The current state of our youth national teams (2026 cycle)

If MLS could find the a way to shift the calendar would be great but very tricky to pull off.

 

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At the same time, USL Championship is a better league and MLS Next Pro has only started improving this year because they’ve brought more older players into the league. USL League One, on the other hand, I have no clue what the strategy is there.

 

Topic may seem opaque to those not immersed in youth soccer. But it's striking that the age registration issue still haunts us nearly a decade after changes imposed from on high during "an Ivory Tower era of U.S. Soccer" (Klinsmann & Ramos headed the technical side @ the time) https://t.co/SGTPu4Tpty

— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) October 30, 2024

Unfortunately I don’t have access to the underlying article but interesting this is something they are looking at.

 

I'll be honest, I don't get the drama from a developmental standpoint.

An arbitrary cutoff is an arbitrary cutoff. School year cutoffs are nice for the average player -- it's just more fun to play with friends from your school, etc., and that increases the chances.

But from a hard core developmental standpoint, it seems to me that whatever date you pick kind of doesn't make much difference? And calendar year aligns with youth team eligibility.

Age banding and that sort of thing is there to compensate in some ways for physical maturity and progression, right?

 

Well this is why I wish I had access to the underlying article as I’m interested in what they see as the alternative.

 

I think might be a movement in youth sports to keep kids in the same grades together for obvious reasons (friendship, parent cooperation etc) Little league baseball switched away from the September 1 cutoff when I was a kid and recently switched back to it

 

Does this thread have discussion of why 4 u20 starters switched to other countries this summer? Happy to scroll, but only if it’s the right place. Thx.

 

Mostly circumstances specific to each player.

 

Probably, but that explanation gets a little harder to accept easily in such bunches.

 

Sometimes you just lose guys. None of them are really a case of anything having been done wrong (and Buck could switch back still if he wanted).

Esmir and Bindon had senior team opportunities we couldn’t offer and Vargas just very clearly preferred Mexico despite lots of opportunities from the US program. It’s nothing more than that.

 

I think is also, who is ahead of you, and how old is that senior blocker. Most of our players are still relatively young. Meaning youth players may not have an opportunity right away, not like in the old days where we had mostly late 20s early 30s players.

 

https://www.goal.com/en-us/lists/exclusive-cole-campbell-usmnt-borussia-dortmund/bltbd1860b2af7df9fa

On his U.S. U19 debut in March, Campbell carved up England, scoring a brace in a 3-2 win. In November, he scored the opening goal for the U.S. U20s in a 2-1 win over France. Still new to the program, Campbell is already making his mark with the U.S. youth teams.

"They've told me to just have fun," he says of his U.S. experience. "I'm very happy. They also give you freedom. They say, 'OK, you do your thing, and if you, if you mess up eight times, go for the ninth time. Go one on one, again and again'. When you get that kind of that backing and you feel that they're behind you, it also gives you comfort. They believe in me, and that's a big thing."

 

WC2030 is only five and a half years away...

 

I thought about putting it in the youth section. Because a lot of it is about the pipeline. Two main themes with respect to that:

1) The specialness of the 08-09-10 group. In terms of very high end prospects. But also the volume of prospects who I think have a chance for careers in Top 5 leagues.

2) The emergence of prosects in areas the current senior team is weak. Goalie and CB. Kochen and Banks are the big names. But there is volume at those positions as well.

 

I think he has a chance to make it for 2026 because our lack of backup wingers.

 

A chance? Certainly. But how significant? We have yet to see him wow at the senior level... even once.... so I hesitate to give him a ton of faith. He is also playing that inverted winger position on the right and I worry his right foot is not up to snuff. He is clearly very talented but I am waiting to really get on board until I see him produce for his club.