Thought some of the folks who browse this forum may be interested in listening in to this Juan Carlos Michia interview in which he'll probably discuss US youth player identification and development: The show airs 5-6 pm, central time, and streams online at www.kpft.org. Michia will apparently run this ODP try-out in Houston aimed at identifying non-traditional ODP kids: Wizards star shows how to age gracefully; Glenn Davis, Houston Chronicle Btw, Glenn's column also has this reference, which includes a few college players of interest:
I'm interested in hearing this but won't be around. Will there be an archive or some other way I can hear it?
They've apparently started archiving shows, but the site doesn't seem to be up. It may be worth checking in later, but that's all I know. http://www.kpftarchive.org
anderson, how are the selections made for those college players? Are they nominated by their college coach? How exactly does that work because they missed A LOT of really good players.
Davide is right on the money, here. College players, particularly ones not in the youth national team pool, who want to get more exposure really should put a premium on going to Soccer Festival. The four regions each take a team and to get on the regional team, you have to try out for, and make, your state U23 team then show well at your regional event, when the state teams play each other. This is all usually done in the late spring and early summer. I really don't think enough college coaches encourage their players to jump through these hoops, and that's a shame. Soccer Festival, in itself, is a good experience and good exposure. Most MLS teams sends assitants to watch the games, at least they did in the past. (I know they did when it was in Portland, Rhode Island and Chicago - don't know about the two in Texas). Besides the regional teams playing each other, they usually play one or two US youth national teams and sometimes a foreign youth national team. The top players from the regional teams at Soccer Festival get picked for the USASA's national select team, also called the US Amateur Team. Soccer Festival is a big deal to the USASA and they aren't going to reward players who don't come to Soccer Festival by letting them be on the national team that they are paying for. The USASA is trying to make this a bigger deal and getting more stuff for them to do. The past two springs they've done a tour of games in Florida and played MLS teams during spring training. There's been talk about playing other national teams (i'm guessing youth national teams). IMO, the way to really make this a go-to event for the college players is to have the USASA select team compete every two years in the World University Games and to have games and tours in the alternating summers when there isn't a WUG. But, I digress. To make the USASA team you have to tryout for, and make, the state select team, the regional select team then show well at Soccer Festival.