USYNT coaching org change aka when will US Soccer cut the internal re-org politics & get on with it?

Kante

PREMIER
first, thx to Jane Dough for posting the news about Peay leaving.

Second, with today's (2/12) notice that Peay (he was the u15 ynt coach and attended January's Western Region Training Camp in lieu of the unhired u14 coach) is leaving US Soccer to join NCFC, I think Tab Ramos is the only YNT team coach currently still employed. Is the following correct?

u14 YNT coach = tbh (was Peay who left to become u15 coach))
u15 YNT coach = tbh (was Peay who then left to go to NCFC)
u16 YNT coach = tbh (was Tsakiris)
u17 YNT coach = tbh (was Hackworth)
u18 YNT coach = tbh (was Namazi)
u19 YNT coach = tbh (was Friedel)
u20 YNT coach = Tab Ramos (under contract thru 2021?)
u23 YNT coach = tbh

If yes, that's accurate ... well, words fail.

What does Greg Berhalter think about all this?
 
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with today's (2/12) notice that Peay (he was the u15 ynt coach and attended January's Western Region Training Camp in lieu of the unhired u14 coach) is leaving US Soccer to join NCFC, I think Tab Ramos is the only YNT team coach currently still employed. Is the following correct?

u14 YNT coach = tbh
u15 YNT coach = tbh
u16 YNT coach = tbh
u17 YNT coach = tbh
u18 YNT coach = tbh
u19 YNT coach = tbh
u20 YNT coach = Tab Ramos (under contract thru 2021?)
u23 YNT coach = tbh

If yes, that's accurate ... well, words fail.

What does Greg Berhalter think about all this?
Shocking, isn't it? "Words fail". Well said.
 
Lights on but nobody wants to take those jobs in Chicago

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From SoccerAmerica.
The troubling case of U.S. Soccer coaching vacancies

I would give the boys U.S. youth national team coaches a high grade for their work over the last couple of years. In fact, the boys YNT program under Youth Technical Director Tab Ramos has had unprecedented success -- providing a reason to be optimistic about the state of American soccer in the wake of the USA’s failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
Yet there is a reason to be concerned: U.S. Soccer has failed to keep its youth national team head coaches on board, while failing to hire replacements.

There are five boys U.S. youth national teams without head coaches. Three of the coaches who haven't been replaced left more than half a year ago.

The U-18s, U-17s (which have World Cup qualifying in two months), U-16s, U-15s and U-14s do not have a head coach.

YNT head coach departures:
Clint Peay (U-14/15): February 2019
Shaun Tsakiris (U-16): December 2018
John Hackworth (U-17): July 2018
Omid Namazi (U-18): June 2018
Brad Friedel (U-19): November 2017

You would think that U.S. Soccer, with its $5 million annual budget for its boys youth national team (including the U-23s), should be able to run a fully operational YNT program. Instead, Ramos, who is also the U-20 head coach, does double-duty with the U-18s. And for the last year he has shuffled coaches around to fill vacancies.

In 2018, U-15 coach Dave van den Bergh was re-assigned to the U-19s to fill the Friedel vacancy, and in January headed the U-17s, which Tsakiris had been coaching in Hackworth’s absence for the latter part of 2018. U.S. Soccer failed to land either Tsakiris or Van den Bergh for the U-17 job. Van den Bergh remains in charge of the U-19s.

The latest to leave was Clint Peay, the U-14 coach who also spent time heading the U-15s during the shuffle created by earlier departures. U.S. Soccer lost Peay to an assistant coaching position at North Carolina FC, one of the strongest USL teams.

So, the boys youth national team program finds itself with two head coaches for seven teams.

U.S. Soccer confirmed that one obstacle in maintaining some of its staff has been its requirement of relocating to its headquarters in Chicago, an issue that also narrows the field of new candidates.

Why is that necessary in this era of telecommuting? Besides, national team camps are never in Chicago.

