i am pretty sure you try out for state odp teams, from which regional teams are chosen.... or play for an MLS team or youth set-up in Europe
I'm sure there are clubs or as mentioned above ODP teams that have scouts at just about every game. If you make the team, its most likely that your coach is talking to a scout about good players on the team. Hoply your one of them and are notified. You live in Florida where soccer is VERY LIVE and teams are great.
ODP (Olympic Development Program) is the traditional and most frequently used route. This includes making your district ODP team, then the state pool, then the state team which travels to a regional camp from which the regional ODP pool is chosen. Then this pool trains a bit over the late summer and fall and takes teams to tournaments abroad and within the US and the best regional ODP players get called into youth national camps where the national ODP pool is chosen. From this pool the various youth national teams are chosen. Basically, the ODP route is long, hard, can be expensive the further you go (though some regional ODP costs are covered and all national ODP costs are covered by USSF), but is the sure fire way to get identified if you deserve it (though there are some politics involved particularly because the coaches can't fully evaluate everyone with limited resources/time at each level). Other than ODP, you can be called into national camp but you need to be getting high level exposure to scouts while playing for a youth team in Europe or for an MLS side, maybe A-league or PSL or PDL. I think that invites to national camps for regular club players in the US are very very rare without the involvement of ODP. Maybe if your club team wins the regional cup and goes to nationals you will be seen by some national team, or at least regional team coaches and could "skip" lower level ODP pools, but it is risky that you might not be identified.
yeah ODP is the most common way i know of. it does get expensive and in the end everyone on the state team is from two maybe three club teams. Even if you are better than someone on those teams, in my state, Sockers or Magic, you will not have as good a chance making the team only because of the politics involved. good luck.
I agree, but that type of problem is really unavoidable. And really, esp. in a state with quality clubs like the Chicago Magic, you ought to be playing for them if you are good enough because that is the way to raise your game to a higher level. I think you should always be trying to play for the best team possible, and usually it is pretty obvious who that is in your state/area. Once you are on the team things just happen for you. My experience was similar, I played until I was 13 for a lesser club and then switched over to the best club and we won the state cup 4 times and as a result I started making the ODP state team (probably because the ODP coaches knew that our team was the best in the state, and also because our club coach was involved in ODP as well), whereas before i hadn't made the state team. So maybe the first step is to start playing for the best clubs possible to make the politics work for you. Besides, playing for the best club is the way to go anyways because if you never get to experience regionals at the club level you are really not getting to play the best players and your game will suffer.
Whoops...too late for that..i'm 19 now and can no longer do ODP. oh well. at least I still play a lot of soccer. play in school (even though i redshirted) but it was a good experience. hmm...got pretty decent without ever playing for Sockers or Magic or ODP. guess when you play against them so much you can improve too. who would have thought? but you're right. the only way to improve your chances are to get on the best team you can afford or in your area. if you have to drive a little further...its worth it if you are a serious player.
Just do frickin amazing at the regional camp and then continue to do so at the regional level. Atleast thats how its mostly done.
I don't think 19 is too late to make significant strides toward being a pro, if that is what you are interested in. I had a friend in a similar situation, never did ODP, but he did play with my club team which won the state cup a bunch of times, but only joined when we were U17 on. So he went off to an average D1 soccer school (SUNY Albany) and was the best player on the team. From there he played some semi-pro and lower level pro soccer (MISL, PDL, PSL) and is now trying to break in to MLS. He basically dedicated his life to soccer while in college and advanced his game immensely and it worked out for him as he has a real shot at MLS. The vast vast majority of ODP players, regional or national, never get to MLS, so that some people make it without ODP goes to show that it isn't essential.
Easier said than done, though. I played in an ODP regional camp a few years ago (Region 1), and they had a mini-tourney where each state played 3 other states. It seemed that the coaches really already had a good idea of who was destined for the regional pool before we arrived. I noticed that there were hardly any scouts at our games against Western PA and the other teams we played, but when we played Connecticut (for whom Kyle Martino played) there were lots of scouts, watching him. We beat CT 4-2 yet only our goalie made the regional pool (we had 4 players invited to the evening games from which the regional pool is picked, but only the goalie made it). We won or tied our other games too but it wasn't good enough. Not sure how, though, as one of our forwards made the national pool the previous year, and scored multiple goals for us that camp, yet still didn't make the regional pool. I think this shows that even at the regional level, familiarity, if not plain politics, still play a major role in who gets selected. Granted, if someone absolutely kicks ass and destroys every team they will get noticed, but that is hard to do playing for your state ODP team when you aren't that familiar with the other players on your team that aren't also on your club team, and many players tend to play selfishly to try to impress the scouts. It gets complicated and if you aren't head and shoulders above the competition you can certain get lost in the shuffle, especially if you aren't a flashy player. That being said, I'm not claiming I was overlooked, as there were many great players there like Martino and Alecko Eskandarian and Cory Gibbs, but it is hard to make it as a no-name.
man, im glad someone brought this subject up...i just recently moved to the states from london, england...i am an american citizen.my father is in the military so we've been all over..anyways, i played u-18 for my local team, Naphill fc for 4 years, i had trials for also local big club wycombe wanderers..i made it and everything, but i kept my loyalty to naphill..i had quite a bit of exposure back in england, but none what so ever here stateside...i currently live in palm coast and soon to be playing college soccer at jacksonville university, i guess college soccer is somewhat exposure but the national team is something that every kid dreams of, and i think i could hold my own in the u-18 nat'l squad...someone help me!!! cheers cj
I was on the Oregon ODP 1st team at the U14 level, and at the reagional camp there were scouts watching your every move, even though we haven't even started high school. At the tournaments there were lots of scouts also.
In the US to get on a college team, even a top one, can you just tryout if you are good enough, or do you have to get like a scholarship? College in the US is a great way of going towards pro and I think its the only way your system is better than the European one where school and sport are essentially seperate.
to answer your question, you can tryout for the college..there are "walk-on's" before the season starts i believe...
If you are good enough for the U18 national side you will probably be destroying the competition in college D1 play. Make a name for youself in college and you could get noticed straight from college by the national sides, as Thomas Rongen recently said he'll be looking for some "unknowns" from college for his U20 squad for their upcoming championship tourny.
Not to be a wet blanket or anything, but just because you had a successful trial with Wycombe doesn't mean you're good enough for the US Nats. Frankly, Wycombe aren't that amazing a team in the greater scheme of things - bottom division in the Football League ATM if I recall correctly. A lot of people tend to think that they can waltz into MLS or representative sides, just because they've had a bit of lower-division professional success in Europe. The fact of the matter is that the US has one of the most competitive junior development programmes around at the moment. Good luck, but it's probably a bit optimistic to say "I'm good enough for u/19 Nats" at this stage. .
yeah, thats very true...sorry for sounding a bit cocky and naive about it i guess....im not trying to underestimating the quality of football here at all...but i guess everyone has to start somewhere, i guess im in the need of a kick start thats all..im sure it'll be hard work to get where i wanna go just tryin to get some help...
what the miami strike force? they are a club team. they're a good side. if ure like 16 you should try out for them. maybe they get scouts because they are like nationally ranked in top 15 i think. Also, most of their players are on the ODP State team.