The Inside Scoop with Anytime Soccer Training - Discussing Youth Soccer from Around the World

In this episode, I respond to a comment from the Anytime Soccer Training Facebook group about whether being paid is what makes a player or a program professional. The commenter's point is that unpaid means amateur and paid means professional, and I understand the concern about "smoke and mirrors" in youth soccer, especially with so little structure in U.S. soccer. But I make the case...

A rec program can have high standards and an elite one can have low ones. I explain how standards can fall short at the regional, national, or international level, why reform gets pushback, and why any fix, like pro-rel, has to consider supply, demand, and culture.

Most parents can skip this debate, but the "everything is rec" argument keeps coming up. I break down what recreational really means and why the real conversation is about standards and organizational discipline.

Everyone's arguing about whether all US youth soccer is "just rec." But what if that's the wrong question? In this episode of The Inside Scoop, I break down why the loudest voices in youth soccer content keep missing the point, and why their moralistic tone and "we're the exception" claims push parents away from a legitimate concern. Instead, I share the four layers...

I take on the debate over whether young players should focus on dribbling or tactical awareness first. My take: you can sharpen technical skills later, but tactical understanding gets much harder to teach past 14. I break down how structured scrimmages with specific constraints — like restricting certain passes or touches — can push players to build both creativity and game sense at the same time,...

I dig into why just telling players to practice a skill — like passing with their weak foot — rarely leads anywhere. Sending home a drill or a video isn't the same as creating real behavior change. That takes documented expectations, showing the process, and clear consequences for meeting or missing them. It's the gap Anytime Soccer Training tries to close with fully follow-along videos in...

I watched a game this weekend that changed how I think about fitness in practice. Two teams, similar talent, wildly different outcome — and it came down to something most coaches don't want to talk about. I'm breaking down what I saw, borrowing a personal finance trick to make sense of it, and admitting I might be a little old-school on this one. Curious what you think — come argue with me...

In this episode of The Inside Scoop, I sit down with Carlos Mojica— author of Goal: Awesome Soccer Stories and Fun Facts for Kids — to talk about career paths in soccer that don't involve playing on the field. Carlos and I dig into his path from El Salvador into a career in sports communications, what a Venue Press Officer actually does day-to-day, and the advice he'd give students who wan...

Every parent has said it at some point: "I'm not qualified to train my own kid." I used to believe that too — until I built a system that changed everything about how my sons train, and how I show up for them. In this episode, I get more honest than usual about what's actually behind that excuse, what it costs the kids who never hear otherwise, and the specific approach my wife a...

When I watch my kid's team, I'm not really watching the score. I'm watching whether they can create goal-scoring opportunities consistently — inside a game model and a style of play, rather than by accident. Defensively, I want to see them organized, compact, and aggressive, winning the ball back quickly. Going forward, I want to see them progress the ball out from the back with patien...

Winning and losing tells you almost nothing about whether your kid's team is actually developing. I break down the real signals I look for after a decade of watching games as a soccer parent — the ones most people miss entirely. I share a personal moment from one of my son's games that changed how I see all of this. And I tease a new series I'm planning, bringing coaches on to go even...

Fitness doesn't fit the narrative — it's not fun, it's not easy to sell, so it quietly gets left out of the conversation around player development. In this episode, I dig into why fitness actually matters more than people admit, why the real problem usually isn't fitness at all but a lack of intensity in training, and what parents can look for — and do at home — if their child'...

I've spent 15 years watching parents try to talk coaches into playing their kid a different position — and I've learned it rarely works the way people hope. In this episode, I share why those conversations usually go nowhere, the few times it's actually worth having one, and what's worked better for me: finding position variety for my own kids outside the club, through summer leagu...

In this episode, I take on a claim I hear constantly in coaching circles — that you can't teach a skill you can't perform, or that you can't teach soccer if you haven't played at a high level. I break this down philosophically, using examples like the Erie Canal builders and people who've climbed Everest without prior experience, to show humans regularly achieve things without...

In this episode, I answer a parent's question about whether to approach their U9 son's coach about moving him from striker to wing, where he seems to perform better. I push back on the instinct to judge that parent — I've been there myself, watching my own sons and thinking they'd do better in a different role. Asking development questions early on shouldn't be treated as overs...

In this episode, I record a personal audio message to my sons reflecting on the choices behind our youth soccer decisions — specifically my younger son's move from a larger club to the smaller club where his older brother already plays. I break down why the smaller club's culture and developmental preparation made it the better long-term fit, then push back on a mindset I see in a lot of p...

I sat down with Carlos Mojica, author of Goal , for a special edition of The Inside Scoop — part book talk, part oral history of soccer in El Salvador. Carlos walks me through discovering the game around 1996 through Ronaldo, the street soccer culture of his childhood block, and the father-son debates (Maldini vs. Baresi) that shaped his love of the game. We also get into the culture shock of movi...

Goals For Good is more than a giveaway — it's Park-It Management's way of giving back to the game that shaped so many lives, including COO Derek Messulam's own. Derek moved from England to the US at 12, and soccer became the thing that helped him find his footing in a new country. Now he's channeling that same love of the game into a program built to send a deserving family to the...

How many hours does it actually take to go pro? In this episode, we sit down with Erik McCue, a professional footballer, to get an honest, no-hype breakdown of what real youth training looked like on his path to the pro game. Erik walks us through his journey from casual pickup soccer as a kid to disciplined, high-volume training as a teenager — and shares the numbers most academies won't tell...

I hear this all the time from soccer parents: "If my kid really loved the game, they'd practice on their own." I used to believe it too. But here's the problem — it's backwards. I'm going to break down why competency, not love, is what actually drives a kid to keep playing. Why waiting for your child to "show love" before you step in might be costing them years...

I'm continuing my series untangling the assumptions behind pay-to-play soccer, and this time I'm tackling a terminology problem that's easy to miss but really matters. I break down a proposal from an ECNL leader for a new national scouting program aimed at "amateur clubs" — and why I think that label is misleading. As I see it, a program like this would mostly benefit familie...

Passionate coaches aren't enough to build a great youth soccer program — passion doesn't scale, and it doesn't guarantee competency. In this episode, Neil breaks down why clubs need a clear, repeatable development process that even volunteer coaches can execute well. He covers the 80-20 rule for structuring practices, dividing coaching responsibilities to reduce execution risk, and his...

I make the case for a controversial idea in youth soccer: that great coaching isn't about finding the most passionate, experienced person — it's about building a process so strong it doesn't depend on them. I break down why "hope" isn't a system, how modular, McDonald's-style methodology could let modestly motivated volunteers deliver real quality, and what this means...

I get into what it's really been like raising two soccer kids — the early mornings, the balance between pushing and living vicariously, and the small daily habits that shaped who they've become as players and people. Along the way, I share how those lessons turned into Anytime Soccer Training. Thanks

Going back to the beginning of this journey — to something I stumbled onto almost by accident when my sons first started playing, that most parents and players never think to do. It wasn't a coaching secret or expert advice — I found it through trial and error, and it ended up making more of a difference than anything else we did. In this episode I break down what it is, why it works, and why...