THE CHRISTIAN PULISIC BLUEPRINT

xav10 said:
I would think El Clasico is making 2 points: 1. You're not going to develop to international caliber via the USSDA and 2. Enough people recognize that fact now so if your kid is good enough, an agent or other rep on behalf of a club from outside the US will invite the kid to work with an overseas academy. I would agree with those points, if my interpretation is correct.
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I can't say you guys are wrong.

I'm just going to say that it's a much different experience to nurturing soccer talent in the US vs. Europe. I think the USSDA is taking the right steps to improve the level of soccer in the US, and build out the soccer culture in the US. But it's going to take a long time.

I read in the women's u23/u20/u17 World Cup thread how the Japanese girls were so much more technical and superior in short, precise, whole-team ball movement and passing. That didn't happen overnite, it's taken decades of work. In the beginning Japan just didn't have enough qualified coaches and instructors.

I think it's too early to expect the US to churn out a Pulisic every 5 years. Probably we need to train a few generations of players who will be better coaches and more of them than what we have now. Only then can we provide high quality training to a huge base of youth soccer players, and develop more Pulisic's.
 
El Clasico said:
You no longer need connections in Europe. With the DA coming up on its 10th anniversary and really no return to show for its efforts and investments, agencies have popped up in more than a few places over the past couple of years to facilitate the movement of the gifted players from the US to Europe. If you are wondering if your kid is "gifted" enough for these programs, you would have already been approached if your child is of academy age. In other words, don't call us, we'll call you.
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We shouldn't need to send our kids to Europe though. Of course it would be great if your kid was good enough, and a great learning experience soccer wise, and among other benefits, but it shouldn't be where the US wants to be able to compete so we send our kids to Europe just to later return "prodigies" from the Europe instruction. It should be one of those things that kids do every once in a while, not the only solution to having great players with American nationality and play for the USMNT (or USWNT in some cases). We need to be able to develop our own players that can at least compete with the European stars. At least that's what the goal of US Soccer is, right? Right now, US only developed players can't, and the solution shouldn't be to send them off to Europe.
 
The DA system won't work at developing talent until ALL teams are fully funded by US soccer. You have MLS clubs that are fully funding their teams, and have the best facilities attracting the best talent. They are playing against kids that are still in a pay to play system without the best facilities. It plays out like MLS watching Gio Dos Santos score on some poor keeper that is barely making $80,000 a year. 7 figure guys showing up 5 figure guys won't maximize the potential of either player.
 
PaytoplayinLancaster? said:
The DA system won't work at developing talent until ALL teams are fully funded by US soccer. You have MLS clubs that are fully funding their teams, and have the best facilities attracting the best talent. They are playing against kids that are still in a pay to play system without the best facilities. It plays out like MLS watching Gio Dos Santos score on some poor keeper that is barely making $80,000 a year. 7 figure guys showing up 5 figure guys won't maximize the potential of either player.
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This would be true only if the training at MLS DAs was always far superior. Yes, the "fully paid for" aspect attracts the best talent, but there are only so many MLS DA slots available. Also, if what you said is true, why do non MLS DAs compete effectively against the MLS DAs?

Pay to play sucks for those with no money, but most Americans who have talented soccer player children can afford a few thousand a year to keep their kids playing at the highest levels.
 
Wez said:
This would be true only if the training at MLS DAs was always far superior. Yes, the "fully paid for" aspect attracts the best talent, but there are only so many MLS DA slots available. Also, if what you said is true, why do non MLS DAs compete effectively against the MLS DAs?

Pay to play sucks for those with no money, but most Americans who have talented soccer player children can afford a few thousand a year to keep their kids playing at the highest levels.
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The training is superior only in the facilities. There are great coaches all over who can get the most out of their players especially at the younger ages.
 
Like Uburoi said the Christian Pulisic blueprint is unique and a 1 off. First he has two athletic parents. He is probably a top % athlete to start with and has 110%+ drive. Does not mean we can't find more kids out there. I do think in the generation of kids 02-07 we will have more kids with this kind of talent showing through. We are probably starting to get a greater percentage of our top natural athletes in soccer now. They key is to keep them, recognize them and not have them pulled back into the big 3 sports. Still until pick up soccer becomes as popular as pickup basketball or football, we are not going to develop a natural star.
 
A blueprint for development is something proven and that can be repeated with some regularity.

