The current state of our youth national teams

There's one guy who actually does this. That's Tab Ramos. For all his faults he's out there talking, going to showcases and praising these kids on twitter occasionally. The fact that he's the U-20 coach means what he does matters even more. I can't speak for any of the rest of the coaches in the youth pyramid below him because I don't follow them that closely. What I can say is Earnie's had a year and what the hell has he done? Josh Wolff is trying to wear 2 hats right now and again has he done one damn thing with the U-23s? Egg hasn't reached out to anyone as far as we know and he's the one guy who actually matters when it comes to call-ups.

There appears to be a massive breakdown in communication somewhere along the line. So Stewart needs to take the bull by the horns or delegate someone who will. Mexico isn't going to play nice and sit back to take our scraps.

 

also tab being on his way out is a pretty much open secret, with some going so far to say that not only is he on his way out but hes also on the outs with us soccer. who is filling the void?

 

After debating this in my head for much of the day - I have determined it goes much deeper than just the reluctance to reach out to players.

I guess what we are seeing is pretty much standard operating procedure for the Fed. I say this because they suck at all forms of communication. How? Well, they typically don't put out camp invite rosters until after camps have begun. They NEVER give any kind of updates from camp as to who has looked good or what they are working on in the camp. It's almost if every camp is shrouded in secrecy.
For me, these things go hand in hand and it comes as no surprise that they don't communicate.

 

The Fed communicates with fans on a 'need-to-know basis,' having decided apparently that there is rarely if ever such a need.

 

I think all this talk about this encourages a sense of entitlement with these kids. It's hard to blame them that much. These are 16, 17, 18 year olds. They don't know any better. Their minds can probably easily be changed and they might easily feel slighted. Thats not to insult any of them. I think thats how it is for almost anyone at those ages. You lack maturity as a teenager, and become more mature as you get older, but these decisions are often made when these kids are teenagers, so you have to work with knowing that you probably aren't dealing with the most rational beings out there. Look how often some of these college sports recruits commit and decommit prior to arriving at a decision.

That is why I would not add any fodder to the discussion. I think it can easily make these players feel like they deserve a big recruitment from the federation. If they have all these people on social media, including some with influence and followers, telling them that they should've gotten a call or text from the federation, I think it's likely to change their minds. I don't see how in any way anything is helped by fans and the media acting angry about this. If someone with some influence wants things to be done differently, they should privately get in contact with the federation and voice their opinion.

Fans shouldn't be naive to the fact that they could impact this stuff either. I suspect the groundswell of criticism towards US Soccer (for something that wasn't even their fault) pushed Jonathan Gonzalez towards playing for Mexico. After it happened, there was an elaborate story from Gonzalez camp about how he was slighted by US Soccer. The reason he wasn't on the USMNT roster for the game against Portugal was due to his club team asking that he not be called in, but the mad brigade didn't realize that and emotion seemed to overtake the pure facts of the matter, so it was easy for Gonzalez camp to spin it in that direction.

I think US Soccer needs to be more cognizant with all dual-nationals that they have more than one option, and they have the option of bolting the program if you leave them off certain rosters. Even if you aren't a dual-national, I think you'd be pretty upset if you were left off a roster you thought you should be on. US Soccer shouldn't believe that just because players have been in the US set-up for a long time that they can leave them off a roster or two and they've bought enough leeway from that player, who does have other options. Maybe US Soccer doesn't care enough in certain cases, if a player wants to leave the program.

There are certain players that I think you need to air on the side of caution with. Was it worth it for US Soccer to include Akinola on the initial U-20 WC roster instead of Araujo? They angered the kid, and he made it clear that his anger didn't go away by being an injury replacement. I think he cares a lot more about that than a call or text saying nothing important. If I'm running things, there are certain players that you might have to cater to a little more than others. I wouldn't run the program by catering to every player who has an extra passport, but the recruiting battles that you feel like you can't lose, you might bend your own rules of how you approach dual-nationals.

 

To be frank I think the whole thing is a little bit of an over-reaction.
At this point every single dual national knows the best way for them to get increased opportunities is to talk about another nation. Julian Araujo says we haven't been in touch with him, when in every sense of the word we have................and the entire soccer community flips the eff out. The level of flipping out goes to warp speed if its Mexico. And it goes to ludicrous speed when we find out Mexico has contacted or talked to the player.

Now I'm not saying we shouldn't aim to do the best job possible with these dual nationals. There's a lot more that we can and should do better. I just think that after a while one gets cynical. Julian Araujo is a 17 year old that we JUST had in our U20 World Cup squad and U23 camp in Spain. And we think a call from Berhalter is what he needs to understand that we're interested and watching him? Really? A text from Earnie Stewart. Really?

US soccer knows all about dual-nationals. We recruit a hell of a lot of dual-nationals. We might have the most dual-nationals of any program in the world. Just do a cursory analysis of our U20 World Cup team..........................

