re: Can someone explain to me why our youth system is bad?

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USSF needs to start actually funding for better coaching

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I think coaching is the #1 problem with our youth system.

Is it realistic for every kid to play soccer for free?

If 3-4 players per team are free, that's 30-40 kids per age group just with FCD, that is one of 5 or so big clubs in DFW doing the same. Then add another 30 or so fully funded kids at each age group for FCD academy.

Again, if that's not how every MLS team is doing it, then yes that needs to change.

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How big is Cricket/Rugby in England compared to soccer? Are those two even close?

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Its fricking huge

tons of money in both sports

they have similar youth set ups to soccer. Just not on the same scale.

The difference is once kids hit a certain age there is no more playing 3 sports. They commit to one and become professional at it.

We need to make licenses cheaper to earn. The cost of a USSF A license is like $4K compared to about $600 for the UEFA A license in Germany. That's cost-prohibitive for many. US Soccer wouldn't make as much money, but I guarantee it would improve our development structure long term. Germany has a A-licensed coach for about every 600 players, in the US it's like one every 6,000. That gap has to shorten.

Hell, I would even require that every parent volunteer helping out at the young child level should have to have at least the F license, and those should be provided for free. We need a better pipeline to get former players directly involved in coaching.

Yea. I laughed ODP coaches out of a room one time because they wanted my daughter to come train with them. For a small fee of $400 she could come to 4 training sessions. Ha.

When i was invited to an ODP try out it as 2 hours away.

Even the Northern VA is one of the best areas in the country producing soccer. They wanted us to play and practice in Richmond.

Also the DC area is so good a producing talent bc its such an affluent area. My travel league 20 years ago consisted of an 8 division pyramid with pro/rel.

If you look at the U-17 WC squad a majority of them are from the east coast.

Thats a problem. Tons of talent, esp lower income 2nd generation immigrant kids out west not even getting a chance.

We're missing so many kids in the Southwestern US.
Hopefully, the newly founded clubs in Phoenix and Rio Grande Valley will alleviate that massive problem. That's where USSF needs to invest a ton of money. Texas, California, and Arizona could each have one or more regional academies on their own.

Hell, that area produces more prospects for Liga MX than US leagues because it is so poorly scouted and developed by the American soccer system. That needs to change. We need to get as many of these kids involved in the US Soccer system as possible, instead of the Mexican system.

So not really much different than America. A huge sport (soccer) and two big sports (cricket, rugby) compared to a huge sport (football) and two big sports (baseball, basketball)

Most elite, potential professional athletes here a playing one sport by the time they're in high school, or at the very least focusing more on one sport

The current model applied to soccer could work here- as evidenced by the supreme talent we've turned out in those 3 sports despite kids being forced to finish school to pursue a career and limits on practice time.

The difference- coaching from a young age, and pickup games- I.E thousands of reps on their own time. I've seen kids playing football on asphalt in Pritchard, AL. You have 8 year olds playing with 13 year olds. Their youth coaches are teaching them the fundamentals of the game, by the time they're in middle school there is competition for spots. It's not popular enough here yet, and the coaching is not good enough here yet. Until you have guys that played soccer for 10-12 years coaching these kids from the beginning then it isn't going to really get better. Billy's dad getting roped into it because no one else would isn't going to really cultivate success. Even Jamal's dad that's coaching because he wants Jamal to play quarterback probably played 10 years of organized football.

We just need more kids to play and better coaches teaches them how. The 24/7 soccer mindset I don't feel is necessary due to our sheer numbers.