Well I think it's not just about finding players, but it's about having a way of developing the players that they do find. Different clubs have different ideas of what a "good" coach is. I mean it wasn't too long ago that if a coach had a non-American accent, people just thought he knew a lot about soccer. I am 100% sure that the talent is readily available in some of the academies to be very very good players, but I think the coaching education across the whole country is severely lacking. Part of that goes back to being such a large country. For example, if Uruguay wanted to make sure all of their coaches followed a methodology set forth by Tabarez and company, then it would be relatively simple compared to how long it's taken for any coaching education to trickle down to the fields of all the youth clubs. I'm not saying that it's impossible though.
Croatia is likely the result of a strong national youth soccer structure plus access to the EU coupled with extremely good fortune. Lots of countries that are Croatia's neighbors that have larger populations and 0 great players currently. US is probably a lack of the almost any youth soccer structure until about 5-10 years ago, geographic size, no access to EU until 18 and poor luck. Also DFW has 6 million people, but soccer is 3rd or 4th fiddle in-terms of sports and perhaps even farther down the list for groups that have the highest ceilings, so how many people do you really need in DFW to have pipeline of similar size to Croatia? I don't know, but for all we know 4 million people in Croatia gives the same segment of high caliber soccer players in the development pipeline as 10 or 20 million people in US.
For small countries, the concentration of people passionate about the sport breeds intense competition at all age levels, and when you add a competent development structure around that you get something special. Like Georgia for football, Indiana with basketball, or Iceland with soccer, it’s possibe to punch well above your weight class with the right mix of coaching + cultural obsession with a sport.
There are so many examples of this in the US. North Carolina and South Carolina have similar demographics, but NC is twice as big as SC. SC is a football state and produces about as many P5 football players as NC. NC is a basketball state and probably produces 5x the amount of basketball players as SC. SC also has almost no soccer culture and as a result as produced ~3 MLS players in its history and all are back-end of the roster types. NC has a pretty decent soccer culture for the US especially in the Triangle and is one of the last fertile non-MLS territories. Jaylen Lindsey, Gianluca Busio are at SKC, Manny Perez, George Marks are at U20 Camp. Not like NC is great by any stretch of the imagination, but compared to SC you can see what a difference even a minor soccer culture can produce. Not surprised that a city like Seattle with a really large culture that really took off with the Sounders has started to churn out some quality youth players. Edit - I forgot Jonathan Amon is from Charleston, SC. He did go to EU at age 14 or 15.
That's the reason why thinking big like some US fans do isnot good. Many of them want grand gestures nation wide, thus diluting quality. Condense it in well populated areas that have a big(ger) soccer affinity. With success it will work like an oil stain spreading outside.
https://www.doublepass.com/next-phase-of-usa-project-launched/ Read this article on another thread. Apparently since 2015 DA clubs have been trying to implement advise to them from Double Pass. Double Pass is now reviewing their progress and is putting together metrics to give to USSF for an Incentive Fund. >"better DA clubs will also be rewarded by quality labels and a U.S. Soccer Incentive Fund." Does anyone think that DA clubs have improved more over 2016, 2017, and 2018? (Compared with 2008 to 2015.) I am curious if Double Pass has had a positive impact on player development.
Wow, this is amazing. I was just suggesting these two exact things about a month ago. Look at it from the perspective of a non MLS DA club. What incentive do you have to produce world class players? You have no first team to sign them to. The only revenue you get is from player fees and winning trophies. Producing talent is not your concern. Now take it one step further. If the USSF mandates another program to force MLS clubs who poach players to pay training compensatuon, you can setup something like this: 1) $50,000 for every academy player poached 2) Another $50,000 if that player signs with MLS first team 3) Additional $100,000 if that player makes more than 20 first team appearances
I suggested this 3 or 4 years back as well and had many of the same ideas as you. It's a pretty obvious way to incentivize and subsidize youth development. Glad to see it's being implemented.
