Review: Klinsmann,not enough young Americans are getting playing time in MLS..

Klinsmann delivers message to young pros
Soccer America
To me the newer homegrown Players coming from reserve teams within MLS have the soccer brain but need to work hard to fight for a spot. The reserve teams need to play more games to sharpen their skills. Most kids at youth , high school and college levels suffer from very bad coaching and that is the major problem and concern in America now.

Yep. MLS is to blame for the U-23 loss, not the coach.

Klinsy misses the big picture.

I want the ones that are getting playing time in our professional league, to be playing alongside and against the best of the best. That's how you become the best.

It kills me how out of touch Klinsmann is with...everything.

What a pandering buffoon. Hell of a player though.

I don't understand the criticism of what Klinsmann is saying.

Is it incorrect to state that young American soccer players lack opportunities to play at the highest levels?

No

Did Klinsmann say that Garber should force clubs to bench veterans and play 18 year old players?

No.

It's his job (not the job of a lot of national team coaches, but very much part of the job of anyone holding the US job, and certainly something that Klinsmann lobbied for) to help create a better youth development program in the US. He's simply voicing a concern that anyone who knows anything about US soccer has: youth development opportunities for promising players aren't close to being adequate; college soccer sucks, and a handful of "elite" normally very expensive soccer academies are a band-aid, woefully inadequate solution; and while MLS gets better every year, the gap between first division soccer in the States and the lower divisions is vast.

It's vital (IMHO) that MLS continue and expand its commitment to a true reserve league, to keep rosters and the salary cap (or its structure) large enough to afford teams the ability to keep a mix of vets and young talent on the payroll. But, of course, there's only so much MLS can do (beyond the amazing things it's done already) to help develop American soccer talent. Until and unless professional soccer in the US (not just MLS) develops to an extent far beyond where it is today, and where it'll possibly be in the near future, it's hard to see just where young American talent will get the playing opportunities they'll need.

Which I assume is why Klinsmann says: "...Off the top of my head, I can't give you all of the solutions for it, but it's definitely worth a discussion going forward."

Well, no shit. Of course it's a discussion worth having. Why shouldn't the national team manager remind the MLS Commish, face-to-face, how important it is for the sport's development to ensure that MLS remains a league fully supportive of the young American player?

Time to send out the bat signal for scaryice.

I would imagine just a simple minute count of American players under 23 y/o in the last 3 or 4 years would show these younger players get more than enough playing time.

And the fact is, almost all the guys on that U23 roster from MLS were starters for their MLS sides. Some players, like Brek Shea, you could even argue had too much playing time recently that has led to some drop in form.

American youngsters don't get nearly as much professional playing time as players in Germany. It would he great if we had MLS reserves playing in the lower leagues AND competent refs that could limit the thuggery and physicality in those matches.

doesn't the bundesliga require a certain amount of minutes for a certain amount of young players?

From what Klinsmann said we should take this as most important and i hope this is what he will be talking to Garber about .

"You see the systems in other leagues like in Germany, all the first division teams have the reserve teams playing, then the third- or fourth-division leagues, which are also a professional league, to get their feet wet and to get playing time and to get competition week in and week out, which I think proves a really good point. They’re maturing, they’re developing, they’re getting stronger, they’re getting better. And when they’re ready then for the first team, they can continue their progress. It’s definitely a topic that they need to dig deeper into.”

I have to take issue with this statement. I watch and follow MLS precisely because I love soccer.

I actually think this is a little too late to be saying that really. Salgado aside, I think most of the rookie players are getting a decent amount of minutes this season, save for perhaps the youngest of them all. MLS teams are also starting to loan their guys, which is also a good development.

Having said that, perhaps it might be wise to avoid something like what we're seeing in Dallas and institute something like a requirement to play your HGs for a certain amount of time in order to continue qualifying for that status. Draft kids are a little harder to justify doing that for though, mainly because they're picked in an already at least somewhat developed state and they seem to be getting a good amount of time as is. Hell, the Red Bulls drafted a keeper in Meara and started using him immediately to good effect.

Then again, that might also just turn you into Philly this season, with too many young guys and not enough steady experience in places where that matters like the backline.

