Galaxy have yet to develop a single Homegrown Player of real quality...

lafalafa

PREMIER
You could be forgiven for believing the LA Galaxy academy system has problems, but experts regard the youth academy as one of the best in the country. The system is loaded with talent: Efrain Alvarez is the real deal and the likes of Ulysses Llanez and Alex Mendez aren’t far behind.

The issue is how that talent is cultivated. Promising youngsters need first-team minutes. Without a philosophy, an ethos, any kind of system in place to give up and coming talent playing time and progress their development, what’s the point of pouring millions into an academy?

The Galaxy are behind the curve. Should the US qualify for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, there’s an excellent chance the starting lineup will feature two Red Bull academy products in Tyler Adams and Matt Miazga. Vancouver wunderkidAlphonso Davies was sold to Bayern Munich for a number that could reach $20 million.

In comparison the Galaxy have yet to develop a single Homegrown Player of real quality, a stunning setback given LA’s background as a youth soccer hotbed, the money spent and the resources available.

Screen_Shot_2018_09_19_at_10.11.36_AM.png

Bradford Jamieson’s minutes through five seasons paint a bleak picture
In the MLS 3.0 era, you can’t neglect to build an academy-USL-MLS pipeline and expect to succeed.

It goes without saying the fans are frustrated. With LAFC pulling out all the stops to establish themselves as the top soccer team in Los Angeles, a growing discontent has simmered among Galaxy die-hards who perceive the organization has not done enough to battle their new rival on and off the field.

https://www.lagconfidential.com/platform/amp/2018/9/20/17844138/chris-klein-is-out-of-bullets
 
Also note that the 3 players you mentioned came over to the Galaxy via Chivas (who took them a year earlier along with the coach from regular pay-to-play club)at the age of 14/15 so they're not exactly Galaxy born and raised.
 
This is as it should be. The MLS should not AND cannot develop quality players, its still 20 years away. The best players need to be shipped off to Europe as quickly as we can get them there for real training and real competition. Any homegrown player that signs to an MLS team is basically a lost cause because the MLS fundamentally lacks the competition and talent to create world-class players.

The above article is a perfect example of how seriously out of touch and ignorant US sports writers are regarding soccer.
 
This is as it should be. The MLS should not AND cannot develop quality players, its still 20 years away. The best players need to be shipped off to Europe as quickly as we can get them there for real training and real competition. Any homegrown player that signs to an MLS team is basically a lost cause because the MLS fundamentally lacks the competition and talent to create world-class players.

The above article is a perfect example of how seriously out of touch and ignorant US sports writers are regarding soccer.

Agreed. I have noticed that, over the last couple of years, you have come around to the realities here in the US. Welcome aboard. The more people that understand the challenges, the more likely we are to overcome them.
 
Agreed. I have noticed that, over the last couple of years, you have come around to the realities here in the US. Welcome aboard. The more people that understand the challenges, the more likely we are to overcome them.

Youth soccer (and sports in general) have tremendous value. The fact that some track suit wearing coach with a British accent is getting paid is perfectly fine in my book. We just need to be honest about the realities. What really irks me is the fundamental lack of understanding of how this stuff works. Idiots keep on trying to connect World Cup performance to Youth Academies. The average sports writer and so-called soccer expert operates with such a high level of ignorance that its mind boggling.

Take the article cited, the premise here is that because the LA Galaxy's homegrown players have not had many 1st team minutes, their program is bad. The article makes the false assumption that the MLS team/first team is the right place for good talent. Its not. The goal for these "academy" players is to never, ever, never sign with the MLS, but get signed by European and Latin American clubs where the talent level and money is more. The age range between 16 and 22 is critical in creating world class players and only a few will rise to the challenge. The US already has a serious disadvantage due to Article 19, so really good talent has to stagnate in the US until 18. Most will go play in the USL, some in the MLS and the vast majority in college, which is a death nail for a serious career.

@lafalafa read this: https://www.theringer.com/2018/2/28/17046268/soccer-christian-pulisic-rob-moore-agent-usmnt-america
 
The article is from the galaxy fan site, frustrated fans voicing there opinions.

What's the take away here? Galaxy system sucks or the US system in general?

I wouldn't say suck but the accountability & effectiveness of the Galaxy, ussda, mnt, player selections, souting are questional at best.

Let's put it this way if your company spent 11 years training employees and spent upwords of $$40million (4 milion a year for galaxy) doing so but had little to show for those efforts besides a couple best of show trophies for employees who no longer work there would you consider the program worth while?

"Without a philosophy, an ethos, any kind of system in place to give up and coming talent playing time and progress their development, what’s the point of pouring millions into an academy?"