“Having everyone together in a collaborative environment,” says U.S. Soccer spokesman Neil Buethe, “allows us to connect members of our men’s and women’s senior and youth coaching staffs with the other full-time people in the Federation, such as high-performance experts, team managers, talent identification directors, Development Academy leaders, and many others. Aligning our soccer philosophy throughout our national teams, Talent ID, Club Development and other departments is a priority. We made a huge step in this direction when our men’s national staff, including our General Manager [Earnie Stewart] and head coach [Gregg Berhalter] moved to Chicago.

“In terms of our soccer philosophy, that daily connection allows us to develop style of play, player profiles, methodology, curriculum and integrate high performance and analytics in a meaningful way across all of our programs.

“It’s not that we couldn’t have those conversations if we kept the status quo and continued to have everyone separated and living in different areas across the country. But we strongly believe that set-up isn’t as beneficial or productive to having everyone under one roof as often as possible. We all know we need to get better, and the question is how can we accelerate that process. One significant way is to have everyone in the same room.”

That room, however, isn’t filling up with the coaches who are crucial to the YNT program.

What I do not know is whether the salaries and terms offered YNT coaches are sufficient to encourage coaches to uproot themselves and their families. What I do believe is that the move-to-Chicago policy comes at a time when recent history shows the YNT coaches have done quite well without daily visits to Soccer House.

In 2017, the USA won the Concacaf U-20 Championship for the first time ever, and Ramos’ team repeated in 2018. Both teams included a large number of players who climbed the YNT ladder after U.S. Soccer expanded the program to include teams at each age group, with full-time head coaches.

The USA was one of only two nations -- besides England, which won both -- to reach the quarterfinals of the 2017 U-17 World Cup (with Hackworth coaching and Tsakiris assisting) and the 2017 U-20 World Cup.

U.S. youth national team players have been going pro at an unprecedented rate. Especially impressive recently, two members of the 2017 U-17 World Cup squad -- Timothy Weahand Josh Sargent – have already been capped by the full national team, while Taylor Booth has been signed by Bayern Munich and Chris Durkin played 23 MLS games for D.C. United in 2018.

Ramos attributes the YNT program success in this era to the improved environments for American players at the club level, especially the investment of MLS clubs in their academies. But there's no doubt that a well-run YNT program has played an important role.

Youth national team play led to the discovery by foreign clubs of players such as Weston McKennie, who was playing for the U-19s when Schalke 04 scouted him at the Slovakia Cup in 2016. McKennie, like former U.S. U-17 Christian Pulisic, is now getting UEFA Champions League experience.

The U-19 national team was one of the gap-year national teams – only the U-20s and U-17s have World Cups -- created on Ramos’ recommendation that have become crucial for young Americans getting international experience and exposure. Not having a coach for the World Cup-aspiring U-17s is especially troubling, but jeopardizing the programming for the other squads is also detrimental. Frankie Amaya, the No. 1 pick at the 2019 MLS SuperDraft and an 18-year-old star of the USA's 2018 Concacaf U-20 Championship final win over Mexico, reached the U-20s via the U-19s. The 17-year-old Ulysses Llanez's play with the U-18s was key part of his transition to the U-20s.

U.S. Soccer recently expanded its U-14 program and took steps to bolster its scouting network, after which Tony Lepore, U.S. Soccer’s Director of Boys Talent Identification, spoke of the important role the YNT head coaches play. Another reason for U.S. Soccer to have them in place. Another case for the urgency of filling the positions.

In the wake of U.S. Soccer being heavily criticized for losing Jonathan Gonzalez and Efrain Alvarez to Mexico, the YNT coaches, especially Ramos and Tsakiris, succeeded in keeping players such as Alex Mendez and Llanez in the U.S. jersey. In the recent U-14 West camp, about 50 percent of the 80 kids were Latino -- a reassuring sign for those of us concerned about the YNT program’s appreciation of Hispanic talent.

So far, the USA is winning the tug-of-war with Mexico for FC Dallas’ U-17 Ricardo Pepi. But he recently went down to a mid-season camp in Mexico with FC Dallas, played fantastically, and is again being heavily recruited by El Tri. And now Pepi doesn’t know who his U.S. coach would be.

