"Kicking Off," an article from NYTimes Sunday Magazine, on Marta, soccer star

[Connie Weber]

"Kicking Off," an article from NYTimes Sunday Magazine, on Marta, soccer hero

Here's the part I like, perhaps relevant to our discussions on coaching:

"In U.S. soccer circles, there is an ongoing discussion about how American players, from a young age, are overcoached and coddled. They practice only under a coach’s supervision, and games take place as parents hover with lovingly cut orange slices and juice boxes. The selection of talent for top U.S. teams, from the youth level all the way up to the senior national squads, tends to emphasize speed, strength and aggression over great technical skill or improvisational ability. Marta will present a strong visual image of what can happen with less coaching and a childhood spent learning to pick up the bounces and spin of a soccer ball on nearly every imaginable surface except a groomed field.

Charlie Naimo, the Sol general manager, is eager for his star to be an ambassador for a new style of play — and perhaps new ways of thinking. 'What we’re hoping,' he said, 'is that having Marta here and people watching her play is going to pose the question: Why? Why is she who she is? Well, it’s kind of obvious. When she was 5 years old, she was out on the street all day playing.'”