PSW Corner Kicks

Below is a personal letter sent to D.C. United Supporters from United President and CEO Kevin Payne. I agree with the letter completely, and hope you will make it out. D.C. United, unlike most teams in MLS, truly measures itself on how many Championships they win. Everyone counts, and it's been nearly four years since the last major Cup was added to the largest trophy case in MLS.

Here's the letter. See you on the 3rd!

Dear United Supporter,
On Wednesday, September 3, 2008 D.C. United will play the Charleston Battery in the Championship match of the 2008 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. We are committed to winning this championship, but we need your help to do it!

The U.S. Open Cup is important to us for a number of reasons. It is the oldest national soccer competition in America. We were the first MLS team to win it, but we' ve not won it since. Most important, winning the Championship will secure our place in the 2009 CONCACAF Champions Cup.

This has already been a very busy season for the D.C. United family, and the support we've received from our supporters has been, as usual, the best in the league! But, we need you again!

Please come out on September 3rd and help carry DCU to victory in this important Championship. Many of you have already received an invoice for the match -- all you have to do is go on-line, pay the invoice, and print your tickets at home.

If you have not received an invoice yet, contact your sales representative or D.C. United Customer Service at 202-587-5000 or via e-mail at dcucustomerservice@dcunited.com

With your support, we can add another great trophy to our legacy as America's most decorated soccer team.
I'll see you at RFK on September 3rd!

Best wishes,
Kevin J. Payne
President/CEO of D.C. United

Labels: d.c. united, U.S. Open Cup

What happened to Fulhamerica? Last year it was American players on Fulham's roster that played huge roles in rescuing the team's [English] Premier League status. In the four years since Brian McBride signed on for the Southwest London club only to be followed by four more, Fulham became the EPL team I told Britts I supported most. I fell in love with the idea of an American team in the league, and a personal visit to Craven Cottage sealed the deal.

Now however, only one American remains in Clint Dempsey, as his best friend Eddie Johnson was just loaned to Cardiff for the season. In the offseason, Carlos Bocanegra moved to France after becoming a bench player under Fulham's new boss, while Kasey Keller and Brian McBride both decided to return to the US and play out their stellar careers in MLS.

So, how are Fulham doing without their Americans? After losing the season opener on the road to newly promoted Hull City, the "Cottagers" just beat my other favorite EPL team - Arsenal - 1-0 at home on Saturday. Clint Dempsey only had a late cameo to do with it, but hopefully he'll earn regular status shortly.

the Arsenal win was one for the ages, but the fact that it mostly came without any American's in the side just has a Groundhog Day feeling to whole "American players ever so close to getting over the hump" thing all over again. Just when we thought some American players would become a permanent fixture on the global stage, it turns out the same old story of American players abroad being little more than utility players shows up again.

No doubt McBride and Keller would have retained their top spots had they stayed, and they've had two of the three or four most succesful Yanks-Abroad careers ever to date, but we want more. We want sustained success (read: Champions League regulars) where an American is a permanent fixture. We want transfer rumors swirling. We want our American David Beckham abroad.

Fulham wasn't really close to deliving that single star for us, but it represented a very real potential. A Fulham team with five American starters, making a run at the FA Cup or qualifying for Europe would have been more than satisfactory thank you very much.

Still a Fulham fan here for life, just for different reasons. Let's hope this is just a one step back to take two forward for American fans of soccer. We've got more seeds planted than ever before. Will next ten years prove we've planted permanent roots, or will we have only a longer list of the same old story?

Labels: Fulham

With Bruce Arena’s hiring out in LA LA Land, another chapter in a very long story is about to begin. With the exception of his admittedly ill-timed stint in New York, every thing the stoic coach has touched has been considered a success. No one can argue that his time with UVA and D.C. United was anything less than spectacular, and not many national team coaches spend eight years and two World Cups in a job, including a Quarterfinal appearance.

But with New York his last gig, Arena clearly could use another successful bookend to squash that time from memory. And other than reserving the right to wish hateful, miserable things on the Galaxy whenever they face D.C. United, I hope he succeeds.

I am a big Bruce Arena fan, and also beleive a successful Galaxy team is necessary in order for MLS to maximize their David Beckham investment return.

Good luck to "the Bruce". Just no so much when you're facing the Black and Red.

Labels: Bruce Arena, d.c. united, David Beckham, LA Galaxy

There has been some discussion on our community boards recently about coaches’ pay and what is reasonable. Rather than take up space here trying to paraphrase, you can check out the thread here for some background if needed (and to add your opinion as well of course).

