BEHIND THE PLAY #86

Longest gap between newsletters since I started it. Mainly because I took the longest continuous vacation I’ve been on in the last decade. Three weeks in the Maritimes. Highly recommend but it complicated watching the World Cup from the quarter finals on.

That and more below.

Do the values parents hope to instill in their kids align with how they approach the youth soccer experience?

I did some AI research and compiled a list of the top values that Canadian parents are most important in having their children adopt. Some surprised me, most didn’t. Here’s the top 30 that it spat out (with my own personal top ten in bold to show my biases).

1. Responsibility (I feel comfortable extending this to include accountability)

2. Hard work

3. Tolerance and respect

4. Helping others

5. Independence

6. Good manners

7. Honesty

8. Compassion

9. Imagination/Creativity

10. Persistence

11. Unselfishness

12. Empathy

13. Thrift

14. Self-discipline

15. Gratitude

16. Courage

17. Religious faith

18. Curiosity

19. Fairness

20. Resilience

21. Integrity

22. Obedience

23. Grit

24. Patience

25. Adaptability

26. Critical thinking

27. Self-confidence

28. Inclusivity

29. Open-mindedness

30. Loyalty

Without turning this into an attack, I (and I think many others who have worked in youth soccer, at least here in BC) would argue that the list increasingly does not align well with (mainly) parent and (unfortunately, in some cases) player behaviours and actions. I acknowledge that a survey specific to soccer parents may change this list substantially.

Let’s consider tolerance and respect, independence, resilience, patience and loyalty. More and more these are relegated in importance in youth soccer for potential, if not instant, gratification in the form of changing clubs. It’s not wildly uncommon anymore for a player to play at four clubs between U11 and U18. I would also bet that a higher percentage of those who play at 3 or more are more likely to quit the game before completing U18.

I have, more than once I believe, made it clear that I view fluid team sports like soccer where the game is largely dictated by the players rather than coaches once it begins, as a hugely important opportunity for adolescent compressed socialization; where values are learned, tested, adopted, relegated and fine tuned. I have said that it is a club’s job to provide this as a platform for all players and allow them to find their way through the challenges of a game that demands both co-operation and confrontation. One that is an incessant barrage of scenarios requiring quick decisions through concentration and communication. How young people respond to these challenges, in a public setting can be a key to forging their own values.

The distillation of this ‘compressed socialization’ over the course of many seasons results in what parents ranked #27 on the list: self-confidence. Personally, I see self-confidence more as an outcome or output derived from successful inculcation of various combinations of the other values in the list. Self-confidence largely comes from knowing and liking what you have become and being aware of having exemplified values that you have decided are of core importance to you.

Increasingly though, parents want immediate results from youth soccer and that takes the form of what has becoming an incredibly fluid relationship with clubs. Not happy with a coach? Coach’s fault - move to another team. Not happy with the level of play your child has been offered? Club’s fault - move to another club. Many don’t just see it as an option but as an exemplar of advocacy on behalf of their player.

The idea that there may be some responsibility/accountability (notably, parent’s number one pick for values) at the player level has become sanctionable to many. So if there’s no responsibility and the parents move their player to another club you don’t just miss what was perhaps a moment to explore accountability but you have also nixed opportunities to cultivate resilience, hard work, persistence, patience, adaptability and loyalty.

Yes, there are always good reasons for changing clubs and parents and players can and should have ease of movement between clubs. Those reasons have stayed the same for decades though. What has changed is the number of parents and players who feel the solution is to move clubs. I suspect, from first hand knowledge I have of players who both moved from and to our club for various reasons, that the percent who feel the move solved their perceived problem has decreased from ten years ago.

The ‘problem’ was not solved and the opportunities to add big scoops of the values parents feel are most important for their kids to adopt, ones that this game can and does impart, will be lost.

Again, we’re developing people. The game is just the medium for that.

