The current state of our youth national teams

Does inviting them in for camp after camp, competition after competition count as "contacting them?"

 

Because the fanbase is toxic and everything must be negative.

The #1 problem with US Soccer is that it's wildly understaffed and run like Sunil's little club. Key positions didn't exist and other key positions were filled by people with limited resumes.

I think you can have a lot of questions about Earnie Stewart individually here, but US Soccer needs more full time employees and more full time employees with strong backgrounds, period.

 

I think some of you are being incredibly harsh on our fan base. I’ll give you the fact that most are behind from a soccer standpoint. That said, a large swath of our fan base have learned by watching International leagues and become fans of specific clubs and have come to better understand the inner workings of football.

For me, this attitude from our fan base is nothing more than, “Why does the US insist on being different than the rest of the world in just about everything football related - and why can’t we get with the times and be like more advanced footballing nations.” If I’m honest, they have a point. Their is a certain arrogance that comes with thinking you don’t have to actively pursue players...don’t even get me started on the other stupid shit we do.

 

Don’t understand this notion that it has to be about “attaboys.” Top players don’t need attaboys, they drive themselves to the level they want to get to. What top players do want is to know where they stand and what they need to improve on.

You really don’t think a simple phone call from Chile’s first team manager has the potential to fill a young kid full of confidence? I think it’s incredibly naive to think a phone call has zero effect on a young player still finding his way.

 

I would bet that his communication with Tab was pretty comprehensive while he was in the World Cup for a month with him. I would imagine there were post tournament meetings with the players to follow up on their performance and what the next step for them is. A call from Berhalter would be nothing more than token, and it probably wouldn't even be genuine.

I agree that players need to be communicated with. I'm just not sure that that is not already being done or that it's the senior team head coach's responsibility. The implication that a player can be called in to camps and competitions consistently but still not be communicated with seems unrealistic to me.

 

I agree with you on this. Didn't he spend upwards of a month with the US National team staff at the tournament and has been to almost every National Team youth camp he was eligible for over the years. If the kid doesn't feel wanted, then not sure its a problem with USSF. Having said that, I don't think it would take much time for the senior team coach or assistant to text these kids every now and then and keep a conversation going.

For example, after Greg got the news Soto was contacted by Chile he could have texted Soto and said, "Counting on you to be a part of our program for years to come and looking forward to watching you play this year." If that didn't work, he could have simply said, "What color do you want for your Mercedes.?"

 

I am certainly not opposed to Berhalter reaching out to players. I just don't think we should be so naive as to think that a tweet or call from another fed's coach is going to be the game changer that causes a player to change allegiances or that just because Berhalter has not done those things means that we are not communicating with players.

 

Of course, no doubt he has probably had tons on communication with Tab. However, that's not what we are talking about. We are speaking of communication with the full team manager.

To be fair, none of us are sure whether it is or isn't being done. It very well could be happening, and if so, good on them. That said, history has given us a number of players who specifically say they have not had any communication with Berhalter. Yes, it is 100% the managers responsibility. His squad is together every 3 months. There is only so much time he can spend planning out sessions.

He hasn't been called into a full team camp. And while I agree with your premise, the fact of the matter is we are talking about USSF, so nothing is unrealistic.

 

Or, the better solution would be to create a policy that says, once a player is capped with the U20's, the full team manager must call them and introduce himself. God forbid they be a little proactive. He is our player and we need to be proactively communicating so a call from a foreign NT manager doesn't worry us at all.

 

I'm not much concerned about this issue but I like this as a policy. You don't have to make a judgement call for who gets called or not. The U-20 coaches can call the players that didn't make the U-20 team and let them know that they're still being watched.

 

We are making way too much of this. This is a quickly developing topic, and I am sure there will be some procedures put in place given the evolution of our player pool and the roles at USSF, but to think that we are losing any of these guys because another coach calls them after they have clearly been a big part of our program is ridiculous. If we lose a player in that situation, it is because of far deeper issues.

 

FYP

 

Much more likely to be tied to a concrete opportunity, either for playing time or to represent the higher profile side. I don't think contact from a head coach will hold much sway no matter the situation.

 

Such as?

I just can't wrap my brain around it. It's like a youth coach not taking the time to make players work on striking a ball with their weak foot because, well, if they don't make it, it will be because of other reasons.

1 fecking minute...1 fecking minute...is not too much to ask. Will it be meaningful to all players, probably not. But for those that it does mean something to, it is worth it.

 

I'll concede much more likely, but so what. In my world, every little bit helps, and (apparently) other federations agree with me.

The real problem as I see it is that confidence in our fed to do things correctly is low. Let me repeat, confidence is low.

 

Such as the player seeing a more realistic path to being a first choice player with a different nation. I think that is the most likely scenario, and that is how we have gotten just about every dual national that has ever suited up for us with deeper allegiances to another country. That, or we were the bigger dog.

When players say they are keeping their options open/not closing any doors, this is what they are saying. They are not saying that they are waiting for coach x to tweet at them before they make their decision.

 

I don't care about the confidence of our pathetic fanbase. They have no idea about what the fed does or the actual state of our player pool. There are a lot of things that USSF needs to do better, but the common fan has little to no understanding of what those things are. And, pretending like they do know is one of the most annoying traits of our pathetic fanbase. Don't get me wrong, we need more fans -- no matter how noobish. But for these fans to act like they actually know what they are talking in the way that many do is obnoxious.

 

But it's exactly this opinion that makes you a shill. Fans are fans, looking at things from the outside in, and missing important pieces of information. But they recognize incompetence (and clubbiness) when they see it. Get your house in order before you start complaining about the fans.

 

Are we even debating the same thing? Just so I am clear...you DO NOT want our MNT staff to be in communication with any YNT players that haven't been capped yet with the full team? When specifically speaking about dual passport players, you DO NOT want our MNT staff to be in communication with them because if they choose the other country, the phone call or text won't mean anything?

Let's just take all the gray out of it. Yes or No...do you want our Fed, specifically our MNT staff to do a better job communicating with potential future MNT players?

 

I disagree with that statement. Most fans have no idea what is going on with USSF. It's just fashionable to be outraged and crying about things that fans think that make them look smarter when, in fact, it does the opposite.

 

I didn't say it's something that I don't want. I said that it's basically inconsequential because a.) there are bigger factors at play, and b.) much more meaningful communication is/should already be happening.

I don't care if Berhalter contacts these guys or not. I can easily see how he would rather not get caught in the weeds of contacting this kid and that kid so that he can focus on the bigger picture of actually running the team (which is a HUGE job whether or not you think his day to day calendar is packed or not). That said, there should be much more meaningful conversations with these players, and if it MUST be done in this day and age, someone else at the Fed could handle the tweeting at kids responsibility, I'm sure. But there should be much more meaningful communication with these players regarding actual call ups to camps and competitions going on (in case I didn't make that clear).

 

A shill, also called a plant or a stooge, is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with the person or organization. Shills can carry out their operations in the areas of media, journalism, marketing, politics, confidence games, or other business areas. A shill may also act to discredit opponents or critics of the person or organization in which they have a vested interest through character assassination or other means.

 

I was born and raised in the US and have played for the US Youth Nation Team including going to a Youth World Cup, but then was going to switch my allegiance to another country based on one phone call for another team's manager.

Luckily for USMNT Fans, I received my federally mandated robo-call from the current USMNT Manager along with a like on the video of my last U23 goal on Twitter by GGG and am now back in the US fold 100%.