Are we any better off with the ussda system? Hard to say so, the women managed to do well without it so I'm not sold on it without changes considering the resoucres thrown at it, haven't seen the payback just yet.

As far as accountability yes ussda/fa Chicago has some challenges. They make guidlines and selectively ignore them 4-3-3, 25% starts, HS players, roster size, not to pick on the Galaxy but they have 32 players on their U16/17 roster yet only 15 can play each game maximum so as you can see there's some accountability problems when you mix those with the FIFA sub rules.

Ussda only gave out 700k worth of scholarship funds last year yet us soccer is sitting on a 100 million+ surplus, so again they are not doing enough in this area.

The souting system and players evals need a complete overhaul IMO, ussf can't even find coaches for the bnt, ynt, or mnt for over a year so there is a lack of coaching eduction and the few Scouts they have or just taking the easy way out and pretty much rely on the good old boy Network to select players.

Sending 16 to 18 year old boys overseas to Europe because we can't get it done here is sad and really limited, not a good solution long-term. Might as well get rid of the ussda what's the point? Spend big bucks to develop players locally for the Mexico national like the Galaxy players mentioned?
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-mexican-soccer-dream-20180920-story.html
 
The article is from the galaxy fan site, frustrated fans voicing there opinions.

I wouldn't say suck but the accountability & effectiveness of the Galaxy, ussda, mnt, player selections, souting are questional at best.

Let's put it this way if your company spent 11 years training employees and spent upwords of $$40million (4 milion a year for galaxy) doing so but had little to show for those efforts besides a couple best of show trophies for employees who no longer work there would you consider the program worth while?

"Without a philosophy, an ethos, any kind of system in place to give up and coming talent playing time and progress their development, what’s the point of pouring millions into an academy?"

Are we any better off with the ussda system? Hard to say so, the women managed to do well without it so I'm not sold on it without changes considering the resoucres thrown at it, haven't seen the payback just yet.

As far as accountability yes ussda/fa Chicago has some challenges. They make guidlines and selectively ignore them 4-3-3, 25% starts, HS players, roster size, not to pick on the Galaxy but they have 32 players on their U16/17 roster yet only 15 can play each game maximum so as you can see there's some accountability problems when you mix those with the FIFA sub rules.

Ussda only gave out 700k worth of scholarship funds last year yet us soccer is sitting on a 100 million+ surplus, so again they are not doing enough in this area.

The souting system and players evals need a complete overhaul IMO, ussf can't even find coaches for the bnt, ynt, or mnt for over a year so there is a lack of coaching eduction and the few Scouts they have or just taking the easy way out and pretty much rely on the good old boy Network to select players.

Sending 16 to 18 year old boys overseas to Europe because we can't get it done here is sad and really limited, not a good solution long-term. Might as well get rid of the ussda what's the point? Spend big bucks to develop players locally for the Mexico national like the Galaxy players mentioned?
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-mexican-soccer-dream-20180920-story.html

The problem with your analogy is that it fails to understand that "your company" is not a real company, rather a farm collective. The real companies are oversees. Let's change the analogy to make it more in line with reality. But, before we do we need to understand that the MLS and the LA Galaxy are one in the same. The MLS is an LLC that owns and operates 20+ teams. Players that play for a team sign a contract with the MLS and are assigned to that team. If we were of a conservative bent we would call this structure "socialism" or a communist league. If we were of a liberal bent we would call this structure a "work collective." The owners of MLS teams don't actually own the team, rather they are members of the MLS LLC and are assigned to operate a particular team, which allows them to take a percentage of the profits.

So let's try again:

Let's put it this way if one of your communities in your farm collective spent 11 years training children to be farmers during secondary school at a cost of tens of millions of dollars but only a handful of those children elected to join the community in your farm collective, opting instead to continue their education and learn additional non-farming skills would you consider the program worth while?

The answer for the community and collective is very simple. First, because those children we are training don't actually belong to the community, rather, belong to the collective, sure ... its a numbers game. Because the community (Galaxy) has minor benefits, and most benefits flow to the Collective (MLS), then fine, the program works. Moreover, neither the community nor the collective loses the child. In the system here in the US, the vast majority of kids abandon the community (Galaxy, Dallas FC, etc.) and run off to this magical place called "college" aka "university." Once these wayward kids graduate from college/university the Collective gives each community member a chance to encourage them to come back to the farm collective/community through the MLS Super Draft, where we will but them to work for wages that are 20 to 40% less than what they would make with their fancy college education.

The above analogy is much more accurate as to how this all works in the US.

