I thought I would start a separate thread, to discuss this topic, because I think it's the root of our failures on the world stage at each World Cup.
Our system is heavily based on integrating education into training and development, and thus it delays the tactical foundations that European kids are developing before they are 10 years old. I wonder what a European model would look like here stateside? I wonder if in a country of 340 million people from very diverse backgrounds, if it would promote more youth talent, and thus a wider talent pool to choose from.
Landon Donovan recently said that 2% of youth talent comes from folks with income under $50k, and that the larger percentage of youth talent comes from folks making over $100k. The European model is a lot different, because it requires coaches to have FIFA coaching licenses, those coaches are paid by the club, rather than the insane club fees parents have to pay here stateside.
A couple of other points I pulled from a quick G search:
Talent Identification vs. School Fail safes: European clubs essentially take "ownership" of a player's development early on, feeding them through highly competitive, tiered club systems. The U.S. relies heavily on "Pay-to-Play" club soccer, high school teams, and NCAA college soccer, which provide a balanced educational backup but delay professional exposure.
Tactics vs. Individualism: European coaching focuses on structured play, biometric monitoring, and positional understanding. American grassroots coaching has historically prioritized "hustle" and individual hero ball over foundational passing and movement drills.
Coaching Quality and Professionalism: European youth coaches are highly compensated and uniformly certified (e.g., UEFA licenses). While elite U.S. pathways have professionalized in recent decades, lower-tier American youth soccer still relies on volunteer parents or improvised coaching.
TL; DR: Looking forward to some good discussion on how we can improve our youth system for the next generation of USMNT talent.
Comments
This has been a hot topic for some time. Sadly, US Soccer has not made many strides forward in remedying or providing solutions to drive a game-for-everyone approach. Jurgen started talking to this a bit ago, then was let go and it was put on the back burner.
I have two kids who play club/academy soccer. I've discussed this with their coaches that have worked in Europe, and simply put it's two different worlds. In America, youth soccer is primarily a business. In Europe, youth soccer is focused on development. Take simple things like field space. In Europe, there are pitches everywhere, open, free to use, the kids get touches on the ball every day. In America, fields are limited, you have to rent field space, you have less opportunity to practice. It's close to $6,000 for my kids to play in their club, and that excludes travel, uniforms, etc. In Europe, it's a few hundred dollars.
"Stay to play" is my favorite (heavy sarcasm) scam. Some of the tournaments the team enters in require an overnight stay (e.g. Richmond). The tournament organizers and hotels in the area have an agreement where you have to stay in a pre-approved hotel or they threaten you with disqualifying your whole team if they find out.
The entire youth sports system in America is broken and this is just one piece of the pie.
I find this so ironic, because in Europe, youth soccer is actually run by billion dollar businesses (the soccer clubs).
But I suppose that, because the Euro clubs treat it like a long term investment, they focus on long term growth, whereas in America it sounds like extracting any money in the short term is the goal.
Exactly, it's a numbers game in Europe. I'm less informed on this point, the mechanics of it, but basically if one youth prospect from a local club lands with a big time club, that money trickles down and funds the low level club for years.
Great points Joe,
I totally agree! I have 3 kids that are playing at this time. They're getting to that age where I have to decide if I'm going to keep them in the cheaper rec league, or if I'm going to pursue the competition route (several thousands per child). My kids have natural talent to the sport, so they barely practice, and they show up, and either perform halfway decent, or dominate (depending on the team).
My daughter regressed heavily this year, because her coach was laser focused on field position, rather than teaching fundamentals (dribbling, body positioning, control, etc). At 8 years old she was learning tactics that were more Euro driven, but the team around her, as well as the parental guidance was driven by wins and losses, and who could score the most goals. It was a tough balance for us to shepherd her through. I can only hope that she'll get the confidence back come next season.
All that to say, that our system is broken, because the foundation is broken. The system is driven by profit. I'm not anti-capitalist or anything (not to get political), but the development of the child is one of the last concerns of a lot of these clubs.
My son is 10, and my daughter is 8, and if we lived in the EU, they would already be so far behind, because the lack of training didn't occur at an early enough age, nor was the coaching done at that age worthwhile.
But at the same time, should a 6 or 7 year old be 'training'?
I've played tennis against guys who have played in college and guys who have gone pro. I've seen a lot of the sacrifices they've made, and sure there are many many more that I don't see.
