The Problem With US Youth Development

One of my kids is super passionate about the sport. We fall in the category where we can’t afford travel soccer. It’s $1500 a season plus as noted in this video. Kit + travel and at times lodging/meals expenses. Having two kids of different ages in travel is out of the question. I’d have to clone myself.

The problem is even deeper . Around US cities, it is so difficult decent soccer fields to play .
The city does not take soccer into consideration when it comes to recreational facilities.
In few fields available are own by schools and private entities who want to charge a bag to rent them + insurance .
Nothing is free that's why soccer is a rich white people sport in the USA while black (mostly immigrants from africa and the caribbean ) and latinos kids despite being very talented are denied opportunity to play soccer in the USA.

Fast forward a few years… US 0 - England 0 in world cup match 🤭

Looking forward to seeing the video about the debacle of youth British Soccer 🤔

Thanks for a great piece of information. It helps understand the poor process of youth soccer here in the US. I am from a small country in South America and I had to come to the realization that the structure of youth soccer here is crooked.
I am the owner of a youth football club and can give my two cents on this matter but until the people at the top understand the struggles of the day to day operations of a grassroots program, things will not change.

I gather most of the current youth US talents go straight from academies to top European Clubs, this is the way to narrow down the gap between American and European players.

My brother tried out for Newton North High School soccer team in 1983 in Newton - Mass, what did the coaches tell him? He had the skills and technique but not the Physique, the size, the speed or the conditioning to play for the team.
Bottom line? He was cut off.

That's the problem, Americans believe Soccer can be measured up similarly to American Football, Basketball, Baseball or Ice Hockey.
Nothing further from the truth, if Brazil and Argentina had had the same mentality the world would have missed incredible talents such as Messi, Pele, Maradona, Zico so and so forth and everyone would have to look like Cristiano Ronaldo.

Great observation. The quality reflects from professional club level to national team level.

Yep the USA, is backwards.

The best athletes in the US all play different sports 🏈 and 🏀

All are best athletes don’t play soccer

It is football

First, clubs and academies (no difference in US) can't produce wold level talent. 2nd, They can't make big $$$ if they they develop talent. Everything cost so much for parents, clubs and academies (field and tournaments fees) . System is not built to promote good teams. We still riding with hours vs speedy trian, no one including guvernment and assosiations cares because they getting tax of selling gears, club fees and other expenses which parents spend.

What's amazing about usa soccer, not in a good way, is everything is so expensive. Soccer is a cash cow and yet they have a salary pay cap. So you know that money is more for personal gain rather than developing the player base

You briefly mentioned it but location is a big part of it too.. I played for my counties travel team. We went all over the region. My state is a small state however. The resources sent to us was minimal and the coaching qualities were not much better than a high school coach that cared

2 years later and still holds true

My kid plays elite academy in a local club, it's basincally travel soccer. This year, including tournements, travel, clubs fees trainings and other expenses I will put out an easy $10,000.00 this year.

Thanks for not being condescending. This kind of analysis is how you grow the sport overseas, I think.

Wait soccer is actually correct?

You should look into what their doing in Saint Louis. Their Sporting Director ,Lutz Pfannenstiel has stated in at least one interview that he will feel he has achieved his objective when the first young person from Ferguson (yeh. That place ) signs a pro contract.
They want to break the pay for play system. With City Park in a historic downtown area that had previously suffered abuse,and their acadamy across the street where youth players can actually physically see their objective every time they hit the pitch.

It’s ok you can call it football. Football fans in the US is adapting that change. Ppl who still call it soccer are soccer moms and ppl who don’t know the sport here

As a minority in USA, I seen academy players who couldn't even 1st touch a ball or even do basic juggling skills, and I seen poor players do crazy stuff but obviously too poor to join a team. When I was a sophomore a coach from a D1 school came to our practice and he said he liked me the most and I should join an academy, but by then at 15 years of age I would be behind bc my parents couldn't afford that when I was younger. I tried to convince my parents to pay for a travel team, but it just couldn't happen. I ended up giving up soccer that same year. It was just so dumb seeing some of these 'academy' kids just play so bad. my theory was usually during summer and winter vacation they would always travel or whatever, but my broke ass would just play soccer all day bc thats all I could do. Also some of these rich kids had no work ethic too.

