Our Soccer Culture is Broken & Claudio Reyna Knew This Long
Jan 11, 2023 10:59:49 GMT -5
via mobile
coffee likes this
Post by bogan on Jan 11, 2023 10:59:49 GMT -5
Our Soccer Culture is Broken & Claudio Reyna Knew This Long Ago
“Claudio Reyna, more than any player of his generation, understood the system was broken.
His early days as a player required that he lived the US soccer culture experience–travel club soccer, youth national teams and college soccer. He knew intimately the soccer culture’s landscape, and despite a new professional league (MLS) being created during a time when he was the best young American player, he chose to pursue a career in Europe.
His decision to leave for Europe in 1994 was unprecedented. Those who were in Europe were only there because there wasn’t a domestic league to call their own, and once MLS was established, the majority came home. Reyna achieved a career in Europe that only a handful of Americans can say they have ever experienced, and he was the first to really do it on a high level in Germany, Scotland and England. He finished his career with the NY Red Bulls of MLS, but coming back must have reminded him of everything he had escaped, and the vast differences between Europe and the American soccer culture. He must have felt like he was back in 1994: a soccer culture void of a developmental vision with ego-centered leaders whose main motivations were based in self-interest and not what was in the best interest of the game and its players. If there was a difference, it was that Bruce Arena’s Talent Accumulation philosophy had become increasingly widespread at every level of the soccer culture, and the infrastructure that supported US Soccer (and now MLS) had grown stronger.
Claudio’s American soccer culture reintroduction must have jolted him. He had decided to be progressive and courageous by pursuing a career abroad before Americans ever did such a thing, and when he came back, he was reminded of why he left in the first place.
And this is where the true tension lies, and what connects us to the discord of the past month regarding the Reynas, the Berhalters and the USMNT. Even as “Captain America”, Claudio was an outsider to the soccer culture. He knew more than anyone what a Developer’s environment looked like, and more than that, he knew those same environments did not exist in the United States.
So if you’re Claudio, what do you do? Do you use your experience to leverage real change in the game (leaving yourself exposed and vulnerable to the soccer culture) or do you take the deal–reinforce and support the soccer culture's current developmental practices in exchange for the power, control and prestige of a high-end position within that same system?
Claudio chose the latter and instead of trying to help change the system, he played their game. Soon after retiring from MLS, he took a director role at US Soccer. In 2013, he took the NYCFC Sporting Director role and had success building the club from the ground up. He understands development better than most, which made him a success at NYCFC.
But in 2018, he made the decision to send Gio to Dortmund at age 16 to continue his development. Claudio knew he had to send his son abroad because the soccer culture was not set up to push Gio closer to his potential. No one understood this more than Claudio. This couldn’t have made his constituents within the soccer culture happy. Captain America, the sporting director of the same club where his son is a member of the academy, thought it better for his son to go abroad then to sign a homegrown contract and start his professional career domestically.
But don’t worry Claudio. We’ll give you this one, and heck, do you want a new challenge? You are pretty good developing groups from scratch. How bout you take the job in Austin with even more autonomy. We take care of our own.
This brings us to the current situation. What is being portrayed as “soccer parents gone wild” is to misunderstand the underlying truth of the situation. This is not excusing Claudio or his wife Danielle’s actions and part in this debacle. What they admitted to is reprehensible and disturbing however you look at it. But we all would be better served if we understood why they went this far.
Let’s start here: who was more prepared than anyone to guide Gio through the emotions of competing in a first World Cup and not playing much? His own father, Claudio, experienced the same thing in his first World Cup in 1994 at age 20.
But when you take the deal, even principled people can become deluded in the Talent Accumulators environment. Claudio thought he had beaten the game. He got all the rewards of being Captain America and implicitly endorsing the system, despite ensuring his own son wouldn’t be a victim to that same system by moving him off to Dortmund. With each passing year and iteration, Claudio could convince himself that he was different. That he was the white knight within the system and that he avoided all the trappings of that same system, but what he and his wife did not realize was that their own son could still be affected. It didn’t matter that he is an established regular at Dortmund, and Gregg Berhalter was their family friend for 30-plus years. Gio could still fall prey to the system.