My oldest is about to turn 5. She does Gymnastics once per week and rotates in other sports (we did a season of soccer, lots of swimming, we'll do tennis soon, etc). I know that if she were to sniff going pro in any sport she has to start training now. We're talking 5-10 hours per week of coaching. Hell, we may have the financial means, but my wife and I don't have the time to do that.
Is that really what we want for our kids? And for ourselves? Do we really want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to maybe get a free college education along with some burn out? Or do we want kids to have a lot of fun, and learn some great habits along the way?
For me, I was obsessed with tennis from a young age, but not a young enough age. Starting from 12 I was hungry for tennis. And my parents fed me like crazy. I'm like a 5.0 now (when properly rested and hydrated, which is never), and never been burned out from the sport. I also never had a shot at playing at any college program that had a top 200 engineering program, much less go pro in tennis.
I really don't know. I just have trouble squaring the idea of 'these 5 year olds aren't training enough/correctly' with 'this is what's good for the child's development.'
I don't mean to sound judgey at all. I really just don't know.
I hate that my kids are all-in on soccer. While they love it, my son used to play flag football and I want him to play more golf with me, but it's just soccer, soccer, soccer. He's 12 and will practice 4 times a week this fall and play up to 4 matches on a weekend. There's no room for him to play anything else. It sucks.
I've watched countless interviews with pro athletes, and they've all said they played multiple sports growing up and never specialized until high school (if at all). We're just doing it all wrong in America right now.
Does he want to play anything else? Does he enjoy and look forward to practice?
Yeah, he loves soccer. Loves it. But I just think it's dumb he's not trying anything else, he might love basketball too.
Well ironically if we collectively want to field a winning Cup team we need kids to be all in on just soccer.
and to your point about it being a business in USA it is also very much a business in UK/Europe as well. But its supported by a professional system that are multi-tiered and maintain their own youth training programs. The unaffiliated youth programs are separators that allow the cream to rise to the top. As a kid, if you have futbol dreams, you're looking to get tapped into a better and better development program associated with a better and better professional team. Its all business but their its a professional business top to bottom.
The issue with what you're describing in USA, I suspect, is that the business of youth soccer is not directly tied to the professional level of the business, or at least for the large majority. once you pay a fortune for your kids youth soccer then I guess the hope is to get into university, which is a whole other unaffiliated business.
Sure, but not my kid. ;^)
We seem to be in similar situations Joe. I'm curious, in your club is there much movement between "tiers" of teams? I could give you the long story, but my daughter's club basically never "demotes" a kid because they usually quit and lose that money. No movement between tiers. Tryouts are a joke with directors who don't know the kids watching for 2 hours to make a decision. They don't talk to coaches. They just leave everyone where they're at. If it's a new kid from another club they'll get a bump because it's an opportunity to make more money.
Luckily the age change benefits my daughter and she's now top tier for her club. But wondering if this is just our club or all clubs. Unfortunately this is our only option unless we want to drive over 2 hours for practice. That's not happening.
Yeah this all feels very familiar. We have "tryouts", but they know exactly where they are placing every kid ahead of time. The tryouts are for kids from other clubs to come in and see where they slot in. Which is another thing altogether. We play with our club because it's our local club. We commit to them financially and support them, and every year they try to replace them with someone better.
Kids definitely move both up and down, but politics are 100%. Also, it's basically impossible to break into the top team once they hit 7 or 8. All new players come from outside.
I really don't care about team placement, I am just happy both of my kids are learning the values of working with a team.
As someone with a 4 and 1 year old seeing the cost to get my kids into a sport I used to play on the cheap being that expensive makes me question doing so. I loved it growing up but the shear cost may be enough for me to encourage other more affordable activities.
It might be worth checking if there are recreational leagues too. In my experience, they aren't as competitive though. So if your kids are talented they might get bored quickly.
Not necessarily more affordable, but I recommend something for your kids that you know and have opportunity to enjoy...yep 'nator, it's fishing!
I don't know much about youth soccer and my kids aren't old enough to play competitive sports right now, but I grew up playing competitive tennis.
When it comes to Tennis, the size of the country is a challenge. You look at Spain, France, Italy, etc - you can get to opposite ends of the country in a half day by train. The impact of this is that it's easier for the best players to train/compete together, and iron sharpens iron, etc etc.