The travel club problem even affects other play opportunities for people. I know in my area, most high school teams won't let you try out unless you had play time with a travel club.

it's all about making as much money as possible, and to hell with the actual sport!

What happens to the money parents pay for recreational soccer if the coach is coaching for free?

In the US we have other sports that are simply more popular. A big problem is that nobody wants to play soccer. The poorer people here often resort to basketball as the way out given we’ve got courts at almost every park in the country and multiple indoor gyms in every town. Infrastructure and lack of access to watching games on TV over sports like NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, or college football and basketball. People don’t get into the sport with the multitude of other more popular options. So even getting the upper class kids who actually can afford to play to want to participate in soccer camps is hard.

Simple , u need pay for play in any academy,

i grew up middle class and can distinctly remember my parents not wanting to pay for my brother to play travel. the funny thing is his “recreational” team beat the local travel team by quite a bit. obviously they were literal children but that’s obviously an issue for us. really our only saving grace as a national team are latino and african communities were it is the number one sport, players who are eligible for the us from europe (or in mckennie’s case grew up in europe on an american military base), and players who grew up in rich areas. then you have matt turner who didn’t play until highschool and became our best keeper. which is funny because i know a kid who didn’t play until highschool and also immediately started as his teams goalie

As long as this pay to play nonsense continues the US will absolutely never win a WC. A consequence for greed, destroying itself from within!

Great analysis....spot on!! I coach high school and club and your points are very accurately made

I wish I was born in Mexico like my parents did because Mexico die for the sport unlike USA and I would’ve I least been in 2 division or sum but outside of football mexico was really a rough place to live in so my parents had to move for a better life for us but it’s just even worse over here 😢 pay to play couldnt even show to world what I am capable of 😔 I’m (22) by the way

This was a fantastic video and you were spot on about every single part. It's a huge misconception that the US doesn't know anything about soccer or that we are just terrible at it. While we haven't produced the worlds best players it's completely false to assume that we are inept. There are many players who come from overseas that move to the US that can't make club teams regardless of pay. We do have talent here, but as you stated, making a profession out of it was almost impossible so people choose other routes or just quit playing. Only the families with a lot of money that can push their children through expensive clubs with connections see USMNT, college, or international scouts. The future is bright though. Thanks for covering the beginning too. It blows my mind how ignorant people are about the worlds biggest sport's history... it's always aimed at us for some reason too..

I actually kind of disagree that American clubs focus on athletics. Sure, a kid that peaks athletically early will get extra attention. However, US clubs don't focus on athletic development. Which is why players stall as they get older. Messi is short, but he is still a really good athlete. He was developed properly. Generically speaking, give me a big strong fast athlete with skill. The difference is that athleticism can be developed. People too often think of athleticism as genetic.

The problem with US youth soccer. Some mentioned in the video

1) Too expensive.

2) Specializing way too young. (Specializing too young hurts kids overall athletic development. The goal should not be to be the best 10-year old). How many times have we seen prodigies of any sport grow up to be just ok at that sport. Your kid won't lose out on any college scholarships because they didn't win their 10U league.

3) Over-coaching, too young. (This should probably be number 1) If you look at the sports where Americans are good, they play in the street with their friends. Kids learn creativity, toughness, and competitiveness this way. Training a move in a vacuum doesn't force a kid to learn how to beat a bigger, stronger faster defender. Look at BBall in the US, or soccer in France or Brazil. They roll a ball out and go at each other on the blacktop. Adults need to get out of the way sometimes.