As a little background, in addition to HummerSport and the PSW, I coach for FC Virginia and Potomac Falls High School, have a USSF B license, and have been earning income as a coach for three years. Of course, as the Founder and Editor of PSW, I’m also neck-deep in coaching issues, and have heard a lot of discussion from all sides on coaching topics.

In my opinion, there is no single answer for questions about what is too much or too little to pay a coach, because almost every situation is different. Just like lawyers, financial planners, handymen, and babysitters each charge different rates within their own sphere, so do comparable coaches/clubs. In the end, whoever is stroking the checks needs to decide on the value they are getting and what is fair compensation in exchange. So, it’s not a valid discussion point when someone on one team tells someone on another that they are paying too much or too little.

The only exceptions would be if it was the SAME coach charging different amounts for two teams of similar quality, age, and schedule. Or, if there is some sort of subsidizing going on, where a benefactor with too much money to burn pays some crazy fee to bring in a world class coach when the rest of the team would never support those fees. And finally, if the actual money going to the coach is not the full amount the parents were led to believe in a situation where, without the parents’ knowledge, there are other club personnel taking their “cut” from a coach’s fees despite having no direct interaction.

With all this in mind, the one thing I think everyone needs to do when evaluating for THEMSELVES or THEIR team whether a coach is paid appropriately, is to look at the actual time spent. Then divide the total pay by those hours, and ask, “Is my child getting X dollars per hour worth of benefit?” Only then can you really answer the PAY question.

So, let’s break down the total hours a good coach spends with their team. Then you can each adjust for your own situation by plugging your own values into the equations.

Assumptions for this “time spent” model: An elite level coach commanding these higher fees is coaching a year-round team, maybe taking 6-weeks off per year max from practices, but never really getting a break. For mathematical simplicity, we'll go with 50-week year.

A- Practices
50 weeks of 2-3 training sessions: 2-hours per session + 30 minutes of drive time each way, or 3-hours total time on the actual practice. Plus, any good coach spends at least 30-minutes thinking/drafting/finalizing a practice plan before each session, as well as hanging around post practice 15-30 minutes for parents and player conversations/motivations/injury discussions.

Practice Time Equation: 2.5 sessions per week x 46 weeks x 4 hours per session = 460 hours per year


B- League Game Driving Time
Let's include State Cup here, and assume the team plays at least 3 rounds;.9 games in fall, 9 games in spring, 7 winter indoor, and 3 State Cup games. League games average 1 hour of drive time each way when balancing home and away schedules with big city traffic. Depending on where the coach lives relative to the indoor facility, that drive time can vary a lot from one game to the next, but let's just say 30 minutes each way. State Cup, 1 hour each way for same reasons as league games.

Game Drive Time Equation: (21 league and State Cup x 2 hours round trip each) + (7 indoor games x 1 hour round trip each) = 49 hours per year


C- Game Time (non drive time)
League and State Cup take more prep work than indoor, but good coaches spend at least an hour planning for a typical game (not including all the "administrative" time spent on player/parent management surrounding "what position, play time" issues.). That hour is used to think through all the scenarios, research an opponent, and evaluate player performance in training. Again, all for league/state cup only. Indoor is more "see who shows up, run fast, kick hard, have fun." Actual game time for league/state cup is at least 45 minutes of warm up, but the coach should be there an hour before the game starts. Game time itself, 90 minutes when including half time, hand shakes, managing the player's cool downs. As they get older, this gets even longer, and could easily be 2-hours for U16 and up. Indoor game time is simpler, get there 20 minutes early, play for 50 minutes, cool down/converse with families/players for 20 minutes for a total of 90 minutes per game.

Game Time Equation: (3.5 hours per outdoor game x 21 games) + (2 hours per indoor game x 7) = 87.5 hours


D- Tournaments
Wow, this one really varies. I’m going to assume 6 tournaments per year with 3 sleep-aways. I’m not going to count every hour from the time a coach leaves home Friday until they get home on Sunday night for a sleep-away event, but some will argue that should be the case. We all have to sleep though, and evenings can be fun, or spent doing work from a laptop in your hotel, so for sleep-away tournaments I’m going to use 6 hours on Fridays for packing, driving, and organization once arriving. Then we’ll go with 10 hours on Saturday from meeting to leave for the first game until things are switched off at the end of the day. For Sundays, assuming you make the finals or are in a 4-game minimum tournament, we’ll go with 13 hours because you have to include the drive home time as well.