Doing the same thing in the US, that requires some combination of (a) moving (typically to either Florida, California, Texas, or DC), (b) frequent travel, or (c) boarding/home school, all of which cost a lot of money and support from parents.
It's also worth noting that most common background for the parents of a professional athlete is being a professional athlete. 48% of NBA players are directly related to an 'elite athlete'. Science for Sport says that elite international athletes are 2.3 times more likely to have a father who participated in high-level competitive sports compared to non-elite athletes. There is both a financial AND genetic aspect to this.
But when it comes to college sports, it's less about the genetics and more about the money.
There's other factors at play there, but the link between financial support and athletic success in the states is pretty clear. Doesn't seem as blatant in England, for example.
This is ine if the points i wanted to make so thank you. We saw this in swimming before they banned the fastskin type suits that basically cost $200+ per meet. If you want to post times and get to college you had to have the money. Extra coaching cost money Sports in general cost money so the people with money have a better chance.
Those NHL has helped kids out a lot by buying pads and everything cause they realize its expensive and need kids playing hockey so they can have a league.
In the same Category, I'd argue that's why basketball talent in the USA has also taken a dip. Kobe Bryant was vocal about how bad AAU is for the development of young talent. The top players in the NBA today are mostly international players. AAU, for those not aware, is also similar to US youth soccer in that it's pay to play, tournament style with overnight stays. And organizations are not in the business of developing talent, but making money. You play more games than have actual practices (we'd have maybe 2 practices in 1 week, then play 4-5 games that weekend at a tournament), which that part wouldnt be so bad if we practiced year round together to work on Basketball knowledge and IQ. but we dont.
This is a big discussion. There are so many facets to this. Some of which I can think of and many others I probably can't.
There are cultural challenges. Soccer just isn't "the" sport in America. In Europe and South America kids learn how to kick a ball before they can say "ball". The love of the game is ingrained in the best footballing nations. That just isn't the case in the US and that's not going to change quickly, if at all.
The US is vast. Someone else above made this point too. You can get from one end of Spain to the other in less than a day. It's harder to create a cohesive, sustainable system with the geographical challenges the US faces.
The financial support just isn't there. In Europe the big clubs fund the academies that scout, recruit, train and groom the youngest talent. The clubs are global brands with huge coffers. They rely on their developmental programs to stay competitive so they invest heavily there. And because they are competitive (and-this is linked to the culture-because they have big fan followings) they are able to bring in the revenues to continue investing in their youth. The MLS can't match that model, in large part, because there isn't enough interest in MLS teams(or, put another way, there just isn't enough local interest in the sport generally). MLS teams just don't generate enough revenue to sustain developmental programs on the scale of European clubs.
The US has an adequate talent pool to be an elite soccer nation. But the cultural and structural underpinnings necessary to be an elite soccer nation just don't exist. There is a temptation to look to the European model for structural inspiration but the challenges the US face are so different. I think if the US is ever going to develop a structure that fosters soccer development in a way that can rival top nations, it's going to have to be different from existing models. We need to be creative because we have such a different set of challenges.
Soccer sells in Europe and south America. Going to see professional teams play is a big deal. The local communities identify with their teams. They are addicted to the game. They are passionate and engaged. They buy tickets, merchandise, and TV viewing services. There is an entire economy built around the game. For the US, that's the NFL. Soccer just doesn't appeal to Americans in the same way that American football does. Until that changes, the US likely will never compete with the elites on the soccer field. I don't think there's a structure in the world that can overcome the cultural challenge the US has with soccer. The culture has to change before we can begin to form programs that will yield top results.
FIFA funds for a lot of grass roots programs, I wonder how it's used stateside, versus overseas? Just something that came to mind.
The average MLS salary is $ 660k, the minimum NFL salary is $885k. The 4 major sports pay way better than soccer.
If you were an elite athlete then why choose soccer un the US?
The 4 major sports pay better in America, sure. The average player salary in the premier league is 3-4 million. There's no reason Americans can't play in Europe. MLS doesn't pay well because it's not popular. It's not popular because Americans don't care about soccer. Its a cultural issue. Not an economic issue.
