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re: Path to Success is Exclusive Academies not a Million Fields
Posted on 7/7/26 at 12:14 pm to Riseupfromtherubble
Posted on 7/7/26 at 12:14 pm to Riseupfromtherubble
quote:
Xavier Carter's, Harold Perkins, and Lebrandon Toefield's
I’d like to see a belgian count try to dispossess Skyler Green
1
Posted on 7/7/26 at 12:16 pm to TomRollTideRitter
quote:
Messi went to Barcelona at 13. He developed by playing in an exclusive group of the best players in the world.
After being at Newell’s, one of the best acadamies in Argentina
Posted on 7/7/26 at 12:45 pm to S
Allez les Diables Rouges, WHAT?! frick YOU!
Posted on 7/7/26 at 12:52 pm to LSUMJ
quote:
Im not sure thats true, and how often is that team actually together? Olympics (and this past one was the first with NHL players in some time
And world championships? They arent playing friendlies every couple of months
It's true, but it's not fully analogous to soccer, re: friendlies, or how club level works.
USA Hockey have the US National Team Development Program, where the best US players are put in one program and academy from the age of 14. They go through junior hockey together, and learn how to play together. So, you can get drafted into the NHL straight from the USNTDP, as if you were playing junior in Canada.
This creates a situation where they learn a system, style, and develop a chemistry before they are pros. So someone like Matthew Tkachuk was playing with Auston Matthews pretty much full time for 4 years before making the NHL together.
Yes, they do international tournaments and stuff, but nothing like international friendlies such as soccer. But when Jack Hughes talks about USA Hockey as being a brotherhood, he's not talking out of his arse. They literally all grew up together. It's paid massive dividends, as shown in Cortina.
Posted on 7/7/26 at 12:53 pm to Riseupfromtherubble
quote:
The goal becomes develop instead of win because you're all the same organization.
Great post & I think this line in particular echoes the critiques from those in charge. The current system is a free for all, too many cooks in the kitchen. There is so much room for improvement getting everyone on the same page
Posted on 7/7/26 at 1:00 pm to RB10
quote:
Your child can play football, basketball or baseball. They are a lock to receive a P5 scholarship and have a shot at the pros.
Or
Your child can play soccer. They are a lock to be a professional, but the level is unknown. Could be EPL or La Liga, could be MLS.
Right now, 19 out of 20 will not choose soccer. Maybe all 20.
This seems a bit disingenous...there are other levels of pro leagues in the big 3 sports too. I think it would be less than 19/20 if they had a guaranteed shot at the Premier League or were getting 4 years at Barcelona's academy similar to college.
I don't think you'd have 19/20 guys signing up to play single-A baseball either
Posted on 7/7/26 at 1:04 pm to AGGIES
quote:
Maybe the MLS led academies aren’t very good
From what I have seen, is it's just like High Level Club. Academies like IMG seem to be able to really immerse the kids in soccer.
Posted on 7/7/26 at 1:12 pm to Riseupfromtherubble
quote:
There are 20 or 30 guys faster than Kylian Mbappe at the draft every year that end up undrafted free agents.
+1, there's a WR on just about every D1 football team that matches Erling Haaland's physical profile - 6'5" 200 lbs & 4.4 speed.
Haaland is obviously special way beyond physical attributes but the size & speed help him significantly
Edit: didn't realize I have 3 of the last 4 posts, will hang up & listen now
This post was edited on 7/7/26 at 1:13 pm
Posted on 7/7/26 at 1:19 pm to TomRollTideRitter
American soccer is a business first and foremost. It’s not about player development and cultivating talent and building culture. I’ve got two that played at the club level and it’s a disgrace what goes on at these places.
Posted on 7/7/26 at 1:28 pm to KiwiHead
quote:
Do whatever it is that the French are doing. They've produced the most successful system in the last 30 years. Beyond Mbappe and Zidane, top to bottom they have the best rosters, so their developmental system is probably one we should study and emulate to a certain extent.
Everyone plays the game, especially immigrants. There is a mass cultural love of the game and a robust academy and club setup that is much more appropriate to their size/population than what we have here (we are slowly getting there, don’t forget Europe had a 100 year head start). There are open fields (some small side, some synthetic pitches needing minimal upkeep) throughout their cities so it’s accessible. People are always playing. I lived in Marseille and the level of the average player there was so much higher than anywhere else I’ve experienced.
Posted on 7/7/26 at 1:32 pm to baldona
quote:
The US problem is and will always be one thing that I've already said, its the personnel. We simply don't have the vast majority of our best athletes going to play soccer.