The La Mesia academy is a blueprint.
The Ajax Academy is a blueprint.
The South Hampton academy is a blueprint.

The "Pulisic" blueprint is a one-time anomaly at this point. And I'm speaking as a Pulisic fanboy.

As others pointed out already, Pulisic's dad made a lot of things happen to compensate for US Soccer's development shortcomings. What he did is very admirable, but it's just not repeatable in any systematic way. If we want to output 2-5 world class players a year, which is about the average for most European and South American countries we need to have a real blueprint. And ideally a blueprint that takes advantage of players who develop at different speeds. Not everyone is a world class player at 18, sometimes it takes until they're 20-23 to really break out. Right now a great majority of the US DA players after the age of 18 go to die in college soccer or the USL. Aside from FC Dallas and a couple of others, very few MLS teams actually take the time to groom their USL players into the first team roster. And I'm not even going to harp on college soccer.

So even beyond the DA, US Soccer and the MLS have to do better to transition youth prospects into actual professionals. Relying on a microscopic portion of the soccer population that have EU passports isn't a real blueprint. The real lesson you should take from Family Pulisic is that they used every single tool at their deposal while making sure Christian maintained the joy of the game. Beyond that, I don't know how much is actually repeatable unless you have the exact same resources and in a position take advantage of timely opportunities.
 
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Eusebio said:
A blueprint for development is something proven and that can be repeated with some regularity.

The La Mesia academy is a blueprint.
The Ajax Academy is a blueprint.
The South Hampton academy is a blueprint.

The "Pulisic" blueprint is a one-time anomaly at this point. And I'm speaking as a Pulisic fanboy.

As others pointed out already, Pulisic's dad made a lot of things happen to compensate for US Soccer's development shortcomings.
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There's more than meets the eye with this story. For sure there's a bit more Svengali in his dad vs. acquiescent provider of fun for his boy.

And there is no blueprint. Note that all academies mentioned are struggling with this fact, being that they can't repeat the process.
Bale is not Messi. Pulisic isn't Chicharito. They develop and play uniquely.

Pulisic hasn't played in the big leagues yet, nor has he gotten through a major injury.
He looks fast and clever, but there are hundreds of players like him all over Europe.
 
ray8 said:
There's more than meets the eye with this story. For sure there's a bit more Svengali in his dad vs. acquiescent provider of fun for his boy.

And there is no blueprint. Note that all academies mentioned are struggling with this fact, being that they can't repeat the process.
Bale is not Messi. Pulisic isn't Chicharito. They develop and play uniquely.

Pulisic hasn't played in the big leagues yet, nor has he gotten through a major injury.
He looks fast and clever, but there are hundreds of players like him all over Europe.
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Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League aren't the big leagues? And I'm going to go out on a limb and say no way are there "hundreds" of players like him in Europe. He might not be in the elite of world class (yet), but he's already distinguished himself as a special player with a bright future in world football.
 
ajaxahi said:
Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League aren't the big leagues? And I'm going to go out on a limb and say no way are there "hundreds" of players like him in Europe. He might not be in the elite of world class (yet), but he's already distinguished himself as a special player with a bright future in world football.
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The EPL and La Liga are the big leagues.
My point was to add to why the Pulisic experience is not a blueprint.
He is not yet a complete soccer player. He's only distinguished himself as a special prospect. So did Pato, Balotelli, and too many others assumed to already have a bright future.
 
ray8 said:
The EPL and La Liga are the big leagues.
My point was to add to why the Pulisic experience is not a blueprint.
He is not yet a complete soccer player. He's only distinguished himself as a special prospect. So did Pato, Balotelli, and too many others assumed to already have a bright future.
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The Bundesliga is the big leagues as well. He's a Dortmund star (3rd place) and the best player on USMNT already! His experience may not be a "blueprint," but he's a complete player all right, who will get better.
 
xav10 said:
The Bundesliga is the big leagues as well. He's a Dortmund star (3rd place) and the best player on USMNT already! His experience may not be a "blueprint," but he's a complete player all right, who will get better.
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I like Pulisic a lot. But there is no way he is number 3 at Dortmund.

Among the younger players on that team, Ousmane Dembele is far ahead of Pulisic. In fact, I believe Dembele has the talent to become one of the all time greats of the game.

Among the vets, Kagawa is still more efficient and effective than Pulisic, Aubemayang more talented and a better player, and when Gotze and Reus recover Pulisic will lose a lot of playing time.

