Jack

Honolulublue/silver44life

[Brad Galli @BradGalli]

If you like Lions football, sit back and enjoy.

NFL Films music playing with a highlight reel of the offense’s dominating performance against the Cardinals

[Detroit Lions @Lions]

Jah’s crazy TD run from the sky-view 👀

[Jack @john44_farley]

@Lions LFGGGGGGG 💙🩶

[Greg Kampe @KampeOU]

Banana baseball in Detroit. Had to go. 41 thousand thought they should too.

[Barstool Sports @barstoolsports]

Happy birthday Sydney Sweeney

[Bussin' With The Boys @BussinWTB]

THIS ANGLE IS INSANE

[Awful Announcing @awfulannouncing]

The mind-blowing, controversial Western Michigan-Michigan finish.

Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge, and rules analyst Terry McAulay have the commentary on the stunning scene for NBC. 🏈🦓🎙️

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔇𝔢𝔱𝔯𝔬𝔦𝔱 𝔗𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰 📰 @the_det_times]

The Detroit Lions’ new Nike Rivalries uniforms 🥶

[Detroit Tigers @tigers]

MAX CLARK'S FIRST @MLB HOME RUN ‼️

@maxxclarkk13

[USMNT Only @usmntonly]

BREAKING: Chelsea have agreed to a deal to sign highly rated 15-year-old U.S. youth international winger Benji Flowers from FC Dallas.

The 15-year-old winger will officially join Chelsea when he turns 18, with FC Dallas signing him to a first-team contract in the meantime.

The deal is worth an initial $3M and could rise to around $10M through performance-related add-ons and international milestones, with Dallas also retaining a sell-on clause.

Chelsea view Flowers as one of the brightest young talents in American soccer, and the move could become one of the biggest-ever transfers involving an MLS academy product.

What a move 😯

(via @tombogert)

[Bussin' With The Boys @BussinWTB]

Any good lip readers out there??

[Frank Michael Smith @frankmikesmith]

The USMNT will be stuck at the World Cup until it adopts Germany's blueprint

In 2000 Germany finished last at the Euros and decided it was time overhaul the system. They built 390 regional training bases to make sure one was within 25 km of every kid in country. They hired 1,200 full-time coaches, invested €48 million per year and mandated that every pro club build a certified youth academy or lose its license

The cost to families was $0 and 14 years later, 21 of the 23 players who won the World Cup came directly from the system

[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.

[Wellness wins @Bro_Code_x]

Put cinnamon on a banana and watch what happens

[Stoolies Clubhouse 🏴‍☠️ @StooliesClub]

This is fuckin awesome!! I can’t wait for Monday 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 https://t.co/Lc3oQQdI0u

[Bussin' With The Boys @BussinWTB]

This view of Malik Tillman’s free kick against Bosnia is unreal 🇺🇸🔥

[USMNT Only @usmntonly]

THE TELEMUNDO CALL OF THE MALIK TILLMAN FREE KICK IS THE BEST THING YOU'LL EVER HEAR 🇺🇸🦅❤️

[Swearing Sports News @SwearingSport]

Mexico genuinely has one of the best stadiums at this World Cup, yet it's barely getting the recognition it deserves. That view is absolutely unreal. 🇲🇽

https://t.co/eTJYWDFJPm

[steve @bagshaw2112]

Very funny . Have to love the Hot 🔥 weather . #heatwave 🔥🔥🥵🥵☀️☀️🍺🍺🍹🍹

[Rusell @afcRusell]

HOW CAN I MISS THIS GUYS,WE'RE ALL EMJOYING THIS FIFA WORLD CUP