# What Must Change in U.S. Soccer



## younothat (Nov 11, 2019)

Geoff Cameron FEB 9 2018.  Dated article bout these things still to be changed /apply:








						What Must Change in U.S. Soccer | By Geoff Cameron
					

The powers that be in U.S. Soccer have created a poisonous divide between the MLS players and the so-called “European” players, and until that culture is torn d




					www.theplayerstribune.com
				




"It’s time to learn from our mistakes — as players, coaches and as an organization. It’s time to look forward and get to the heart of the matter.

Our best young players need to be playing in the top European leagues. Period. It shouldn’t be looked at as a negative thing. It should be a huge source of pride to send a 20-year-old American kid to play in the Bundesliga or the Premier League. Even _better_ if they came up in MLS for a few years.

The powers that be in U.S. Soccer have created a poisonous divide between the MLS players and the so-called “European” players, and until that culture is torn down, the USMNT will continue to slide backward

Why is it seen as a negative for America to “lose” a player who goes to play abroad? Brazilians don’t think this way when Neymar goes to Barcelona. The Dutch don’t think this way when their Ajax academy kids go to Chelsea or Bayern. Why don’t we go the other way entirely? U.S. Soccer should take out ads with pictures of all the players, past and present, who have made a huge impact on the world stage.

Does anyone honestly think that Christian would be the player he is today if he had stayed in Hershey, Pennsylvania? He had to go.

Look, there are plenty of excellent players in MLS. It’s not just the level of “quality” that’s elevated overseas. It’s more than that. It’s a whole mentality. In the top leagues in Europe, it’s just … ruthless. And not just in training camp. Not just when you’re trying to impress a new manager.

Every. Single. Day.

It’s a grind, both mentally and physically, to keep earning your spot every weekend. You can’t even explain it until you’ve lived it. At Stoke, sometimes we have a few of the academy kids come and fill in during practice if we need some extra bodies, and we can usually tell within the first five minutes — seriously, within the first _five_ — whether or not the kid is going to make it as a pro. There’s a certain mentality. A certain look in their eyes. A certain demeanor when they take a really hard tackle. You can recognize it almost instantly.

It has nothing to do with athleticism or size —  attributes that the scouts and coaches in U.S. Soccer seem obsessed with sometimes.

If you want to see what’s wrong with U.S. Soccer in a single image, just go out to one of these fancy suburbs some weekend and spot the coaches of the fancy club teams strutting on the sidelines. Half of them are carrying themselves like they’re Pep Guardiola. I mean, the arrogance. It’s unbelievable.

It’s not about you, man. You coach kids. It’s about the _kids_.

These are the kind of coaches who will take their teams to Europe for a week to train at Barcelona’s academy and be too proud or too stubborn to ask the Barca coaches any questions.

Right now, those future World Cup stars are 16 and 17 years old, playing in America. We need to groom those players in our system until they hit their ceiling, and then we need to encourage them to get on a plane and on to the next challenge. We need a president and a national team manager who embrace that mentality."


----------



## Dos Equis (Nov 11, 2019)

We need to create our US roster from players that either went to Europe early, or fought their way through a club system based on meritocracy and team performance, and then went to college where results and teamwork matter (and then shined in Europe or the MLS).  Only then we can expect a quarterfinal run in the WC or better (like 2002).  A team that US Soccer selects from a pool identified at U12 and trained as individually focused players where team performance is irrelevant (aka the USSDA), well, get used to watching us lose to real _teams_ from Concacaf full of players who have been trained to care about more than themselves. 

Just one opinion, backed by the evidence of the last 5 years of results, the above article, and the opinion of more than a few former USMNT players I have talked with.


----------



## SoccerJones (Dec 23, 2019)

Dos Equis said:


> We need to create our US roster from players that either went to Europe early, or fought their way through a club system based on meritocracy and team performance, and then went to college where results and teamwork matter (and then shined in Europe or the MLS).  Only then we can expect a quarterfinal run in the WC or better (like 2002).  A team that US Soccer selects from a pool identified at U12 and trained as individually focused players where team performance is irrelevant (aka the USSDA), well, get used to watching us lose to real _teams_ from Concacaf full of players who have been trained to care about more than themselves.
> 
> Just one opinion, backed by the evidence of the last 5 years of results, the above article, and the opinion of more than a few former USMNT players I have talked with.


The other part of the problem is that some of the best soccer players have no avenue to play DA, ECNL, NPL etc because they don't have the financial access to resources.  While it's awesome that some kids have the chance to play overseas and train/play with kids who are amazing soccer players, but there's NO reason why they can't be developed here in the USA...oh wait, our coaches here don't know how to develop.  Their main focus is on winning, not development.  The tide is turning slowly and younger kids are becoming more technical/tactical but those a far and few between.  Until the pay to play system is still in place here in the USA, same results...and on the girls side, the last 10 years the rest of thew world is catching up.


----------