Local tournaments are a bit different, and can depend on the game schedule. But even with a four or five hour gap between games, there really isn’t much a coach can do between to reclaim time. We’ll remove the Friday time (assuming a Manager checks the team in), and go with 8 hours each on Saturday and Sunday.

Tournament Time Equation: (3 sleep-away tournaments x 29 hours each) + (3 local tournaments x 16 hours each) = 135 hours


E - Player/Parent Management
Probably the area with the biggest variance per team/coach. I’ve heard of coaches that won’t even talk to parents (yikes), and of course others who spend hours and hours per week in constant communication (how do they keep it all straight?). There must be some sort of acceptable median out there we can use for this though. So let’s take a stab at it..

Any coach who is focused on player development should be spending time thinking about, drafting evaluations, holding player conferences, making extra time for players and parents before/after practices, and of course communicating via email as needed. There should at least be some sort of process where a coach is methodically keeping track of each players’ progress against a personal player development plan that has been clearly communicated to the player and their family. Some players run with this on their own and quickly accomplish all their goals, then ask for more. Other players (and families) need constant reinforcement of exactly what the coach is looking for. Neither one is right or wrong, it’s just human nature that different people learn different ways and have different levels of self-confidence. Oddly enough, when looking at all the time spent in the other areas of this equation, this is really the area that is supposed to matter the most. And, if the coach is paid well enough, this is the area every family MUST insist is a major part of their time spent. If this area is ignored, you have a coach who is more worried about their own win-loss record than in developing players.

Personally, I try to do as much of this as possible while we’re already together, before/during/after practices, after games, and especially tournament weekends. The “player development” switch is always on in that respect, and is a major part of all the time spent. But even if you’re good at overlapping those times, there is always additional time required.

Let’s blend all the players’ varying time requirements and round this to 2-hours per week spent on the phone, emailing, and holding private conferences with players. Some weeks this is actually 10 hours, some weeks it’s none.

Player Development Equation: 50 weeks x 2 hours = 100 hours per year


F-Tryout Season
Wow, almost forgot this one. We could just lump it into the “practice time” equation at the top of this whole study, but it’s such a major time commitment that it really deserves to be laid out separately.

Tryout season is simply a bear. It starts with the early planning stages of coordinating field space, then advertising, and of course all the politics and conversations. Let’s just assign this one lump of 30 hours and call it even.

Tryout Season Equation: 30 hours


G-Administrative
Some teams have much more active Team Managers than others, which can usually be the case for higher level teams with a coach that might have more than one team. But even with someone else taking care of the actual player passes and attending club meetings, the coach is still directly responsible and spends time behind the scenes coordinating, decision-making, and sometimes doing the actual tasks such as applying for tournaments, collecting signatures, planning / conducting parent meetings, choosing and ordering uniforms, arranging scrimmages, and even dealing with collections for payments. Then there’s always all the emails the coach is cc’d on even if they’re not actually involved. The easiest way I can think of to apply hours to these tasks is to take an average per week, and then let each team adjust from there. For me, it easily averages 1 hour per week, some weeks with a few minutes, other with several hours.

Administrative Equation: 50 weeks x 1 hours = 50 hours per year


H – Education
Can you count this? Certainly some if it, but it’s debatable. A professional coach spends a lot of time self-educating, attending conferences, and earning coaching licenses. In my view, this is a sunk cost the coach has to “cover” themselves. Not so much the fees to attend, as most clubs will pay for a lot of those, but more the time spent. Educated coaches have more success, and thus are able to get jobs with higher level teams (i.e. justify higher hourly rates). For my equation, here, I’m going to ignore time spent, and just throw in the team’s share of attending the events/courses.

Education Equation: $2,400 per year paid by coach, with team reimbursing 1/3 = $800.


I – Opportunity Cost
This doesn’t have a measurable hours or dollars role in this equation, but it is important to remember and, depending on the coach’s “day job” could be used in the calculation when measuring the hourly pay they could be making instead of spending their time coaching. Just keep this in mind somewhat. If your coach is a $400 per hour lawyer on K Street, but is spending even half their time outlined in this equation, they are sacrificing A LOT of income opportunity.

