This is a very interesting graph, IMO. Of course we don't see the youths and trials, because this is based on actual minutes played for first team. And it shows a drought in the Klinsmann years. I think a lot of that has to do with JK's rotating MLS players all the time. Except for the ones who returned from Europe, and the ones already too old to go anywhere, what young MLS players got consistent exposure with the NT? Yedlin, Zardes, Zusi (25-26 when he was playing the most for JK), Besler (also 25-26 when he started playing for the NT regularly). Otherwise, we have like 40 MLSers with 10 caps or less, many others with 10-20 caps who were not used for games that mattered. I wonder how much Klinsmann's preference for "European experience" played into the perception that our players are not a good buy.
Zusi is done, I have a feeling Zardes is going to be the same way, a decent MLS player, no good enough to make an impact at the international level.
No wastin 4 years on a 3 months college league also helps. If anything college soccer needs to be a 10 months season, if they are going to be our third division. The fact that college players are not allowed to get paid is huge a factor for college soccer no to be anything serious for any real prospect. We will have wait for college athletes to get paid (we are in 2017, they should) and then make their season a 10 months season, if no just forget about college soccer, right now it's a big joke.
JOB left his life in Cali and went to a place where the mindset is turning pro in Holland by 19ish. Jovan did something similar. College ball has worked for some of our guys but for sure, going to a place where turning pro earlier than later is where the future of the beautiful game lies in our sporting culture.
This is the big problem. I'm not philosophically against college. We need to have some catchall for the players that are not ready at 18. Third division clubs will never quite be able to do that. Hundreds up on hundreds of colleges will. The issue is that the game in college is a mess. Ideally players need lots of training interspaced by meaningful games with rules and playing style that match the pro game. It could not be farther from that. Teams can only train together for a small part of the year. When tournament time starts too many games are packed in to a tight schedule. No limits on subs mean that the games are pace, pace, pace. We need a rehaul for the college game to reach it's potential.
On the college point...here's some old research I did on that topic. This is each player on a World Cup roster, and underneath is the number of years they played in college. College soccer isn't going away: there are ~20,000 players, compared to just ~2,000 in USDA, and however many college-aged players who are already playing professionally abroad (like 100? I have no idea.) What is noticeable, though, is that fewer players spend all 4 years in college.
I am trying to be very neutral in my opinions because is simply the right thing to do. If you look back at the game vs Brazil in 94 (youtube) you can see that the only 2 players making an impact in the attack were Hugo and Ramos, Hugo was 34... College is great, education is great but they have to play at least 10 months to be able to compete vs elite Europeans and South Americans...
I don't think it should go away but we def need to change the rules. Top talent should be heading to MLS or USL, specially the ones that come from working class families. I am playing indoor soccer right now with a 23 years old kid that played for the Real Madrid academies next to Enzo Zidane, the kid is fat and out of shape, he wasn't even allowed to play in High School because of issues that have nothing to do with the sport. The kid is selling cars right now and doing good for himself, he doesn't like books... This kid came from Spain with bunch of injuries, if a second division team would have taken him at 18, he could have been playing in MLS right now. Reality is, college isn't for everybody.
I have no idea who Jovan is. Dempsey would have been a better player probably if he didn't go to college.
Hugo, Even if it were true and CD became even better than he was, we wouldn't have been a World Cup final four participant anyway. Of today's pool, I don't see how college has hurt us significantly. We have a lot of talented youth (owed in significant part to MLS academies and the raised profiles of the game) and these youths are being recruited heavily by some of the world's best teams. We are hindered by passport restrictions so that only european dual-passport holders can go before 18. If it wasn't for that rule, we'd have a huge rush of elite youth heading over IMO. Even without it, we're making steady progress in sending talented youth to train with the best as early as possible and I believe this important trend will continue to grow as hopefully CP will become a star(!) and therefore the model that our kids emulate.
Not in the least. First, I was not making an argument in the sense of stating a distinct preference for one option over another; more of an observation. Second, I was not saying anything at all about college soccer. My point was that the present-day lower division clubs must first attain financial stability (which may require more experienced players to improve the product in the here and now) before they can become a reliable, sustainable developer of young US-eligible players.