This was our USA U14/99' National team as well. 14 of these 18 players had been to at least 2-3 USSF National Training Camp before ID2 Training Camps. Our National Teams should be expected to win vs club teams, even if they are Barcelona and Spain. This means that if we had played a Spanish National Team (Or Spanish Id2 Version ) we would have gotten destroyed. I was under the impression that ID2 "Identified" new talent for USA National recommendation. It does not. What it did was pick players already "Identified" by USSF Scouts/Coaches before they were in ID2 mix. It is free but not what advertised. ID2 Camps are great to get a feel of what the best players are around the country but if you are not an Academy player you have close to zero chance of making final 18. It would be nice for ID2 to reccommend players not yet in USSF mix to extend a bigger pool for our USA National team. Picking the same kids already identified defeats the purpose, I think.

Luis I doubt than any select team from any country would expect to go beat real madrid's teams or Barcelona's youth teams. At this age groups Real madrid and Barcelona also have very select teams that have been practicing together for a very long time, under very professional staffs. If you go into their websites you will realize that many of the players are from around the country and some from abroad. If ID2 would take kids based on 2 tryouts, they have 2 for east coast players and 2 for west coast players, don't think they could actually teach them a system of play in that short of time. I think they would just do a lot worst. I doubt very much that the ID2 program would want to go display mayhem on the field. I figure they picked many from the U14 National team, which have also been participating in the ID2 tryouts because they have a base to go off and show a decent product in the field. But in reality there is no U14NT yet, only weekly trainings 4 times a year. I believe they don't start facing other national teams till there like U15 ?

Arsenal, we have a U14 National Pool for National Camps. We have had 3 of them so far. 1st NTC was in August,2012 and had 50 99's, 2nd in November and 3rd in February had 36 99's attend each. Most of these ID2 National players have been to the first 2 training camps and a couple trained with 98's closer to a year ago. ID2 camps were in October and December. The October Camp was in Connecticut where 10 USSF Pool Players attended out of a total of 60. The December one was in Phoenix where 22 Pool Players attended out of a total of 52. 12 on ID2 select team are on latest 35 player USSF Roster and it's the 2nd or 3rd for all of them which means they were first identified by USSF before picked by ID2 for this trip. Let's say 3-5 players of Barcelona and another 5 from Real Madrid make Spain National team, that's still what we have identified as our top 12- 14 USA players vs the top 3-5 in Spain on each team, maybe. Last year, Id2 98's beat Barcelona with a pretty good score. Same training for both as this year. Dont you think that if Spain had an ID2 National team they would have killed our ID2 even if different playing systems and only under a few practices?? My point was that ID2 promotes that they "Identify" new talent that have a high % of getting picked for USA National Pool/Team. That is not the way it was done for the most part. It is more that they are picking players already identified by USSF. Thats an unfair advantage when compared to ODP. People think ID2 is great because it's free and gives them a shot at making USA U14 pool. Only the free part is completely true. USA has the most soccer players of any country in the world, 24 million and our scouting systems in ID2, Academy and USSF are scouting the same players, mostly?? That makes no sense if the idea is to scout the best in the country. So if we have an entire year to scout U14's to prepare the best for U15 National team why doesnt each organization scout and promote it's own amount of players to extend pool and make it more competitive to get in. otherwise, just call this ID2 National Selection what it really is, "USSF U14 National Pool Selection".

Forgot to mention, all 18 ID2 Select players were picked from those last 2 Camps I mentioned above and none from previous camps you mentioned.

Luis that might be the case for many, but not all, my son was sent to ID2 first, did well, then recommended to National Training Camp in Carson. He did not make that trip to Spain, but that ID2 training camp has opened the door for many other opportunities. I see your point though, I don't think everyone is being scouted, I'm sure many are being left out of the mix. In my area the academy is going to be expanded to include U13 and U14 players, but I can safely say that 60% of the players that should be included are not going to participate do to the lack of money, want to play high school ball. or simply because clubs discourage players to join because they don't want to lose their talent. It's a complicated issue. USSF is pushing to get the best prospects in thier academies, the better the players, the quicker they progress, and system of play established. Until there are more Academies availabe and are fully funded, I could see alot a talent slipping through the cracks.

Arsenal, my son was invited to Phoenix Id2. Maybe its not all but certainly most. In my opinion some players picked for this trip were done so for more political reasons than picking the very best. It was great to see some of the best talent. That's for sure. My son had 5 assists and 1 goal in 3 games. He did well. I am not against the experience. It should just not be promoted as an exclusively identification program that reccimmends players to USSF. I asked them for an evaluation, which they should give without asking at such events, and it bothered them to do so. I won't get into details but it wasn't all I hoped it would be. Just say it like it is. This ID2 team was mostly National pool team. Its OK. But it is cmear we are not doing our best to identify the best through all these programs that other countries don't have. Bigger country, more population should be better especially with our infrastructure. Not an excuse.

Luis, I think we have a huge amount of players playing soccer in the USA, and a bunch of programs, but don't think we have the infrastructure yet to develop world class players, which is im sure the goal of many kids that are talented. That is why so many are leaving the country to further develop.

Luis, not sure if you ever being on 3four3 website, I think you would be a great blogger. check it out, I think you would like the debates going on in there about youth soccer and development in USA.

Arsenal, we may not have the infrustructure to develop but we certainly have it to "identify" them. No one should do better than us in identifying the very best. My son is one of those that's getting offers out of the country. I think most of those that leave aren't getting really appreciated here. Id2 did not take the best 18 from the Phoenix pool I saw. That's an example overall.

I will look into it. Thx.