SA: Can you address a complaint I've heard a lot, which is that U.S. Soccer scouts favor players who are on Development Academy clubs. Specifically, ECNL coaches have accused U.S. Soccer of not picking worthy ECNL players simply because they don't play in the DA.
MIRELLE VAN RIJBROEK: We select the best players and the ones we believe have the most potential. The way we look at players, and monitor and examine their development, is based on the six key qualities.
Our mission and philosophy are our framework. Our mission is: Identify players with the potential to play for youth national teams. Our objectives are: We want to identify top talents nationwide. But we also want members and clubs to set up talent identification in their own community.
We have a player-centered scouting approach. We monitor the development of players over a longer period. This means that we follow a big group of players. We scout games, we scout showcases. Every club and coach has the possibility to recommend talented players. We have a formal platform for this. We also have a proactive way of working. This season we have sent every ECNL, National League and DA club the online recommendation form. Via e-mail on our website talented players can be submitted.
The first step is always that we want a description of the qualities of the player within the moments of the game. We would also like to receive video of games of the player. Based on the information we receive we decide if we are going to watch live games.
Our talent identification managers have contact with different clubs -- from the DA, U.S. Club, U.S. Youth -- and coaches. After every YNT ID Center we do a follow-up to coaches/clubs. It’s a post-communication form in which we inform the coaches on what we have done at the YNT ID Center.
We also try to work together with our members. I have contact with Tricia Taliaferro, who is the head of id2, the identification program of U.S. Club. We receive information on the best players. We do the same with U.S. Youth Soccer, ODP. Both U.S. Club and U.S. Youth have their identification program. It makes perfect sense that they share information on their top talents, at YNT level, with us. We have a shared responsibility. It’s impossible in this country to be everywhere. That’s why we work together.
From id2 we had Tricia and Gerry McKeown in our Talent Scout License courses and from ODP we had Chris Duke.
Furthermore, we share knowledge with clubs and members -- give presentations, etc. -- our mission, philosophy, key qualities, what we are looking for in players, framework on TID, how we monitor and rate players, etc.
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This lady sounds like a politician; answering the question without answering the question.