For most of its history, the U.S. Soccer Federation played a limited role in youth soccer, managing the youth national team program and depending mainly on the U.S. Youth Soccer-run OlympicDevelopment Program (ODP) for talent identification. But in 2007, the Federation launched its Boys Development Academy, which expanded to U-12s in 2016. The Girls DA kicked off in 2017. Ahead of the12th boys season and the second girls season, we spoke with Development Academy Director Jared Micklos about the U-12 program, new substitution rules, and DA costs.
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