Who’s responsible for hiring YNT coaches? U.S. Soccer says it’s a collaboration between Nico Romeijn, U.S. Soccer's Chief Sport Development Officer, Asher Mendelsohn, who joined U.S. Soccer last month as Chief Soccer Officer, replacing Ryan Mooney, and Ramos – and they “provide recommendations to [CEO] Dan Flynn for approval.”

But U.S. Soccer’s Organizational Chart shows the Chief Sport Development Office (Romeijn, the Dutchman who was hired by U.S. Soccer in June 2015 to be its Director of Coaching Education), and Chief Soccer Officer (now Mendelsohn) are in charge of the youth national teams. Ramos, who has been a part of six world championships as a player, head coach of three U-20 World Cups, and assistant coach at the 2014 World Cup, doesn’t appear in the chart.

I would trust Ramos, the Youth Technical Director, to pick the YNT coaches and decide whether they need to live in Chicago or not and have him make those recommendations to Flynn. But U.S. Soccer appears to take a different approach.

It’s a baffling approach that is interrupting some of the most impressive progress we’ve ever seen from the youth national program.
 
Sounds like US Soccer is still getting in their own way. Not having coaches because you WANT them under one roof? Why not move everyone from Chicago to Southern California? One of the biggest talent pools in the country while being able to sway the kids leaving for Mexico would be a huge benefit. Our weather is the best in this country, and if you can’t recruit coaches to live in Southern California then they just don’t want the job. They would save huge amounts of money on travel as well. So Cal attractions as a vacation destination are an easy draw for year round friendlies.
 
@Kante,

I appreciate your passion on this subject. I, however, disagree with the impact. The youth national teams are glorified "all-star" teams pulled from clubs that do the real training. These kids are not "trained" to any appreciable level by the US Soccer Coaches, so the lack of a permanent coach isn't a big deal in my book.
  1. These kids all train with their local clubs;
  2. U.S. soccer holds camps a year (each about 1 week) to get them to gel and play as a team,
  3. Then they go back to their home clubs where the real training occurs,
  4. Then they run off for a few friendlies in various parts of the world, and
  5. Then they go back to their home clubs and continue their real training continues.
52 weeks out of the year, US Soccer has these kids for about 4 to 5 weeks, their clubs have them for about 45-47 weeks.

Whoever the US YNT coach is really isn't that important.
 
@Kante,

I appreciate your passion on this subject. I, however, disagree with the impact. The youth national teams are glorified "all-star" teams pulled from clubs that do the real training. These kids are not "trained" to any appreciable level by the US Soccer Coaches, so the lack of a permanent coach isn't a big deal in my book.
  1. These kids all train with their local clubs;
  2. U.S. soccer holds camps a year (each about 1 week) to get them to gel and play as a team,
  3. Then they go back to their home clubs where the real training occurs,
  4. Then they run off for a few friendlies in various parts of the world, and
  5. Then they go back to their home clubs and continue their real training continues.
52 weeks out of the year, US Soccer has these kids for about 4 to 5 weeks, their clubs have them for about 45-47 weeks.

Whoever the US YNT coach is really isn't that important.

@MWN, the piece where there is "passion” is in sharing info and helping to make things more transparent. it's important for folks to know what’s going on.

You make some very good points, and the full impact on players of the US Soccer decision to clean house re: the ynt coaching staff will be seen, one way or the other, in eight to twelve years.

So far, seems like the lack of u14 coach directly led to an 16 month-ish lack of u14 ynt tc's. Certainly there was correlation, and intuitively, it seems like there is also causation. Haven't yet seen this yet in the other age groups, so maybe what happened with u14 is an outlier, but it's early.


From some first hand experience, participation in ynt tc’s can bump players, particularly younger players, up to the next level. to be fair, it may just be a placebo effect that increases confidence, but in an article about Pulisic, the writer mentioned this bump up happening with Pulisic when he was about 14/15 due to YNT participation.