Why leave America to get paid when you van get paid here
Why turn down a job that gives you the freedom to explore new places in a way that you can't in the US? It's basically study abroad as an adult (I have a bunch of friends who did the expat thing for some piece of their adult professional life - with one exception, almost no one I've met regrets it).
Thanks for the input everyone. I think the responses thus far kind of speak to what the article stated. The mindset in the US Youth Football system would need a 180 degree turn to produce the talent that other countries produce from around the world. I look at the performance of the Cape Verde keeper, a 40 year old from a country with a comparable population of the state of Wyoming had an unforgettable run in the WC this year. Yet we have a keeper who plays MLS club soccer, who literally thought he had all the time in the world to play a pass to his teammate OUTSIDE the box.
Fundamentals!
Our Youth Football system is all about wins and losses for the most part, fundamentals and basic technical skillsets are on the back burner until you are in your teens. That's the complete opposite of the approach overseas. Those fundamentals are taught at a young age. I think that would be so beneficial if we drilled fundamentals, because kids would truly have a chance at seeing the nuances of the game, and determining if it's something that they want to stick with.
Lastly, Bar, you're spot on, I've taken the approach that if my kids like it, they can continue to do it; but the absence of a passion for the sport, paired with an absence of talent where they are light years beyond the competition, is the sole reason why I would never spend thousands on them to play club soccer. Utah has an INCREDIBLE soccer system, hell Real Salt Lake has a school/academy, they actually had a kid go to Bayern Munich (Booth); but, I can't bring myself to make an investment, that at best will pay for a scholarship for college. The boat has left the port for their international soccer career. Until we change the way we teach kids the fundamentals, kids will simply see it as a way to play in college, and that's all. We have 340M folks in our country, with a diverse background, we should have a comparable infrastructure to field a roster of 25 elite players.
Our Youth Football system is all about wins and losses for the most part, fundamentals and basic technical skillsets are on the back burner until you are in your teens.
This is a huge problem across most all youth sports in the US IMO. I played baseball all the way through college (here at VT) and feel like I had a good understanding of most all aspects of the game. (At least at the time - things have changed a lot over the last decade+.) Yet when I coached my son in youth baseball leagues, the focus by almost every other coach and the parents was on winning and nothing else. They'd tell their kids to take all the time because they knew the odds were very much in their favor that the 10-year old new pitcher would most likely throw four balls before three strikes. Then they'd get on base and steal second, steal third, and then score on the next wild pitch. It made me crazy. There was no discussion about the fundamentals. Learning how to discern a ball from a strike and how to make contact and get hits. No teaching base runners to read the ball off the bat and learn when to run and when not. It was all about winning regardless if the kids actually learned anything about the game or the skills necessary to advance. It made me quite happy when my son decided he didn't really like baseball and I could quit coaching. And don't get me started on the travel baseball industry....
I think that's one of the high level questions that I have, are we geared as Americans to win at all costs? And if so, is that insatiable desire the primary reason, we're incapable of focusing on fundamentals, because the idea of winning holds a higher priority.
via Murica'
Yes. Ive has USSF coaching teachers tell me that if there is one kid on the team that is way better than the rest, give him the ball and let him score as much as he can. I was stunned he actually said that out loud. This very issue also has an impact on development. Ive seen quite a few 12 year old that were levels better than the other kids. But because it came easy to them at that age, they were coddled and told they were great. Thus, they stopped "working" and flattened on the talent scale. Some of them ended up not even starting for their high school team.
Man, this has me thinking, I was enraged at the coach of my daughter, because he shared the ball nonstop, and rarely put a front line that would be effective at scoring goals. He would pair my daughter with girls that were too small, and would easily be pushed off the ball. I'm wondering if I mishandled the situation, and didn't encourage my daughter enough to persist regardless of the lineup choices or insistence to share the ball. IDK, part of me thinks that at 8, it's kind of hard to teach girls about positions in football. If I were coaching I would focus on ball handling, body positioning, defensive effort, etc.
