I felt so identified with this, exactly the same thing is happing in the argetine youth teams, and it is making that our typical way of playing slowly dessapear. It's all defense game. I guess the principal problem of the american football (sorry, it's so hard to me to call it soccer), was always the unpopoular (if we compare it with baseball, basketball or your foot) it is. In the msot important leagues is the most popular of those countries. It affect the game in lost os aspects... Fisrtly, the amount of players (and their quality). American kids don't play mucho football on th e street with friends, and the school leagues aren't the half of good the Basketball or Baseball are. So, are really few the GOOD player born in the youth teams. Also, the crowd. Most team's fans are really few, and tend to be results' dependents. When the team wins, everything is ok, when the team lose, they stop paying atention to the team. (this happen worldwide, please don't think I am insulting american fans). And of course, the economy. If a sport is popular, merchandise, sponsors and all that sort of teams make a league better. And let's face It, a richer league is a better one. Anyway, think the USA team is getting bette rand better (the confederation cup final is a proof of that), and if the team owners focus on the national young talents rather than old outsiders stars, USA team could be a powerful adn respected team. PS: Btw, sorry about the spelling, I am trying here to improve my english.
this Barcelona-USA team should be our national team in 10-12 years. still crazy that some of you in this thread think this guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
i think the guy knows what he's talking about, i don't neccesarily agree with everything that's on the list
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he knows what he's talking about when it comes to youth development. But I don't see any evidence that he's an expert on American soccer in general. Knowing how to coach kids is a very different thing from understanding the greater world of American soccer.
I'm interested in learning about an economic model that would show how promotion/relegation would work in this country. My own view is that pro/rel is untenable, because it would necessitate the undoing of single entity ownership, which happens to be the main factor responsible for the stability of MLS.
Okay, okay we get it. You're the coach of the team/blogger. Yes, those kids were good. They play like the Barcelona youth teams (kinda). But future national team? You don't think there are better kids somewhere in our nation of about 330 million people? But that Barca fetish is precisely what limits the blogger's knowledge of MLS. If it is not done the way that Barca does it, it is wrong. That is the whole of the content of the blog. Youth development needs to be to the level of Ajax or Barca, or it sucks. All American teams should play the Barca 4-3-3, or they suck. Etc, etc ( I don't know if those specific examples are actually on the site. That is just the attitude I get when and if I read something by them, which is why I don't anymore). That attitude is precisely why all those points to fix American soccer are european answers, that would work in Europe. We are not in Europe. Some of those points are very good, others are ludicrous and would never be plausible currently or possibly ever with the soccer culture this country has.
Here's the thing, though. Barcelona-USA has already been around, teaching this same system, for 13 years. Now, they seem to be a pretty good youth team. And in that thirteen years, they've developed two bona fide prospects, Tristan Bowen and Adrian Rueles, plus a few more fringe pros. That's something to be proud of, but it's not that unusual for a good youth setup. To pick a local example--PDA in southern New Jersey, a conventional pay-to-play club with all the problems that entails, has ten current alumni who are playing pro ball, including Giuseppe Rossi. In other words, if you want to know whether ten years of Barcelona-USA will develop players capable of revolutionizing the US national team, we already know the answer. No.
Exactly Chapka. Heck, the club my sons play for has more success in turning out talent than this club. We have produced Stuart Holden, Brek Shea, and lately several more U17-U18 national team players the last couple of years. This guy may know how to coach and develop players, for a specific style of soccer ... but by the points made in that blog he obviously does not have a good grasp of the American sports landscape or the real issues facing soccer/football in the US.
thats nonsense. You don't know at what point they started to get capable kids int the program. Those kids in that video have better soccer IQ than most MLS sides Ive seen. also, your list is very incomplete. Don't forget Ben Lederman who is now training in Barcelona youth academy.
Ben Lederman is 11(10?) He doesn't deserve to be on a list with fringe pros.And very incomplete would need to be more than one player, unless he was Messi, which Ben's not, as much as the people of 3four3 like to think he is because he can wear the number 10 for the Alevin squad. A better soccer IQ than MLS? Exactly how often do you watch MLS? Probably not often. Actually, I seem to remember you saying that you don't watch it in the thread about the 5 types of US fans. The 3four3 blog is a joke for US soccer purposes. They know nothing about what's happening here. They may know the concepts behind successful player development, but in practice they are no better than their favorite target, the current player development system in the US.
actually the 3four3 blog is spot on and you're a joke. see...two can play at that game. those guys know football and 90% of big soccer posters don't know their ass from their elbow. and its ignorant to point to Barca USA and then ask why more of their graduates are not world class by now. For one that program is just over 10 years old. But more importantly, it's our lack of a competitive environment and professional opportunity for players between 17-22 that kills careers. The 10 year old kid that is in a great youth program is never going to develop into world class if when he gets older he has to go through the American system. The guys at 3four3 say this themselves. They see great youth players leave with the technical skill then go through the formative years through the American system and then come out worse for it.