Also, lots of studies indicate that people improvement is triggered when their day to day environment changes. In this kind of scenario, club training provides the baseline/foundation, and the YNT tc’s provide the trigger. Food for thought.

a couple of other near term impacts. 1) An org can't treat quality employees poorly without some blowback in the form of significantly increased difficulty hiring new quality employees in, particularly in world as small as US Soccer. don't know any of the ynt coaches personally, but many, not all, seemed to be solid 2) Many top quality USYNT prospects could also go play for the Mexican national team. by not having YNT coaches in place, USYNT is making a big piece of Mexico's recruiting pitch for them.

on the glass half full side, maybe US Soccer had/has insider info on Osorio leaving Paraguay and is just cleaning the table for him to come in and run the US YNT/DA program in partnership w/ Tab Ramos and guidance from Gregg B. and Earnie S.

Or maybe not.

Maybe there can be only one... (which would be too bad)
 
@Kante,

I appreciate your passion on this subject. I, however, disagree with the impact. The youth national teams are glorified "all-star" teams pulled from clubs that do the real training. These kids are not "trained" to any appreciable level by the US Soccer Coaches, so the lack of a permanent coach isn't a big deal in my book.
  1. These kids all train with their local clubs;
  2. U.S. soccer holds camps a year (each about 1 week) to get them to gel and play as a team,
  3. Then they go back to their home clubs where the real training occurs,
  4. Then they run off for a few friendlies in various parts of the world, and
  5. Then they go back to their home clubs and continue their real training continues.
52 weeks out of the year, US Soccer has these kids for about 4 to 5 weeks, their clubs have them for about 45-47 weeks.

Whoever the US YNT coach is really isn't that important.


I agree these sessions are not for development, but when you say they go back to their clubs for real training...what does that mean? Training for what? Isn't the goal of the DA to develop players for the national team? (I will stop here. Too many details for me to go through...and I am probably not even qualified).

But I'd say a coach matters greatly.
Without a coach, there is no identity, core values, style of play, curriculum, etc... Without these concepts, how should the team play? What is the directive to the scouts? What are they looking for? What is the style of play? What does a 10 look like? What is the style the 6 should play? From the top down, it has to be a coordinated effort.

If the directive to the scouts is to just go get the 'best' kid...define 'best'? In the end, the scouts are not as effective as they could be, scrimmages are just pick up games, assessments are not as accurate, and ultimately the quality of play is lowered.

For example, I was at the NorCal v. SD game at the West camp too. IMO, their are a couple of SoCal 05 teams that would have beaten the NorCal team straight up... I might even dare say relatively easily.

Why? Well, I am not saying that each and every kid on those teams is better than the NorCal team players...I have no idea. However, what I am saying is that a Team is better than a bunch of individuals, especially in Soccer. And the Coach is who creates that structure and environment.
 
@Kante,

Help me understand your conclusion/statement:

... the full impact on players of the US Soccer decision to clean house re: the ynt coaching staff will be seen, one way or the other, in eight to twelve years.

Are you saying there is a correlation between how the Men's national team performs and the U14 or U15 YNT?

So far, seems like the lack of u14 coach directly led to an 16 month-ish lack of u14 ynt tc's. Certainly there was correlation, and intuitively, it seems like there is also causation. Haven't yet seen this yet in the other age groups, so maybe what happened with u14 is an outlier, but it's early.
From some first hand experience, participation in ynt tc’s can bump players, particularly younger players, up to the next level. to be fair, it may just be a placebo effect that increases confidence, but in an article about Pulisic, the writer mentioned this bump up happening with Pulisic when he was about 14/15 due to YNT participation.

Also, lots of studies indicate that people improvement is triggered when their day to day environment changes. In this kind of scenario, club training provides the baseline/foundation, and the YNT tc’s provide the trigger. Food for thought.


