Ryan Richter<\/a> was hard at work with a group of aspiring athletes in the club’s SWAG program, teaching lessons that go far beyond scoring goals.<\/p>\n“Right now, where’s the space, guys?” Richter called out as players worked through drills.<\/p>\n
The athletes range in age from 4 to 11 years old, but many already have big ambitions.<\/p>\n
Julian, 7, says he enjoys playing forward.<\/p>\n
“I play all the forward positions,” he said.<\/p>\n
Then there’s Chase Davis, who hasn’t let an injury keep him off the field.<\/p>\n
“I fractured it playing soccer,” Chase said, pointing to his broken arm.<\/p>\n
Sherman, 9, has been playing since he was 4 years old, and says his confidence has grown with every season.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been playing for a long time and I’m very skilled,” Sherman said.<\/p>\n
Building the next generation<\/p>\n
While Richter now leads the Union’s first team, he says developing young talent remains one of his biggest passions.<\/p>\n
The SWAG athletes spend their practices learning technical skills, decision-making and teamwork.<\/p>\n
“There’s so much technical skill, so much decision-making you have to have, all while controlling the ball with your feet,” Richter said.<\/p>\n
While the coach may appear tough on his players, he insists he’s taking it easy.<\/p>\n
CBS News Philadelphia: “Coach, I felt like you were being hard on them. Is that normal?”<\/p>\n
Richter: “Oh, I was being nice.”<\/p>\n
Many of the players come from African and immigrant families, reflecting the diverse cultures now being celebrated throughout Philadelphia during the FIFA World Cup festivities.<\/p>\n
Inspired by soccer’s biggest stars<\/p>\n
The young athletes closely follow some of the sport’s most recognizable names.<\/p>\n
“Mbapp\u00e9, Ronaldo, Messi,” Sherman said when asked about his favorite players.<\/p>\n
“Ronaldo is my favorite player,” Chase added.<\/p>\n
Richter’s own sons, Theo and Julian, are also part of the program and understand what it takes to improve.<\/p>\n
“By practicing every day,” Julian said.<\/p>\n
“A lot of training and hard work,” Theo added.<\/p>\n
When asked which member of the family is the best soccer player, Theo didn’t hesitate.<\/p>\n
“Me,” he said with a smile.<\/p>\n
Richter says his goal is to give every player an opportunity to compete at the highest level possible.<\/p>\n
“It’s to really train them, to give them a chance to play at a high level one day,” he said.<\/p>\n
If you ask the kids, they’re confident about where all that hard work will lead.<\/p>\n
“I’m going to be pro! I’m going to be pro!” several players shouted after practice.<\/p>\n
With the FIFA World Cup inspiring millions around the world, these young athletes are already focused on their own future.<\/p>\n
\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n
In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the FIFA World Cup captures the attention of fans around the globe, some of Philadelphia’s youngest soccer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,10227,11868,2236],"class_list":["post-223222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-union","tag-soccer","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}