More often than not we are told about problems but not solutions to solving them. This lack of problem solving is something that seems to be permeating soccer in America as more people want to see changes made, while those at the top don't seem to have any answers to the problems that need tackling (no pun intended).
Then you see something like the Unusual Football Field Project. This project comes to us from Thailand and faces head on one of the main problems that they have there - a lack of space creates barriers to creating spaces for kids to play.
But the problem of space resulted in creatives solutions with the final product being oddly shaped soccer spaces for kids to play. They may not be uniform or what we expect to see a soccer field or court look like, but I don't think that was ever the intention. Instead, it was a matter of how we take what we have and make the best of it. And they did that and they did that creatively.
And I think that we as a soccer community need to think more creatively as we look to solve some of the problems that are affecting soccer in America. We all know many of the issues and problems at hand, but what we don't have are creative solutions to solve these problems.
And this is a creative solution to a problem. I don't know what the cost was, but I imagine relatively inexpensive - especially compared to the long term benefits.
I hope that as we move forward as a soccer nation, we let creativity be as much of a guiding force as anything else at our disposal.
