You bring up an interesting point, the time to develope a competitive team for the 2026 World Cup starts now. What are the pressing obstacles that need to be addressed?
Some issues I consider are as follows; Who has the best ability to judge / identify talent, Domestic coaches or European coaches?
What is the target age to start quality development and who is going to coach the coaches in developing this talent?
Can the developement be broken down into regional areas and not be exclusive?
Actually, it starts in about 6 years. Because the National Team draws from professional ranks AND because the average professional player doesn't reach their "peak" until age 26-27, we (the USA) are not developing anything.
The target age to "start" quality development is 11-12, at which point those players need to be identified an put into local academies (using the European and Latin American models).
The obstacles are numerous, but here are the biggest:
- Fifa's Article 19 prevents US minors from joining non-USA based programs, thus, delaying development for about 5-6 years until the player turns 18 (or unless the player can obtain dual citizenship).
- The federation refuses to administer Solidarity and Training fee payments, thereby, stripping any monetary incentives from the professional teams. (Google Article 19 solidarity and training fees to learn more).
- The Professional Teams in the U.S.A. (namely the MLS) suck and most MLS teams/players would not qualify for League 2, thus, the USA is not in a position to develop talent internally.
The formula for building a World Class team is simple. We know for a fact that over-reliance on soft MLS players results in a country like Trinidad Tobago kicking our buts. We know that our best players need to leave the soft MLS and go to Europe to continue their development. We know that playing college retards the development of soccer players due to NCAA training/playing restrictions.
Thus, the solution is relatively simple, if the goal is to field a competitive National Team we:
1) Look almost exclusively to US Nationals that play in Europe and Latin America for the next 8 years (Olympics, WC, Olympics, WC).
2) Select National Team coaches that understand the MLS is soft and detrimental to building a winning US National Team, and who make selections for the National Team based on skill, rather than familiarity.
3) Encourage clubs to invest in players by enforcing Article 19 fees (thereby eliminating pay-to-play for top talent).