Elite youth soccer players avoid the MLS at all costs and go try their hand oversees with programs that pay better and are more challenging.

As to your other points:
  • The Federation operates a league and invites other's to actually spend the money, this league is the US Soccer Development Academy league.
  • The Federation model and mandate is that it promotes youth soccer through its National Affiliates and should not be doing this itself.
  • The MLS is a hopelessly flawed system that creates artificial barriers to competitive growth in favor of survival/risk management. It is built to survive and not thrive. Darwinism does not exist at the MLS. For this reason, the MLS is a very "long play" and will cease to exist if another league pops up that puts out a better product. There is a reason NBC pays $90+ million for the Premiere League and the MLS only gets about $60M.
  • The Federation can't find youth coaches because they are not looking. The Federation is waiting for the new GM (Ernie) to make the call. Ernie just started last month. Give it time. Also, the National Youth Teams are 100% inconsequential to the Federation's true purpose, which is to field the US National Team. We have bigger fish to fry at the moment, like hiring a National Team coach that isn't hopelessly infected by the MLS (reference to Bruce "I LOVE THE MLS PLAYERS BECAUSE THEY ARE THE ONLY ONE I KNOW" Arena).
  • I don't get the scholarship fund reference, are you saying that giving kids money to go play in college where they will put academics over athletics and be FORCED to train less due to the NCAA rules is something the federation should encourage?
But, with all this said, is the MLS Collective benefiting from the academy system? Yes. The MLS knows its not competitive on the world stage. The MLS knows that not a single MLS team would play in the 1st division of almost every European league and most of its MLS teams would be 3rd division or worse. The MLS knows its product is inferior, but it is not going to admit it publicly. The Federation also knows this and hopefully we will see few and fewer MLS players on the National Teams and more and more youth academy players crossing the pond (or southern border) to further their development.
 
There is no incentive to truly develop a player in the US. Until the developers (clubs) get paid for their product, the kids will continue to choose college over the professional path. Imagine if Galaxy and LAFC had to pay other clubs that developed their shiny new academy recruits? It would truly level the field for All of the academies. Money back to the clubs that develop talent is the only answer to fix US Soccer, and until I see a coach with only one team I won’t be changing my mind that it isn’t about money anytime soon.
 
There is no incentive to truly develop a player in the US. Until the developers (clubs) get paid for their product, the kids will continue to choose college over the professional path. Imagine if Galaxy and LAFC had to pay other clubs that developed their shiny new academy recruits? It would truly level the field for All of the academies. Money back to the clubs that develop talent is the only answer to fix US Soccer, and until I see a coach with only one team I won’t be changing my mind that it isn’t about money anytime soon.
I've been saying this for years.
 
If we were of a conservative bent we would call this structure "socialism" or a communist league. If we were of a liberal bent we would call this structure a "work collective."
And if we were from NYC, we'd call this a co-op (because that's how real-estate works there, or used to...).
 
I've been saying this for years.

Toronto FC did this a few years ago.
There is no incentive to truly develop a player in the US. Until the developers (clubs) get paid for their product, the kids will continue to choose college over the professional path. Imagine if Galaxy and LAFC had to pay other clubs that developed their shiny new academy recruits? It would truly level the field for All of the academies. Money back to the clubs that develop talent is the only answer to fix US Soccer, and until I see a coach with only one team I won’t be changing my mind that it isn’t about money anytime soon.

Toronto FC did this last year. As boys joined the Toronto academy, Toronto FC made a donation to those local club teams.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/club/tor...nd-but-mls-still-has-player-development-issue
 
Co-ripped off MLS & Sum are not giving compensation back in the us to home clubs.


Toronto FC did this a few years ago.


Toronto FC did this last year. As boys joined the Toronto academy, Toronto FC made a donation to those local club teams.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/club/tor...nd-but-mls-still-has-player-development-issue

Canada sees things different...

"The U.S. Soccer Federation, fearing a violation of antitrust law, has prevented RSTP from being enforced. An additional wrinkle involves the case Fraser vs. MLS, which challenged the league's single-entity structure but also involved the payment of transfer fees for out-of-contract players. MLS stated it wasn't requiring a fee for such players anyway and promised not to do so in the future.

More critically, the USSF went one step further and entered into an agreement with the court -- a copy of which has been obtained by ESPN FC -- that also said it wouldn't enforce out-of-contract transfer fees, and included training and development compensation in that definition. The USSF ultimately interpreted that agreement to mean that it couldn't require the payment of training compensation and solidarity payments under any circumstances.

The Canadian Soccer Association has taken a more relaxed view of RSTP but one that has some similarities to the USSF's stance. According to Earl Cochrane, the CSA's deputy general secretary, the CSA enforces RSTP for international deals only.

