This is factually wrong. At least in the USA. I grew up in that youth system man. I had no access to that kind of training ever. I easily would if I was in the same spot today. You have no idea what you're talking about.

southern california has always had quality youth programs. you want me to list them? I'll give you just one to start - San Diego Nomads

Observations from last night:

-Disappointing result, but not really unexpected. Argentina looks to be on the verge of a run like Spain had from 2008 - 2012. We were never going to win that game. Not with the three suspended players, not with Altidore or Morris on the squad over Wondo. And that is ok. But I really hope we bounce back with a good showing in the 3rd place game.

-Bradley struggled badly to just complete routine passes. His give away preceded the Ashlyn Harris yellow card and the absurd Messi free kick. His shaky pass to Birnbaum resulted in a turnover that directly led to another goal. Whether his recent decline is because he returned to MLS is irrelevant. The point is, we have a serious issue to address in the midfield between now and 2018 if his performance in this tournament is representative of the best he can give us the next two years.

-Brooks had an off night, and looked especially bad failing to mark his man on the third goal. But you can't place the blame on the back line for the other three goals. I am optimistic that our back line can compete with all but the very top teams in the world.

-I love Deuce and he has been huge for us in this tournament. I hope he starts and scores in the 3rd place game. But then we really need to take a hard look at which players can be in top form in 2018 and have a two year plan to get the team ready for Russia. Same can be applied to Jermaine Jones.

Oh well then that shows me then. I guess if nomads exists that's good enough for the whole nation right?

Just because you didnt have access doesnt mean it didnt exist.

Yeah but other than Cali and Bradenton the rest of the country was horrid for youth development. At least spreading academies other places is getting people in earlier other places.

Really? That's what you're going to say instead of the massive increases in access?

No doubt, ikes just said they didnt exist.

Youth development is miles ahead of where it was.

For most of the country it used to be just goofing off in odp camps and teams.

Pulisic (PA)
Horvath (CO)
Yedlin (WA)


and really at this point i'm out but there's tons more.

You said it was factually wrong that strong camps existed 20ish years ago.

No I didn't, why are you posting this stupid ****?

In a response to a guy saying strong camps existed pre mls you said this:


Its very simple ikes.

Yes, and the this is referring to:

take your bull**** elsewhere please

Ahh yes becuase you overstating something could ever be factually wrong. Stronk.

Silly me for not assuming you were calling the half of the post that cannot be factually wrong, factually wrong.

Why bring up access if you are refuting that point?

St Louis had some good teams

Some decent teams out of Texas too

u-19 national cup champions since 1975:

1975 Imo's Pizza of St. Louis, MO
1976 Annandale Boys Club Cavalier of Annandale, VA
1977 Santa Clara Broncos of Santa Clara, CA
1978 Imo's Pizza of St. Louis, MO
1979 Imo's Pizza of St. Louis, MO
1980 Fremont Celtics, CA-N
1981 Scott Gallagher of St. Louis, MO
1982 Annandale Boys Club of Annandale, VA
1983 Montgomery United, MD
1984 Scott Gallagher of St. Louis, MO
1985 Columbia Jays, MD
1986 Fram-Culver of Culver, CA-S
1987 Union Lancers of Union, NJ
1988 Union Lancers 69 of Union, NJ
1989 LaJolla Nomads of LaJolla, CA-S
1990 Spartan Randolph Blackhawks of St. Paul, MN
1991 NHBFC Black, CA-S
1992 Vista Hurricanes, VA
1993 MVLASC Shooting Stars, CA-N
1994 Baltimore Spirit, MD
1995 Countryside Lightning, FL
1996 Scott Gallagher of St. Louis, MO
1997 Clearwater Chargers, FL
1998 CISCO Flames, AZ
1999 LaJolla Nomads, CA-S
2000 FC Delco Dynamo, E-PA
2001 FC Delco Black, E-PA
2002 Texans '82/83, S-TX
2003 FC Delco Arsenal, E-PA
2004 HSC Bulls '85, HI
2005 Sockers FC, IL
2006 Javanon SC, KY
2007 Dallas Texans 88 Red, N-TX
2008 Solar SC, N-TX
2009 Baltimore Casa Mia Bays, MD
2010 Crew Juniors, OH-S
2011 Baltimore Bays Chelsea, MD
2012 Crew Juniors, OH-S
2013 Lehigh Valley United 93, E-PA
2014 Concorde Fire Elite, GA
2015 Massapequa Arsenal, NY-E

Hah i was on a decent u11-u14 team and we played fc delco once a year, they were really good.

Also occasioanly crew youth come out to the pick up games I play and they are all like 5'6 and extremely quick. Like they cloned them.

Cisco Flames from Phoenix used to travel to Southern California every weekend just to play in better league. That's dedication for 17 year olds and their families

I have no idea how a list of u19 national cup champs is relevant to this discussion.

obviously you have no idea, you grew up in a place with no soccer apparently

Just to clarify terminology, what do you consider "quality"? I would say Barca has a quality youth program.

In places with quality youth programs, they scout in Mali and traffic in minors to get the teams up to par.

Isn't the real issue not whether there are/were pockets of individually good youth academies, but rather how coordinate and maximize youth development for the nation as a whole? That's just not something that is easily done well by nations our size. If you look at the top 20 most populated nations and the top 20 ranked teams (using either LOLFIFA or ELO) the nations that appear on both lists are: Brazil, Germany, and Mexico. That's it.

Then you have the challenge of the area over which that population is distributed. You could fit Germany into the state of Montana. Brazil is more comparable to USA in area, but its cities are more compactly located (knock out all the rainforest).

Not trying to use these as excuses, but they are undeniably factors when trying to map a development plan using some other successful nation as a model.

Well then there are like 10 quality youth programs in the world. Thanks for the hot take euro

Well that's weird considering all the soccer I played.

I think it can be much much better than it used to be, be continually improving, and still be our biggest problem. It's such a cultural/systemic issue that I think the kind of change that needs to happen is a matter of evolution rather than revolution. The only thing that will ever result in the USA putting a team on the field that is legitimately in the same class as the top-level national teams is sustained commitment to improvement over literally generations. And we might have the sustained commitment to improvement part already, now it's just a matter of doing it for generations.