4) Grouping kids by skill level too young. I don't care how skilled your 6 year old is; he is not so good that he needs to play with only the best kids; leaving the worst kids only to play with the worst kids. Grouping kids by skill level so young encourages the idea that we push the most skilled more than the least. Which then encourages parents to specialize and work with a trainer. Which will make your kid the best 10 year old, but won't set him up to be the best 18 year old. As mentioned earlier, it hurts your overall athletic development. And better athletes pick up sport specific skills easier than worse athletes.

As I dust off my pitchfork

Us Americans know our team is trash 🤣

It is about money and politics. The poor kids who are typically better athletes will never see the pitch. Coaching is political, just look at US Soccer, full of politics. Clubs are driven by parents with money. Do not play thier kid and you will be removed.

Sooner or later they will win the world cup. It is a matter of population and numbers. The U. S. is the biggest melting pot in the world and when enough of the population gets fomented it will be a done game...

American bouncing around South America for 9 years now.

America - a friend had a son who was a very talented player in the South West. Cost per year, total, all factors, was around $10k.

Paraguay - someone sees and records a video of a 9yo kid juggling a ball at a red light for tips. Asked why the kid responded, "So I can buy a new Guarani kit!". Clip goes locally viral, Guarani sign him to one of their youth academy.

Free land of opportunities they said.

It's called soccer

Another issue is kids in the USA are more likely to be exposed in a serious fashion to the big 4 sports (hockey, basketball, football, and baseball) before soccer can entice them.

Are there working class American George Bests just being ignored?

“Soccer” just sounds wrong.

Here in Belgium, as in most european countries, every village has a club, and the club has a team for all age brackets (from 6 years old to adults). Though it has been less the case in the last 20 years, as clubs in small villages have trouble getting enough kids to make proper youth team. So nowadays, you'll see many small clubs were there's only the adult team.

That said, now you start seeing amateur football academies. There wasn't such a thing when i was a kid. These academies are like a small club where they train kids. But the academy doesn't belong to any club. It's just a standalone football academy, where they learn the ropes, such as technique and tactics.

💚

MLS academies still charge. They just word it differently

Americans seem to be dominant in basketball. In the US, the NBA teams do not sponsor recreational, recreational-travel, travel, and youth basketball academies. There is secondary-school basketball teams, college basketball teams, and these basket ball players go into the NBA (professional league and extremely well paid). American basketball players seem to dominate international basketball competition with regular school-based development. Is America's youth development system based on commercial considerations that is the problem? Why do Americans dominate international basketball with American regular school-based development? Maybe most Americans just love baseball, basketball, football (American-Rules-Rugby) more than soccer. I visit sports-bars and I see multiple televisions showing local professional and college basketball, baseball, American fig-shaped football games, but no MLS or college soccer games. America has soccer fanatics, just not enough. Go to a UCLA football (American tackle football) game and you see a stadium full of fans (90,000 or more). Go to a UCLA soccer game and you'll see what I mean. I do agree that Americans tend to focus heavily on physical size and speed (the bigger the better mentality). Doug Flutey is a perfect example of a talented quarterback who went from Boston College (amateur) to Canada's CFL to play professional football and win championships before he was brought back to play in America's NFL. And even then Doug Flutey was a back-player who when given the chance performed admirably. Messi is just 5'7" and when he is hugged Maradona I noticed that Maradona was noticeably shorter than Messi. Yet both men are considered to be among the greatest footballers who ever played the game.

We will have to develop our youth soccer like we do with our other sports. Local and state leagues (ie baseball little league) these funnel kids in to our high school then university programs. If the MLS and US soccer wants to build a youth movement in ALL 50 states for both girls and boys they need to develop a system like the little and legion baseball systems. There teams in towns as Small as 800 or less if they have the kids and several teams in large cities. That is how you build youth soccer in the US

It’s a combination of a lot of factors, I would imagine the biggest obstacle for soccer in the United States is the fact it takes a backseat to football, basketball, baseball, and even hockey.. Whereas nearly every other country on the planet is soccer first by a large margin, with the most talented athletes picking it 95% of the time