Soccer is perhaps best understood as a language. And what's the best way to learn a language?

Let’s say you wanted to learn French as a second language.

You could enroll in a prestigious and expensive academy across town 1/5

Drive 75 minutes across time 4 days a for 90 minutes of rigorous class alongside hand selected classmates and accomplished teachers along with a tutor or two to work on specific weaknesses... 2/5

Or, you could spend 3 hours everyday at the park near your house, with a group of french kids in various stages of speaking, all of varying styles, and accents, ages and levels. No experts, no correction, no tutors, just playing 3/5

Now, 5 years later, who do you think could communicate better, as if their life depended on it? Who could tell you a joke, or a story, and keep you entertained?

Soccer is a language, languages are spandrels and can't be built, they are 'exapted,' a useful side effect 4/5

But must emerge just as language did on the monkey bars, the play was the method, excellent communication ability was the side effect.

Want excellent soccer? Don't focus on performance, possession, 1 v 1, you can't teach it, at least not to a world class level, only play can 5/5