When Gregg Berhlater told Gio his role would be limited prior to the World Cup, that is truly when it all started. That is when the alarm bells started ringing for the Reyna family.
Was there a quota Gregg had to fill that was influenced by US Soccer and MLS as it relates to the construction of the final roster? Was there pressure to play MLS players in the matches from the start or at least off-the-bench? Did it have anything to do with Claudio not extending Gregg’s son Sebastian at Austin FC at the end of the 2021 MLS season? Or was this simply Gregg Berhalter’s artistry and what he thought was best?
I don’t know definitively, but Claudio knew (or at least had strong intuitions).
We do not know the motives for the decisions Gregg made (hopefully some more clarity is provided at the end of US Soccer’s investigation), but if you feel your son (Gio) is not getting a fair run for reasons that have nothing to do with his ability, that can drive two parents into full protection mode–especially parents who are skeptical of the system in the first place.
Within our soccer culture, every player will eventually lose as long as the navigation is something other than development. Claudio and Daniella knew it was a possibility, but thought it was not a possibility for them, which drove them crazy with every incident that added further fuel to the fire–Berhalter lying about the reason he didn’t play Gio against Wales, the internal strife due to Gio’s behavior as a result of being told his role and especially, Berhalter alluding to the fact Gio was almost sent home at a leadership conference. The Reynas’ cognitive dissonance of being a part of a broken system that they knew was broken and having that same system affect their son created the conditions for the Reynas to do the unthinkable to people they’ve known intimately for 30-plus years.
On some level, Claudio probably even feels responsible for Gio’s experience this past World Cup, which as a parent, has to be the hardest part.
All the while, no one understands what is really happening. You were promised development, but they just gave you more infrastructure. They promised you that we would become a soccer power, but all they provided was PR campaigns to protect its leaders. The benefits of being a leader within the soccer culture far outweigh their responsibilities to develop the game. This asymmetrical imbalance has created a glass ceiling that we will never break through, and why there was a new tension from the general public after being eliminated from the World Cup. Claudio tried to protect Gio by talking and complaining to “best friends” like Earnie Stewart and Brian McBride who took the same deal that Claudio took all those years ago. Stewart and McBride (and any leader within the soccer culture) will always be more incentivized to defend the crest (and their position in the system) over unearthing or revealing what is really going on.
If there was a vision and a shared trust in our soccer culture around development, Gio being told his role would be limited would have been accepted by all parties involved. The fact that there was so much distrust with people who were best friends for over 30 years is proof of that.
I used to think people would just have to move on for things to change in our soccer culture, and incremental change has happened, but for real change to happen, younger leaders with more passion and visions for development must come in (and those who took the deal must leave). Otherwise, we just get new iterations of younger, power-hungry egomaniacs that know on some level the system is broken, but convince themselves they are different when they receive the same benefits for its implicit endorsement.
Claudio Reyna could have been a change agent, but he succumbed to the system in an incredibly brutal way. Our soccer culture needs leaders with a vision that prioritize the development of its people and creates a collaborative culture with everyone pushing in the same direction. As it stands, our soccer culture is broken and this incident only shows that the current vision props up those who have sworn to protect it, until it doesn’t…
This was released on 1/11/2023 prior to any report from US Soccer’s internal investigation into the matter and its findings.”
If you liked the blog post, please share within your social communities and/or join our mailing list. Links to both are below. Thanks for reading!
Share this post:
Categories
All Posts
Culture Vision
Development
Game Vision
Iterations
Leadership
Organizational Vision
Philosophical Starting Point
Playing Vision
Recruitment
The Development March
Recent Posts
Everything Feels Different After a Break
Jan 4, 2023
Environment Inventories Protect Development
Dec 28, 2022
Small Wins Keep Us Playing the Infinite Game
Dec 21, 2022
Join Our Mailing List
Email
SIGN UP
SOCIAL
Copyright © 2022 The Developer's Way - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy
“Claudio Reyna, more than any player of his generation, understood the system was broken.
His early days as a player required that he lived the US soccer culture experience–travel club soccer, youth national teams and college soccer. He knew intimately the soccer culture’s landscape, and despite a new professional league (MLS) being created during a time when he was the best young American player, he chose to pursue a career in Europe.
His decision to leave for Europe in 1994 was unprecedented. Those who were in Europe were only there because there wasn’t a domestic league to call their own, and once MLS was established, the majority came home. Reyna achieved a career in Europe that only a handful of Americans can say they have ever experienced, and he was the first to really do it on a high level in Germany, Scotland and England. He finished his career with the NY Red Bulls of MLS, but coming back must have reminded him of everything he had escaped, and the vast differences between Europe and the American soccer culture. He must have felt like he was back in 1994: a soccer culture void of a developmental vision with ego-centered leaders whose main motivations were based in self-interest and not what was in the best interest of the game and its players. If there was a difference, it was that Bruce Arena’s Talent Accumulation philosophy had become increasingly widespread at every level of the soccer culture, and the infrastructure that supported US Soccer (and now MLS) had grown stronger.
Claudio’s American soccer culture reintroduction must have jolted him. He had decided to be progressive and courageous by pursuing a career abroad before Americans ever did such a thing, and when he came back, he was reminded of why he left in the first place.
And this is where the true tension lies, and what connects us to the discord of the past month regarding the Reynas, the Berhalters and the USMNT. Even as “Captain America”, Claudio was an outsider to the soccer culture. He knew more than anyone what a Developer’s environment looked like, and more than that, he knew those same environments did not exist in the United States.
So if you’re Claudio, what do you do? Do you use your experience to leverage real change in the game (leaving yourself exposed and vulnerable to the soccer culture) or do you take the deal–reinforce and support the soccer culture's current developmental practices in exchange for the power, control and prestige of a high-end position within that same system?
Claudio chose the latter and instead of trying to help change the system, he played their game. Soon after retiring from MLS, he took a director role at US Soccer. In 2013, he took the NYCFC Sporting Director role and had success building the club from the ground up. He understands development better than most, which made him a success at NYCFC.
But in 2018, he made the decision to send Gio to Dortmund at age 16 to continue his development. Claudio knew he had to send his son abroad because the soccer culture was not set up to push Gio closer to his potential. No one understood this more than Claudio. This couldn’t have made his constituents within the soccer culture happy. Captain America, the sporting director of the same club where his son is a member of the academy, thought it better for his son to go abroad then to sign a homegrown contract and start his professional career domestically.
But don’t worry Claudio. We’ll give you this one, and heck, do you want a new challenge? You are pretty good developing groups from scratch. How bout you take the job in Austin with even more autonomy. We take care of our own.
This brings us to the current situation. What is being portrayed as “soccer parents gone wild” is to misunderstand the underlying truth of the situation. This is not excusing Claudio or his wife Danielle’s actions and part in this debacle. What they admitted to is reprehensible and disturbing however you look at it. But we all would be better served if we understood why they went this far.
Let’s start here: who was more prepared than anyone to guide Gio through the emotions of competing in a first World Cup and not playing much? His own father, Claudio, experienced the same thing in his first World Cup in 1994 at age 20.
But when you take the deal, even principled people can become deluded in the Talent Accumulators environment. Claudio thought he had beaten the game. He got all the rewards of being Captain America and implicitly endorsing the system, despite ensuring his own son wouldn’t be a victim to that same system by moving him off to Dortmund. With each passing year and iteration, Claudio could convince himself that he was different. That he was the white knight within the system and that he avoided all the trappings of that same system, but what he and his wife did not realize was that their own son could still be affected. It didn’t matter that he is an established regular at Dortmund, and Gregg Berhalter was their family friend for 30-plus years. Gio could still fall prey to the system.