I think Pulisic can be a faster, slightly more physical version of Kagawa, and in my book, that's a world class player.
 
ajaxahi said:
And I'm going to go out on a limb and say no way are there "hundreds" of players like him in Europe. He might not be in the elite of world class (yet), but he's already distinguished himself as a special player with a bright future in world football.
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You're wrong. It's at least hundreds. It's probably more in the thousands.
 
rocket_file said:
Pretty bad timing on this comment.

Looks pretty world class here.

Certainly not hundreds like him in Europe.

http://www.espnfc.us/international-...9803/ac-milan-1-3-dortmund-aubameyangs-double
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The title of these highlights, which is one game, is Pulisic is Aubemayang's double. Really? Pulisic is a fantastic player and he is in a great situation for him at Dortmund. But Aubemayang was the leading scorer in Bundesliga along with Bayern Munich's Lewandowski. That qualifies Aubemayang as one of the top strikers in the world. I wouldn't call Pulisic a "double" for Aubemayang.

I'm not going to sit here and say I've sat down and looked at the talent at all the European academies and came up with a number that are as good as Pulisic. But I would classify Pulisic as an academy product, he doesn't show the creative street element of the top South American players. I'm just going to point out that countries like France, Spain, Germany, Italy churn out of their academies Pulisic's type of player by the thousands. And that's not including the talent produced by the smaller but still talent rich European countries, like Serbia and Croatia, or the South American countries.

I think the number is easily in the hundreds, and like I said, I would not be surprised if the number were in the thousands.
 
JJP said:
The title of these highlights, which is one game, is Pulisic is Aubemayang's double. Really? Pulisic is a fantastic player and he is in a great situation for him at Dortmund. But Aubemayang was the leading scorer in Bundesliga along with Bayern Munich's Lewandowski. That qualifies Aubemayang as one of the top strikers in the world. I wouldn't call Pulisic a "double" for Aubemayang.

I'm not going to sit here and say I've sat down and looked at the talent at all the European academies and came up with a number that are as good as Pulisic. But I would classify Pulisic as an academy product, he doesn't show the creative street element of the top South American players. I'm just going to point out that countries like France, Spain, Germany, Italy churn out of their academies Pulisic's type of player by the thousands. And that's not including the talent produced by the smaller but still talent rich European countries, like Serbia and Croatia, or the South American countries.

I think the number is easily in the hundreds, and like I said, I would not be surprised if the number were in the thousands.
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JJP, re-read the title and watch the highlight. They are not saying that CP is a double of Aubemayang...they are describing that Aubbie scored twice. PK earned by Pulisic, and a nice set up from Pulisic on the 2nd. Pulisic also had a nice assist on the first to Sahin. I agree with you that he is not at Aubemayang's level, but I think that he is a special talent similiar to an Andres Iniesta or a Toni Kroos. There is a methodical German-like precision to his game.
 
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CaliKlines said:
JJP, re-read the title and watch the highlight. They are not saying that CP is a double of Aubemayang...they are describing that Aubbie scored twice. PK earned by Pulisic, and a nice set up from Pulisic on the 2nd. Pulisic also had a nice assist on the first to Sahin. I agree with you that he is not at Aubemayang's level, but I think that he is a special talent similiar to an Andres Iniesta or a Toni Kroos. There is a methodical German-like precision to his game.
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You're right. I did misread the title. The "double" is referring to Aubemayang's brace, not Pulisic as Aubemayang's double.

Anyway, I think we all agree he is a fantastic player.
 
jpeter said:
Might have only been a friendly but looked pretty good with the two assists and drawing that PK vs AC Milan
http://the18.com/soccer-news/christian-pulisic-impresses-new-dortmund-coach?utm_campaign

Comapred to who else USA has been playing up top in the Gold Cup, CP would be a upgrade.

If he keeps getting better, stays healthy, gets playing time has a chance to be on player people inspire to be like for the next generation.
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I think even the doubters must recognize that he's only 18. He's going to improve. Sadly, US Soccer did not develop this kid nor is there any indication, even now, that they would know how. They look for the wrong things in players, they lack the soccer intellect to properly develop and train, and no fault of theirs but the competition from the atrocious NCAA, all combine to prevent us from moving forward in our development. Also no fault of theirs, the geography of this country makes it almost impossible to have kids playing against the best from their own, or other, nations, as they develop. Pulisic wasn't developed here...we develop Jordan Morris!
 
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