 

Who's over-reacting? We're just having a conversation. And to @ussoccer97531 's point, Araujo (e.g.,) is not getting a swelled head because his name gets mentioned on BigSoccer (or Twitter or ...). If he (Araujo) has an ego as big as all outdoors, it's because he's got the world by the balls, not because of anything said here (or there).

If we might have the most dual-nationals - and I assume we do - all the more reason to get this right. But it's not just about the dual-nationals - by extension this applies to every young player in the pool.

Call-ups are limited in number and must be apportioned judiciously. Tweets can be unlimited in number, and tweeting 'Nice goal last night, Clint, keep working hard,' would not be difficult or expensive.

 

You are a very good poster, so this is difficult for me to say...but I think this is a load of crap.

This is sport, where people have to deal with athletes and all of them have egos, which are somewhat necessary to be successful.

Honestly, this sounds like an excuse our Fed would use to not contact these kids. Quite frankly, if they don't know how to deal with egos, and don't know how to properly communicate to the 16-19 year old without making their heads too big, then that is a huge indictment on them. This particular skill set is what sets coaches, scouts and Federations apart from each other. If one of our reps feels it necessary to speak to a potential player, then that player should be held to a USMNT players standard. There is nothing wrong with "Hey, you have put in some great performances and if you can take it up another level, we have an interest in seeing you in a camp. That said, you haven't earned a place yet and if your performances take a dip, we will not be calling you in."

As someone mentioned above, we lack in the ability to develop in this area. It is inexcusable to not speak to kids because someone is afraid they will feel entitled. If our coaching staff and scouts are going to be any good at their profession this is something they need to learn how to do.

You think guys like Coach K, Calipari, Saban, Sweeney, etc. don't have this skill set? They go into kids homes that are a few years away from making the kind of money that only Messi and Ronaldo see. Yet somehow, these kids come into their programs, work their ass off and are better for it. Why can't we hold our Federation to the same standard?

 

There are many good things about closing Bradenton. One of them is that we have less of entitled kids with overblown egos. We will lose some kids anyway. Let's try to avoid the whole ass kissing procedure. Jonathan Gonzalez flop, Llanes and Jessi Gonzalez coming back will do much more than US presidents calls. Let's wait for another flop. Hopefully it will be Alvarez.

 

Nah. We should be casting our net as wide and deep as we can. For every 5 flops, there is 1 kid that comes out of nowhere and becomes a class player. As professionals, our Fed should be aiming to get every kid they can that has any amount of potential. Yes, sure they will miss some players, it happens all the time. None of those reasons are good enough to not be trying to beat the piss out of Mexico on the recruiting trail.

 

Why on

Why only Mexico? Should Earnie fly to England to talk to Odunze who has 3 passports? What about Holland? Dest is there. Is Chili with Soto in the play? What about Balogun who probably is way more talented than any of our forwards? AOC with Columbia?

 

Not exactly sure how we went from making contact via social media, phone or email to flying around the world and I don't think I ever stated "only Mexico"...but I'll play along.

If that is what it takes for a player to know that they could have a future with the USMNT, then sure, why not? It doesn't have to bee Ernie however, any staff member would do as I am pretty sure they are in Europe somewhat frequently. Maybe this visit only coincides with the player being right on the cusp of a call up to the full team or maybe it is a couple of stops while away at a coaching course.

I know this for sure. Assuming is a dangerous thing when it comes to athletes. Should our full team staff not make any contact what so ever with the players you mention above, there should be no shock if they choose to go another direction. I would rather lose a kid and be able to say, we did everything we felt we could...versus having to hear from a player that they have never spoken or communicated to our USMNT staff.

This conversation has taken a weird twist. Some of us simply want better and more frequent communication from our full team staff and potential players. This isn't only about dual nationals, there are plenty of posts above with people talking about American kids as well.

 

?

 

Can we get beyond recruiting for a minute. Why isn't the fed more proactive in marketing and promoting US Soccer? Every bit of positive talk about players, coaches, teams, the youth system, MLS, USL etc should be splashed all over youtube, instagram, twitter to encourage more participation in our system to grow the game here.

Showing off our improving youth movement seems like an obvious thing to do and by doing so also promotes the youth national teams and the senior men's teams.

The entire PR/Marketing team of USSF is an abysmal failure. Promoting yourself, promotes your kids which promotes your national teams which promotes MLS and USA soccer as a whole. This isn't rocket science and the fact that it's not happening as we roll toward 20freaking20 is an embarrassment. We don't have 100+ years of proud soccer history and we're starting over after an abject WC failure. Build it from the ground up to where it's a brand kids and pros want to join and play for.

 

You are responding to something I didn't say. I wasn't commenting on whether USSF should be contacting these kids on a regular basis as much as I was saying that the reactions are way out of proportion with what they should be, and they make the job more difficult for the federation.

I think some federations probably do contact players and some don't. I think there are also some federations that don't contact most players, but will occasionally contact a dual-national that they feel like they need to keep in their system. My point is that I think fans and media do the situation a big disservice and make it more likely these players will defect. They engrain a sense of entitlement in these players that they've earned a phone call or text message.

