Club Philosophy

The Dutch Football Club is a youth soccer club with an emphasis on improving the soccer culture in the DFW area with the philosophy, methodologies, principles implemented across Holland.

Prioritizing Soccer Culture

Most developed soccer countries in the world who have performed well at the international level, have a “soccer culture” as a foundation for all citizens to enjoy. The United States is still in its infancy in this department and lacks in effort to prioritize developing this culture. The naive Short-Term winning mentality still predominates many parents, coaches and club administrators environment. Many claim to have the secret sauce to developing players better than anyone or promise that they’ll make your kid a professional, all you need to do is join their travel program that cost $10,000 per year which are often paid for by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th lower level teams within the age group. Dangling the carrot that by joining their club will get you that college scholarship in their “special unique college program” if you continue to pay the $3000 club dues each year plus fundraisers they enforce on you. Many talented players quit soccer due to misaligned club, administrative, coach and parent priorities. Parents, be honest and ask yourself, “WHY do I want my child to play sports and WHY do THEY want to play?” Even if they are a star, ultimately, the priority is to enjoy the journey, learning life lessons along the way and experience the feeling of accomplishment by overcoming challenges that builds self-esteem and confidence that are vital to a health state of mind and body. Our commitment to you at the Dutch Football Club is that we will instill a love for soccer for the whole family to enjoy. We’ll develop players to reach their maximum potential through our proven principles so that players can compete at the highest possible level. We commit 3 things to you in this order of priority:

1First ENJOYMENT

Our highest priority is to create an atmosphere that promotes the enjoyment of participating in the sport of soccer. Learning and Winning can't happen when players feel like the game is a chore or a job. When you watch any Dutch sport, there is an Orange celebration happening in the crowd, you can't miss it. This has to be fun for all involved or what's the point. Ajax, Feyenoord and many top clubs across the Netherlands, prioritize enjoyment of the game first and foremost.

2Second DEVELOPMENT

At the Dutch Football Club, developing players is our 2nd highest priority. Equipping players not just with the technical creativity, but also instilling a Strategic & Tactical Intelligence that allows individuals and a team as a whole to control the game with an aggressive attacking mindset while keeping possession of the ball from the build-up to finishing in the final third of the field.

3Third COMPETITION

Winning should always be the goal but sacrificing the Enjoyment and Development for short term wins is a mistake. A desire to want to win must always be there, and the journey taken towards results must not sacrifice the enjoyment and development of the players and the team. This is a unique formula often overlooked by naive soccer families who don't recognize the difference between environments where they think their kids are gaining the benefits of being on a winning team to only find out that the direct style of play and coaches focus on accolades has eventually led to their son or daughter to no longer want to pursue the game at all. At RDFC we emphasis the long term happiness of playing the game the right way vs the short term pleasure of meaningless results.

"You need both quality and results. Results without quality is boring; Quality without results is meaningless."

Johan Cruijff

The either/or syndrome. The progress of a team as a whole, as well as individual growth, can be measured in two ways: Results and Performance. It is not uncommon to have a great performance but not get a result, and likewise, a result can sometimes be achieved without a good performance. Ultimate, achieve both simultaneously are the goal however by prioritizing performance, more games will be won than lost vs. prioritizing results. When neither are present massive discontent will ensue as we've recently experienced with the US Men's National Team failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

There seems to be a common belief that neither can be achieved simultaneously in the youth leagues, especially in North Texas Soccer. In other words, to play a skillful, intelligent, attractive, possession-oriented attacking style of football, one must sacrifice winning. Results Focused: Often in the youth game, we see teams playing a direct style of football by leveraging athleticism and capitalizing on opponents mistake. It doesn't take much skill, talent or intelligence to loft the ball up the field, chase it down than forcing errors on the opposing players by applying high pressure and overpowering them physically. Generally, this tends to produce results in the short term especially at younger ages because players haven't developed their technical foundation and intellectual problem-solving skills to deal with this style of play. Results come quick but long-term it becomes increasingly evident that they were misled in this philosophy as more intelligent and skillful players now end up dominating the game. As players age, the harder it is to develop the proper foot-to-eye coordinated skill sets as it's not as natural as hand-to-eye coordination experienced with Grid Iron, Baseball and Basketball. Players can pick up these hand-to-eye coordinated sports much easier at an older age vs. soccer needing a lot more muscle memory to become proficient at playing the game at a higher level. In large part, this is the reason why so many players in the US drop out of soccer due to realizing they are not that skilled and lose the enjoyment that occurs that comes with development and improvement....not with winning soccer games. It's the journey of overcoming challenges through personal and team growth. Development Focused: Sometimes we see coaches and teams overcompensate because they think they should be Development Focused rather than Performance focused. Winning is a skill. It requires tactical understanding, strategic thinking, mental fortitude, and technical ability. The desire to want to win should always be present in practice and games. An example of this is when a team attempts to play out of the back, because this is supposed to encourage development right, despite every defender in their defensive half being man marketed by an opposing forward. If there is no attempt to punish high pressure with a threat of playing in behind, it's rewarded and actually discourages players to build up the game out of the back and maintain possession. The result...easy goals are given up, development and performance declines and belief in playing attractive football deteriorates. Spain experienced this when they dominated world football with their possessive, short passing style of play in 2010 but getting knocked out of the group stages of 2014 and round of 16 in 2018. The same team that became world champions became predictable just 4 years later with opponents overcommitted with high pressure because there was no concern of giving up space in behind with through balls. At RDFC, we don't believe is sacrificing anything. We seek the "Trifecta." We want it all. Let's have fun while we develop and learn to play the game the right way so we can win as often as possible and lift more trophies. With this clear and simple vision, join us in this one-of-a-kind experience as we lift the North Texas soccer culture to a whole-nother-level.