Getting back to what @MPNumber9 said, that is largely a reflection of culture as much as anything else. If we had a more advanced soccer culture, kids would learn many, if not most, of the basics kicking the ball around with their friends, older siblings, and parents at a very young age. With a more advanced soccer culture, coaching at the youngest ages would be less important than it is now.
The USSF is doing all of this.........................its all just going to take time. The DA itself now goes down to the U12 level, and the overwhelming majority of MLS clubs have training at much younger ages than that. Its just going to take time for the elite coaches in those age groups to be developed from a nationwide perspective. Javier Morales, former RSL great, coaches an FC Dallas U11 team. The staffs of MLS clubs are chock full of these guys. Its just going to take forever to reach the sort of level they have in our major European, South American competitors. Champions U11 ⚽️🏆 #supercopa #silver #2018 @FCDallasYouth pic.twitter.com/CcZ7eGpWv2— Javier Morales (@javi_mo11) June 18, 2018 People do know that the USSF built a complex near Kansas City as a national coaching education center..............right? The massive complex is being shared with SKC. I think its called the Pinnacle National Development Center. http://www.pinnaclendc.com/2017/05/...ucation-center-to-welcome-thousands-annually/
With coaching, I’m speaking of the typical youth development of the common player. And in an ideal world, we’d produce the access where we’re not just seeing this at the DAs but all the way down to the recreational levels in the most rural areas.
Yes, this shows some progress and am familiar to the coaching facility in KC. Listen, to all people, I don’t recall me ever saying there has been NO effort to improve youth development. I will try to articulate as concisely as I can that we should always be asking what else can be done to improve? And also point to that ignoring that question leads to more 2018 disasters. That’s complacency. I’m all for hearing other ideas and what would be more effective, but when the only thing critiqued is, it’s working don’t complain - after we missed the World Cup then that’s unacceptable to me. I’d like to hear what else can be done to improve US soccer. What can be done? What ELSE can we do?
I think a first step in understanding is that the state of the USMNT in 2018 is a reflection of development programs 10-15 years ago when those players were 13-18. This was pre-development academy for the most part when MLS programs in particular were more like community outreach programs. To me the 2018 failure and our development academy infrastructure are two distinct topics. Kids like Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Chris Durkin, etc. reflect the current state of our development programs. There are only two nations in the world that made the quarterfinals of both the U17 and U20 World Cups. Those are the fruits of our current labors. By the way, we did that without a bunch of eligible kids like Pulisic, McKennie, and Parks participating. And there's a lot more talent on the way replacing that crop. Exciting talent. My personal feeling is that we're on the right track. We're still just in the stage of building our developmental pipelines to first teams at most MLS clubs. I don't want to say everything is roses and teddy bears, because its not. But we're investing a ton of money into our MLS programs. It would be really interesting to get an estimate of how much MLS clubs are currently investing in youth development programs compared to 2nd tier leagues like Belgium, Portugal, Scandinavia, Croatia, Turkey, etc. etc. I think folks would probably be surprised. We can't be expected to spend as much as the Bayern Munich's and Barcelona's because MLS' revenue streams are nowhere near that. People talk about non-MLS programs all the time, but these are not-for-profits like the Boy Scouts or the 4H club or whatever. How are the Dallas Texans supposed to invest in their coaching and development programs? There are only so many bake sales you can have. [If these clubs received training compensation fees this would be a different story.] The goal should be for MLS clubs to continue expanding the affiliate and scouting networks to identify kids throughout the country at non-MLS academies. Then they can bring as many of them to their free DA programs as possible. For instance, the Houston Texans won the U19 DA title last season. The result was that all of their best players were gobbled up by MLS clubs. One has already signed a homegrown deal with an MLS club (USYNT defender Chris Richards at FC Dallas.) This is what needs to happen. Reggie Cannon came from Solar. Paxton Pomykal came from the Dallas Texans. Brandon Servania came from a club in Arkansas. The list goes on. RECRUITING the best talents to MLS clubs as early as possible is really important. Its ONLY MLS that has the financial resources to do that kind of scouting and player identification. The whole answer to our developmental programs isn't the USSF. The USSF is a not-for-profit (in theory) umbrella group with a whole bunch of agendas not relating to the USMNT. The only reason they got in the development game (Bradenton, etc.) was to fill a vacuum. That vacuum doesn't exist anymore. MLS clubs are going to continue to build and build and build and invest and invest and invest. Why? Because they have the money...........and there are both business and sporting reasons to do so. In fact, I think the best thing for the USSF to do is get the hell out of the way............... Set the framework thru the DA, etc. and then let MLS clubs do the work and investment.
I agree with most of what you said but, I strongly believe USSF could be doing more to help with the the development pipeline. Particularly use that $150-$200M surplus to offset the costs for coaching licenses and invest in futsal fields in cities to get more inner city kids more involved in the game. In Atlanta Soccer in the Streets is working with Atlanta United to add 7 more futsal fields at our subway stations. The first one has already been very successful. Given the lack of widespread soccer culture in the US where dad's are teaching their kids the game we can accelerate the education side by making it less expensive for coaches to get better. Create an affiliation with the local pro club to maintain/run the futsal fields and provide an incentive for coaches to volunteer at those fields. Perhaps they get volunteer credit that can go towards future coaching education. I think that would have a huge impact for the pipeline of players. The kids that stand out in those environments could then go to more competitive environments or even the local MLS clubs academy. You could also have some of the older MLS youth academy kids volunteer. Lagos Kunga coached at one of the Atlanta United camps my kid attended. It gives some of these kids someone to look up to in soccer.
