CRANBERRY TWP— You call this game soccer?

"It's always bothered me that America uses the word soccer,"Steve Wall said. "This is the only country in the world that uses that term. I don't even know where it came from.

"The game is football — real football."

Whether its football, futbol, soccer, Wall and his English School of Soccer staff teach the game well.

Wall, 45, a professor at the University of Southhampton in England, is also a longtime college soccer coach and has been putting on clinics in the United States for 18 years.

"We started out by bringing four coaches over to work with 400 children,"Wall said. "It's since spread to eight states, 4,000 children and 22 coaches."

One of the stops this year was the Seneca Valley High School practice fields, where Wall and four other English coaches worked with 84 players in the Seneca Valley North Soccer Association.

The clinic ran from 9 a.m. to noon July 23 to 27, with the primary emphasis on skill development.

"We worked on moves, combinations, passes. ... We were in camp with them three days before anyone took a shot on goal,"15-year-old Steve Muti said.

In three years, the Seneca Valley North Soccer Association, involving players ages 4 to 19, has doubled in size. The SVNSAhas close to 500 players in its program.

Its under-12 boys won the PAWest championship this season. Its under-12 girls reached the PAWest finals.

"We scouted this (English School of Soccer) at Sewickley Academy last summer," said Seneca Valley North public relations director Patty Plaisted. "Once we saw how they teach the game, we had to bring them in for our children.

"With (David)Beckham coming to America, the Riverhounds partnering with the English Premier League, we wanted our kids to experience this."

Beckham recently joined the Los Angeles franchise of Major League Soccer. Last month, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds entered a partnership with Everton of the English Premier League to establish a soccer training academy in Western Pennsylvania.

Jim Caye, who coached the under-12 girls team to its PAWest runner-up finish, raved about the English style of coaching the sport.

"This is the best clinic I've seen in 25 years," he said.

What is it that makes the English style of coaching soccer so different?

"They teach nothing but skills and get the kids to buy into it,"said Ted Neill, a SVNSAcoach. "Teams that are successful in ball control are successful on the field and that's what they teach."

Wall and his staff are currently coaches and/or players in England. Their offseason runs from July 22 through Sept. 2, which is when they come to America.

Besides Seneca Valley, the staff will have put on soccer clinics at North Allegheny, Ambridge, Beaver, Shenango, Mercer, Neshannock, Sharpsville, Sharon, Hermitage and Boardman, Ohio, before it returns home.

"These people are providing qualified professional instruction,"said Seneca Valley Northcoach Thilo Boemsch said. "And they make sure the kids will continue to be taught the same way."

The English School of Soccer returns to Seneca Valley from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday to hold a clinic for the association's coaches and parents.

The starting goaltender for Manchester United will be teaching how to play that position as part of the Saturday session.

Plaisted said attendance is mandatory for all of the organization's coaches so "we can continue to teach at this level."Wall said the most difficult task he faces in teaching American youths is getting their parents involved."Their parents didn't grow up on the game, so they don't have a passion or true appreciation for the sport,"he said. "American parents do not work with their youngsters on soccer over here like they do for baseball or football."In the United Kingdom, soccer is the game. You see pick-up soccer games everywhere. Over here, that doesn't exist. Language is not a barrier in teaching Americans soccer. Tradition is."So are motor skills."Most of our sports are played with our feet. Most of your sports are played with your hands,"Wall said. "The hand-eye coordination we see in kids over here is remarkable. Our kids have the footwork. It's all in what you're trained to use."As coaches and educators, the improvement we see in the soccer skills of these kids after a week's time — we know we're making a difference."And they'll be back."We've already booked them for next year,"Boemsch said.