Martin Rennie on Soccer in Canada

[nolando]

Nothing we haven't heard before but interesting to read such frank commentary from a former head of one of the big three clubs.

 

http://renniecoaching.com/2014/04/18/theres-not-enough-private-enterprise-in-canadian-soccer-to-allow-it-to-be-successful/

[Vic]

Amen.  Superb.  Can't say enough good things about it.

[The Ref]

Wow, great writing and a true assessment of soccer in Canada.  I particularly like this phrase "By the time the players are 16 or older it is very difficult to fill in the gaps they have missed and I believe there are so many of these gaps."

[Lord Bob]

It's frankly difficult to take seriously the helpful advice of somebody who was biased towards American NCAA retreads over Canadians and showed no personal interest in the Whitecaps youth setup when he actually had a chance to improve the game here.

[Vic]

I don't know anything about that, but he's pretty dialed in on the realities of professional development versus the amateurism of youth soccer.

[jpg75]

He may be bang on about the flaws in the top prospects at age 16, but i'm not really sure he's on the right path with his critique of the lack of professionalism at ages 5-11. Anyone ever watch kids under the age of 8 try and play soccer? There's a reason elite development starts at 8 because that's when kids start piecing it all together.

 

Just from anecdotal evidence clubs like East York have some of their top coaches teaching their U8 teams. Every year when scouts from English, French and Ukrainian clubs come scout the ANB prospects camp they typically compliment the abilities of the youngest age group (10-12 year olds) as being of a similar level to their European counterparts. If anything, it seems in the early teen years (12-16) the lack of coaching and elite competition doesn't challenge and develop the top players well enough. 

[lazlo_80]

I get the impression, more and more, that each province is taking it's own approach to development. sorta like a bunch of small countries taking care of their own development under some rules from the CSA. I can't speak to BC, but places like Sigma FC sort of seem to be the type of development he seems to be crying out for

[youllneverwalkalone]

I found this article from Rafa interesting.

 

http://www.rafabenitez.com/web/in/blog/how-can-help-improve-the-young/46/

 

 

Clubs like Coquitlam Metro Ford and Surrey United seem to be following the LTDP, while they and the Whitecaps seem to be pursuing many of the recommendations above. More private academies wouldn't hurt, but I'm not sure I buy Rennie's argument that a volunteer who completes the pre-licensing training can't handle the 5-11 age range.

[ted]

It's frankly difficult to take seriously the helpful advice of somebody who was biased towards American NCAA retreads over Canadians and showed no personal interest in the Whitecaps youth setup when he actually had a chance to improve the game here.

 

Actually I think you are way off base here. As a coach of a competitve team he was not concerned with developing players long-term. He needed players in the short to medium term. Given the stupid transfer system controlled by MLS it is not even in the interest of the Whitecaps to develop youth to "sell" so really the current atmosphere is a total failure for development of Canadian players. The blame for that lies squarely on the shoulders of the CSA who could have and should have required Cdn player quotas and investment in a Canadian feeder league. Heck $1M from each MLS club annually would be enough to pay for 40-50% of the operational costs of an 8-team national league.

 

Sorry, got off track there.

Anyway, if what he proposes had been around for a decade before he showed up he could have easily filled more than half his starting eleven with Canadians. As a club coach he worked with what he got. Maybe he could have gone a different route but without any particular reward or advantage for doing so can you really blame him?  Well, apparently you can, but I mean a reasonable person.