“USYS members took a historic step to make the game more affordable and accessible to kids and their families across the country.”
— Tina Rincon, US Youth Soccer’s Chair of the Board, on Saturday’s announcement that the state associations of the country’s largest youth soccer organization approved a move to integrate into U.S. Soccer.
When the American youth soccer boom took off in the 1970s, low cost was among the sport’s touted attributes: a popular comparison noted that outfitting an entire soccer team cost less than equipping a single football player.
Soccer’s various other appeals — reasons it had long been the world’s most popular sport — fueled a participation boom. By the 1980s, more than five times as many children were registered with American youth soccer leagues than played Pop Warner football. By 1990, U.S. Youth Soccer registered 1.6 million players and AYSO was nearing 400,000. In 1998, the Los Angeles Times reported that more children played soccer in Los Angeles than football and baseball combined.
For those of us who loved soccer when it still occupied the margins of American sports, its rapid growth was exhilarating. Newcomers to soccer delighted in seeing their children play a free-flowing sport. The players relished a freedom on the field unlike traditional American sports.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the proliferation of youth soccer was frequently attributed to lack of body-type requirements (“anyone can play”), continuous action and the sport’s accessibility.
But then came other terms that are now commonplace in discussions of American youth soccer: pay-to-play, turf wars, alphabet soup and Wild West.
Today, parents of Pop Warner football players pay significantly less for their children’s participation than parents of competitive soccer players, whose uniforms alone come in the $250–$400 range. Club fees have sky-rocketed to pay coaches and club directors, cover field usage and maintenance, and competition entry fees. And then you’ve got tournament travel, which has continually moved to lower ages and has been exacerbated by the emergence of various national leagues.
The USA has travel tournaments for 6-year-olds, state cups for 7-year-olds and national championships for 12-year-olds. Figures as high as $10,000-plus a year have been cited as the cost of playing for an elite youth club.
The alphabet soup? After USYS, AYSO and SAY came US Club Soccer, which sanctions the ECNL. There’s the boys MLS NEXT and the GA (Girls Academy), which just launched ASPIRE. The USYS and U.S. Club Soccer recently partnered to create the National 1 League.
The boys MLS Next and the GA launched in 2020 after U.S. Soccer folded its Development Academy leagues for both genders. Now the Federation has returned to the youth game in a massive manner.
In a move approved on Saturday by a vote of U.S. Youth Soccer’s 54 state associations, U.S. Soccer will, by 2028 absorb USYS, which has nearly 2.7 million registered players, and 10,000 clubs and leagues.
“Looking ahead, we are prioritizing three main themes: lowering costs, improving the soccer experience for everyone, and growing participation and access.”
— From U.S. Soccer’s Pathways Strategy Overview.
What’s Next? On Tuesday, U.S. Soccer began the individual integration process with the 54 state associations, who have their own autonomy and are direct members of the Federation.
“But the membership of US Youth Soccer sent a very strong signal to the entire soccer world with their vote on Saturday: 99% to 1%,” said Joel Dragan, USYS’s Chief Operating Officer. “So I don’t suspect that states will be opting out. …
“Everyone knows that we need change and we need significant change. The pay-to-play model, the alphabet soup, the players traveling all around the country. We’re not developing players in the way a country of our size should, and this is the plan for us to go forward.”
The plan, he says, will enable state associations to play a critical role and allow them to do what they’re good at, citing: administration, coaching education, Olympic Development Program and, in some cases, league operations.
“The Federation will provide resources and tools to prop up state associations, so they’re not quite on an island of themselves,” Dragan said. “State associations are going to be able to rely more on the Federation than they ever have before in the local operating realm.
“One of the terms that has been used that I absolutely love is: ‘Making the U.S. Soccer crest local.’ Bringing that U.S. soccer national team presence all the way down to the state associations and the grassroots level. I think that’s going to make what we do more holistic.”
‘Local as long as possible.’ While certain youth travel for older players is beneficial, most is revenue-driven. Whether young players need national championships or long trips to find strong competition is a question easily dismissed when venues welcome the economic impact and youth soccer organizations reap hotel commissions: the lucrative “stay-to-play” policy that requires teams to book lodging with the league’s designated housing partner when traveling to mandatory events.
“This is one major piece in a broader puzzle,” Anna Lavis, U.S. Soccer VP of Soccer Growth, said of the federation’s absorption of USYS. “And one of the emphatic things that U.S. Soccer is behind, is that we believe it’s really good for soccer to be local for as long as it’s possible and as long as it makes sense for different ages and stages of play. And the best way to do that is by having a more integrated soccer system.”
