We are extremely proud to announce that Adrian Solca, Executive Director of Coaching, has been awarded the prestigious 2019 Coach of the Year - Youth by the United Soccer Coaches Association! Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/YZqlE4aOwJ— Solar Soccer Club (@SolarSoccerClub) December 19, 2019 Adrian Solca named US Soccer Coach of the Year by United Soccer Coaches Association. His U17 DA team won the DA Championship and he's placed numerous kids on the boys USYNT this year as well as produced JT who is now playing in England. Great work from a non-MLS DA club to be that productive and successful in results and player development. Good for North Texas and US Soccer.
Unfortunately nothing USA can do about this one. He's a Davies level talent that does not have any american ties as far as I know. He's the high end talent that the 2004 age group is really lacking.
This is why I preach to root against Canada. They are going to become a big rival of ours and a significant threat at some point in the not too distant future.
Iron sharpens iron. If the USA wants to make a World Cup final, we need quality opposition testing us every step of the way. When USA, Mexico, and Canada are in the top 15 of FIFA rankings then we’ll know we’re getting close.
canada soccer is likely to get some reasonable % of their country's athletic phenoms. (i know, i know - not the only important thing in a player's arsenal.) us soccer gets the dregs. we just have to deal.... ...and work better.
In reality Canada has 3 elite pro academies while the USA have 19 academies that are better. The only USA academies that are not better than the canadian clubs are Portland and Orlando. Every other USA club is either producing at a better rate, is going to produce at a better rate but has a new academy, or have finally realized that youth development is a thing and will start producing. Right now the 10 biggest cities in the USA are NYC, LA, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, DC, Miami, Philly, Atlanta, and Boston. Only Dallas and Philly are producing at a good rate for their population areas. Once the 12 clubs that serve those 10 areas are producing at a rate that Dallas and Philly are then we really should not have to worry about Mexico or Canada even coming close. The areas above don't even include high producing teams like RSL, Seattle, SKC, Columbus, and areas with potential like San Jose, Minneapolis, San Diego, Orlando, Tampa, Portland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Denver, St Louis, Charlotte, Sacramento, Vegas, Cleveland, and Austin which either have MLS teams with potential or markets which will soon have a team. Don't worry about the other countries long term we have the potential to be a powerhouse once every area has a funded academy team.
Academies are only part of the equation. First team playing time is an important factor. MLS has domestic quotas, but they are becoming increasingly abused with how fast newcomers to the league are getting green cards. MLS teams are increasingly spending more money. That is attracting better foreign players. Where is the opportunity for the kids? USL is a solution, but is it enough? One reason I'm so excited for the CPL is that there are Canadians quotas, including playing time quotas for younger players. Will this result in more domestic kids getting playing time, developing and moving on to better leagues? That's the hope. We'll have to see if that's a better route to improve a national program. One doesn't need an elite 1st division to compete on the world stage (ie Croatia). Having lots of MLS academies is a great thing. But if players don't seem to ever get playing time with the first team and then flame out, how helpful are they? The added wrinkle of MLS historically refusing to pay a transfer for USL/NASL players creates an additional stumbling block for kids looking to climb the pyramid. The CPL just sold their 21 old Canadian MVP to a club in Belgium for 300-500k. There's another spot opened up for a young kid to jump into the lineup. Tristan Borges now gets a shot at making it in Europe, and his club gets to invest the money. Seems a bit different than MLS philosophy? While this league may not have 30,000 attendance figures, it will be interesting to see what happens to the CMNT. Keep in mind that 2 years ago without the CPL, Borges would probably be out of the pro game, maybe playing college soccer, or best case getting lost in USL. I'm excited as hell for the CPL model. Sometimes two roads can get you to the same destination.
Dave, I usually agree with you on most posts but this one I would have to disagree. To say "Canada has 3 elite pro academies while the USA have 19 academies that are better." is a stretch. The 3 academies that are in Canada are consistently solid based on their yr/yr DA standings record (Note, I understand that the standings aren't the only indicator for a good academy. It is just one of many indicators). We don't hear much about them because we are US team & player focused. From a National Team perspective, in my opinion, on the Men's side, they got some ways to catch up, although they did pull off a win against us this past year. However, on the Youth side, I would say their talent from their 04s and younger are competitive to our comparable age groups (04s as evidenced in the U15 CONCACAF this past year) . Time will tell if these younger age groups, as they get older, will compete with us on the men's side in the future. Without the proper investment, it will not happen.