"Domestically, we don't have a training compensation policy or program in place," Cochrane said via telephone. "The international [approach] as it relates to those FIFA guidelines and regulations, we're OK with. If clubs are willing to pay that training compensation back to local clubs for developing those players, it's not an issue with us. But domestically we don't have any guidelines."
 
The problem with your analogy is that it fails to understand that "your company" is not a real company, rather a farm collective. The real companies are oversees. Let's change the analogy to make it more in line with reality. But, before we do we need to understand that the MLS and the LA Galaxy are one in the same. The MLS is an LLC that owns and operates 20+ teams. Players that play for a team sign a contract with the MLS and are assigned to that team. If we were of a conservative bent we would call this structure "socialism" or a communist league. If we were of a liberal bent we would call this structure a "work collective." The owners of MLS teams don't actually own the team, rather they are members of the MLS LLC and are assigned to operate a particular team, which allows them to take a percentage of the profits.

So let's try again:

Let's put it this way if one of your communities in your farm collective spent 11 years training children to be farmers during secondary school at a cost of tens of millions of dollars but only a handful of those children elected to join the community in your farm collective, opting instead to continue their education and learn additional non-farming skills would you consider the program worth while?

The answer for the community and collective is very simple. First, because those children we are training don't actually belong to the community, rather, belong to the collective, sure ... its a numbers game. Because the community (Galaxy) has minor benefits, and most benefits flow to the Collective (MLS), then fine, the program works. Moreover, neither the community nor the collective loses the child. In the system here in the US, the vast majority of kids abandon the community (Galaxy, Dallas FC, etc.) and run off to this magical place called "college" aka "university." Once these wayward kids graduate from college/university the Collective gives each community member a chance to encourage them to come back to the farm collective/community through the MLS Super Draft, where we will but them to work for wages that are 20 to 40% less than what they would make with their fancy college education.

The above analogy is much more accurate as to how this all works in the US.

Elite youth soccer players avoid the MLS at all costs and go try their hand oversees with programs that pay better and are more challenging.

As to your other points:
  • The Federation operates a league and invites other's to actually spend the money, this league is the US Soccer Development Academy league.
  • The Federation model and mandate is that it promotes youth soccer through its National Affiliates and should not be doing this itself.
  • The MLS is a hopelessly flawed system that creates artificial barriers to competitive growth in favor of survival/risk management. It is built to survive and not thrive. Darwinism does not exist at the MLS. For this reason, the MLS is a very "long play" and will cease to exist if another league pops up that puts out a better product. There is a reason NBC pays $90+ million for the Premiere League and the MLS only gets about $60M.
  • The Federation can't find youth coaches because they are not looking. The Federation is waiting for the new GM (Ernie) to make the call. Ernie just started last month. Give it time. Also, the National Youth Teams are 100% inconsequential to the Federation's true purpose, which is to field the US National Team. We have bigger fish to fry at the moment, like hiring a National Team coach that isn't hopelessly infected by the MLS (reference to Bruce "I LOVE THE MLS PLAYERS BECAUSE THEY ARE THE ONLY ONE I KNOW" Arena).
  • I don't get the scholarship fund reference, are you saying that giving kids money to go play in college where they will put academics over athletics and be FORCED to train less due to the NCAA rules is something the federation should encourage?
But, with all this said, is the MLS Collective benefiting from the academy system? Yes. The MLS knows its not competitive on the world stage. The MLS knows that not a single MLS team would play in the 1st division of almost every European league and most of its MLS teams would be 3rd division or worse. The MLS knows its product is inferior, but it is not going to admit it publicly. The Federation also knows this and hopefully we will see few and fewer MLS players on the National Teams and more and more youth academy players crossing the pond (or southern border) to further their development.


Wow, bravo! Great lesson.
 
A lot of the things mentioned are a product of a closed soccer system in the US. The response of “Send the kids to Europe” shouldn’t be the answer. We can and should do better

I’m not going to get into a Pro/Rel argument here because, I don’t want to read the ensuing paragraphs of text from MWN.
 
A lot of the things mentioned are a product of a closed soccer system in the US. The response of “Send the kids to Europe” shouldn’t be the answer. We can and should do better

I’m not going to get into a Pro/Rel argument here because, I don’t want to read the ensuing paragraphs of text from MWN.
Explain "closed system."
 
For someone that has written opinions the size of short novels, I’m sure you can figure out from my above post what I mean by a “closed system”.
 
MLS owns everything; Non-MLS teams cannot be promoted into the top tier league (aka MLS)...: MLS is closed to outsiders.
 
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