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

I think short little kids are more dexterous ball handlers at a young age. The kids who end up being great athletes just can't compete or aren't as sharp as the littler kids. Instead of getting the best training, the athlete kid's don't make the best club teams when it really matters for their development.

Just my opinion from watching youth soccer.

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Yup and MLS on average is around League One

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Didn't realize this, interesting.

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And if you think our USMNT is loaded with athletes on par with NFL players then that's insane.

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How many NFL players have the endurance to play a full match? The difference in our best soccer players athletically and similarly sized athletes in other sports is mostly down to training. As a soccer player, you're trained in endurance, quickness, and other sport-specific skills and movements. Meanwhile, football players are, by-and-large, trained in power, strength, and other burst abilities without the same endurance.

The problem is still much more about the quality of instruction and not quality of athlete being instructed in this country. We have so many more people than most every country we face in soccer that we have enough athletes to support the different sports IF the soccer players we have are trained properly. The development of the ones who choose soccer is the problem.

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How many NFL players have the endurance to play a full match? The difference in our best soccer players athletically and similarly sized athletes in other sports is mostly down to training. As a soccer player, you're trained in endurance, quickness, and other sport-specific skills and movements. Meanwhile, football players are, by-and-large, trained in power, strength, and other burst abilities without the same endurance.

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I think you're missing my point. I'm not talking about taking present-day NFL players and flipping them over to soccer. The "would be NFL" athletes would be trained as soccer players their entire life instead of trained as football players. I agree with your comments but I guess I'm not doing a good enough job explaining myself.

I agree skills and development are extremely important. I'm just saying that if soccer attracted the same level of athletes as the NFL, NBA, etc then we'd have better soccer players no doubt. How could we not? The larger the pool of players being developed, the greater the odds of producing top notch players.

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They are both trained in skills and endurance for soccer their entire lives. Who will likely be the better player later on?

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Honestly? Probably the average athlete. It's more likely that the better athlete will try to just out athlete the other guy. Your average athlete will probably be in a better position when it's time to turn pro.

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Honestly? Probably the average athlete. It's more likely that the better athlete will try to just out athlete the other guy. Your average athlete will probably be in a better position when it's time to turn pro.

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I'll end our discussion with this....

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Literally no one is saying this.

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You just did. You want inferior athletes so they don't try to "out athlete" the other team.

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You want inferior athletes so they don't try to "out athlete" the other team

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You aren't seeing the other side of this. Good athletes tend to move up the youth ranks very quickly, but if at any point their technical or tactical skills do not develop with them, they are very likely to plateau. I could name a host of youth starlets who are physical specimens who destroyed their age groups who have turned out to be average to below average players. And these starlets are generally considered good athletes too. What you will end up with is a situation like England, who has tons of very fast wingers who love nothing more than dribbling out of bounds.

This is the conundrum of good athletes. You have to have the technical training reinforced, especially during that period where boys become men, and real variance develops. It simply isn't the case that being a good athlete insures that you will be a better professional player. If technical skills aren't reinforced, as they often aren't, even in European systems, then most of the time athleticism is wasted. I wish people could see this. There are so many variables with youth development, and we have numerous models that work, and none of those models discriminates on the basis of athleticism. That's not to say they don't want good athletes, but countries who have had recent reorganizations at the youth level emphasize one thing, technique, over athleticism in every instance. This emphasis allows for their athletes to shine. It doesn't make intuitive sense but the proof is there.

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. If technical skills aren't reinforced, as they often aren't, even in European systems, then most of the time athleticism is wasted. I wish people could see this.

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This is the point that I think a lot of people who actually do watch a lot of soccer seem to overlook.

I used to watch the Roma youth teams on occasion since they played free matches near my ex gf's parents' villa and what you say about the top European youth teams rings quite true.

First, Roma always had a few super athletes in the youth teams (many African-Italians). At 15-17yo, many seem like the next Pogba or Balotelli but it's only 1 out of every 20 highly hyped players that even end up being as good Stefano Okaka when moving up to top flight.

These are players that came though the exact system as Totti, De Rossi etc. . .

You also watch Roma play a youth match against an EPL team like Chelsea etc and the EPL team often just dominates physically. Aside from maybe 2 Roma players, the simple physical difference looks like Jr high prep school kids against college 5 star recruits.

However, 5 years down the road, it's often that all the athletes dominating the youth games at best at playing Championship level or Serie B whereas the kids getting run over were Alessandro Florenzi or Lorenzo Pellegrini.

Not to say, athletic skills aren't helpful but just that anyone who really closely follows a European club has learned to never really associate it to closely with which players become world class. The kid who actually immediately controls anything he touches even if he's getting completely overrun at 15 years old is most often the one the watch.