But U.S. Soccer’s integration with USYS doesn’t address the travel-intensive ECNL, MLS NEXT or GA.
“This integration with U.S. Soccer isn’t going to fix everything,” Dragan said. “There may be other entities who are out there who would balk at it, or who may prioritize profits over other more developmental purposes. But the key is that everyone’s at the table right now, and U.S. Soccer has facilitated that.”
Dragan cites USYS’s merging its National League with U.S. Club Soccer’s NPL as evidence of reaching across the aisle.
“We have met with MLS, we have met with U.S. Club Soccer, and AYSO as well,” Dragan said. “I think there is a desire now more than ever to address these issues that are happening in the landscape and come up with solutions. We don’t have them all right now, but in my 15 years of doing this, there has never been more desire to find these solutions.
“Everyone recognizes that there are problems, and the Wild West isn’t going to allow us to develop players and develop teams to the point where we’re going to be on an international stage lifting trophies. For the first time in my 15 years here, everyone is acknowledging that there’s an issue and are trying to be solutions-oriented.
“And there’s just a level of legitimacy when the Federation puts their badge or their stamp of approval on things.”
💲MONEY. According to the Aspen Institute’s Project Play:
• Soccer parents spent 69% more in 2024 than they did in 2019 — roughly three times the rate of inflation.
‘Solving problems together.’ U.S Club Soccer was launched in 2001 by elite clubs that desired to bypass the bureaucracy of 55 state associations. But it expanded to all levels and age groups, and created tiered state cups. By 2006, it registered 250,000 players and in 2009 sanctioned the ECNL for girls — two years after U.S. Soccer launched its Development Academy for boys, but not a DA for girls.
The ECNL became the elite platform on the girls side, and outlasted U.S. Soccer’s Girls Development Academy (2017-2020). The ECNL added boys in 2017 and by 2021 more than half a million players were registered by U.S. Club.
(One example of the turf wars: When Virginia-based McLean Youth Soccer opted to enter its boys teams in MLS Next in 2025-26, its girls teams had to leave the ECNL for the GA because the ECNL made boys membership requisite for the girls’ ECNL participation.)
Currently, more than 800,000 players are registered through U.S. Club Soccer. In January, U.S. Soccer announced it would be operating US Club Soccer’s internal operations, i.e. provide services in human resources, information technology and financial operations.
“The ECNL is at the table helping to figure all this out with us, too,” Lavis said. “I can tell you that they are helping to be part of the solution. Similarly to MLS, they are helping to figure out things. We’re having conversations with MLS, ECNL and the Girls Academy about coaching education and supporting of our talent identification program as well.
“The Pathways Strategy was our formal commitment with these different organizations to solve these problems together, and that’s quite literally what week over week looks like inside the walls of the Federation. So, I do think ECNL will be part of the solution.”
Asked if he imagined that the ECNL in three years would look similar to what it is now, ECNL president and co-founder Christian Lavers said:
“I would have a hard time projecting out three years. One thing that I would feel more confident about is there’s a strong desire and logic to have a single player pass, where it’s easier to track where players are, how many there are, and what are they doing.
“Because if you want to apply resources to improve anything, that’s the first piece of information that you need. Right now, that’s very difficult because in the past you could have a US Club card, a USYS card, USSSA. Now you can have a GA card, an MLS card. There’s an AYSO card, a SAY card. And the same player could, in theory, have one, two, three, four different cards depending on what they’re doing. That makes it very difficult to understand what does this actual ecosystem look like. …
“For example, it would be good to understand who the primary club is, or where the player is for the most of that experience.”
Lavers says the Federation has expressed a strong desire to work with experts in the youth space and open channels for potential ways to do things. For now, an issue that remains unresolved: multiple organizations stage their own state, regional and national championships. That creates the absurd situation in which top teams from the same area don’t play each other, and instead travel long distances to face opponents.
“I’ll use the Operation Market Garden — knowing that you’re never going to take five bridges at once, but we can take a bridge at a time,” Lavers said.
Said Lavis, “Broadly, we are looking at a fully integrated model on all things competition and cups. So we have all the different organizations at the table with us right now, figuring out, what does that mean to have an integrated competitions and cup system of play in America.”
💲MONEY. Most recent 990 filings:
• USYS: Revenues: $20.7 million; Loss $1.5 million.