This happened to me personally but for basketball, and I'm grateful my dad was in my corner and cared a ton about fundamentals and less about winning. As an 8th grader, my middle school team had a total of 13 eighth graders, i was number 13 on the depth chart. All the starters and rotational players were told about how great they were for their age (they also got their growth spurts early), and we went something like 14-3 for the year. Mostly by just being bigger and faster than anyone else we played. In fact the games we lost were because the other team (Salem) had players just as big and just as fast as us. My dad didnt even bother talking about wins/losses, he had me in the gym daily just working on fundamentals. And you know who I NEVER saw in the gym? any of the 12 people ahead of me
Fast forward to Varsity high school and out of those 13 eighth graders, I'm the only one who even MADE the team, my entire 15 person high school consisted of 1 senior, me. Everyone in my year got surpassed because they were arrogant, didn't work on their craft, and unfortunately had no one in their corner pushing them to actually get better at the game of basketball instead of relying on the fact their final big growth spurt happened in 7th grade.
I ended up being starter, team captain, and leading scorer, after being dead last on the depth chart in 8th grade. Thanks Dad.
Suddenly I'm glad I was getting picked last before I was even out of elementary school, otherwise I'd be reading something like this and going I coulda been a contendah
Americans take themselves way too seriously. Everything is a competition and we tie our value to our ability to "win" that competition. It's perverse. The competition, and the seriousness about it, takes the joy out of it. Kids are sensitive and perceptive to this. Of course it's not surprising when kids lose interest in sports once it reaches a certain level where all the parents/coaches care about is winning. We're not teaching our kids the right values. We're teaching our kids one value. Winning is the most important thing. That's not healthy, IMO.
That's what I'm saying, this is broken across all youth sports. Every parent also thinks their kids are good enough to get scholarships and none of them are.
Pay-to-play is not just an issue with the youth club/travel teams. It's also a problem with MLS academies like DC United which has historically required youth players to pay to play for them as well.
Our entire youth system is completely broken and the USSF has been incompetent for years. I would love for the USMNT to truly compete in the World Cup but we would have to completely start over. There needs to be consistency across the country in the training and development methods used at each age group. We need coaches that are routinely receiving training at seminars with that clear vision and messaging from the USSF. We have to play our best kids against our best kids regardless of their parent's ability to pay. That means parents have to accept that someone else's kid is going to be better than their kid. They have to accept that money will no longer guarantee their kid is on the best team. We need to stop focusing on winning leagues and tournaments and focus on development.
My personal experience with how dumb our youth system is was with my sister's travel team. After I graduated from VT and moved back to NOVA, her coach asked me if I would coach and work their goalkeepers. He was a family friend, we had known each other for years, and thought I could make a positive difference. He had a policy that parents could not interfere at all at practice and games. That had worked well for a few years until I showed up, was related to one of the players, and was allowed help at practices. The parents complained and through fits because a 22 year old with 18 years of soccer experience was allowed to coach. These are the same parents that had zero experience playing or coaching soccer. While coaching was new to me, I was able to help the goalkeepers improve and they thanked me for helping them. But the stupidity got so bad and some of the parents were so pissed off about me being able to coach that they removed their daughter's from the team simply because they could not accept that a younger coach was being allowed to help the team. To make it worse, I wasn't even interacting with the players that left. That was the only season I coached. It was hard enough to balance a full-time job and coaching but being yelled at by assholes for trying to help made it an easy decision.
My wife asked me during Norway's last match how a country like Norway is so good at soccer? During the last winter olympics there were several NBC produced segments on why Norway excelled at so many different sports. The key focus was on how youth sports in Norway aren't competitive until kids are 13. Up until then, kids try out every sport possible, most of them winter focused, of course. And it's all for fun. They try everything they can, from ski jumping, to cross country skiing, to figure skating and hockey. And on certain days of the year, the olympic training facilities are open to the public. EVERYBODY comes out with their kids to ski the olympic training XC trails, or the ski jump hill. They let kids have the time to find what they are good at and what they like.
In my opinion, at 11, 12, or 13, kids are old enough to say I want to fly off a ski ramp, I want to dedicate myself to this. They can also handle constructive criticism from an adult who might say, "Yeah, you love it, but we don't see the potential, let's try something else that's related." And also by that age, kids are able to decide hey, sports are cool, but I don't want to dedicate the next 5-10 years of my life to this. What really gets me excited is guitar! They're not already "pot committed" to some sport they thought they liked when they were 7 and have been "training" for the last 6 years.
