J Serra doesn’t play soccer....

Morales has been whining this same line for years. And he is no Johan Cruyff. His training is pedestrian and he has the benefit of having rosters of players gifted to him. If he were at some public South County HS, his results would be nothing like they are.

I don’t get the Baker hate. Don’t play for them. It’s one age group across the entire landscape of social soccer. They’ve done well. My kid has trained with Bakers multiple times and has played against them several times. He’s no big deal. And those kids are almost all committed. So the parents had a mission and got it. And college soccer is quite a lot of kickball too. So not much of a departure. Bigger, stronger, faster doesn’t change.
 
Morales has been whining this same line for years. And he is no Johan Cruyff. His training is pedestrian and he has the benefit of having rosters of players gifted to him. If he were at some public South County HS, his results would be nothing like they are.

I don’t get the Baker hate. Don’t play for them. It’s one age group across the entire landscape of social soccer. They’ve done well. My kid has trained with Bakers multiple times and has played against them several times. He’s no big deal. And those kids are almost all committed. So the parents had a mission and got it. And college soccer is quite a lot of kickball too. So not much of a departure. Bigger, stronger, faster doesn’t change.
Pretty much sums up the problem with soccer in the US and illustrates why the YNT’s are starting to struggle more than ever at the international level.
 
Pretty much sums up the problem with soccer in the US and illustrates why the YNT’s are starting to struggle more than ever at the international level.


That could very well be true. But in this case, it’s popular to try to pile on the team that has amassed a lot of success at the club and HS levels. But haters are going to hate, whether they are parents here or coaches at competing schools.
 
That could very well be true. But in this case, it’s popular to try to pile on the team that has amassed a lot of success at the club and HS levels. But haters are going to hate, whether they are parents here or coaches at competing schools.

I don’t get the Baker hate. Don’t play for them. It’s one age group across the entire landscape of social soccer. They’ve done well. My kid has trained with Bakers multiple times and has played against them several times. He’s no big deal. And those kids are almost all committed. So the parents had a mission and got it. And college soccer is quite a lot of kickball too. So not much of a departure. Bigger, stronger, faster doesn’t change.

I am interested in what you think of a coach that screams at the top of his lungs a long series of extremely negative comments (insults) across the field at one of his 15 year old players during a game for getting beat by a better player?

What about a coach that takes 'bigger, stronger, faster' girls and doesn't try to develop them but just utilize them to win club or HS soccer to make the club look more appealing to uneducated customers (which is the vast majority)?

People stating facts does not mean whining or hate. Facts are facts.
 
Fact is that Baker wins and gets about 95% of his players to top D1 colleges. Who gives a hoot what style of soccer you play? Obviously the college recruiters dont care because he has Currently 2 comitted to Santa Clara, 1 to Stanford, 6 to UCLA, and 2 to Loyola. And thats just his Highschool team. Main job for a club coach is to Develop the girls to get to play in college. Seems like he is pretty successful at that. And while you’re doing so have fun winning national championships in club and CIF in Highschool. All this kickball stuff, who cares. Like telling the New England Patriots they have to be a passing team not a running team or their championships mean nothing. Ugly or pretty, a win is a win.
 
Which sums up so much about what is wrong with US soccer.

Who cares about US soccer. This is about a girls club and highschool coach. Not his job to
Worry about the next US national team. Thats the job of the National team coaches to find girls they want. And dont say that these club coaches are tutoring or preparing the next group for the National team. National team players get to that level with or without coaches like baker. And last time I checked US soccer is still the best in the world and in a country where soccer is like our 5th top sport.
 
Fact is that Baker wins and gets about 95% of his players to top D1 colleges. Who gives a hoot what style of soccer you play? Obviously the college recruiters dont care because he has Currently 2 comitted to Santa Clara, 1 to Stanford, 6 to UCLA, and 2 to Loyola. And thats just his Highschool team. Main job for a club coach is to Develop the girls to get to play in college. Seems like he is pretty successful at that. And while you’re doing so have fun winning national championships in club and CIF in Highschool. All this kickball stuff, who cares. Like telling the New England Patriots they have to be a passing team not a running team or their championships mean nothing. Ugly or pretty, a win is a win.

While it is not my preferred style of play, I mostly agreed with your points until you said this...."Main job for a club coach is to Develop the girls to get to play in college". While in theory, it is true, if you are applying that to Baker, that is where we disagree. What he does well, and the blues in general, is that they do a great sales job. While he may be repeating the same stats you listed to prospective players, what he leaves out is that like the girl that he is talking to, the girls he recruits are mostly developed before they get to blues. That is how they get there to begin with. Somebody develops them, Blues notice and call the parents and the sales pitch begins. This is no secret!!
 
And last time I checked US soccer is still the best in the world and in a country where soccer is like our 5th top sport.

Bro, girls soccer and mens soccer are two very different things. The US has a ton more females playing soccer than any other country - possibly more than them all combined.
 
While it is not my preferred style of play, I mostly agreed with your points until you said this...."Main job for a club coach is to Develop the girls to get to play in college". While in theory, it is true, if you are applying that to Baker, that is where we disagree. What he does well, and the blues in general, is that they do a great sales job. While he may be repeating the same stats you listed to prospective players, what he leaves out is that like the girl that he is talking to, the girls he recruits are mostly developed before they get to blues. That is how they get there to begin with. Somebody develops them, Blues notice and call the parents and the sales pitch begins. This is no secret!!
Wrong. There our currently 7 girls on his 01 team that have been with him for over 6 years. 5 girls that have been there for over 4 years. So actually he is getting them really right when they are about to go 11v11. My daughter doesn’t play for the blues but has played against them for 8 years. Its the same core. Check back in 4 years and see where his current 07’s are. Then you can make or break your argument.
 
