The Problem With US Youth Development

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Whilst there are many reasons to be cheerful for football / soccer fans in America about some of their young players, for a nation of 330 million people, the USA still doesn't produce many top class footballers.

From prohibitive costs to outdated training methods, in this short documentary, HITC Sevens takes a look at some of the problems facing youth team soccer and the development of young players in the United States of America.
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The problem is that the rich kids are more likely to make it to youth academies even with little talent. Even Zlatan has said it.

kiongoldpotera
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This is so stupid.. In Germany often Clubs PAY for youth talent to play for them, in the US the talent has to pay the club 🤦🏼‍♂️

generalpenultimo
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(Canadian who played college soccer in the USA) many American coaches care more about size/strength than technique, I was told by a couple D1 coaches as a 5'9 left back that their teams didn't take any defenders under 6 feet lmao. even though the best left back in the world at the time was 5'7 Jordi Alba

SurFacingBoy
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The real problem is that American sports are mostly based around college being the pre-professional stage. For basketball, football, etc. every kid who wants to be professional tries to get into a Division 1 college. After that, they hope to get drafted by the professional league. The problem is that from the age of 18-23 most other football players in other countries are already playing professionally. America hasn't adjusted it's soccer pyramid to account for this reality, instead it tries to follow the model of other American sports.

RolandeMusic
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This is so true. In the 90s I was chosen to be in the Olympic Development Program (from whence the team for the Olympics is chosen), but then they required a massive fee that my single mom just couldn't afford. The rich kid teams would hire a couple of us poor kids to play with them during international competitions, but then afterward they'd literally say, "We wish you could afford to play with us all the time. Too bad. Bye."

llliiiiiiiiiiijjj
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The US football/soccer situation can be compared to the Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral situation. So much untapped material that can make them successful, but poor management and greed for money prevents them from becoming a success.

dsaulgoodman
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This reminded me when Zlatan mentioned this same problem about his children playing on a team when he was at LA

fostosli
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Why football isn't going forward in South Asian countries like India, Bangladesh and so on

abrartech
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As someone who grew up in Germany and lives here in the States, let me tell you the fundamental problem of US Soccer.

There is NO proper amateur and youth leagues outside of the major city hubs.

You know how pretty much every little town in Europe has it's own soccer/football team which plays on a level of the overall football pyramid? Yeah that's virtually non-existent here.

If kids or even young adults want to play organized soccer they either have to move away or rely on their local school district having money to have it's own program or hope that a bunch of European adults miss soccer enough that they create their own little private hobby league outside of the US soccer federation system.

The core problem here is there is no grassroots organization to control local leagues and US soccer doesn't even seem to have an interest in the sport beyond MLS and USMNT.

I've heard an American try to tell me that the US is way to big to have local soccer federations, but that simply isn't true.

It would be a simple task to model the US soccer system via a localized system like the DFB (German football fed) in which every state has its own soccer federation and takes care of its own league system in the state to then feed the top divisions.

Money is always an issue naturally but this can easily be alleviated through membership fees just like it happens in many other countries. It's not like US soccer is poor either, they can afford to subsidize local federations to run a proper pyramid system.

US soccer is not even on a 3rd world level.

Outside of college, a few local hobby leagues and the immediate MLS along with its "farm system" their is no opportunity for kids to learn the sport properly.

Unless you are an absolute prodigy, you would never want to follow the path of a conventional soccer development career in this country since it's a lot easier to just either switch in American Football or Baseball or simply don't play at all and stop wasting your time.

GonzalezAlfie
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Here in the US, soccer was considered to be a "girly" sport during my childhood. I know that this has pushed many people away from the game and towards American football and basketball. I think this is changing now, but it's interesting that our women's team has been the best in the world while we considered it to be the girl's sport. Makes me hopeful for the future of the USMNT

colbydenton
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And, in a sense of irony, the USDA that was funded by the USSF was ended this summer and more of the academy push is being done by the MLS.

zscout
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Bruh
We Indians number 1.4 Billion and still we don't produce anything even close to the players in EFL League 2

bruhmoment
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Video idea: something about Schalke's downfall

kubahassa
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It's been the same ever since I was a kid (I'm 32). I made a travel team after trying out. Parents couldn't afford it, so I played recreational, stinting my development, and not getting any notice from colleges. MLS wasn't in my city yet, so no youth academies of any sort, which I'm sure would have cost just as much anyways. Just a shame how much talent I've seen personally fall through the cracks, can't even imagine the total scale.

alpenglowrg
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I'm from America and there are two options when trying to go pro in America. you either play for a DA team( developmental Academy) and try to work your way into a MLS first team . The other option is to play travel and play for your high school, then play soccer at a D1 school, and last try to get scouted by an mls team in college

ethangeorge
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i agree with all of this and it’s true that some teams charge outrages fees just to join. however, i am seeing a lot more coaches trying to teach a more technical side to the game and i think in recent years a lot more americans have been making it in europe because of this. in a country of 300 million there has to be a lot of hidden talents here but the stupid pay to play system is holding us back.

slappyfish
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For my travel team we had 3 kits and they made us pay 3k for them, the season cost was around 3.5k as well. The cost is absurd especially since we had to pay for travel cost as well

CHill-
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Well, well said, "Focus on physicality and results at a very early age. Over talent and player development... strong focus on athleticism rather than aptitude on the ball and understanding of the game."

MrLouHill
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The idea as mentioned for Mane and Suarez is a common idea in America, however, it is reserved for Football, not Soccer.

jacobmalo
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This isn't just a problem with youth development it's a problem of the US system

grumpiesttitan