Eddie Lewis’ TOCA brings training innovations to MLS academies, USWNT/NWSL players and beyond

About 40 miles south of Los Angeles in the Costa Mesa area of Orange County, TOCA Soccer’s headquarters demonstrate a vision of why USWNT Women’s World Cup stars Alex Morgan and Emily Sonnett have previously been to visit.

The premise for its beginnings were simple: former United States international and Premier League player Eddie Lewis wanted to share his secret. As a youngster, Lewis was a talented but unremarkable soccer player, by his admission. He was good enough to earn a scholarship to UCLA as an outside recruit, but a career as a professional — let alone an international playing in the most recognised league in the world — was far from a given.

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He had all the physical and mental attributes to succeed but lagged behind his team-mates technically — his first touch was often stray, and he describes his weaker right foot as “shocking” (shockingly bad, that is). As a youngster, he spent too much time trying to get the ball under control while his head should have been up looking for a pass.

In his view, the catalyst for an eventual career at the game’s top level was a chance encounter with the UCLA basketball team. With the soccer locker room in the basketball arena, he’d see the basketball players practising on the court and once noticed they were using smaller balls and smaller baskets.

The idea: if you can shoot a three-point shot into a smaller hoop, you’d be able to do it on a regulation-size net. So, Lewis grabbed a few tennis balls and started practising against a garage wall. If he could control a smaller ball, he’d be able to master a size-five football.

In a matter of weeks, his touch had improved significantly. He then bought a tennis ball machine, set up his own “studio” between two