(USYS has reserves of about $18 million that will be dedicated to benefiting the State Associations).
• U.S. Club Soccer: Revenues: $21.7 million; Surplus of $2.4 million.
• AYSO: Revenues of $84.4 million; Surplus: $3.6 million.
(AYSO manages all programs nationally)
• Girls Academy: Revenue: $8.5 million. Surplus: $1 million
• ECNL: Revenues: $11.3 million; Surplus: $1.2 million.
• Note: All are non-profits and required by law to file annual statements with the IRS. MLS is not a non-profit.
Balancing national leadership and local needs. For five years until last January, Skip Gilbert served as USYS’s CEO. He had previously held high-ranking positions at USA Swimming, USA Triathlon and the USTA (U.S. Tennis Association). He played soccer at University of Vermont and was on the NASL’s Tampa Bay Rowdies 1983 team.
Gilbert, who left USYS before the discussions began that led to the integration, hails the move:
“It makes all the sense in the world. The U.S. youth soccer ecosystem was too fractioned, too cannibalistic, over-priced …”
He pointed to USA Hockey, which a decade ago shifted youth-player registration from local associations to directly with USA Hockey and embarked on a new “skill over standings” approach, deemphasizing wins, losses and statistics for preteens. It heavily restricted traditional travel hockey and eliminated travel at lower tiers.
“They changed the model for under-teenage to learning to love and embracing the game,” Gilbert said. “And at the last Olympics won gold in men’s, women’s and para.”
Fixing American youth soccer requires addressing two areas: better player development for the national teams and improving the experience for the vast majority of players. For the former, that includes player identification.
“There needs to be more pride in finding new talented players,” Lavers says, “as much as there is pride in players who continue through the system, and pointing to them and saying, ‘Look how well our system’s working because the same kid came through all these different times.'”
In the coming months, Lavis said there will be a process on “really understanding what it means to be a local office of U.S. Soccer. And it could look different state-by-state, because all the different unique aspects of a state market need to be considered here. And then how do you best support participants after that assessment.”
Untangling the alphabet soup. One of a soccer parent’s biggest challenges is figuring out the best soccer path for their child. Today, that means determining whether they are being courted because an opportunity is best for the player or for the revenue the family represents.
“We are going to figure out how to make soccer much easier to navigate locally,” Lavis said. “So when a parent ultimately goes to sign up for soccer one day, we will have common language on what it means or where they’re playing. It will be redefined, and so if I go sign up for X, Y, or Z league, I will now know the experience I’m getting.
“In addition, we do think it’s going to get cheaper because right now we have many different organizations that provide similar services. In the future, we’re going to figure out ways on how to pool those resources, how to actually have shared services such that it will in fact reduce fees that players will have to pay. That is a long-term view. And this is the most major step to kick off that body of work.”
Parents’ pocketbooks are low-hanging fruit for those selling the promise of helping their children succeed. The free market won’t disappear from American youth sports. But U.S. Soccer is our last hope of making youth soccer less revenue-driven.
Much of what is written here is speculation. Anything that reduces the expense is helpful. Following USA Hockey isn’t just about cost but also, player development. Results winning soccer shouldn’t matter for a preteen. The individual player is what matters. Tell me how players would be interested in a game that, doesn’t allow them to express themselves.
This is a good start but I will tell you, youth soccer is a mess because it is way too expensive to play and the administrative pieces for it are silly. There is zero reason teams should have to travel out of a state as big as Texas to play in Colorado. The teams are there so utilize all of the clubs to play teams across the board. Also, more work should be placed into holding these coaches with proper development. My son developed more on his own and ODP than he did with his club team at the ECNL level.
One of the biggest issues that USSF faces is NOT the clubs – which all that is written above blames – rather – it us THEMSELVES!!! They created FREE boys DA in 2007 with NOTHING for Girls. This was Gulalti and Co. It was fundamentally WRONG, but carried on over a decade. Then the market if you will, the youth orgs, they reacted, they did not have $100M in cash like USSF, so they creates pay-to-play girls ECNL. Girls ECNL products won many Olympic and World Cup medals. Free boys DA none, could NOT ever in their history qualify for the either of the TWO CONCACAF Olympic slots. Honduras and Mexico went to 2 Olympics in that period. Then in 2018 USA with mostly FREE DA, meaning USSF was FINANCING, literally MLS Academies, we FAILED to qualify for the World Cup!!! So then USSF opens Girls DA – knife in the back of Girls ECNL. It’s all out war so ECNL expands to boys. Then in complete about face USSF abruptly closes boys and girls DA, abandons Academy space, knowing they are about to correctly loose the ladies lawsuit. They leave Academies completely to Market and both ECNL and MLS enter the greatest expansion of pay to play Academy soccer in the sports history. Before 2018 in boys DA you had about 25 free academies and about 50 pay in boys DA in one league. In 2026 we have between ECNL and MLS Next around 300 clubs in 4 silo leagues and about 30 free academies. From 70 to over 600 and maybe 5 more free academy clubs!!! And now USSF want to FIX it. Do not get me wrong, I like the initiative, what I do not like and what concerns me is that they are blaming clubs and youth organizations that they clearly created and are under their umbrella.