Check out @JeffreyCarlisle’s Tweet: FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber is scheduled to meet on Oct. 25 to evaluate and rule on the solidarity payments case involving DeAndre Yedlin and one of his youth clubs, Crossfire Premier: https://t.co/OWiQSs6MAJ #usmnt #SoundersFC— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) October 19, 2018
Assuming this is not a coincidence, which it probably isn't, I came across a fairly random "Ex-MLSer whose kid is now in an MLS academy" today. You'll have had to have been around a while to remember this guy. (I have been around a while.) http://nyrb.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=1655856&player=78120957
I wonder if we're on the cusp of "Development Academy 3.0?" Question asked about dividing MLS USSDA clubs and others. Lepore pretty much confirmed that the top talents need more meaningful games, and without directly saying it was happening confirmed that it’s in the works.— Joe Gould (@twelfthyank) January 10, 2019
This is not at all generic U.S. Soccer’s Philosophy of Talent Identification #CHI19 pic.twitter.com/VMVdJczlsX— Mike Woitalla (@MikeWoitalla) January 10, 2019
Makes sense to me. You can't nail these things down in one or two sentences. I have a little bit of an issue with speaking "the same Club/US Soccer language," and I have no idea what they are talking about with gender in the last point, but, overall, it seems about right.
For those interested in the experience of a Yank parent with a son in the Dutch AZ Academy: LONG THREAD1/ It has been five months since my son @aethanyohannes has joined AZ Alkmaar U15 youth academy in the Netherlands. My experience as a parent watching his develpmt in a first class Academy is a humbling experience. Some have asked how he was doing. Here it goes.. pic.twitter.com/D2QkUykkRU— Daniel Yohannes (@D_Yohannes) January 13, 2019
INTERESTING QUESTIONS FOR MLS AND US SOCCER IN THE PLAYER DEVELOPMENT SPACE Any guesses about which franchises this might be? I mean, other than Chicago. That's too easy.
If any club shut down their academy, I hope the league would take every single cent of that club's allocation money until they re-start an academy. And yep, Chicago is the easiest answer. For the love of god can someone buy out Andrew Hauptman's ownership stake. Then probably NE.
I’ve noticed in my area of Northern California that there is big time jealousy between independent DAs and MLS DAs. Of course coaches and club directors want to recruit the best players and operate the most competitive teams but the smear campaigns against MLS DAs can get ugly. I imagine that is one of the reasons that MLS teams would like to separate from the current system.
Looking at it with my Dutch eyes I see your soccer environment as an archipelago of islands with strong currents sweeping along them and with the accompanying insular mentality of me first. The Dutch environment is more akin to a network. It's interconnected for mutual benefit. Like this for Feyenoord: Far more productive I think. But then again, if a player moves to Feyenoord the compensation can get big like for a 16 year old goalie, Feyenoord payed over 60,000€€ compensation for.
I think this is the crux. Because the non-MLS clubs don't get the solidarity money then MLS clubs are just vultures stealing their best players. Players who make their teams better which leads to other good players wanting to be on their team etc equaling more money for them. A change in this rule would make them partners. They would want MLS teams to take their players because they would make money from that.
The amateur clubs are just clubs run by the members as an all ages club for fun of playing soccer. So the first reason of it's existance is fun for the members. In exchange for the partnership they get clinics by Feyenoord at their club etc. So their first obligation to the club as members is to make sure it's financially sound by membership fees (not high) and sponsoring by local businesses matching expenses. The windfall of a kid being "transferred"is just that, a windfall, not an aim.
I think it varies from city to city. At the beginning of the MLS academy era, there was a lot of resistance and hostility to the pro academies. Now in many cities, a network of feeder clubs is evolving. MLS clubs get good local talent, the feeder clubs can position themselves as the pipeline to the pro academy. The speed with which this occurs depends on the ambition and diplomatic skills of the MLS club and the size of the egos in the local club scene.
I heard a story from a parent of a top prospect that a DA coach in Nor Cal told the parent that he should send his kid to Seattle Sounders DA instead of play for the local Earthquakes. Something is wrong when parents are advised to send their young children away to be raised somewhere else when there is a pro Academy in the area.
Good thread here, and of interest to those who wonder why the Houston metropolitan area has produced so few pros.Got a hunch that’s gonna change fairly soon. https://t.co/fRshI9HO1w— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) January 27, 2019