I think we'll always be left behind as long as we continue thinking we can identify and pluck out a small number of very young players to get good training and leave the millions of kids playing all over the country out in the cold. The simple fact is no one, not the scouts at Barcelona or any other top team, never-mind the folks in US youth coaching circles, can know which kids will be the best adults. Sure, the hand selected kids who get access to the system with better coaching will end up better on average as they damn well should or we're really talking about major incompetence. But, we're missing so many other players that would pass those kids by if we had a more comprehensive approach. I think we'd see more high end improvement if we focused more on getting the masses involved and letting the cream rise to the top than thinking we can devise some magical system so we identify a select handful of kids and can coach them into being superstars. For my money, any strategy that fails to take advantage of our size and numbers by only focusing on a small sliver of players is pretty much doomed to failure as it ignores our central advantage of size and resources, pretty much making us the equivalent of a much smaller country. Stronger countries don't just have a sliver of players of quality to fill out a national team. The quality of their typical players is far greater than ours, which really drives the game from a grass roots level. Basically, the whole soccer culture thing.
This is one time surplus though. Once it is gone, where will the money be 2,3, 5, 10 years from now to continue building Futsal courts, subsidizing coaches training, etc. That's a great idea for here and now, but a long term program/solution is needed.
It doesn't only have to be funded solely by USSF but, it can play a major roll in getting it more spread across the country. Station Soccer in Atlanta isn't funded by USSF, I believe most of the funding came from Atlanta United and they are maintaining it. Other MLS or USL clubs could follow suit. It cost $150k to create the field. Plus USSF is not going to run out of cash anytime soon. With the various national team tournaments and 2026 World Cup they will have a continuing flow of revenue. Regarding the coaching training, you need to reach a critical mass of quality coaching. Higher supply of coaches should bring down the overall cost to the player. Those coaches can teach other coaches and so on. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/apr/18/atlanta-subway-soccer-fields-marta-streets Expansion http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2018/...ay-soccer-field-getting-global-attention.html
I'm hoping USL is going to step in and fill some of that void. OKC Energy has a DA academy. Dunno how big or how far down the pyramid it goes but they're in a better position to fill the void in Oklahoma than FCD can alone. FC San Antonio is doing the same. That is a huge underserved market. The growth of not just MLS but the USL is going to increase our sheer numbers. Foreign teams like Barca and now Eintracht Frankfurt starting academies here, also brings potentially excellent coaching to even more kids. While I wish we could magically startup 500 more DA clubs nationally, it's just going to take time. The numbers are increasing year over year. Long may it continue.
The USA has more registered male youth players than anywhere else and 9,000 registered teams. If coaches read and followed the USSF coaching manual we'd soon catch up. Combined with the urban outreach underway I think the future is very promising.
How do you build 50 fields in New York for $3mil? They must already own a bunch of flat, open land that just needs sod to be laid down.
A player like Lagos Kunga who is all about physicality and bullying less physically gifted kids off the ball has no business giving little kids soccer education. Instead, you want someone like Andrew Carleton teaching TECHNIQUE and SKILL. This one of “old US Soccer” bad habits we need to move away from. Skill and technique teenagers > Physically gifted teenagers
Kunga is fast, but he doesn't really bully players physically. His problem is that he has a terrible soccer IQ, and he has no right foot. The first couple of times I watched him play, I thought he was a decent player, but I've watched more games, and I'm not even sure he'll make it in MLS. He looks bad at the USL level.
Unfortunately the key to all of this is the soccer culture. there are things that can be done to encourage/nurture that culture but it can't be forced. I think that things like Atlanta United getting involved with the futsal courts at the subways is an excellent example. It is something that makes a great PR statement (regardless of whether you are a soccer fan or not) and it helps provide the opportunity for the sport to grow. I think that lowering the cost of coaching licenses is a great thing and something that USSF should put more effort into doing but I think the real gains won't come as the result of organized training. The real benefit will come as the result of kids kicking the ball around at the parks, in the streets and in back yards. The talent base for the NBA has very little to do with orgainzed training and everything to do with kids practicing and playing on their own.
that is the problem with building new facilities in cities. Expensive land costs. At least that is the problem here in So Cal. I assume it is true in many other cities as well.
This is fine criticism and all, but it's completely missing the point. My daughter desperately wants us to stick around to get autographs from the kids on our NPSL team, i.e. college interns. The specific player is insignificant compared to the aura the player projects to the kids that they're playing at a much higher level than they can currently imagine (and this applies equally to our NPSL kids as it does to Kunga and on to Zlatan) and that's sort of aspirational origin story we need for the next generation of USNT players.
On building soccer culture, a way to do that is to push for a permanent Copa Americas held in the second summer of the cycle.
You missed the point dude. I was just giving examples of the type of people that could volunteer coach and that potentially an inner city kid could look up to. Also it's not like he created the Atlanta United soccer camp curriculum, it was created by the academy coaches with their supervision, he was just assisting because he likes working with kids. I guess they should have told him not to help since he doesn't meet your standards,
In Atlanta for example the playing area is being given by MARTA (our transit system). Basically it was unused space. Other cities maybe could use the top of parking decks or something.
Is it really flushed down the toilet? FC Cincinnati, one would assume is going to make a big push to start or grow their youth development in an area MLS wasn't serving at all prior to their start up in the USL. Now they will, and obviously it's going to depend on how much they put into the effort but an MLS DA academy is more than what they had so more youth teams are going to start up and be seen by scouts here and abroad. It's an expansion of the footprint of soccer in the country, even though it's indirect. 100m buys pro soccer for a city and fan base that's becoming rabid for such and who as parents are going to encourage their kids to play, coupled with a youth development program where hopefully they'll get better coaching than they had or at the very least another team option for kids to play at higher levels against better competition in the DA pyramid.