Youth Soccer

A couple interesting articles on soccer net today about our youth system and also a potential star in Junior Flores, who has already signed a pro contract with Dortmund

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/nam ... 55?cc=5901

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/nam ... 43?cc=5901

 

There is some interesting stuff in the first article Joe, thanks for posting. As for the Flores article, meh, those type of articles get old. I dont mind reading about the kid but the predictions of what he will mean to US soccer are getting old. As for US youth soccer and the direction we are going with the academies, I think we are headed in the wrong direction by emulating Europe and frankly it depresses me. Perhaps our recent failures at the U23, U20 levels bear this out. We dont have super rich clubs like Madrid or Barcelona or Bayern in this country. MLS academies are only just now able to provide free training for their best academy prospects, but what is that 16 or so academies spread across a country our size? The majority of the remaining US Development academies have to charge their players (except for a handful of scholarships) because they need to pay for coaches, insurance, training facilities, travel, trainers, etc and Mondelo, Agoos and US soccer are doing nothing to address this other than giving those clubs "F"s in the financial category of their ratings. They are focused on controlling coaches and players rather than taking risks and solving what they claim is the real problem - pay to play. They are just emulating Europe because they know it works there; there is absolutely no thinking outside of the box. Colleges and high schools are where the cheap athletic facilities and resources lie and US soccer is just ignoring that fact. If they think the soccer offered through our schools is not proper for player development then why not address that rather than start from scratch by building a system completely separate from our schools. Or at least do something to help the non-MLS academies get sponsorships or pay for the facilities they use.

Why cant we offer the 768 hrs of training a year that Barcelona offers? The answer is money. Our Development Academies, including the MLS ones, cannot afford to pay coaches for that much training and at the pay to play Academies the players cant afford the cost of the extra training. No soccer club in this country has the money that Barcelona or Ajax has. However, we do have thousands of schools with free or very cheap athletic facilities, free to cheap coaching, insurance, free to cheap travel, free athletic trainers, free work-out facilities, etc.

Just look at their statement of "we are concentrating on certain markets . . . we wont be coming to Boise anytime soon". Why? Boise and other cities in Idaho have plenty of athletic resources, plenty of money. It's a cop out. I feel sorry for any kid in Boise that wants to play soccer and reads that.

There is also the issue of encouraging our best players to forego school, turn pro, or attach themselves to an academy at the earliest possible age. I think we will lose kids by doing this. A lot of our poorer immigrant players or first generation players have come to this country for a better life. Maybe in their home country, making it as a soccer star was their only way out of poverty but that is not the case here in the US. I know two kids that were offered to sign with European and Mexican academies and their mothers wouldnt let them because they insisted on them staying close to home and getting an education. The only kids that should be leaving home and school for the gamble of a pro soccer career are the kids who will have a better life in an academy or are crazy, imho.