I'll tag @TimB4Last because this point is also responding to what he said. I think its naive to think that these kids don't read all this commentary on social media about them (maybe also big soccer and other websites), and gain a sense of entitlement. If you see hundreds, maybe thousands of people, saying that you are being wronged by the federation, there's a much bigger chance that you are going to believe it. What you aren't going to do is read all of this commentary, and be more likely to believe the federation shouldn't need to send a phone call or text message to you.

Maybe some aren't influenced by this commentary, but I would be shocked if some aren't. It's human nature to be influenced by large-scale public opinion, and then you consider that these are mostly teenagers. I don't know why anyone would want this to be more difficult for our federation. I'm not excusing anything the federation is doing, I'm not saying they are doing a good job or are well run, but what I don't think fans and media should be doing is publicly screeching (which accomplishes nothing), and influencing some of these kids. It might make you feel better about your anger with the situation, but there's IMO more than a negligible chance you make the situation worse.

 

Weird - no idea what happened there.

Sorry.

 

I think many here find the easiest explanation is that we could potentially lose every dual prospect because of what happened with Jogo.

With Jogo we were in a much different state than we are now.

Others have mentioned Araujo’s involvement recently, yet he’s using the same reason as Jogo. I’m under the impression he’s probably preferred playing for Mexico all along. Although I could be wrong.

I do find it surprising that Dest appears so much more committed to the US than someone like Araujo when Dest has spent all his life outside of the US. Guess we won’t know until the Dutch come calling.

 

While it is true that the FMF are actively recruiting players in this country so that they are no longer available to play for us, the more important goal is that they are competing for the hearts and minds of Mexican families so that they still identify with Mexico’s national teams and Liga MX clubs.

Families of Mexican decent in the US are extremely important to Mexican fútbol. They play a ton of friendly games up here for a reason.

Mexico view the US as a sort of “Mexico and a half” in terms of marketing and recruitment. Television ratings for Spanish language soccer matches are huge.

This is the issue - as our player development gets better and better, Mexican soccer (both clubs and country) want to be able to continue to pick off those prospects of Mexican decent as, along with our other prospects, they continue to get better and better.

They see this as their market that they have laid the groundwork in, not ours.

Like I said earlier, “it’s no big deal until it is.” When we are producing Guiseppi Rossi level talents, but of Mexican decent - and we will be doing so as our players continue to get better and better (I think we are probably doing it already), we had better have laid the groundwork to compete with Mexican fútbol because the groundwork that they have laid among families of Mexican decent is impressive and those guys are playing for keeps.

I know that I am repeating, so I apologize to those who got the message the first time, but some clearly did not - you don’t get to choose the level of the challenge in competitive sports, your opponent does and our opponent is taking a disproportionate chunk of our population that loves soccer very, very seriously.

 

I'm not necessarily in support of our federation gassing the players up, as the kids say. That's unprofessional, and isn't productive for the kids career. Us fans can take care of that stuff. What I'd like to see from the federation is more communication with kids on their careers and more advising, similar to a 1v1 meeting with your manager at work. That way the kids get some good advice from people who they know have the purest sporting intentions in mind, and it gives them an another perspective on what to work on. If I was a player, I'd be grateful for that, especially if it was coming from someone from the federation who used to play high level soccer and knows what they're talking about.

And I have to add, this is the most legitimate argument I've seen about the overall state of US Soccer in forever and boy is it exhausting.

 

My guess is a 75% chance he plays for the USA.
Edit: Because he more or less with all his statements made a promise to his dad.

 

Not to heighten folks' anxiety even further, but I think most people forget that Tim Weah has yet to appear in a competitive USMNT match and could still conceivably file a one-time switch to any of the three other countries he's eligible for.

 

I must have missed those statements. Could you link me to one that fits well?

 

Araujo answered a question in an interview!!! He didn't come out on his own or through his agent and say that he's considering Mexico or that he's unhappy with the US setup. He simply said that he has not been contacted by Berhalter when asked if he has. He's had extensive communication with Tab Ramos and worked with Jason Kreis as well. He also talked about he really likes the Galaxy organization and hopes to come back after playing in Europe. He said he was disappointed not to be named to the original roster and to not play in Poland, but what player wouldn't. If we lose him, it's not because Berhalter didn't contact him. He's has had a ton of contact from the Fed -- MUCH more so than from Mexico.

Should the senior team head coach have the distraction of contacting the dozens of dual national youth players? That's absurd. I do agree that youth team coaches should be in touch with players in their pool, but to expect the head coach of the program to be in the weeds tweeting youth prospects is naivety.

 

Guess not.

Following our dual nationals is the new smoking.

 

Dest is in a spot most dual-nationals don’t find themselves in. He’s provisionally cap-tied to the worse program, and has no fall back option if he switched to Netherlands. If they call him into the senior team and he switches, he has to be good enough for the Netherlands senior NT, otherwise his international football career is over.