Legions, RV’s and tiny bars: watching the World Cup in the Maritimes

I knew when we booked our trip to the Maritimes that it would complicate watching the late stages of the World Cup. I was pretty sure thought that my temporary TSN subscription would patch me through from the quarter finals onwards. What I didn’t realize is that it seems 80% of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland has no cell reception.

We were hoofing it around Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and PEI for three weeks in a transit van modified for camping and the first test of viewability came in the form of the England v Norway quarter final game. I’d identified a faux English pub in Sheet Harbour that was on our way to Antigonish figuring it was a safe bet to catch it there. Got there to discover I was wrong. The no cell reception part crippled Google Maps and the ability to call other places to see if they were showing it. Fortunately just a few minutes into the game we pulled into a Legion in Liscomb and I asked if they were, or could, show the game. “Sure but it’s cribbage night so when that starts we’ll have to turn the volume off.” That small dent in my enthusiasm was somewhat offset by a menu that comprised $4 Budweisers and $1.50 Doritos.

The people there were gems. Super friendly and welcoming. Were told by more than one that we were welcome to join them for crib if we wanted. Zero interest from any of them in the World Cup. Most had no idea that the World Cup was even on.

Saw the France v Morocco game before we left and didn’t catch Spain v Belgium as we were in transit. That got us to the semi finals. Argentina v England was watched in the cozy confines of our van somewhere in Newfoundland as was the tail end of the England v France third place goalfest game. Best viewing area of the games we saw in the Maritimes though went to Bannerman Brewing in St. John’s for the Spain v France semi-final.

The one that mattered though was the final.

I have watched every World Cup final live on some sort of screen since 1974 when I was eight years old. I’d figured out we’d be arriving in Charlottetown via ferry a couple of hours before kickoff and made sure I’d done research in advance for a place that would definitely have the game on. That took us to Modern Brewer’s Village Green ‘nano-brewery.’ in the outskirts of town. Great beer in a bar that held maybe 20 people tops but every seat was taken and it ended up being a cool, little place to watch the game with an amazing food truck outside.

Final impression of this World Cup for me? Despite all my moaning about FIFA and how they rinsed us all for every penny that could be dredged from our pockets it still hooked me in. I ended up seeing four games. Canada v Qatar, Canada v Switzerland and then, despite my clearly entrenched ‘won’t go to the USA’ stance, I turned hypocrite (as my wife loudly, correctly and with tremendous exuberance pointed out) and ended up in LA to see Canada beat South Africa in LA. A buddy I’d gone to the Brazil World Cup with contacted me on the Thursday saying he’d bought the ‘follow your team’ package for Canada that included the R32 game and wanted to know if I was interested in going. I bit. Was on the plane the next day, saw the game on Sunday and was on a plane home three hours it was over. Last game I saw was the R32 Switzerland v Colombia game back in Vancouver.

Logistically, from my experience, every game I attended was incredibly smooth. Vancouver did a great job from the march in through to crowd dispersal after the games. The atmosphere here was befitting what a World Cup should be and the atmosphere in BC Place for the two Canada games was as good as you could hope for. We will just never be as loud, passionate and persistent in supporting our country as I’ve seen other supporters be for their country but that’s okay. It was still fantastic to see Canada play World Cup games in my hometown.

Who would have thought that the biggest controversy and fireworks associated with this World Cup would not be from weather, on-field controversy or domestic politics in the US but rather FIFA President’s Gianni Infantino’s bizarre political self-immolation soon after the Final with his unilateral plan to spin off FIFA competitions, after doubling them, to a private equity fund with zero consultation with FIFA confederations or his closest staff. It was sunk within 48 hours. Whether his presidency is also sunk will be known in the next month or so. Interestingly, Arsene Wenger, a favourite to be the next FIFA President according to Polymarket, has just made a statement saying he knew nothing about Infantino’s Fifa Forward Enterprise plan despite their Chief of Global Football Development.