I'm a huge critic of US Soccer's youth development, but I wouldn't say Pulisic is purely a European product. He went over to Europe and joined the Dortmund academy when he was 16. He was in their youth system for just 9 months before he started getting call-ups to the Dortmund first-team. So Pulisic hit the ground running when he joined Dortmund and ascended quickly, which isn't the norm for most youth players even in Europe. Sure nothing here in America can compare to the experience and development Pulisic has gained in Dortmund the past two years. But Pulisic wasn't born two years ago.
Pulisic actually was in the DA system playing for the PA Classics while also training with a local pro team. He was also on the US youth U15 & U17 national teams. It was when he was playing for the U17 NT that he got on the radar of Dortmund. So I think it was a combination of US Youth Soccer system and Daddy Pulisic that made Pulisic into a youth superstar/pro prospect. Then Dortmund provided the environment for that potential to actually be realized where Pulisic can potentially be a world class player.
What US Soccer lacks is that "finishing school". There's no clear pathway for a 16-19 year-old in America to be surrounded by top professionals and transition to 1st Division soccer. 16 year-old Pulisic was playing against U19 Bayern Munic and occasionally training with Champions League/World Cup players on the 1st team. Whereas a 16 year-old on LA Galaxy is playing against San Diego Surf and Strikers, and maybe occasionally training with Jack McBean on LAGII. There's just no comparison.
Our youth system as inefficient as it is, actually does okay getting kids to 13-14 years old. Pulisic was in the US youth system the entire time at those ages. It's just that gap between youth prospect and true professional where the DA system falls apart. The DA system is still more focused toward college rather than grooming professional players. If you were to poll the Surf U16/17 DA team and ask the players/parents how many have a 100% focus on being a professional soccer player, I imagine the percentage would be very low. You'd probably get a muddled answer of "college scholarship, and maybe play professional if it happens". Now if you were to poll the LA Galaxy U16/17 DA team, you probably would get a much higher percentage of players/families who have a 100% focus on being a professional. The problem is though during the 10 month season, LA Galaxy is playing 95% of their games against Pay-for-Play DA clubs like Surf/Strikers that don't have a professional focus.
Some people have suggested that LA Galaxy and other MLS academies should join a strictly "Pro-Circuit". The problem is MLS teams are so spread out across the country that's not feasible to have a MLS-only DA circuit. Now if they included NASL/USL/NPSL/PDL teams that have a youth academy that might enhance the geography some. But it's hard to say if a 3th/4th division team would have a professional focus with their academies. After all, Surf has a 4th division pro-team, "SoCal Surf", but I'm not sure the equation is going to change where their DA teams will become more "Pro" focused, instead of college. Many of these 4th division teams are just vanity projects, not necessarily a part of a true youth/pro pyramid.
Jordan Morris is indeed a 100% All-Beef American product. He's what you get when a top youth prospect goes all the way through the US "finishing school". Also I'd argue Pulisic is probably 75% American Beef, with 25% Wienerschnitzel. He's not like a Ben Lederman that went over to Barca at 11 years-old. Pulisc got the majority of his development here in America, but that final 25% does make a big difference when you start talking about playing in the highest levels of the game. I think the US DA system has made the typical average player better over the last 10 years and our youth national teams still function as a spring-board to get top prospects scouted by European clubs in their mid/late teens. Pulisic never would have been discovered by Dortmund without it. So they get credit for that. We just have to work on the DA system, so we can actually develop top professionals regularly without having to funnel them through Youth NTs. If you look at the roster of a lot of the top European clubs, only a handful of the players actually played for their u15-u17 national youth teams. So we can't just rely on that tiny fraction of the player pool, consisting mostly of early bloomers, to produce top professionals.
Last edited: