Clint Dempsey is perhaps our nation's most creative and gifted attacking player today.
A scorer for the United States in both the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups, he is a standout for Fulham FC in the English Premier League.
How Dempsey developed into this gifted talent is not an uncommon setting for basketball in our country, but is pretty foreign to the stereotype of the upper-middle class setting of youth soccer here in the United States.
A scorer for the United States in both the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups, he is a standout for Fulham FC in the English Premier League.
How Dempsey developed into this gifted talent is not an uncommon setting for basketball in our country, but is pretty foreign to the stereotype of the upper-middle class setting of youth soccer here in the United States.
Growing up in a trailer park in Nacogdoches, Texas, most of what Dempsey learned was through 'street soccer' - playing pickup games with other neighborhood children.
Brion O'Connor of the Boston Globe examines the rise of the former New England Revolution standout, and to the essence of player development through pickup games.
Where did that talent come from?
There wasn’t much organized soccer available to Dempsey and his brother, Ryan, growing up in a trailer park in Nacogdoches, Texas. Their initiation to the game was playing pickup games with other neighborhood children. The brothers studied videos of the world’s great players, such as Argentina’s Diego Maradona, and practiced their sleight-of-foot moves relentlessly.
As a result, Dempsey developed the intuitive nature that makes him so unpredictable, so distinctly un-American on the soccer pitch. And so dangerous. In the past three years since leaving New England, Dempsey, 27, has been responsible for some of the most ingenious — and most audacious — goals to come off the boot of a US native.
During the summer, US national team coach Bob Bradley told Sports Illustrated that Dempsey’s flair for artistry reminded him of the late basketball Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtic “Pistol Pete’’ Maravich. “Clint’s capable of making an attacking play that’s a little different, that can create an advantage, that can lead to a goal,’’ Bradley told the magazine. “To have a player who can come up with something different at the right time, that’s still such a special part of soccer.’’
That “something different’’ is precisely the ingredient that Sam Snow of US Youth Soccer hopes “street soccer’’ will provide for this emerging soccer country.
“Take a look at any number of world-class soccer players, all around the world, and the majority of them grew up in a less structured, less stressful youth soccer environment,’’ said Snow, pointing out Dempsey’s background. “They played pickup soccer, and probably played some other sports, too, when they were young. That’s where they learned to have some of that creativity that we see out on the field. We want creativity from our players, and then we over-organize it out of them.’’
Brion O'Connor of the Boston Globe examines the rise of the former New England Revolution standout, and to the essence of player development through pickup games.
Where did that talent come from?
There wasn’t much organized soccer available to Dempsey and his brother, Ryan, growing up in a trailer park in Nacogdoches, Texas. Their initiation to the game was playing pickup games with other neighborhood children. The brothers studied videos of the world’s great players, such as Argentina’s Diego Maradona, and practiced their sleight-of-foot moves relentlessly.
As a result, Dempsey developed the intuitive nature that makes him so unpredictable, so distinctly un-American on the soccer pitch. And so dangerous. In the past three years since leaving New England, Dempsey, 27, has been responsible for some of the most ingenious — and most audacious — goals to come off the boot of a US native.
During the summer, US national team coach Bob Bradley told Sports Illustrated that Dempsey’s flair for artistry reminded him of the late basketball Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtic “Pistol Pete’’ Maravich. “Clint’s capable of making an attacking play that’s a little different, that can create an advantage, that can lead to a goal,’’ Bradley told the magazine. “To have a player who can come up with something different at the right time, that’s still such a special part of soccer.’’
That “something different’’ is precisely the ingredient that Sam Snow of US Youth Soccer hopes “street soccer’’ will provide for this emerging soccer country.
“Take a look at any number of world-class soccer players, all around the world, and the majority of them grew up in a less structured, less stressful youth soccer environment,’’ said Snow, pointing out Dempsey’s background. “They played pickup soccer, and probably played some other sports, too, when they were young. That’s where they learned to have some of that creativity that we see out on the field. We want creativity from our players, and then we over-organize it out of them.’’
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