Wow, what a semi-final! Captain obvious, Hazard is a hell of a player. England played a great game but the clean play of Belgium limited set pieces. Excellent game.

It's a huge time suck. I was so happy when my kids quit their soccer teams. I got my weekends back.

I hear stories from a buddy at work and the amount of time he spends each weekend taking his son to practices, scrimmages, and games in distance places and it's crazy.

And not useful physically, travel soccer kids don’t broaden their interests and find out if they’re suited for different activities. That isn’t a recipe for lifelong fitness.

All these world cup countries got good at it without having all those formal leagues and associations and whatnot. They got good at it by playing in the bare field next door.

The goal is from the tree to this chair. The sideline is this rock to this other rock.

Like the kid shooting hoops by himself, hour after hour. He may get good, he may even get a scholarship, but the chance of going pro are slim to none. That doesn't stop him because he loves doing it, passion is the difference.

amen

Hmm... I'm not convinced organized sports as a whole are down though, soccer has just dwindled from being the latest fad--due at least partially, I think, to the slur "soccer mom." I still know shit tons of parents who put in that kind of time for their kids' volleyball, swim team, dance, fencing, etc. competitions.

We always had engines to rebuild, and boats to fix up and build. No time for sports.

You were rebuilding engines at 6 years old?

I was handing my Dad tools and helping wash parts.

So many activities like sports, band, and scouts have the expectation that you are going to place it first over everything else. I feel bad for the kids that they can't do more than one or two things in High School without disappointing some coach or leader and getting pushback or getting cut for lack of attendance. The expectations for attendance are so high. You get into the upper levels of any high school activity and you are expected to forsake everything else for that one activity.

As little kids, they can dabble in a little bit of everything, but as they get older, they have to specialize. Soccer may be fun, but is it really that fun that you don't do anything else? Same with every other activity.