I don't dispute that being recognized by US Soccer as one of a few kids with potential could certainly cause a few kids to rededicate themselves. I don't give too much weight to the argument that these YNT team candidates, who are already very driven (prepubescent) athletes, need YNT coaches to take them to the next level. The are already there from a club perspective. If we really wanted to impact their training, we would send them to a full-time DA program where they leave home, train and go to school and train some more.

That said, the 2019 U14's are not a priority for US Soccer at this time because they are still 2 years off from making a debut at the U17 World cup (assuming 1 or 2 can play up). The U17 FIFA Youth World Cup cycle occurs every 2 years. The 2019 U17 for 2019, then the 2019 U15's for 2021, and then the 2019 (future) U13's for 2022. The U14s are gap year kids in the U17 cycle and are going to be too young or too old, as are this year's U16's for the upcoming U17 World Cup. The U14's are, however, on the U20 track, but still 3 cycles away. Virtually the entire team will turn over by the time we get to the 2025 U20 games, which will be made up of mostly 2019 U14's and U13's. In short, all of our energy right now should be on the U17 and U20 teams. The U14's are and should be an afterthought, especially given the fact that all of the boys have yet to hit the back side of puberty.


2) Many top quality USYNT prospects could also go play for the Mexican national team. by not having YNT coaches in place, USYNT is making a big piece of Mexico's recruiting pitch for them.

There is no dispute that Mexico is doing a great job of recruiting dual nationals to go south of the border and play professionally (and hopefully switch flags to the Red, White and Green). In the case of Jonathan Gonzales, he switched in large part because the US Soccer team dropped the ball and lied about it and Mexico was offering him a nice payday. While there may be a few defections yet to come, the draw to Mexico isn't the National Team but a more developed and better paying professional league. The USL and MLS are the impediments here (and the primary repealing force).
 
Here is the bad news.
We suck. The scouting is poor and the training is terrible. 12-year-olds in Europe receive far more sophisticated tactical training than 18-year-olds here.
Unfortunately, we also start out behind the 8-ball...and I know this is old news...because we are not yet a multi-generational soccer culture that attains technical expertise by exposure to family and playgrounds all over the country. So we aren't as good technically to begin with and, by the time we start learning proper tactics, we are not as good with the ball and vision, etc., as kids from other countries.
Then we see kids with vision and efficiency and don't pick them for our academies and national teams, etc.
We will not become a Top 10 soccer country for the foreseeable future.
 
Here is the bad news.
We suck. The scouting is poor and the training is terrible. 12-year-olds in Europe receive far more sophisticated tactical training than 18-year-olds here.
Unfortunately, we also start out behind the 8-ball...and I know this is old news...because we are not yet a multi-generational soccer culture that attains technical expertise by exposure to family and playgrounds all over the country. So we aren't as good technically to begin with and, by the time we start learning proper tactics, we are not as good with the ball and vision, etc., as kids from other countries.
Then we see kids with vision and efficiency and don't pick them for our academies and national teams, etc.
We will not become a Top 10 soccer country for the foreseeable future.
Having seen the level in other countries I couldn't agree more! We are years behind.....
 
Here is the bad news.
We suck. The scouting is poor and the training is terrible. 12-year-olds in Europe receive far more sophisticated tactical training than 18-year-olds here.
Unfortunately, we also start out behind the 8-ball...and I know this is old news...because we are not yet a multi-generational soccer culture that attains technical expertise by exposure to family and playgrounds all over the country. So we aren't as good technically to begin with and, by the time we start learning proper tactics, we are not as good with the ball and vision, etc., as kids from other countries.
Then we see kids with vision and efficiency and don't pick them for our academies and national teams, etc.
We will not become a Top 10 soccer country for the foreseeable future.
100%. Yes, this is old news. It is also current news and future news. All starts with the lack of quality in coaching and scouting. Get those pieces right first, them maybe we can get somewhere.
 
