Thoughts on the future of soccer in the U.S.

Future of Soccer in the USA: my 5 cents

There are to many factors that have to be changed to reach the next level.
In theory it is possible, in reality it is not.

There are 3 pillars that must be the foundation of soccer.
There are other Pillars on top of this foundation to bring it to the next level.

Pillar 1. Players development

To many players in GA start playing travel soccer at U12, after many years of playing soccer in recreational and then expect to compete with those that have had proper travel training since U8. There are raw diamonds in that group of recreational players, but they are behind because mom or dad insisted to coach their son or daughter for several years and want to see their kid win the recreational "cup".
In a lot of soccer clubs there is no real oversight over the recreational department, nor are players encouraged to move to travel through end of season meetings with the DoC or age group coordinator.
Travel soccer should be started at U8, as each player has to go through yearly development phases to master the basics, add in the advanced skills, learn about basic tactics like building up from a goal kick and reach the U18 age with a lot of soccer knowledge & skills in their pocket. Starting a player development at U12 means that players have lost 4 years of development and are now playing catch up.

At most soccer clubs there is no age appropriate curriculum / or age group development plan.
The youth coaches are operating as lose sand and teach what they think their team needs, based on their own back ground and the courses they have followed. If a soccer club had a year round plan for each age group, regarding the skill set each player must learn, including oversight & monthly coaches meetings, then you would see actual development. But again, that costs $$$.
Coaches are "encouraged" to see each other coaches as competition within the club (pay structure, level of teams that you get, etc) and not as a way to share ideas to improve the players at the club.

There is also a large Mexican community in GA, but most of the players play in their own league or in the lower leagues due to the cost of participating. The Mexican National U17 team played the USA National U17 team this week in the Finals and won.
If the Mexican community becomes part of the USA soccer community then the overall player development & team development will also grow.
Same goes for the Brazilian community in GA.


Pillar 2: Competition

There are to many leagues in the USA.
GA alone has ECNL, ECNL-R, DPL, SCCL Championship, E64, GA soccer National League, GPL, Championship & other divisions.
On top of that you have the Middle school & High school soccer and ODP.

One season the players play GA Soccer and the other season they might play in SCCL.
Fall season U13 and up train & play on their Select team and the Spring season they train at school.
Two different coaches, different players and no consistency in player development.

In other countries it is a clear pyramid with 1 youth league provider and 1 ODP program (no school sports) and everyone plays in that associations league.
If you win, your team moves up, if you loose you move down.
Bigger clubs play with their 1st youth teams in the higher divisions and smaller clubs in the lower competitive divisions but the smaller clubs have the opportunity to move up when they have an age group that stands out.
Understanding the history and power issues that GA clubs faced, it created todays situation.
Is it better for the players development though? Perhaps it is ...

After high school most players play pick up soccer instead of in an adult league, play rec in college or quit playing.
Compare that with other nations and you see that the USA is not seeing any late bloomers in their squad.
Examples of late bloomers in other nations that played first amateur are Chris Smalling, Jens Toornstra, Joe Hart & Mathieu Valbuena.


Pillar 3 Scouting:

Tryouts are every parents nightmare. Whom will show up, whom will leave?
Most bigger youth soccer clubs do not have an official youth scout at their club whom evaluates all players during the season, nor is there a standardized form that shows the actual results of a players ability during tryouts or during a season.
A player gets a number at tryouts, are told to move to a certain field, play scrimmage and if your number is announced you are on the team. No review at the end of the season by the club, cause the player might leave and that will hurt the clubs budget & network.
Speed is important in the game of soccer but there is no official testing of a players ability to sprint with & without a soccer ball.
Yet, in the NFL they do test college players on their speed & agility.
Travel soccer Tryouts are mostly subjective, most of the time its about whom you know, were you on last years team and what their parents do (network) or donate to the club.
Another part is whether the parents can afford the $ involved in playing ECNL / E64 / DPL / GPL Etc.
A lot of good soccer players can not afford the cost to play travel soccer at ECNL or National League level or have the time to in the USA.
Compare that with other nations.


College Scouting:

At U14 the players focus goes to High school soccer. It's about pride and representing your high school, I get it.
Most parents in GA however, think that College coaches recruit players through the high schools as they see photos of Seniors announcing their College at their high school.
Yet, the majority of parents do not know that if you want to play D3 (441 teams), NAIA (188 teams) or NJCAA (181 teams) then you must play on a travel team between the ages of U15 - U18 to be able to play in the College Showcases.
Hence a lot of players are never scouted by the College coaches because they leave their travel teams at U14 - U15 for their HS team.
Does the soccer club have a college program that explains the path way to ALL players & parents at U12?

The Clearinghouse numbers showed that only 7 - 10% of all H.S. athletes that graduate and are still playing at that age become college athletes. (D1 - D3, NAIA & NJCAA)
That means that 90% of the H.S. players do not make a College team.
I would not be surprised if a good college coach with an actual well funded & organized scouting team could make a soccer team out of those 90% of players, that would win the D1 division. (Moneyball principle)
Seen to many players, that were the BEST player on their travel team, not getting a business card or invitation for a college summer camp after those players visited several College Showcases during those Sophomore (7%) - Junior (45%) - Senior years (47% evaluated).
The scouting part is lacking and therefore this is another reason why Team USA Men won't become a dominant force and over time the US Women's team will start loosing their dominance, starting this upcoming 2023 world cup.