Opportunity Cost Equation: The more lost opportunity = higher chance the motivation for coaching has nothing to do with money


Total Equation:
A- Practice Time Equation: 2.5 sessions per week x 46 weeks x 4 hours per session = 460 hours

B- Game Drive Time Equation: 42 hours for 18 league games and 3 State Cup + 7 hours for indoor = 49 hours

C- Game Time Equation: (3.5 hours per outdoor game x 21 games) + (2 hours per indoor game x 7) = 87.5 hours

D- Tournament Time Equation: (3 sleep-away tournaments x 29 hours each) + (3 local tournaments x 16 hours each) = 135 hours

E - Player Development Equation: 50 weeks x 2 hours = 100 hours per year

F- Tryout Season Equation: 30 hours

G- Administrative Equation: 50 weeks x 1 hour = 50 hours per year

H – Education Equation: $2,400 per year paid by coach, with team reimbursing 1/3 = $800.

I – Opportunity Cost Equation: The more lost opportunity = higher chance the motivation for coaching has nothing to do with money.

A+B+C+D+E+F+G = 911.5 hours (but let’s round for simplicity to 900 hours)

Plus, don’t forget the extra $800 for coaching education.

Coaching Pay per Hour = (Total annual pay + $800 for “H”)/900 hours

Even from the “high” pay level cited in the beginning of the discussion board topic, this equation comes to $20 per hour – or the equivalent of $40,000 per year if you had a 40 hour-a-week job at that pay rate with two weeks of vacation.

After looking at things this way, what do you think? Is your coach over or under paid? Comment below with your own equation. If we get enough feedback of real-world examples, maybe we’ll compile them in a nice little chart and publish a “guide to youth soccer coaches pay in the greater Washington, DC region.”

P.S. I would have had this article done sooner, but had two phone calls and three emails from our team since I began writing this 2 hours ago ☺

Labels: coaching

The Men's Olympic team disaster this morning was yet another rude slap in the face (or should I say elbow to the sternum).

A week ago, I dared to hope we could grind out four points and hoped that would be enough to advance.

Then I hoped we wouldn't have to face Argentina, or Italy, or Brazil in the next round if we did manage to get out of the group.

I hoped we could get by without a Landon Donovan and Carlos Bocanegra on the roster because they would be needed for the US World Cup Qualifier against Guatemala next Wednesday.

I hoped that instead of real, proven leaders, that Peter Nowak's choice to "burn" two of his over-23 year old player slots on 24 year old MLS players with no big tournament experience would prove him a real genius.

I hoped Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, and Michael Bradley would prove to the world that they are not only the future of American Soccer, but future global stars.

How dare I let hope be my plan!

But what else is a US Soccer fan to do but hope? It's about all we can do other than buy tickets and contribute our opinions in writing. But what do we really know? What does anyone in this country really know about what it really takes to come through the US development system and go on to be a world class star?

Unfortunately, I think the obvious answer is no one knows. We're mostly the blind leading the blind. We're copying all we can from the most successful player "development" environments - be it a dirt lot in rural Brazil or the Ajax Academy. We flirt with foreign coaches, but never turn over the reigns completely, preferring to tap their brains, but only inviting them to stay if they play by our rules.

We're doing what American's do - we pick something to be best at, and we systematically go about doing it. We rely on our ingenuity, resources, unlimited budgets, and over 200 years of free market economy EXPERIENCE, and we just do it. From rail, to electricity, to cars, the bomb, and even the Moon and Mars. We throw everything we have - which is more than anyone else - at a problem and we don't quit until we're on top.

This is exactly what's happening with soccer here, and it might work - eventually, but when? We've got the resources in the infrastructure and in numbers of players. We've got the money of course, and we've got some ingenuity. What we lack is the experience, and that just cannot be bought. Gaining experience takes time, which is a problem considering our other mostly American trait of being impatient.

We seem to be making progress if you count progress as checking off boxes on a plan that we wrote. We're convincing more talented youngsters to choose soccer over pointy football, basketball or baseball as their sports of choice. And we are doing what we can to provide a good player development environment through hundreds of organized youth clubs. Our players appear to be more comfortable on the ball in tight spaces, and learning some individual creativity. Our national teams even try to play the game the "right" way.

But we're never going to win a World Cup until we have the experience to go with our "Americans can win anything we set our minds to" approach. We need a player pool that at least knows what they don't know. Not one that can't even imagine what goes through Ronaldo or Kaka's head before the pass before the pass gets to the person that passes them the ball. And we're not going to get there until a majority of the players on our national team play for major world powers on the club scene, and that's at least another generation away.

We're not there yet, and there aren't enough players in the pipeline yet to make me believe the golden generation for American Soccer has yet to be born. It's going to take time. It's going to take a really strong MLS with full stadiums funding elite youth academies. It's going to take today's top US prospects spending a career in Europe and then coming back here to head up those academies and having babies that end up staring for Real Madrid. In short, it's going to take more than Freddy Adu.

