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The Vancouver Whitecaps were denied a well-earned three points against the Seattle Sounders on Saturday, after Gonzalo Pineda converted a controversial penalty kick to level the score at 2-2. Whitecaps skipper Jay DeMerit was judged to have fouled Sounders striker Cam Weaver, though the "foul" that DeMerit allegedly committed was a mystery to me. In the aftermath of the game, I tweeted this: If we start giving penalty kicks every time players make minimal contact heading crossed balls, well ruin the game. — Jason deVos (@jasondevos) May 25, 2014 To which I received this response: @jasondevos LOL -too late! You already ruined it with your stupid LTPD plan. #keepscore — Jon Empringham (@92jays93) May 25, 2014 While Mr. Empringhams tweet wasnt relative to the Vancouver Whitecaps game against the Seattle Sounders, it did highlight another important point: LTPD, the CSAs long-term player development program, is still very misunderstood. According to his twitter bio, Mr. Empringham is an elementary school teacher who coaches basketball, soccer and track. Given his occupation, he would appear to be the ideal proponent of the principles of LTPD. Yet he seems adamantly opposed to the removal of scores and standings for youth soccer players below the age of 13. While the removal of scores and standings is just one small component of the changes brought forward by LTPD, the concept still faces considerable pushback. I believe that much of that pushback comes from the general publics misunderstanding of the reason why scores and standings have been removed. Keeping scores and standings is not inherently bad for children. We havent been doing young players a disservice all of these years by tracking the results of their games, nor by adding up their wins and losses at the end of their seasons. What we have done, though, is compromise their development by linking their opportunities within the game – perceived or otherwise – to their results on the field. As it is my home province, I will use Ontario to explain. Until the introduction of LTPD, the "Pyramid for Play" (the name of the competitive structure for youth soccer in Ontario) was based on promotion and relegation between multiple tiers. The higher the tier, the more "competitive" the level of play. Tier 1, provincial "rep" soccer, was considered the highest level of play, while Tier 7, local "house league" soccer, was the introductory level. Teams who won their leagues (or finished in the top two or three, in some cases) were promoted to the next highest tier, while teams who finished bottom of their leagues (or finished in the bottom two or three, in some cases) were demoted to the next lowest tier. This movement of teams every year caused a major problem. Players as young as 9 were coming under immense pressure to win promotion - primarily from their coaches and parents. In some cases, failure to win promotion would lead to the break up of an entire team, as players would scatter over the off-season in order to tryout for teams that did win promotion. The concept of promotion and relegation created a false belief amongst coaches and parents that the key to success in the game - the way for kids to "make it" - was to play at the Tier 1 level, which began at the under-14 age category. The years leading up to under-14 were becoming a dogfight, as players jostled to be on a team that was poised to win promotion to Tier 1. It didnt really matter how games were won, or what players were learning, so long as promotion was achieved. The competitive structure itself reinforced this "win at all costs" mentality, and youth soccer in Ontario found itself spiralling into a vicious cycle that was getting worse every year. In my time working as the Technical Director of the Oakville Soccer Club, I once had to gather the parents of an entire age groups competitive program after a fight had broken out amongst parents on the sidelines of an under-10 boys game. On another occasion, I had to intervene on the field of a house league game, as the coaches and parents were incensed by a call made by the referee – who was a 16-year-old girl – and were verbally abusing the young lady. Yet another incident saw a 14-year-old referee leave the field in tears after being verbally abused by spectators at a game. Over time, we have collectively lost sight of the fact that youth soccer is a game that is supposed to be enjoyed by its players, coaches and spectators. Young children shouldnt have to shoulder the burden of "needing to win this game" in order to win promotion or avoid relegation. That pressure is difficult enough for seasoned professional players to handle. Imagine if children had to finish in the top three in their class in order to graduate to the next grade each year? Our school system would devolve into chaos - wed have parents submitting homework and assignments on behalf of their children, as theyd be terrified that their kids would