When Gregg Berhlater told Gio his role would be limited prior to the World Cup, that is truly when it all started. That is when the alarm bells started ringing for the Reyna family.
Was there a quota Gregg had to fill that was influenced by US Soccer and MLS as it relates to the construction of the final roster? Was there pressure to play MLS players in the matches from the start or at least off-the-bench? Did it have anything to do with Claudio not extending Gregg’s son Sebastian at Austin FC at the end of the 2021 MLS season? Or was this simply Gregg Berhalter’s artistry and what he thought was best?
I don’t know definitively, but Claudio knew (or at least had strong intuitions).
We do not know the motives for the decisions Gregg made (hopefully some more clarity is provided at the end of US Soccer’s investigation), but if you feel your son (Gio) is not getting a fair run for reasons that have nothing to do with his ability, that can drive two parents into full protection mode–especially parents who are skeptical of the system in the first place.
Within our soccer culture, every player will eventually lose as long as the navigation is something other than development. Claudio and Daniella knew it was a possibility, but thought it was not a possibility for them, which drove them crazy with every incident that added further fuel to the fire–Berhalter lying about the reason he didn’t play Gio against Wales, the internal strife due to Gio’s behavior as a result of being told his role and especially, Berhalter alluding to the fact Gio was almost sent home at a leadership conference. The Reynas’ cognitive dissonance of being a part of a broken system that they knew was broken and having that same system affect their son created the conditions for the Reynas to do the unthinkable to people they’ve known intimately for 30-plus years.
On some level, Claudio probably even feels responsible for Gio’s experience this past World Cup, which as a parent, has to be the hardest part.
All the while, no one understands what is really happening. You were promised development, but they just gave you more infrastructure. They promised you that we would become a soccer power, but all they provided was PR campaigns to protect its leaders. The benefits of being a leader within the soccer culture far outweigh their responsibilities to develop the game. This asymmetrical imbalance has created a glass ceiling that we will never break through, and why there was a new tension from the general public after being eliminated from the World Cup. Claudio tried to protect Gio by talking and complaining to “best friends” like Earnie Stewart and Brian McBride who took the same deal that Claudio took all those years ago. Stewart and McBride (and any leader within the soccer culture) will always be more incentivized to defend the crest (and their position in the system) over unearthing or revealing what is really going on.
If there was a vision and a shared trust in our soccer culture around development, Gio being told his role would be limited would have been accepted by all parties involved. The fact that there was so much distrust with people who were best friends for over 30 years is proof of that.
I used to think people would just have to move on for things to change in our soccer culture, and incremental change has happened, but for real change to happen, younger leaders with more passion and visions for development must come in (and those who took the deal must leave). Otherwise, we just get new iterations of younger, power-hungry egomaniacs that know on some level the system is broken, but convince themselves they are different when they receive the same benefits for its implicit endorsement.
Claudio Reyna could have been a change agent, but he succumbed to the system in an incredibly brutal way. Our soccer culture needs leaders with a vision that prioritize the development of its people and creates a collaborative culture with everyone pushing in the same direction. As it stands, our soccer culture is broken and this incident only shows that the current vision props up those who have sworn to protect it, until it doesn’t…
This was released on 1/11/2023 prior to any report from US Soccer’s internal investigation into the matter and its findings.”
If you liked the blog post, please share within your social communities and/or join our mailing list. Links to both are below. Thanks for reading!
Share this post:
Categories
All Posts
Culture Vision
Development
Game Vision
Iterations
Leadership
Organizational Vision
Philosophical Starting Point
Playing Vision
Recruitment
The Development March
Recent Posts
Everything Feels Different After a Break
Jan 4, 2023
Environment Inventories Protect Development
Dec 28, 2022
Small Wins Keep Us Playing the Infinite Game
Dec 21, 2022
Join Our Mailing List
SIGN UP
SOCIAL
Copyright © 2022 The Developer's Way - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy
