Douglas Warren

Hockey fan & player ... Captain, The Mighty Drunks of Nashville (Antioch D-league #71). Lover of liberty and the Constitution, 2013 Rink Operator of the Year.

[Sam Mahmood @TheSammahmood_]

The U.S. soccer federation is a poor return on invested capital.

I played soccer for 20+ years.

Grassroots.
Academy.
D1 college.
Pursued professionally after.

And I’ll say the quiet part out loud:

The US soccer infrastructure is broken.

In America, we treat playing D1 soccer like it is the peak achievement.

For most families, clubs, coaches, and players, the entire youth soccer machine is built around one goal:

Get recruited.
Get a scholarship.
Play college soccer.

But if the objective is to produce world-class players, D1 soccer is a terrible development path.

From 18-22, some of the most important technical development years of your career, you are preparing for a 3-4 month season built largely around athleticism, direct play, set pieces, fitness, and survival.

Now compare that to an 18-year-old in Spain, Argentina, Morocco, Italy, England, or France.

That player has likely been in a professional environment for years.

Training daily.
Playing meaningful matches year-round.
Competing against grown professionals.
Getting thousands more touches.
Learning how to solve the game under pressure.

The gap is massive.

And it shows.

American players are usually athletic.
They are usually fit.
They usually compete hard.

But at the highest levels, that is not enough.

The biggest difference is technical comfort.

We do not move the ball like Spain.
We do not combine like Argentina.
We do not play with the same fluidity, rhythm, and confidence you see from countries where the game is embedded into the culture from childhood.

That comes down to volume.

Volume of touches.
Volume of street soccer.
Volume of futsal.
Volume of unstructured play.
Volume of high-level training environments.
Volume of meaningful games.

In the US, youth soccer is expensive, overly organized, overly coached, tournament-driven, and too often built around winning games at 13 instead of developing players for 23.

Parents spend thousands.
Clubs charge thousands.
Travel teams fly all over the country.
Showcases become the product.
Recruiting becomes the scoreboard.

But the return on invested capital is poor.

We probably spend more money on youth soccer than almost any country in the world, yet the technical output does not match the investment.

That is a broken operating model.

And like any business, if the output is weak, you do not blame the customer.

You inspect the system.

The US has talent.
The US has athletes.
The US has money.
The US has facilities.

But the foundation is wrong.

We built a pay-to-play, college-recruiting machine and confused it for a world-class player development system.

Those are not the same thing.

Until we fix the grassroots layer, increase meaningful touches, make development less dependent on family income, and stop treating college soccer as the top of the mountain, the US will keep underperforming relative to its resources.

I’m not saying this to trash US Soccer.

I’m saying it because I lived it.

And if we actually want to become a powerhouse, we have to be honest about the infrastructure first.

[Peter Schweizer @peterschweizer]

There have been 4 major revolutions in the past 250 years: American, French, Russian, and Chinese. Only one led to individual rights and prosperity. The others led to mass death and tyranny. The US revolution was unique because it said two things: 1. Our rights come from God not from the govt. 2. Humans are power -hungry so we need to limit govt power. So the next time someone attacks the nation of one revolution that succeeded and recycles the the idea of those that miserably failed, you can ask them: are you ignorant, or malicious?

[CarolinaConservative3 @1776Carolina3]

America was never an inevitability.

13 colonies being created out of wholecloth in a harsh and hostile land, by individuals with wildly disparate opinions on what a new, experimental nation should look, like was never an inevitability.

13 colonies with wildly disparate concepts of what their own governance should look like galvanizing to create a single nation while maintaining some degree of autonomy was never an inevitability.

In fact, given the early struggles and astronomical odds against it, this nation should NEVER exist.

But it does.

And its survival and success, from its roots as a "traitorous" rebel backwoods, based on the unprecedented idea of a nation being rooted in self-governance, is nothing short of a miracle.

The men who literally risked their lives to pen the AUDACIOUS words, "are endowed BY THEIR CREATOR (ie, NOT given by government) with certain inalienable rights" knew what they were risking. But they believed so strongly in the concept of liberty that they were willing to gamble their very lives for the possibility.

Today is not about America being perfect. She isn't.

It's about understanding, appreciating, and celebrating the founding of an exceptional nation that continues to be worthy of celebrating. Happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

@AdamVingan Nice of Mike to open the door and wait for Jen :/

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

The extreme stupidity I've read on this app the last 24 hours ... SMDH.

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

@crobin2004 @AlexDaugherty1 Blame the Flyers.

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

@JoshEakle Might have something to do with the fact that the Amish don't pledge to behead those who refuse to convert to their religion.

[Resist CBDC 🏁 @Resist_CBDC]

One of these is considered an existential threat to Europe.

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

Yet the WNBA continues to bite the hand that feeds them.

[The Leagues @TheseLeagues]

Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham have the top two selling WNBA jerseys.

The two make up 71% of the WNBA’s jersey sales.

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

The Tartan Army is going home. We loved you guys! Come back soon. “No Scotland, No Party!” ❤️🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

(PS, I’m 84% Scottish.😎)

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

@LUFC1992_v2 @WWIImuseum It is spectacular!

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

Sláinte

Safe travels back to Scotland! Visiting your wonderful country is on my list!

[Men in Blazers @MenInBlazers]

TARTAN ARMY SAY GOODBYE 😭

With Scotland on the verge of elimination from the World Cup, traveling supporters are paying emotional tribute to their trips to the U.S. 👋

They were here for a good time, not a long time, but the memories will last a lifetime 💙🤍

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

@NHL @justinbieber @MapleLeafs As cringe as it gets.

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

No oNE wiLl CoME to AMerICa foR The WoRLd CuP.

[American Nightmare 🇺🇸 @thewakeninq]

A German fan said it best:

“If you want to hate America, watch the news. If you want to love America, drive through it.”

Over 3.6 million fans packed stadiums for the World Cup, breaking attendance records. Millions came from every corner of the globe and experienced what the headlines never show: welcoming people, incredible hospitality, and a country unlike any other.

The media sells outrage. America sells itself.

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

@KrakenCanada @spittinchiclets Just stop. You have no idea.

[Kevin Sorbo @ksorbs]

A Muslim woman in a hijab just said that “America deserved 9/11” and won her primary in NY. That’s what the Democrat party has become.

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

@teleoros @BuckSexton And @teleoros with the dumbest "tweet" of the day.

[Douglas Warren @Predsboro71]

@JeffVeillette Crap take.

[Patrick Webb @Patrickwebb]

BREAKING: The three major U.S. broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, have yet to report on DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s recent declassification regarding Anthony Fauci’s cover-up of the COVID-19 pandemic.