The Academy is a step in the right direction. There is a laundry list of things that are correct – many of which have been mentioned within the soccer community.
The Good
- A unified national league.
- Virtually year-round.
- Extra day of training.
- Level competition.
- MLS teams involved.
- Better logistics for scouts.
- Phasing out of high-school.
- Abolishing crazy tournament schedules.
- Training is taken more seriously.
- … and other things
The Bad (but fixable with time)
- Pay-to-play persists which filters out a HUGE number of talent from the pool.
- Club interests are not aligned with “development”. There’s no incentive to “develop” a player.
- No clear accountability metric(s) that are aligned with “development”.
- … and other things
The Ugly
The ugly, and unrecognized, monster which will keep the spirit of the Academy from fulfilling it’s promise is coaching. First, let’s be clear what development at the U-16 & U-18 level is all about – Soccer IQ.
It’s not about improving technique. If by U-16 a player does not have great quality on the ball, there’s nothing a coach can do. It’s up to the individual to spend hours upon hours, 7 days a week to catch up to his peers. It’s also not about the list of good things above. Those things only provide an improved infrastructure.
Developing a player at this age is all about programming his computer. Tactical structure, positional roles, correct decision-making, and vision. These are the things that develop you, and this is where 9 out of 10 coaches in this country fall flat on their face! This is the nationwide crisis at all levels.
If the coaches themselves don’t have a developed Soccer IQ, how are they supposed to give proper instruction? And of the small minority who might actually have it, they also need to be a capable teacher/trainer to transmit whatever understanding they have.
Without the right teachers, you will never get developed players.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I completly agree with the idea of having competent coaches with the proper Soccer IQ to take US Soccer to the next level. Unfortunately, the Development Academy should have never included established clubs because the Mega Clubs do not develop players, the best players just migrate there for a better opportunity at national exposure. Many times it’s the smaller unknown teams that find the hidden rare gems out there.
I believe the fix is actually quite simple if the Country is willing to spend the money? Allow the big Mega Clubs and the little fish to continue the development process between U5-U13. At U-14 start the Development Academy with only MLS affiliated teams with well paid coaches foreign or domestic that can prove themselves. The Club system then would take it’s proper role as a feeder system for the MLS Development Academy Teams. This is what the rest of the world does, can you say the “Metric System.” I guess we americans just like to be different, even when we’re wrong.
Hi Oscar,
Yeah, I have lots of ideas on how to improve what exists. But not all the details yet. I’ve thought of the “MLS only” route as well, but always come up with the following issues:
1) Our country is just too big. Only 16 youth mls academy teams can’t accommodate our population and it’s distribution – even more talent would fall through the cracks.
2) The capacity of the current MLS academy coaches to develop a player are no different than the “Mega Clubs”. They are still a disaster.
There are many things that need to take place to be successful. One of them, is aligning club interests with development. This means providing a monetary incentive to the clubs to produce professionals. I don’t have all the details worked out yet, or how the mechanism would work, but you can bet your ass this would oblige clubs to understand and hire coaches that can make this a reality.
Without incentive (ie money), nothing will change.