Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer.

Today we're kicking off a series on youth soccer, how kids get good at the game and ways to help that happen in your home and even, however modestly, in your town or city.

Because with the Men's World Cup coming next summer, it's a good time to get down to the root of the matter, which is little kids deciding whether they love soccer.

The more American kids who grow up to love the game, the better our soccer culture will be, and the better we'll get at the sport at the highest level.

And so, whether kids sign up for soccer this fall, and whether those kids who do sign up, enjoy it and get better with the ball, those things are pretty consequential, and they're things that regular people can help with.

So, we've got three interviews

coming with people who've given a lot of thought to how children learn, what motivates them,

and how best to unlock the joys of soccer for them. I hope it will spark ideas in the home

and on the rec soccer field and that this will serve to deepen our country's love of the game.

However modestly,

I'm dropping all three of these interviews at one time for patrons of the podcast, and the link

for that is in the show notes. For everyone else, parts two and three will come out each of the next

two Thursdays. We start in the home with a man who almost needs no introduction.

Hey, everybody, the first guest in this youth soccer series we're putting together is Tom

Beyer, a former pro soccer player in what's now the J League in Japan, and the author of

Football Starts at Home, a highly readable and interesting book on where soccer development,

you know, starts. He had a 13-year

run on a popular children's TV show in Japan, teaching soccer technique, and started what's now a

network of more than 150 soccer schools across Japan. Now he's an evangelist for teaching kids to

master the ball when they're toddlers and the perfect guy to kick off,

what I hope is a useful conversation for parents and coaches and anybody else who loves the game

and wants to grow American soccer culture.

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