miss out on graduation! Critics have argued that over-competitiveness amongst parents is a societal issue, and that other sports suffer from the same problems. If that is the case though, then surely it is up to our governing bodies to try to better the environments in which our children experience the game of soccer? Surely they should do everything in their power to compensate for our societys failings? Critics have also suggested that, rather than removing scores and standings, we should just remove promotion and relegation from the system. But doing so is far more difficult than it sounds. For starters, how does one determine which teams play at which competitive level? Does one make that determination based on population, geographic location, club size or historical club "success" – all the while knowing that any "success" that was previously achieved was done in a flawed system that was systematically abused? Additionally, there are many people firmly entrenched within the clubs and districts who rule the game in Canada who dont think anything is wrong with how we develop soccer players. Some of those individuals believe this because they do not know what a genuine, player-centric development system should look like, while others believe this because they have a vested financial interest in maintaining the status quo. It is those individuals who will fight the hardest to maintain the previous competitive structure. The only way to combat this is through education – by shining a light on what our real problems are. Because the only way we are going to fix our problems is if we first acknowledge what they really are. 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Terrell Owens Cowboys Jersey . Billy Hamilton finished off Cincinnatis biggest comeback of the season for a doubleheader sweep.LONDON -- A lively Premier League weekend ended with Tottenham producing a stoppage-time winner against Southampton and Stoke coming from behind to easily win at Aston Villa as 10 goals were scored in Sundays two games. Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood launched himself down the touchline pumping his fists after Gylfi Sigurdsson completed a fight back from 2-0 down at home to Southampton to win 3-2. The victory kept Tottenham in touch with the Champions League places, with the London club six points behind fourth-placed Arsenal. Tottenham has played an extra game. Stoke climbed above Villa into 10th place after hitting back to win 4-1, the teams first away success in the league since August which took the weekend goal tally in the league to 42. Chelsea remains top of the league after crushing Arsenal 6-0, with Liverpool second following a 6-3 win at Swansea and third-placed Manchester City beating Fulham 5-0. Returning to the top four remains Tottenhams aspiration but Sherwoods defence will have to be tighter and less error-prone to achieve that. Jay Rodriguez put Southampton ahead on the break in the 19th minute at White Hart Lane after Tottenham defender Kyle Naughton managed to miss goalkeeper Artur Borucs kick. Rodriguez took advantage to slot the ball into the bottom corner of the net beyond Hugo Lloris reach. Naughton was at fault for Southamptons second, as his half-clearance went straight to Rickie Lambert who fed Lallana to sweep in his ninth goal of the season. But it was slackness in the Southampton defence that gave Tottenham a route back into the game in the 31st. Naacer Chadli teed up Naughton, whose cross was only partially blocked by Nathaniel Clyne and Christian Eriksen slammed the ball into the net at the back post.dddddddddddd Whatever Sherwood then said at halftime to his players worked. "It wasnt ranting and raving, it was considered and it was measured what I had to say to them," Sherwood recalled. "I wanted to play a high-tempo game and press them high up the field and I didnt think we had the energy to do it." But Eriksen was on target again in the first minute of the second half. Roberto Soldado outmuscled Dejan Lovren off the ball on the left flank, and squared for Eriksen to tap in from close range. Then, with it appearing the points would be shared, Eriksen laid the ball off for Sigurdsson to score his fourth league goal of the season. "It takes real guts, character and spirit to do that (comeback) and we showed that today -- brilliant," Sherwood said. At Villa Park, the hosts went in front after just five minutes through Christian Benteke. But Peter Odemwingie scored his third goal in two games to equalize in the 22nd minute and Peter Crouch seized on slack marking to put Stoke ahead four minutes later. When Leandro Bacuna and Nathan Baker both failed to clear the ball just before halftime, Steven Nzonzi scored from inside the penalty area. It took Stoke until the 90th to score again, with Geoff Cameron netting his second goal of the season. "At the start of the season we might have collapsed but we showed weve definitely improved," Stoke striker Peter Crouch said. ' ' '