Having the ability and buy-in to have the kids play all sports is awesome. Sadly, in the states, there's too many parents living vicariously thru their kids that "make" their kids focus on one sport. And as many have stated in youth soccer (and other travel sports) there's good money for the club if they can capture a kid for 11 months a year, for 10 years. Yes, the kids should be able to handle the constructive criticism...or should I say actual coaching! But they are afraid of running off parents and their pocketbooks for a decade of time.
https://www.wsj.com/sports/soccer/erling-haaland-norway-world-cup-youth-...
This was such a good read.
The idea that a former accomplished professional athlete would enroll his kids in club sports, in America, in this time period, is unfathomable. IMO that's thing that really illustrates the cultural difference.
I saw this question posed elsewhere and I'll ask here. Most of this is based on the men. The US women's team is generally one of the best (others catching up).
Why?
Girls programs here are similar to boys. Is it just that there's no football (softball and basketball take a lot though)? Are the girls youth programs in Europe vastly different than the boys?
Genuine question, I don't know the answer.
I feel like the world is catching up to the US women, however, I believe a large part of why the US women were so dominant in decades past is because much of the world did not even have girl's/women's programs, college programs, and/or even allow women to play sports at all.
Echoing Soup above, but when it comes to women's sports, it's a pretty clear positive relationship/correlation between women's rights/cultural value in the country and their performance on field.
Even in countries that weren't specifically anti-woman, the US having Title IX meant scholarships and funding for women's soccer at the college level. Most other countries had nothing and so the best women came to the US to play and we reaped the rewards of that even if a number of those players played for their home country in the olympics/world cup.
Edit: also, that "playing against the best" is probably another reason our men aren't as good. Individually, some of them could probably play at the level of top players (theoretically, given the right circumstances), but because they didn't spend their teenage years playing with the best, they have haven't been honed like many of the other players in the world. Even if they have the physical gifts and mental skills, they didn't get the same level of refinement and challenge their european counterparts did.
Title 9.
Women had more freedom in the US and access to sports from a young age. We got a head start on the rest of the world. Some nations are catching up now.
100%
I wouldn't be surprised if England, Spain or Germany surpass the US as the dominant women's soccer powerhouse on the world stage in the next couple of cycles. The US had a head start. But without the structural and cultural advantages that (particularly) European nations have, I don't think the US will be able to maintain their stronghold much longer.
I think why Europe is and always will be better than the US is due to kids in the US want to play other and/or more exciting sports. We are super diluted whereas Europe basically has soccer, rugby, and cricket.
I ran some numbers and found:
Roughly 90% of kids in Europe play organized soccer.
Google says 5-10% of kids play organized rugby, and 7% play cricket.
There are 21.5 million youths registered in some sort of soccer in Europe
Where was only 7% of kids play soccer in USA = 3 million.
Kids see pro athletes and would rather griddy on fools after scoring a touchdown or bat flip after hitting a homer vs play soccer. (IMO)
Eh, I get what you are saying, but Cricket is really only isolated to England and Rugby is really just Great Britain, Ireland, and France. For all of Europe, I would be putting Tennis, Hockey (field and ice), maybe even handball. Soccer is just more built into their culture as well as it's such an accessible sport since you don't need tons of equipment to play. I just moved to Munich and literally every town has a little soccer club for kids and matches going on during the weekend.
Europe also has a lot more small, niche, cultural sports that don't have the international spotlight. Ireland has gaelic football, hurling, camogie. In bavaria, there's actually their own form of curling. A lot of Olympic sports too are much more accessible and quite cheap relative to the U.S. so things like speed skating, squash, track and field, all can be easier for people and kids to try. The U.S. is just more geared towards revenue sports like Football, Basketball, Baseball, Hockey where in Europe the only real revenue sport is Soccer so that is where the best of the best go.
For rugby, let me add South Afrika, New Zealand and Australia.
I was just talking about Europe. Rugby definitely has a sizeable world wide appreciation
I think the problem goes deeper than just soccer. The best players in the NBA aren't from the US either. We haven't had a major tennis champion on the men's side since 2003 when Andy Roddick won the US Open.
Americans overvalue athleticism and undervalue skills. In a sport like football you can get away with it because it's so specialized. But in sports like soccer, basketball, tennis and even hockey skill is more important that athleticism. The best soccer player in the world (and maybe ever) is 5'6" and not that fast.
That's why I hate the argument that "if our best athletes played soccer we would dominate". Nope. Our athletes in soccer are just as good as other sports and they lack the skill and technique to win like the countries that are still in the World Cup.
