It’s amazing how much more technical and organized soccer training is now. When I was growing up, we practiced twice a week (three times when I got older) and played one game on the weekend, unless there was a tournament, and I didn’t start playing in tournaments until I was 11.

OOne of my favorite practice games is the four-goal scrimmage. You set up goals on the front edge of each penalty area and on the sidelines at the halfway line. That creates a square-like field with a goal on all four sides. When a team has possession, it has two options for scoring. And each team defends two goals.

The opening whistle blows. The ball gets dropped back to you. Your first touch isn’t so good and the ball slips away. You scramble to it just before a defender gets there, but you hit it awkwardly and it bends out of bounds. Uh oh.

Proper player development leads to good match performance, which often leads to wins. But there are shortcuts to winning, particularly with players younger than high-school age. Just get the biggest, fastest kids around — then outrun and outmuscle the opposition.

A well-executed slide tackle robs the opponent of the ball. In the best-case scenario, the defending player ends up with the ball at his feet, jumps up, and launches a counterattack.

A well-executed slide tackle robs the opponent of the ball. In the best-case scenario, the defending player ends up with the ball at his feet, jumps up, and launches a counterattack.

Wilbur Avataria is a good soccer player. He’s been in touch with a dozen or so college coaches, visited a handful of those schools, and scored a stunning goal at Dallas Cup. Recruiting is moving along pretty well for him. But there’s one glaring exception: he has no idea how serious any of these coaches are about having him on their teams.

Wilbur Avataria is a good soccer player. He’s been in touch with a dozen or so college coaches, visited a handful of those schools, and scored a stunning goal at Dallas Cup. Recruiting is moving along pretty well for him. But there’s one glaring exception: he has no idea how serious any of these coaches are about having him on their teams.

It seemed a short time since I had stood on the opposite side of the touchline from where I now was sitting. Five years earlier as a youth club soccer player, I waited for the starting whistle at a soccer recruiting showcase, feeling enormous pressure to perform for the hundreds of coaches watching me. Now, one Division I soccer career later, in my first season as an assistant coach at Cornell University, I would evaluate hundreds of players who surely felt the same way I had.

It often feels to the parents as if their child is a commodity. At one end they experience pressure to commit and on the other selling approaches that can be unsavory and even dishonest.