Here is the bad news.
We suck. The scouting is poor and the training is terrible. 12-year-olds in Europe receive far more sophisticated tactical training than 18-year-olds here.
Unfortunately, we also start out behind the 8-ball...and I know this is old news...because we are not yet a multi-generational soccer culture that attains technical expertise by exposure to family and playgrounds all over the country. So we aren't as good technically to begin with and, by the time we start learning proper tactics, we are not as good with the ball and vision, etc., as kids from other countries.
Then we see kids with vision and efficiency and don't pick them for our academies and national teams, etc.
We will not become a Top 10 soccer country for the foreseeable future.
I couldn’t agree with messy more. I don’t see US soccer, scouts, mls clubs, and coaches changing their stubborn ways of thinking. IMO mls still plays balls over the top, playing their bigger more athletic kids all the time looking to win while their smaller, more technical thinking players are left on the bench and it’s a real a shame. I can only speak of the 04 and 05 age groups cause that what I see. It’s the same old boys going to the training centers and camp. Nothing against the boys going now,(good luck to everyone) but I know some real quality 04 boys with real high iq’s and technical on the ball ( I mean never lose possession and always make the right pass) who never get picked. I never see scouts at games, so they must keep picking the same boys from before. If the coaches have any input then they need to start recommending the higher iq players. I see too much recruiting players, I see too many players jumping from team to team, I see to many coaches jumping from club to club, and I see mls always putting winning first. When is it gonna become about having an identity? Every country out there has one. Galaxy, LAFC, Surf, every club out there... we suck!! We win but we still suck!! Doesn’t anyone get it?? Playing good soccer is easy, playing simple soccer is hard.. ( however that saying goes) and IMO the boys out there playing simple soccer get left on the bench and left out of the training centers. Wake up America!!!!
 
I couldn’t agree with messy more. I don’t see US soccer, scouts, mls clubs, and coaches changing their stubborn ways of thinking. IMO mls still plays balls over the top, playing their bigger more athletic kids all the time looking to win while their smaller, more technical thinking players are left on the bench and it’s a real a shame. I can only speak of the 04 and 05 age groups cause that what I see. It’s the same old boys going to the training centers and camp. Nothing against the boys going now,(good luck to everyone) but I know some real quality 04 boys with real high iq’s and technical on the ball ( I mean never lose possession and always make the right pass) who never get picked. I never see scouts at games, so they must keep picking the same boys from before. If the coaches have any input then they need to start recommending the higher iq players. I see too much recruiting players, I see too many players jumping from team to team, I see to many coaches jumping from club to club, and I see mls always putting winning first. When is it gonna become about having an identity? Every country out there has one. Galaxy, LAFC, Surf, every club out there... we suck!! We win but we still suck!! Doesn’t anyone get it?? Playing good soccer is easy, playing simple soccer is hard.. ( however that saying goes) and IMO the boys out there playing simple soccer get left on the bench and left out of the training centers. Wake up America!!!!

Yup, I see the same thing to! It is a shame!
 
It would be interesting to get the smaller, technical players with good soccer IQ together on a team to challenge the training camp team.
 
Couple comments, questions

Why do we think that the more technical kids with the good IQs are always the smaller kids? Is it Messi-syndrome? Can't big kids have a high IQ as well?

I am not sure which 04s you all are looking at but ER is not a large player by any means, has always made his mark based on his IQ and skill, and he is the starting 10 for the national team. I think the scouts pretty much got that one right.

For the 05s, the most technically gifted midfield in the age group in socal, and the one consistently called into training centers, belongs to Surf, and all three of those players are on the small side.
 
Couple comments, questions

Why do we think that the more technical kids with the good IQs are always the smaller kids? Is it Messi-syndrome? Can't big kids have a high IQ as well?

I am not sure which 04s you all are looking at but ER is not a large player by any means, has always made his mark based on his IQ and skill, and he is the starting 10 for the national team. I think the scouts pretty much got that one right.

For the 05s, the most technically gifted midfield in the age group in socal, and the one consistently called into training centers, belongs to Surf, and all three of those players are on the small side.

I would assume that the answer to your first question is because their kids are small and not getting picked. Why else continue to complain about it over and over again when it is not based on reality, as you just pointed out.
 
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