarships.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality. Athletic scholarships should not drive the college selection process and it’s important to understand the advantages—and disadvantages—of receiving them.