Bro, girls soccer and mens soccer are two very different things. The US has a ton more females playing soccer than any other country - possibly more than them all combined.
Yes. But the majority of female professionals make no money as well as national team players. So the real goal is to play college. Not play for National team. National team is for a very small percentage so we should care about the masses, not .0001% of the girls playing club soccer.
 
Agree, Blues develop thier players and they stay as long as they can until they are cut or get recruited by Slammers.
Agree partly. Slammers cuts way more girls year to year then baker. I say baker, because blues and baker are not the same thing. He coaches there but his loyalty is way more proven then slammers and rest of blues staff
 
Yes. But the majority of female professionals make no money as well as national team players. So the real goal is to play college. Not play for National team. National team is for a very small percentage so we should care about the masses, not .0001% of the girls playing club soccer.

Indeed. The current youth soccer landscape helps girls get into college arguably at the expense of the WNT. This is certainly better for society than the reverse situation in which youth soccer is focused on improving the WNT at the expense of education. Regardless, soccer is a dead end for women with the exception of one player per year on average, and those are ridiculously stupid odds when you're deciding on the best soccer coach for your 13 year old daughter. If someone wants to maximize their daughter's potentially realistic chances of getting into the likes of Stanford or UCLA via soccer, Baker is a solid and perhaps the best bet in SoCal. But maybe he isn't if you want to maximize the chances your daughter will become an immortal soccer superstar who carries the WNT to glory some day - unless the last WC wasn't a fluke and the American style of direct play with its overpowering physicality and emotional strength really are more important in the women's game than Japanese team circus juggling. But good luck picking a coach for your daughter because you're more interested in future WNT dominance than the possibility that she might have a meaningful professional (i.e. MBA, MD, JD and not NWSL) career. Although we all appreciate your service to our country, Baker is losing no sleep, nor are the families of the girls who ended up at Stanford, UCLA, and the Ivies who moved on to real jobs.

You might also want to steer clear of Baker if you need a comfort animal when you leave the house. He might also play kickball with your maltipoo.
 
Wrong. There our currently 7 girls on his 01 team that have been with him for over 6 years. 5 girls that have been there for over 4 years. So actually he is getting them really right when they are about to go 11v11. My daughter doesn’t play for the blues but has played against them for 8 years. Its the same core. Check back in 4 years and see where his current 07’s are. Then you can make or break your argument.

This dude should be our early age national team scout. He might not be the best coach, but the guy sure knows how to identify talent at an extremely early age. It's uncanny.
 
Indeed. The current youth soccer landscape helps girls get into college arguably at the expense of the WNT. This is certainly better for society than the reverse situation in which youth soccer is focused on improving the WNT at the expense of education. Regardless, soccer is a dead end for women with the exception of one player per year on average, and those are ridiculously stupid odds when you're deciding on the best soccer coach for your 13 year old daughter. If someone wants to maximize their daughter's potentially realistic chances of getting into the likes of Stanford or UCLA via soccer, Baker is a solid and perhaps the best bet in SoCal. But maybe he isn't if you want to maximize the chances your daughter will become an immortal soccer superstar who carries the WNT to glory some day - unless the last WC wasn't a fluke and the American style of direct play with its overpowering physicality and emotional strength really are more important in the women's game than Japanese team circus juggling. But good luck picking a coach for your daughter because you're more interested in future WNT dominance than the possibility that she might have a meaningful professional (i.e. MBA, MD, JD and not NWSL) career. Although we all appreciate your service to our country, Baker is losing no sleep, nor are the families of the girls who ended up at Stanford, UCLA, and the Ivies who moved on to real jobs.

You might also want to steer clear of Baker if you need a comfort animal when you leave the house. He might also play kickball with your maltipoo.

Dang. When you put it that way ya Got me feeling like the dude is Braveheart/William Wallace....of soccer :)
 
I am interested in what you think of a coach that screams at the top of his lungs a long series of extremely negative comments (insults) across the field at one of his 15 year old players during a game for getting beat by a better player?

What about a coach that takes 'bigger, stronger, faster' girls and doesn't try to develop them but just utilize them to win club or HS soccer to make the club look more appealing to uneducated customers (which is the vast majority)?

People stating facts does not mean whining or hate. Facts are facts.


This is so silly. So the guy yells. I think he just does fine. Again, CM complaining about his style is silly. Newport Harbor plays them Friday. You won’t see their coach saying “chuck gets all the recruits.”

Aside 8-10 teams high school soccer is garbage anyway. It’s just for kicks. No pun intended.
 
I threw him out of a fall club game about 5 years ago for calling one of his players stupid. That was after I had asked him to stop yelling at my AR then told him to stop yelling at me and to talk to his players in a respectful tone and no derogatory words. That was about three weeks before he got thrown out of a game vs Surf at the Polo field. That second ejection got him suspended for the remainder of the fall season. His team did just fine without him on the bench yelling at them and degrading them. So give credit to the players and not him for the team’s success.
 
This is so silly. So the guy yells. I think he just does fine. Again, CM complaining about his style is silly. Newport Harbor plays them Friday. You won’t see their coach saying “chuck gets all the recruits.”

Aside 8-10 teams high school soccer is garbage anyway. It’s just for kicks. No pun intended.

What would you do as a parent if a coach yelled at your kid for almost 20 seconds insults, told her she is dumb, etc? I do not find that silly.
 
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