Top MLS goal scorers (as of 8/14/2019):
1. Carlos Vela, Mexico
2. Josef Martinez, Venezuela
3. Diego Rossi, Uraguay
4. Wayne Rooney, England
5. Kacper Przybylko, Poland
6. Kei Kamara, Sierra Leone
7. Felipe Guitierrez, Chile
8. Charles Gil, Spain
9. Alejandro Pozuelo, Spain
10. Mauro Manotos, Columbia
11. Saphir Taider, France/Algeria
12. Jozy Altidore, USA
Goal scoring is soccer’s top ball skill. Consistent scoring requires high-level ball mastery.
It’s “striking” to me that in the USA’s top soccer division (a league considered to be in the third tier of pro leagues around the world), that the top 11 goal scorers are not from the U.S. They are from countries with strong ‘ball-centric’ soccer cultures.
This is one result of the US “participation culture” in soccer, as I wrote about in the previous post, where ball mastery is treated as an afterthought.
The feedbacks for encouraging ball mastery in the participation culture are weak or negative and the ball mastery light bulb doesn’t turn on for too many players until it’s too late (usually about 10 years too late) to be able to catch up to the levels of mastery achieved by players from ball-centric cultures.
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