My son’s middle school team (in a district that produced the high school state champs last year) is coached by a lacrosse coach who, after 5+ years of coaching, still doesn’t know anything about the game.
US Youth Development
- Thread starter QuigrNYCFC
- Start date
I think aside from the lack of quality training and coaching, there actually is a lot of talent that is overlooked, not because of pay to play though. There are many great players who've made it through the ranks but were not chosen to play at the next level because the US scouting is usually tailored to a certain type of player. Tall, fast and strong with a tremendous work ethic. That is what college coaches and USNT scouts look for at the youth to men's level.
However, that being the case, this coincides with the education of coaches. There are many technical players that can read the game excellently. they aren't 6'2 or can run a sub 5 40 yard dash. I can give you perfect examples in mikey lopez and ethan white. fast players, lopez being shorter but you watch them play and they will run for days and accomplish absolutely nothing. As if they were never taught how to play soccer, but to simply chase a ball. Same thing with Yedlin, they're track and field players who found themselves on a soccer field somehow.
There's many players that may not be the "Ideal American Player" but are much better soccer players. They're dubbed not good enough, or not the right fit. These players have gone through the ODP system and played in college yet the coaches don't see it. I can name players I've played with that are currently in the MLS that have no business being there.
However, that being the case, this coincides with the education of coaches. There are many technical players that can read the game excellently. they aren't 6'2 or can run a sub 5 40 yard dash. I can give you perfect examples in mikey lopez and ethan white. fast players, lopez being shorter but you watch them play and they will run for days and accomplish absolutely nothing. As if they were never taught how to play soccer, but to simply chase a ball. Same thing with Yedlin, they're track and field players who found themselves on a soccer field somehow.
There's many players that may not be the "Ideal American Player" but are much better soccer players. They're dubbed not good enough, or not the right fit. These players have gone through the ODP system and played in college yet the coaches don't see it. I can name players I've played with that are currently in the MLS that have no business being there.
Oh yeah, I get that. But why not, say, give every team a second area of exclusivity which is away from any other club of a specific standard (fully professional/top two tiers/operates an academy/etc) and which each cover a roughly comparative geographical area and with, say, a guaranteed minimum 2 million people within each zone, and mandate that each club must spend a minimum of $1m (I pulled that number out of my backside to demonstrate the point) running a residential academy there which must operate at least from, say, u-12 to u-18 and have a girl's section too, with at least 150 players on the books (i.e. to prevent clubs from cooking the books to operate the academy without actually treating it seriously).
In exchange, the club gets any of those players to claim as HG, the same as its metropolitan academy, and gets to keep a certain amount of any transfer fee raised by the sale of any players, etc etc.
That whole example is just me making something up off the top of my head. It's not a serious suggestion, but it's meant to demonstrate that there are ways in which the US system can be adapted to ensure that a far greater percentage of the population has access to a nearby academy set-up which can therefore cover a much higher amount of the total population than the existing set-up.
It just seems so crazy right now that - in a country where professional football is growing, but where if it ever becomes ubiquitous across the entire country is not going to do so for another 10-20 years minimum - the governing bodies are quite content to sit back and just go "eh, well when new teams pop up I guess they'll sort out recruiting the local youths for us". It's a bit like a country implementing a system where people pay can only pay their taxes via a smart TV function, and having the attitude of "well, half the population might not have a smart TV so I guess they get away with not paying taxes, but hey, in a few years everyone will have them so it'll sort itself out eventually".
You are spot on with this. One of my favorite pub arguments is that Lionel Messi would not be a professional soccer player if he was born in the USA and played youth soccer. Because of his size he would have been passed over and not regarded for top clubs or college teams. I also firmly believe that if the USA has young Messi who is just as small a 13 year old today as Messi was, that he will become a Messi-esque player because USA youth development has come a long long way.
The youth team results at World Cup level lately, have been encouraging.
Yes, the recent results have been encouraging, which is an important difference between the quality of our current U-teams and what was happening with those teams just a few years before. Our recent youth teams did not do well, and today, the players on those youth teams are supposed to be the 23-27 year olds that are taking over leadership of the senior team. Except that very few are.
The most promising young players of that generation by and large did not pan out.
Does anyone know who the all time leading scorer is for the US U-20 team? Take a guess, and I will relieve you of one temptation - Freddy Adu. He is second all-time, and like the guy in first, still in his 20s and underachieving.
I looked that up and holy hell I never would have guessed it
Brek Shea
However one big issue with the U-20's is that traditionally not many players have long careers with the squad unless they are tapped up early like Freddy Adu (now Sargent) or are identified early as a guy that fits in, but it's usually a revolving door. I bet we see those records fall soon with Sargent and/or others, unless they are called up to the full team and skip the U20's like Pulisic.