Wait until the “Clubs” Get into the NIL Deals.!$!$!$
Only correction I have to your well said Synopsis is, USSF dropped the DA, because of COVID … I think I’m correct on that. Maybe it was just the Last Nail in the Coffin.
That would frighten me. Covid just meant that the cash flow was reduced. That would mean that USSF saw the DA only as a revenue stream.
esteeemed Santi, on DA drop, look at the sequence of events and the related chaos, noise. First Girls DA hastily stood up, which required many many more licenced coaches, right after, the USSF STOPPED ACCEPTING NSCAA licences effectively reducing the number of eligible coaches (and putting knife in back of NSCAA to where today it’s remenants United Soccer Coaches have to effectively propped up by USSF, talk about panick, law of unintended consequences and just stupidity, but all driven by fear of what was to come). Then the ladies lawsuit(s), which were telegraphed, in my opinion. Then the utter chaos in the ladies side as ECNL Girls and Girls DA now competititors. Cannabals, as ECNL Girls is in USSF. Then is spills over to boys as ECNL quickly opens ECNL Boys in response. Then two years of complete chaos and for parents confusion and many mistakes and now the lawsuit is moving forward and it’s clear – THEY WILL WIN. Mix new President, after the two clowns that fathered the mess, economist and financier, completely face plant, all the while sitting on $100M in assets they NEVER INVESTED IN THE SPORT for over a DECADE, and the ladies lawyers saw as THEIRS!!!. Now the new Pres, gifted COVID as excuse to shut DA down without thinking about consequence for girls and boys Academies. So COVID was the EXCUSE, not the real reason for closing the DAs. If you know Academy structure abroad, which I do in detail, you know the closure of DA was THE WRONG MOVE and it allowed MLS to pivot from USSF and DA financing their free MLS Club Academies, before DA, to the MLS Next which is PARENT FINANCED, where the more than 100 PAY ACADEMIES financed the 30 or so free academies. This exists, nowhere else in the world. It’s an abomination. It is worse than the swamp of Youth soccer 0-13. It is horrid. Academies are life blood of national team. Everywhere else in the world, the federation, administers, referees, and sets rules for academies. Here we gave it to a for profit league. A lot to swallow, all my opinion. Read, nowwhere, observed, here. Good day.
Great start. Take over everything without a plan. Athlete development is not rocket science and isn’t a secret. How you do it was known 50 years ago and best practices haven’t changed. Knowledge is not the problem. A lack of interest in player development is the problem. That US Soccer doesn’t have a plan is scary. USYSA had one over 20 years ago, but then USSF took over running youth soccer.
What I see is a soccer equivalent of 1980s mergers and acquisitions. No good came of that.
Agree Bob! These people have never shown they know what they are doing and I don’t expect this to be any different.
The growth in soccer here has produced a growth in soccer organizations exponentially. I don’t think anyone 50years foresaw the ‘ PARASITIC growth of so many more soccer organizations all making a buck. This sport which is so cheap to play has become a pay to play operation TOO EXPENSIVE, milking the parents….I don’t think anyone back in the 70’s saw this coming that youth soccer would become a PAY FOR PLAY operation and TOO EXPENSIVE for parents …
I welcomed soccer organizations back in the late 60’s as an institution for the growth of youth soccer and introduce the new sport to Americans. But what has happened is youth soccer organization has been UNABLE to instill heart ,a feel or love and beauty for the game in the youth.
We see youth ‘burnout” today, which I don’t understand for that would never occurr if the youth were given and taught an appreciation for the game.. I played 15-25 hours a week street soccer, I carried two tennis balls with me at all time in case of unexpected pickup game. In those days we had no leash laws so loose dogs can interrupt a game.. The kids were never burned out in my youth days. But today, even with all the gala, the fancy shoes, colorful balls, top class facilities, having a coach/trainer, videos on demand, etc,etc, somehow kids still get burned out…
These soccer organization have ASTROTURFED the sport, by running the whole show for the kids. These kids only come out to play when the organizations have set the times for practice.
