hooligan
Hooligan – Follow on Twitter @HooliganBroome
Last night at my Atlanta local was nothing short of amazing. This season we have seen an Atlanta side that started off horrible with a VERY stagnate style of play emerge into a team that plays beautiful free flowing football.
Sick as I was, I had promised a few of the FC Aztec lads I would take them to the last home game so I did. I turned up with no expectations other than that the lads have a good time. Again I went for them last night not for me or to support the team as I felt horrible.
From kick off I was pleasantly surprised, I saw a different team than the one I saw even one month ago. I witnessed a team that played the beautiful game. It was all there for me honestly. I say that because increasingly I view footie through the eyes of a coach not as a player or pure supporter any longer. I pay attention to movement, positioning, and the passion that the footballers exhibit on the pitch.
The team I saw last night earned every goal even the own goal by San Antonio was a result of correct offensive pressure applied. A perfect storm I must say. It would appear that Head coach Haynes, Ricardo, and Alejandro have gotten the team to buy into their system and that system is sinister and lethal.
The results speak for themselves. Again though I musts address a problem I continue to see, many of these guys are good enough to play elsewhere but in the current USA set-up they will never get that chance. Atlanta fullback, Chris Klute, was sold to Colorado Rapids last week, this is a small victory, it also speaks volumes of Ricardo and Alejandro as Chris is their product of the Atlanta reserves team.
I’m sure there are others but in the Atlanta metro area, they are the only coaches I know willing to develop kids, not just well to do kids or poor kids but just kids period. I also of course plug both of them as they are mentors to me and all around good guys that are always willing to help when I ask for it.
That said we can also thank Eric Wynalda for a lot of the talent on the Atlanta team right now. When Eric took the coaching reigns he brought in a lot of his Cal FC guys. These are all good guys that were either ignored by or “bounced out” of the MLS system.
I don’t know the complete back story on all of them so that may not be completely accurate but none the less Cal FC was a quickly thrown together club that gave two MLS teams a run for their money in the US Open Cup this year. The Cal FC run in the cup clearly shows many of the issues in play with the US system.
The talent in the United States is out there folks, in abundance, but we don’t have a youth or league set up to accommodate their development so we either lose said talent to other countries where they seek to ply their trade or we just lose them altogether because interest is lost because opportunity isVERY hard to come by. This is a national disgrace to me.
When I state we lose them to other countries one might ask: “How ? When they reach prominence they will be identified and selected for National Team duty and so on, don’t worry.” The problem is folks we are a country of immigrants and much of our footballing talent is not native to our country in some cases and in other cases is first generation and when you make it so difficult or them to get a look in their new home they throw up their hands and return to where they have a better chance to get a look. We bleed our potential talent folks.
An open league system will fix many, not all, but many of these problems. Unlimited clubs and open leagues means potential for unlimited development of talent which prevents the loss of talent. What if every big youth club across the country fielded a first team that played in some tier of a 5-7 tier US system? Can you imagine the amount of talent we would churn out and attract? Yes, yes I know it’s not an “American” idea so it just won’t happen but I can dream that my FC Aztec lads will have better footballing opportunities one day can’t I?
-BROOME


About Drefooty

Writer-Editor for World Footie Net