As much as I will continue to hope, the honest thing to say for at least another 20 years will be that "I hope we get lucky". To think any other way is just delusional, and SO beautifully American.

Labels: Olympics, USMNT, USSF

As you hopefully read in today's wire, we've struck up a partnership with Golme. This is a first for HummerSport (that's our company name, while Potomac Soccer Wire is just one of our web site properties), but it won't be the last such deal. When we find great soccer products or services that benefit soccer participants, and those companies are willing to offer special discounts and/or incentives to our readers and clients, then we'll find a way to bring those products and servces to you.

I'll leave the details on our Golme pages, but on a personal note, I just wanted to reinforce how revolutionary I think these goals are.



As a coach, I always want at least two goals for a training session, but that's a rare thing these days with so few fields. PLUS even if your club allocates a full field to your team, more and more goals are permanently anchored for safety reasons. This all totally makes sense, and safety should always come first. But permanently anchored goals don't change the fact that a proper training session should end with two teams going to full size goals - on an appropriately sized field. Plus, in the interest of field quality (also a safety issue), many clubs do not allow training session in the "goal mouths" anyway. If you combine these two extremely valid limitations, that leaves a LOT of teams out there every night across our region running training sessions with flags or cones as goals - not very realistic is it?

Portable goals are clearly the answer, but until Golme came along, using portable goals was just a big pain. I've used a Kwikgoal quite a bit, and it's a great goal. But it stores in an 8-foot long bat that takes two people to carry, and a big SUV to transport. Some of the lighter, smaller alternatives, are just plain cheap and flimsy, often made of some form of PVC - yuk! There are even some out now that have to be pumped full of air! I'm blessed somewhat however in that my club has kick back goals stored on site at our training field. It's a fantastic luxury, that I'm sure very few teams enjoy.

But now, Golme has come along, and they're awesome! Even their full-size goal fits in a standard duffel that you could even transport on a motorcycle if you felt like it. It only weighs 24 pounds, and sets up in about 3 minutes (faster as you get used to it, and when you put it away properly when finished). There is NO hard cross-bar either - it's a thick nylon strap - so there are no worries about the thing tipping over and hurting someone. In fact, the goal won't even function without being "anchored" because it requires two tent-stake-like attachments on either side as part of the set up. Sort of a built-in safety device.

This goal could literally change the way we teach soccer. Time will tell on their durability, but the frame comes with a 3-year warranty, so they must be pretty confident their "aircraft grade aluminum" will withstand the heavy use. With these goals, teams can now literally hold practice on any large enough grass area, not just pre-defined fields only available by permit. This opens up pleny of free park space, baseball outfields, and even big back yards that just weren't a realistic option with the previous generation of "portable goals".

The result SHOULD be more realist training sessions, fewer player safety concerns, and higher quality game fields that have been spared some wear and tear. All of these only help us develop better players - which is the whole point.

Hope to see you on the pitch soon with a Golme goal, no matter where you buy yours. (but hope you get it through HummerSport).

Labels: Fox Soccer Channel, Goals, Golme, HummerSport, Safety, Turf Fields

The Baltimore Colts - a local men's Amateur team was in Seattle this past weekend as the Region I representative in USASA National Cup (Amateur Division). We're trying to dig up a proper news story on the weekend, but for now we can report that they won their first game, then lost in the final - which is good enough for 2nd place.

Below is a summary of the final match from one of the players. If we don't get a full news story about the match, this might be all we can provide. Were you there? Use the comments section here to give more details!

Either way, congratulations to the Colts on a fantastic season!

We took 2nd. We lost in the National Championship match, 3-1 to Florida
Kickers.

We were in a war on Friday against Wisconsin, who were a much better team
than Florida. We scored the game winner at the 90' minute mark to get the
2-1 result.

Florida were content to counter. We tried some things, but they received
a PK early in the match that hurt. 20 minutes later, a FL player handled
the ball in the box. Very easy call to make, but the referee did not make
the call. We dominated with possession and were pumping shots but nothing
would fall.

1-0 at the half.

2nd half started the same way with us pressuring them. They cleared the
ball down the field, countered with #s and an initial save from our keeper
squirted out of his hands and just over the line when he hit the ground.

We pulled it to 2-1 when Guil Costa converted a direct kick from 20 yds
out that beat the wall.

We continued to pressure the entire half and sending #s forward. Late in
the game, with about 3 minutes remaining, they countered and got the 3rd
goal.

Unfortunate because we were a better team. Soccer gods weren't with us.

Labels: Baltimore Colts, USASA