Our youth have not learned to love and appreciate the game to the point they would call each other after school to kick a ball around or play on their own…
The problem with today’s youth soccer as stated by Cruyff is that it has become TOO PROFESSIONALIZED AND TOO PROGRAMMED, [KEEP IT AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE]
The problem is that parents really believe that hiring a licensed coach, or someone that gives clinic is going to improve their kid…NONSENSE!!! Your kid will improve doublefold by spending an hour with some friends or friend kicking a ball around…
Read any biography of any great players and NONE will ever state that it was his youth coach, or trainer that made him the player in his youth…Zlatan was poor, all he did was play pickup and when he got older he watched and copied the Brazilian Ronaldo from Youtube; Maradona, Messy all grew up playing pickup in Argentina in a neighborhood known where kids had to battle constantly to get to the top; Alfredo Di Stefano played pickup, George Best, Cruyff, etc, etc, . The point I’m making is that NONE in their autobiographies ever credited a lecensed coach or trainer in their youth They all grew and learned to play in unorganized settings, pickup soccer…Raphael van der Vaart who played for Ajax grew up playing pickup soccer in an impoverished neighorbood, a trailer court but playing ball everyday made him good enough to be picked by Ajax in his youth. Stefano credited playing at times with rugby ball for you didn’t know the bounce it would and therefore prepared him for the eventuality…Kids in my days played everyday with a different ball, a plastic ball, tennis ball, little rubber ball, or a size 6 ball, a heavy ball, or light bouncy ball…All these types of balls prepared a kid for he learned to various touches needed to apply to a specific ball, which FORCED HIM TO THINK about each situation….These aspects are so important in the learning stages, ACQUIRING THE NECESSARY TOUCH…
The American soccer experience has failed to promote a love for the game by the youth…It’s all about showing up for practice, play sunday , and go sometimes to tournaments…all astroturfed…
The best thing for our soccer here is totally break off from these organizations, who do nothing for our youth player’s development…Pure and simple we have to bo back to the basics, DO ON YOUR OWN. The local youth organization can still function , and try to change their impetus for kid to become more independant and allow them to be able to created pickup games and do things on their own….
As a parent, if you have a kid that likes the game and shows promise, try to find another parent(s) and get together to allow these to play pickup. DON’T SPEND MONEY ON THESE LICENSED TRAINERS OR COACHES. A youth first of all needs a SOLID FOUNDATION of PICKUP SOCCER…
It is sad Frank but, this is what happens when the adults take over! Like you, we did everything on our own or with friends and neighbors. From American football to baseball to basketball to real football. Made up our own rules and you got better by imitation. Every once in awhile an older kid would give you a nugget of advice that, helped you along. Have noticed some pickup this year in my hometown with teens. Hope that is a good sign but, am not holding my breath.
So True ,Kevin..I remember back in the early 70’s at Fort Hunt in Alexandria, we had pickup everynight in the summertime after 6pm…What else is there do but play some pickup ball after dinner….All the guys were made of various ages of high school , along with some college guys would come together and play….There was one kid that would who just finished 8th grade. By playing everynight ,MIXED AGES, he by the end of the summer got to be so good that he made varsity the coming spring…..
I have an interesting book I bought in Holland that interviewed great dutch players about their ‘Street Soccer’ days as a kid. A book like that has no currency here for there is no pickup here…
I didn’t appreciate how important ‘street soccer’ or pickup was to your development as a kid. Years and years later when I got into coaching youth, I asked myself how did I learn to play. It was simple, everything I learned came from street soccer… The only good a youth Coach can do today, is to apply the elements of street soccer, FORGET everything else. I realize most youth coaches haven’t a clue about pickup or even played it, instead they follow the standard ,programmed procedures as taught by the USSF coaching Academy.
I would recommend to play in small spaces, on concrete, like basketball courts, parking area behind a school, etc. Any size ball and different each time for that develops touch for the kid begins to learn to how hard or soft to touch the ball.
NO PENNIES, to distinguish teams…We as kids never had pennies or cones in those days but we never had difficulty establishing who was whose team for their are so many nuances you learn from that makes you know who belongs to which team…
Today if a coach came out with a tennis ball, all the kids would have a fit, but in my days there was no problem, or a small, or a plastic ball that doesn’t bounce or one that does ,it shouldn’t matter…Reading Distefano’s biography he stated that playing sometimes with a rugby ball, forces you to be on your toes to be quick in needing to change directions for you didn’t know. But you begin to read and sense where and how the ball will travel….