Hahahaha. Ok, you're right, my ass is on my arm and my elbow is right above my legs. The DA program is........wait for it....., 4 years old. 5 starting this fall. Barca USA is 13 years old, almost 3 times as long to perfect the processes, and yet has the same if not worse results than many DA clubs. And I know the people at 3four3 say that there are tons of problems with the development system in place. That's what I said. They attack the current development system and the flaws we all know it has. But to gain the credibility to bash it, they need better development results than they have. They need to be the ones that supply the "better way" to do things so that they can say, "See, this is what we're saying. Play like us." They are just as bad as the system they attack with every blog post at developing players. Ignore facts as much as you want, and believe every word written on their site for all I care. But regardless of what they say, those posters know less than many fans, players, and coaches in the US.
How do they compare versus other high-end youth programs over the same 13 year period? If the Barca academy is superior to its competitors, shouldn't it be doing a better job identifying and training talented youngsters over that 13 year period?
i don't have the answers to this. We also don't know how long they've had the adequate funding in place. Or if they even have that now. They've sent 1 kid to the actual Barcalona academy in Spain and two more are on their way. They must be doing something right. http://www.barcelonausa.com/page/show/394820-players-in-barcelona
Its definitely not a lack of competition that kills careers its a lack of desire. Also the player's bodies aren't even fully developed yet, not until they're 21 or 22 really. Also these kids can pass, move, and keep their shape very cool. How many major league pitching prospects could throw at a high velocity, hit their spots, and had a lot of break to their breaking ball but once they got up to the big leagues realized they didn't know how to actually pitch a game. It goes down to my favorite saying, everybody can play soccer but not everybody can play soccer. Some people just don't understand the game from a mental aspect and that really doesn't come out until you hit the pros
no, it's the lack of a competitive environment for players from the age of 16-20 that stunts our players development. In Europe those players are already in a pro environment by the time they are 16. baseball is not soccer. I don't know why people try to compare the two. Baseball pitchers don't perfect their craft until they've been in the major leagues for at least a few years. With soccer its about technical ability and soccer IQ that must be learned at a younger age. These sports are not comparable at all.
I don't think there is anything obstructing the USA. This team 30 years ago was known as a mediocre- to- bad team with very little upside. Now we expect to make it to the round of 16 of World Cups and know how it feels to be in the Quarter-finals. Grown so much in such little time. In the future things can get better. Just need to be patient.
Alright, again, Ben Lederman was 10 when he moved to Barcelona. Most of his development will be due to their academy. He was just good for a 10 year old. He might have been in the Barca USA program for 3-4 years, 2 of which very little tactics would have been taught, if any. (That is, if they are really developing players the same way as Barcelona, which they aren't) The other 2 years tactics would have still been secondary to technique. So all they did for him was help him improve technique. They taught him how to pass the ball, not when to pass and what pass to make. Any coach can do that, and tons do. Those coached just don't take their clubs to youth tournaments in Barcelona in case one of thier kids is good enough. As for the other two kids, they are in the Escola. They may not ever even make the academy. Why are we comparing them to kids that have made top college programs or signed pro deals because of their respective clubs' development abilities?
32 years ago, we made the World Cup for the first time since 1950. And you are right. The best we could hope for with that squad would be mediocrity -- and that would be asking a lot. Now, we expect a lot more. We still get more mediocrity than we would like, but it's idiotic to think we could be running consistently with the likes of Spain and Brazil. 32 years from now? I think that might happen. But it's still going to take time and a lot of patience.
its apples and oranges. This is a u12 youth academy. They don't train them all the way up until adulthood like an academy tied to an MLS team that has millions in funding.
I'll say again ... my own kids' club is not an MLS academy, and has had financial problems at times. Yet we have produced Stuart Holdan, Brek Shea (both full USMNT players), Euan Holden (playing professionally in England) and a series of more than a half dozen other players to feature for the U17/U18 USNT, some of who might still push on to even better things. The people writting this blog are massively egoes schmucks with less understanding of the US landscape or the issues in front of soccer developmentally as a sport than they think. They might be able to train good teams and develop some skilled kids, but they are no more special than many of the DA clubs around.
Yup some kids in other countries turn pro at 16 and then play in the reserve league or they go out on loan to lower division clubs to learn how to play the pro game. Most pros don't really start becoming a consistent first team option until they're about 22 or 23, granted there are some exceptions to the rule. That's when they learn how to truly play the game and develop a soccer mind, in the reserve leagues. With that being said most USA players filter through college which isn't the best system in the world but there have been some quality players that have come out of the college ranks. We still need to change the environment to fit a more soccer specific calendar instead of following a traditional American way but soccer is still evolving and finding its way in this country. Bowing down to everything that one club says however isn't going to get you anywhere. I would much rather listen to the USSF on guidelines to further American players than a club who is out in the long term for a profit.
I for one am always comfortable when people rely on the career prospects of prepubescents in order to determine the future of American soccer.