Juergen could also have said that true fans of the USMNT should go out of their way to pay to watch our young Americans play in MLS reserve leagues.

Except most of our USMNT fanbase can't be bothered to spend more than $100 a year to attend their one yearly USMNT game.

I'm waiting until I get my employment situation sorted out myself before I can go.

Lol, but all the coaches in MLS , they're under lots of pressure to get results and the young American can't earn his spot if he's not up to par or be someone special that the coach might think twice to include him in his starting 11. We have come along way so far and sky is the limit.

Re: reluctance of MLS clubs to play younger players-----I'm looking at you Hans Backe!!!

A possible solution to this problem is for MLS to come to a farm agreement with USL Pro or NASL. Have those minor league teams affiliated with specific MLS teams. That way once an MLS team youth academy product graduates he can immediately start his pro career at the lower levels and his progress can be closely monitored by the club. At the same time the young player can get the benefit of a full slate of games in a competitive pro environment. Once his progress reaches a certain level he can be called up to the majors. I think we can all agree that the current MLS reserve league concept is simply too limited...

Looking at the top picks in the last two drafts the only first-rounders that haven't gotten playing time so far (and that have a Wikipedia page) are the Rapids Eddie Ababio and the Dynamo's Colin Rolfe. That's not bad for a season + 4 games.

I think all fans of MLS would love to see increased youth playing time in reserves or a second division. But most of us realize it will take money and time to get it going. No other country except Russia has to contend with such long distances between teams and that fact will color the future path of any reserve league. And I for one have been happy with the progress made.

My problem is that Klinsmann consistently blames MLS for the failure of the national teams under his regime. His latest statement is particularly galling when Sheanon Williams, who has started for the last 1 1/2 years, was abruptly pulled into the team and sat on the bench for all three games.

I don't see it as a blame, what else would he refer too, its all we got. MLS has our players is the driving force of US Soccer. And when did his regime started, lets give the guy a brake. They just started implementing his ideas,so i'm told. So lets wait and see.

Should US Soccer step it up and get into the business of creating its own second division with all the teams owned by US Soccer,is that even possible.

The best scenario would be MLS and USL to join forces and create that MLS2.

Teams do this to some extent now. RSL has loaned draft picks and others (notably Luis Gil) out to USL/NASL teams in season-long loans, and been fairly successful with it. They didn't have any such loans last year, though, because of the reserve league.

The problem is that doesn't look like you can loan out players to lower leagues AND have a functioning reserve league. At least not with MLS roster sizes and salaries.

Bayern II drew 461 fans to their last home game; Hoffenheim II drew 250. Nobody cares about reserve games.

You should read the article before posting.

No doubt you will now come back with a reverse engineered (and sloppy and absurd) justification for your preposterous comment, but Klinsmann's stance is very reasonable.

Here's some help:

Yeah, totally out of touch. rolleyes smiley. irony about buffoon. etc.

Dallas is a good example, they have signed all these kids, then given them no first team minutes, even when they played 3 games in a week last season. Leyva is getting some minutes finally this year, but Luna has fallen off the face of the earth. Top, Moises, Sanchez and Illoa haven't even dressed more than a couple of times combined. Those guys reportedly are the last ones off the training field trying to work hard on improving, and making the decision hard on SH to not give them a chance. But the reality is they simply aren't ready to compete as pros. So is Dallas to blame for that or should they have taken the chance to sign them and see if they could develop as pros over time?

Aside from Agudelo and Omar Salgado (who's not even full NT or even U-23), who else from the national team program is getting blocked right now?

Of course the kids that have gotten some semblance of a chance at FCD (Leyva, Luna) are the ones that aren't US-eligible.

Sanchez was just on trial/training with Chelsea. He's such a hot prospect, that we'll never see him in an FCD uniform.

So as fas as "young Americans" at FCD we're left with Hernandez, Ulloa, and Top. I wouldn't have expected Top or Ulloa to much playing time this year. (if any) It's perhaps one year too soon.

So that leaves Moises Hernandez. If I was him I'd be worried about the future.

What does it mean to be "blocked?"