This is such a tired argument. Belgium was not more athletic than us last night, they were more technical. The reason we struggle is in our technical and tactical development, not because of our athleticism.
Posted on 7/7/26 at 1:35 pm to TomRollTideRitter
The US will never be good in soccer because it’s not a priority. That’s ok. No big deal.
Posted on 7/7/26 at 1:35 pm to Bigdawgb
The problem is Americans think to slow. In a game where you have to constantly make decisions, we
hesitate . It’s a mental game as much as a physical game but we
continue to pick for athletic prowess instead of players who
think a step or two ahead.
hesitate . It’s a mental game as much as a physical game but we
continue to pick for athletic prowess instead of players who
think a step or two ahead.
Posted on 7/7/26 at 1:55 pm to baldona
quote:
the U.S. wants to beat every other country in the world in their #1 sport, it has to be our #1 sport and it just never will be.
This just isn’t even remotely true. It’s crazy we’re not worse at soccer considering for years we basically had one hand tied behind our backs as far as developing our talent. We still do to some degree but it’s improving
Posted on 7/7/26 at 2:19 pm to cwil177
There is some great soccer in the baneulieus in Marseille, Paris and Lyon. I was there 30 years ago and I could see it, but it did not register at the time.
Posted on 7/7/26 at 2:32 pm to Riseupfromtherubble
Xavier Carter as a soccer player would be fun
Posted on 7/7/26 at 3:07 pm to TomRollTideRitter
Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here. quote:
In Germany, a talented 14-year-old earns his club money. In America, his parents pay the club $15,000 a year. That single inversion explains why "we will not" is the most accurate line ever written about US soccer. FIFA built a global system for this. Training compensation and solidarity payments send a cut of every transfer fee back to the clubs that developed the player, from age 12 onward. Develop one future pro and your academy gets paid for a decade. Barcelona's La Masia, Ajax, every Bundesliga academy runs on this logic. The kid is the asset. US Soccer refuses to enforce those rules. When Seattle's Crossfire Premier claimed its $60,000 share of DeAndre Yedlin's transfer to Tottenham, it got nothing. Claims on the Dempsey and Bradley transfers died partly because the federation couldn't even produce the youth training records. So American clubs earn zero dollars when a kid turns pro. They earn when a kid enrolls. Which makes the parent the customer, and the product is whatever keeps the parent writing checks: travel tournaments, hotel weekends, $500 showcase events, private training at $100 an hour. Elite pathways run $8,000 to $20,000 a year. A comparable academy spot in Italy costs about 120 euros. Follow the incentive one level deeper and it gets darker. A club dependent on fees can't cut its weakest paying players, so rosters optimize for retention over development. The scouting pool shrinks to families who can afford the cliff, which appears around age 11, exactly when development matters most. The country runs a talent filter sorted by household income instead of ability. Every four years someone proposes fixing this. The proposal always requires the people profiting from the $15,000 model to vote themselves out of business. They will not.
This nails it.
Posted on 7/7/26 at 3:31 pm to Bigdawgb
quote:don't forget the NIL money
Your child can play football, basketball or baseball. They are a lock to receive a P5 scholarship and have a shot at the pros.
Posted on 7/7/26 at 3:46 pm to AGGIES
We should deploy both the soccer balls and fields to inner city to get kids playing then, those that have talent go to the new IMG type boarding school academies ran by us soccer.
Posted on 7/7/26 at 3:48 pm to cwil177
quote:
Everyone plays the game, especially immigrants. There is a mass cultural love of the game and a robust academy and club setup that is much more appropriate to their size/population than what we have here (we are slowly getting there, don’t forget Europe had a 100 year head start). There are open fields (some small side, some synthetic pitches needing minimal upkeep) throughout their cities so it’s accessible. People are always playing. I lived in Marseille and the level of the average player there was so much higher than anywhere else I’ve experienced.
I think of it how baseball is our national past time. You can go to any ball complex around the southeast on a spring saturday and there are 500 kids there playing travel baseball.
You can also go to your community rec field on a Wednesday night and there are 80 grown men playing slow pitch softball. Dozens of balls will leave the yard and diving catches will be made. We grew up playing it, and we have for 100 years. It will never- repeat never- be ingrained in our culture like that.
But it's not ingrained in Morocco's culture like that either, or Norway's culture. It wasn't engrained in Greek culture when they won the Euro's.
We are the only sport loving country on the planet with the luxury of a sheer surplus of amazing athletes that there is still a path for us to get to the mountain top without the 100 year head start or the need for a massive cultural shift. But we can't keep doing exactly what we're doing. This process could be expedited. We could turn the sport on its head within 15 years, but I don't think we will, so it will take another 50+
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