I mean more long term. We have 2 academies which in my opinion are producing at a rate that is acceptable for the areas they are in. Canada has three but will cap out at exactly that. Canada's ceiling for their youth development is not even close to ours. We still have a good chunk of our MLS teams realizing that youth development is actually a thing still. Canada long term is not a worry.
Understood and I agree. The only thing I would add is that although I agree that our ceiling is higher than Canada's, Canada still can reach a little higher by doing a better job recruiting outside of just the 3 MLS academies. Canada is such a huge country and there are many players who live outside of those metros, that could be scouted for the YNT.
I think the CPL is great, and obviously it is better than what was there before, which was basically nothing. There's no downside to its existence and every Canadian fan should be excited. That said, you're trying to compare apples to oranges a bit here with MLS. I am a big proponent that playing time is key to development, so I love the CPL model ... but it's worth pointing out that the level of competition is completely different, and if payroll expectations are to be believed, it's going to diverge more between MLS and CPL. It's great about Tristan Borges. But it's a difference of scale. Still 19 for a couple of weeks, Chris Durkin is playing on loan in a FIRST division Belgian side, and there's an option to buy for $2M (American). They may renegotiate that, but it likely still be more than Borges. He was not MVP. He deserved more time than MLS gave him as a developmental piece, but he didn't actually earn a starting spot. But he's still in Europe and the sale is likely more. Or let's take Alphonso Davies. How qiuckly would he have outgrown the CPL? Long before he could have gone to Europe? Players who are very good but can't go to top leagues just quite yet ... the CPL is not going to be good enough at times to push them. The USL does at times, and will fulfill the CPL-role. MLS will still face challenges because it has ambitions beyond being a developmental/selling league, but people downplay it's role in developing our wave of youth. I just don't really get the positioning of CPL versus MLS because neither can fulfill the other's role. CPL will never present a defender with the challenge of Carlos Vela or Zlatan Imbrahimovich or whomever, and MLS will never be able to run out 6 teenagers in an XI without getting run off the pitch. They should be thought of as complementary pieces.
I agree. The Montreal Impact purchased Joel Waterman from Calvary this offseason. So that is the pyramid working.
Canada's a huge country, but population wise, it's less tha California. I am jealous of the CPL's focus on young players. I don't think that MLS could do that and become the level of league that is most beneficial to US Soccer, but there's certainly a level of USL that could implement that. Then again, that seems to be the route USL1 is going anyway with the pushing of MLS2 teams there.
Great points! If MLS doesn't do something about it then the way things are going we could technically see one team playing with foreigners and green card holders with no USMNT eligible players at all. It hasn't happen but given the circumstances and rules it can happen. There must be something MLS can do to prevent that but anytime someone brings it up you always hear the excuse about Immigration laws and "discrimination" against Legal Residents. Green cards are getting easier and easier to get within MLS. Miami has two players that already have green cards and they haven't even been here in the country for more than 6 months. That is a big advantage Mexico and Canada will have over us. They do limit the foreigners.
"They do limit the foreigners." As do many of the European countries either through actual laws/policies or historic precedent/tradition. As an American without a Euro passport, try getting an international roster spot on a club in Spain, the UK, France etc when you turn 18.
A Permanent resident in MLS is not considered a foreigner. Those leagues you mentioned have different rules than MLS.
Just saw this over FC Dallas twitter feed. Looks to be a great line up of clubs and its great to see them invite an American club. From looking into this tournament, it looks like FCD U15 will be the first American club to participate in this history rich tournament. My guess is they were invited on the back of winning the Bayern Munich tournament in the fall.
@Slav @PhillyFury Is your son age eligible for this tournament? That's a heck of a lineup of teams to test himself against if he can participate.
Hey @TxEx thanks for pointing this out. No, son is on the U14 team, but the way these tourneys usually work, if the team doesn't embarrass, they should be back the next year. That is a good lineup. FC Dallas, interestingly enough, was at another tourney in Germany, I think, two three years ago, when my son's Slavia team was there. Later this year, I'm pretty sure the U14s will be heading to Germany for a pretty big tourney around that same time.... May and June are usually the time for these things. League season has wrapped up and before most teams take a summer break, they send the boys out for a couple of these to wrap things up....
'03 Arnel Miscic, who I think is a FB, has been playing for FC Cincinnati's U17s. His brother Selmir is still with the Union U19s.