What overhaul? Please be specific. I don't understand the issue that well but the huge growth seems obviously beneficial.

We compete at the international level today. We are consistently the best team in our confederation, which did well at this World Cup, and have acquitted ourselves reasonably well in international matches.

You mean like the U-17s erasing Brazil to the point they quit playing?
http://www.sportsgrid.com/soccer/wac...nal-4-minutes/

Or maybe winning the Aegean Cup?
http://www.soccerbyives.net/2014/01/...ean-title.html

Or the U-18s finishing 2nd at Limoges?
http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2014...ges-tournament

A couple of simple ideas.

Less worry about results more emphasis on technical and tactical development. Get rid of the "pay to play" model that all development academies, with the exception of MLS academies, run. Somehow the game needs to be more affordable for the less affluent in the country. Right now it's a middle and upper class sport. Get rid of the current ODP system create state and regional developmental centers.

We compete at international level because we always play hard and give everything we have in every game. We are miles behind everyone technically and tactically and won't ever make it to a world cup semi final unless there are meaningful changes made at youth level.

All, with the exception of the 19 biggest name academies!

Do any of you guys who disagree with me actually have any coaching qualifications or work in youth soccer?

No one is impressed by your E level qualification, I came up through the old system and am familiar with how the new system works. That **** isn't going to work here.

You really don't like answering my questions do you?

No one disagrees with you on your vague, trivially correct principles (what did you expect to hear? "No, I INSIST that more emphasis be put on winning and less on technical development"?) Everyone disagrees with your clearly incorrect conclusions/generalizations: there's obviously no magical pre-semifinals barrier, and the US is going in the right direction quickly, as evidenced by the growth of the academy system and the increasing outflux of prospects and high-level players.

And your lack of specific ideas to implement the changes that literally everyone supports in the long-run, when added to your reality-independent worldview (challenged with specific evidence? let's shift the discussion to whether people work in youth soccer!) mean this discussion is just not ever, ever going to go anywhere.

This is the worst discussion ever, and theres been a lot of dumb ones over the years ITT

Chances Liverpool has even heard of players like Agudelo or knows about his background and his potential to be involved in this cycle?

I will leave it then and you all can go back to thinking everything is great.

bye.

Who let Rick Reilly in the thread?

For the general audience - is this an actual drag on the sport's growth in the U.S. right now with regard to youth participation, talent identification, and retention? I don't mean getting a kid to choose soccer over American football, rather providing the means for a kid to stick with the sport if there's an interest.

For mostly uninformed reasons I figured soccer would have a much lower barrier for entry than say baseball or hockey due to the equipment and facility expenses/availability for those sports. Plus soccer seems like it's historically had a broad appeal in the U.S., at least at the early youth level.

Being poor sucks everywhere. No one is going to pay for someone if they don't have talent. Although liverpool helpfully pointed out there are 19 academies where people don't pay! There's probably a few more, and a plenty of charity work going on that we don't hear about. It's just another stupid point that Liverpool read somewhere else and is misusing here.

It's extremely expensive for kids to play youth soccer in the states. While there are developmental academies that are free the vast majority of clubs charge thousands of dollars just to play, then, you have uniform expenses as well as travel expenses. The cost really is prohibitive for a lot of families.

Dev academies begin at u13/u14 ages. In order to make an academy team you have to play club soccer. Club soccer in the US is very expensive.

No, it's not.

You're going to have to show your work on that one.

195 for 16 weeks of soccer in a year here in Chicago ayso. Scholarships are available. We all realize that it's difficult for some people to pay that, but characterizing it as extremely expensive is ****ing dumb. I routinely played in leagues down here for 80-90/season. It's as cheap as any sport gets.

Ayso is great and affordable, but it's rec. I was talking about club soccer, where the teams play for 8 or 9 months out of the year and go to tournaments and play in leagues, state cup, etc.

I played club/travel soccer up to u16 and don't remember it being very expensive. There was a lot of car travel, but aside from uniforms I don't remember my parents spending a lot (cause I know my parents wouldn't have had the ability to pay large amounts). I will say a few competing clubs went to Europe a few times to play in tournaments, which was off the table since there weren't a lot of affluent families on our team.

Granted this was 20 years ago...and I still miss tournament play

No one who is that good is being forced to pay club fees, especially if they can't afford it. At least not at any of the clubs around here.

Look up ECNL and see how much it costs players to participate in that league.

i've never really watched a high level tournament or game.

i think the best source would be watching one of their practices or hearing from a player within to find out what they emphasize in development.