Agree with everyone who thinks the US Soccer system is its own worst enemy. They built an entire club soccer universe for the purposes of identifying a few kids per year who might contribute to a winning national team. They haven’t done that yet but along the way they’ve made the game worse for the other 99% of the kids who play the sport.
Youth soccer is insanely popular among young kids, but the longer anyone plays — especially the best kids — the less fun it gets. The minute you’re any good and start playing club, you quit all your other sports and give up every three-day weekend for the rest of your childhood. Your parents stress endlessly about the size/scope of their investment, but your coach keeps dangling a pathway to pro development if you’re willing to put in the work. Pretty soon you’re missing birthday parties and movie nights and — if you’re really good and make an MLS Next team — you practice an hour away from home and are told you can’t play for your high school team. Some kids at school have heard you’re pretty good, but the only people who have ever actually seen you play are your parents, at empty fields many hours from your house. You’ll never play in front of your friends, or a cheering high school crowd. You’ll never take the stage at a raucous pep rally. You’ll never wear your school jersey on campus on game days. If you did play for your school, you’d be the captain or the MVP. But MLS Next says that’s bad for development. They apparently have no interest in developing joy or confidence or pride, or strangely, even soccer audiences in high school stadiums. Weird strategy to grow the game.
It’s hard to imagine a youth sports universe more hostile to kids’ confidence than US Soccer and MLS Next. You’re only valuable to them if you deserve a national team call-up or they can sell your pro rights overseas. Do they care if you’re a college prospect? No. They’ve written off college soccer (much like high school) because if you’re playing college soccer you’ve already missed your window to deliver World Cup glory to the federation, and by then you’re already worthless to them. But let’s say you succeed against all odds. If you truly are one of the best in the country — the exact sort of player the entire pay-to-play youth soccer pyramid was built to produce — then you’ll play national team games at home in empty stadiums because the tickets cost $200, or you’ll play MLS games that are only televised for the diehard soccer freaks who pay for the MLS bonus subscription on Apple+. But don’t worry, that will actually feel normal to you because you’ve never played in front of a real crowd before. The closest you ever got to a soccer crowd was sitting in the stands at high school games, cheering for the team you should’ve been the captain of.
People wonder why the USMNT doesn’t play with more passion, like the old days. Maybe they all burned out before they turned 16?
