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Originally Posted by blaise
Not about the quality of leagues, but just an observation about popularity of leagues. Both my sons play soccer here in north Dallas. It's a pretty big league and a lot of soccer-first families. I like to look at jerseys the kids wear around the complex, or practices or in games. You almost never see FC Dallas gear even though FC Dallas is right here in Frisco. You see quite a few European jerseys though. Messi seems to be the clear favorite.
Maybe it's because there's a big international population here.
I'll say this though- you sometimes hear that kids play soccer here when they're young, but the best athletes go on to baseball or football. There's a lot of kids around here that I don't think are interested in other sports. They're soccer year round. Spring league, fall league and indoor leagues, plus specialized camps.
And some of these kids are really, really skilled. 9 year olds that can pick the top corner of the goal over the goalie, doing step overs, that scissors move, etc.
I'm no expert, I just see what I see at the games now, but I can't imagine the quality of youth soccer in the US was as good 20 years ago as it is now. So, I think it is on the rise as far as skilled players coming up.
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Dallas isn't doing all that great in their market. Just one of those Hunt owned teams that do a "meh" job of making a game day that people want to be a part of. They have a real up and down team who is absolutely on the up right now.
The youth observation is a correct one. They are working harder to not only get kids to stick with soccer but finding talent and creating a vertical path for them through their academies.