The same scouting problem exists with the ODP program.
At the East Coast the problem for travel coaches became that ODP coaches started recruiting from other clubs through the ODP program.
This became a big issue.
Clubs started telling their players & parents not to go to ODP anymore as they saw that they lost their best players to the travel club that had those ODP coaches under contract. Or, parents come back at their travel club and tell their travel coach that the ODP coach told them that their son (whom plays center back) should be playing winger, unaware of the balance of the team and the available players.
This of course effected the team's dynamics & player motivation and those players leave their travel team most of the time at the next tryouts.

This conflict of interest resulted in other coaches not mentioning the ODP program anymore, ODP became viewed as a cash cow and a recruiting tool for the coach his or her personal interest.
Hence, for years a lot of travel players did not go to the ODP tryouts and therefore were never properly scouted.

ODP coaches and USSF Educators should be neutral and not affiliated with a club.
This improves the atmosphere among coaches and clubs and therefore you get a higher turn out at ODP tryouts in the USA.

Education based on neutrality improves the overall growth of the coaches since there is no conflict of interest between the Educator working at club A vs the student coach at club B.
ODP Scouting based on Neutrality improves the relationship between GA soccer and the travel coaches that teach the players and represent their club.



These 3 pillars are the reason why the future of USA soccer does not look as bright as it should be.
As long as those 3 are not fixed, the USMNT won't grow and the USWMNT will loose it's dominance.
This has been the status quo for over 20+ years in the USA.


I admire the initiative of setting up a "Charter for Quality", just hoping for the players that it will end up working in their benefit and therefore in the benefit of our Nation teams.

magicdwarf does hit it.

I personally have seen to many talented players go un-seen, unwanted by mls academy teams, and/or not recruited by colleges etc.
I think too many talented players slip through the cracks and have zero chance at making it. Odds are already slim, but even worse for soccer.

Soccer is obsessed with the 5 star player at young ages and there is no place for the late bloomers who become great players during their college age years.
The lack of a pyramid is probably the root of all evil as well and the lack of scouting outside of mls academies.

yes, players are light years better than the kids who grew up playing in the 80s and 90s, but guess what, so Is every other countries players. I don't think we have closed the gap at all since the world cup of '94.

too many leagues.
age group mandate was unnecessary and creates strange u19 teams.
not enough local scouting
no pyramid
college soccer challenges

That’s a wonderful wall of words.

I agree with about 98% of it. I think a kid that starts at age 11 can catch up in a year if they’re well coached and motivated. Obviously athleticism will always be a big part of the equation.

I definitely believe that most clubs are all hat and no cattle when it comes to having a curriculum and I find that to be a huge opportunity missed. All say say they are for the players but MOST are for the wallet.

I just think there is a "natural" difference between raw and trained athleticism.
Fear most of our youth athletes are trained athletes vs show raw athleticism. I think raw athleticism is so important, it's just built in your dna. your quicker, faster, shaprer, better hands, taller, built differenently, more competitive, harder worker, refuse to lose etc.

See it as if you are trying to get your 4 year High School diploma.
Do you think you can jump in, without doing your Middle school, at the Senior year of HS and still do all the exams and graduate?

Curriculum wise there are basic skills & tactics each travel player that started at U8 should have been tought by the age of U12.
If your travel team trains 2x a week then it is very hard to learn all the things that the other travel players have learned during their U8 - U12 years.
All National soccer associations give guidelines in what a player should learn during each age group.

Example: USSF Youth Curriculum

U8 - Dribbling, ball control, passing in pairs, receiving
U9 - Dribbling with both feet, receive & turn, wall pass, moves combo. small group play
U10 - Distribution, Tackling, passing,
U11 - First defender, 3th attacker, Spatial awareness
U12 - Attacking compactness, first touch out of pressure, Building up from the back

URL: www.usyouthsoccer.org/lesson-plans/

How is the kid that starts at 11 gonna catch up, while the coach is moving on to the curriculum for the U13 - U18 age group?
That 11 year old kid ain't making the DPL / ECNL-R / ECNL team that trains 4x per week. Most of those players get on a team that trains 2x per week.
At ECNL level clubs they might start at the lowest teams and then have to go every year to tryouts and hope enough kids burn out by the age of U15 to make it to a decent team that trains 3x - 5x per week.  

The only option they have then is by doing private soccer training, summer camps, soccer classes, etc which costs a lot of $.

Again, yes there are late bloomers as I mentioned previously, but most of those Late Bloomer players have been training at the higher travel level during those U8 - U12 age groups.
There is the exception to the rule, those players will always exist and those kids can make it to a College team. But they are the few, the proud, the Special One's!

I don’t disagree with you. I just don’t think you should count any kid out at age eight to ten.

I wish any local club would do more than give lip service to this type of curriculum. I think there is a lot that is good in high level youth soccer but I think there is an also a LOT that is inadequate.

DA just needed to figure out how to allow good u12-u14 teams to continue on at u15 etc.
remove Florida from the southeast, and be a little bit more opened to expansion with standards in place.
The death of the DA (ignoring covid etc) was the tiered system that MLS created , it ruined the league and just pissed everyone off, hence the lack of trust of joining mls next etc.