European and U.S. soccer enthusiasts are on a mission to help young American players who they believe are detrimentally spoiled with too much structure and too many manicured playing fields. They say the U.S. game isn’t as popular or influential as soccer in the rest of the world partly because too many American youngsters don’t practice in informal settings.
They want to change things with the calle movement, which is soccer played in the street. Calle (pronounced kai-yay) is Spanish for “street.”
“I grew up playing soccer in the streets,” said Chicago native Marcelo Balboa, a former member of the Colorado Rapids and U.S. national team captain. “We didn’t have these big luxury parks. On the street is where you learn your creativity, your craftiness, usually playing against older kids and adults.
“The parks that they’re building for soccer are great, but when you talk about calle, you’re talking about the whole revolution of soccer. That’s where you create the personality you have on the field.”
The street game allows players to obtain more technical skills on a quicker surface and in a more confined area, with more touches on the ball and less running after it.
“America is way too organized,” said London native Danny Mason, CEO of Calle Republic. “It’s all about fitness and strength on grass, which is great, but you don’t have that freedom to express yourself that we learned playing on hard surfaces, where you can’t really slide, so it’s all about touch and feel.
“The rest of the world isn’t like America. They play on the street, the alleyways, on dirt — and that’s where they get the touch with the ball. Really, street soccer is soccer everywhere else. The only place we use “street” is in America, where there is just so much grass.”
Mason’s company sells calle apparel. He was spreading the word about calle last weekend at Peter Scott’s Soccer Stop in Littleton. The England-born Scott is the former boys soccer coach at Regis High School who recently added calle rubber balls and hard-soled shoes to his inventory.
The specialized balls are less bouncy than standard leather soccer balls and resist wear from hard, rough surfaces. The shoes double as everyday footwear.
“The whole idea is to not only get kids to play structured soccer, where there is a lot of it in the U.S., but to play on their driveway or a cul-de-sac,” Scott said. “You don’t need coaches, you don’t need parents. You don’t need people to set you up. Just go grab three guys and have fun in the street. This is not part of their culture to do that, but we’re trying to change that.”
Zach Kice, a senior-to-be at Regis, said he’s become a much better player since being introduced to calle.
“The speed of play, your awareness has to go up a lot,” Kice said. “It’s just a faster game, and it helps you in standard-field play because it teaches you to stay on your feet. If you don’t stay on your feet playing calle, you’re looking at road rash.”
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