This relates to development because as someone above said, we coach kids on hustle and want to, rather than focusing on the skills you need in that sport. Dirk Nowitzki would be just another tall center here, but in Germany he got the coaching to develop his full game.
I saw a point on twitter that made sense to me in terms of how to fix it: we value things like police, firefighting, etc as a public good and don't charge people for their services. Why couldn't we decide that youth sports are a public good?
My own 2 cents is Pay to play is the main reason. Seeing how well this is addressed above I'll go another direction.
MLS needs to be challenged or completely rebuilt(it'll never happen) but its always been my pipe dream. MLS and Garber dont give a crap about US federation and only answer to the fat cats who own the teams and so they will never adopt the promotion relegation system. Instead of this system that promotes good teams and dumps the bad ones Garber continues to simply dilute the league and add more teams and only in big markets. Living in richmond I would love to see the kickers have a shot at making the MLS but this country and its pro sports are run by shills that will never let that happen.
Instead Garber sells the league to a paywall to make viewing even more of a pain and continues to try and expand the teams which makes the product even worse by diluting talent at the top level and continuing to let bad teams percolate with no fear of the drop. Want to drive viewership and bring in new markets that currently dont exist why not allow promotion and relegation and move all US Soccer pro leagues under one organization to unify it and breath some life into a sport thats middling and not gaining ground like it could.
Alas its all a pipe dream and will never happen but to me to drive interest you need to make the product A.) Viewable to all, and B.) There needs to be consequence to the season games. Currently teams with playoff plans will be meaningful but halfway through the season many teams are out and dont care because there is no trap door to worry about. Reduce the league size and bring the USL teams into the fold and encourage investment from all levels.
The MLS is an even bigger money grab. Sadly, there is such a range of club approaches its silly. There are clubs that are businesses (DC United) Clubs that have ties to Europe (NYCFC, Red Bulls, Rapids). Clubs that are marketing bullies and get special treatment (Miami, LAFC). And some great community ones because of the soccer crazed fans and support of youth soccer (Seattle, Columbus, Philly). They had a chance to support US soccer better, and work to advance the national program, but they loved the dollar more.
My sister took her family to England yo live first 6 months so they could have the experience and she wanted to be over there for her final training to swim the channel. When they came back I ask my youngest nephew, 11 at the time, what he liked best and he loved that Thursdays in school was "gym" day. All day no class rooms just sports and other athletuc activities. He is turning out to be a very very good swimmer, and got more exercise and involvement in sports in the 6 m months in Europe than he gets swimming every day here. This was just how the school did things, nothing to do with national teams or anything.
While I am a huge fan of education growing up in a family of teachers, America often focuses to much on learning while at a desk which isnt great for younger kids. Get them out snd active playing as many sports decreasing overuse injuries, making better all around athletes and people in general.
EDIT: to add to this sports should be education, often we have kids poor teachers in sports, but it should be teaching and learning.
Great discussion and FWIW I'll also give my cents.
We just finished with daughter's at home sports career with sons' prior to that.
We spent a God awful amount of $$ and MANY weekends/days away with travel volleyball.
The amount of money, politics, drama involved was shocking. And I'd do it again.
I was able to spend a lot of bonding time with family, met some awesome people along the way that we consider family.
I greatly support sports for kids. But I do believe the system is a racket.
My daughter was able to benefit and is one of the few that has gone on to Div 1, SEC. The coaching was baseline BAD and confrontational, injurious (except for a few that we are grateful for). But, there is really no other way for a kid who dreams of playing at a high level to get there. If you dont play club, you'll not make the high school team, and/or get recruited.
So they've got you.... and they know it.
But my mantra to my kids was always 'control what you can, practice harder and get better.' We have a home gym and got lessons on the side from good coaches and it worked out.
I will say that once you get to the 3rd rail of Olympic sports and the development program there is a clear political bias that benefits those in control and NOT the overall success of the teams. The best players DON'T get chosen for the developmental tracts and we have underacheived compared to what we likely should, (like mens soccer as noted)
I think this was the greatest thing I learned from tennis growing up. There are 5 billion things on any given day that you can't control but you can control what you eat, how you sleep, what you practice, how you respond when things go wrong, what you do on a rain delay, etc etc
Individual sports don't get the praise they should IMO.