Today we do these stupid running exercises, with cones and ladders taking the cute steps , or hops in between which is totally useless…All the players do the same stupid running drills which has NO bearing or reflection on how the player actually runs. It’s like in the old days, when coaches with their stop watches time a player’s 12 minute run. A useless drill that has no basis to how soccer is played, similar to these STUPID quick footing drills….Remember , the Cool Down run after the game which was another IDIOT exercise…
To me movement of an individual player is ORGANIC, that you can’t mess with. But on the contrary, we have all the players do the quick footed drills…
Van Hanegem was the slowest on the Dutch WC’74 Total Soccer. In Holland he is considered the second Cruyff…The coach wanted him to move faster so they made him do speed exercises, quickness. The effect was to make Van Hanegem worse as a player…His mannerisms, his thinking was always 2-3 moves ahead of other players. They realized the mistake and allowed to play within the confines as the player he is. The same thinking happened to the German great, Helmur Haller who played for Juventus…A german coach complained he needed to be faster and the result was the same as what happened with van Hanegem…
Speed has to do more with the ability of Thinking a few moves ahead of time and that is rarely understood by many….My point is in all that is not do general exercises for the whole team for each player is different ,especially the better ones who rely on brains and technique. For example there are certain players who are slower, tend to be better in shielding the ball ,which in itself is rarely carried out by faster player…
As Cruyff states, you have to balance the team. If you have some fast players than you also need to bring in slower players, everything is about balance…At Ajax or at the WC’74 the left flank was always the ‘playfull, creative , called the ‘Tutti Frutti’ flank which meant the right flank needs to be serious and direct and sober… If you right wing is a great dribble then you can’t have a right half behind as a great dribbler…it’s all about balance.
Where do you see kids kicking the ball against a wall, why haven’t these club have walls kids can practice ad infinitum passing the ball…
Try kickball with bases, whereby the field player if they trap the ball dead or chest it ,you’re out. Kids learn to use the outside of the foot, by sneaking where you’re want to kick it. Kids will learn to chip and drop the behind the field players…All I’m saying the game begins to make players think of what to do next ….
There so many elements of street soccer that are not applied to youth soccer players. Or where do you see kids play tennis soccer 3v3 at youth clubs, for there is so much you can learn ,especially touch and heading whereby the youth learns to deaden the ball, like it just drops straight down over the net…There is so much kids just don’t learn and it is there for the taking…
What bothers me most is that I have participated in this same discussion about youth soccer with different people on different forums beginning in the 1990s and youth soccer has only gotten worse from a youth player’s viewpoint. No wonder participation has declined. All the while we hear hype from USSF: Success is always just around the corner.
Bob, soccer is run by incompetent people. who are more interested in titles, have no feel for the game and see bound up with theoretical settings..Look at all the National coaching Academies in the world and then look at ours too…WHY aren’t these Coaching Academies run by GREAT players, instead they are run and controlled by nitwits, who have never played at the highest level and think having a license makes one see the game better, and have basically work their way up the ladder.
The National Coaching Academy should be the pinnacle of where you find and learn the best knowledge of the game…It’s where you can talk the greats about the game itself. Instead we have idiots running the show where theyprefer to fail a great player like Nene Cubillas for a B-license.
Eliminating travel below the age of 14 would be a good start. And get rid of all the useless tournaments/fundraisers.
They are business objectives, not soccer objectives. The businesses will chop soccer before they chop business.
R2, I don’t know about every community but, if you eliminated travel too early the kids wouldn’t find enough competition to get better in my community. Don’t disagree about the tournament’s.
Kevin even a small neighborhood has enough “competition” for young players to develop without travel. Splitting them up by gender and age group is the problem, not a lack of “competition”. Think about street soccer, mixed groups in neighborhoods. The goal is player development, not team development. 11 a side team building comes later. Ball mastery is first priority. That doesn’t take a large population for competition.
What I am thinking is a mixed group of 15 to 20 players playing unorganized 5 a side with winners staying in is all the competition it takes to develop players.
Kevin: I recommend reading the example of neighborhood table tennis in Mathew Syed’s book “Bounce”.
Kevin, in hockey you will find plenty of stories of future pros coming from small towns. Do you know the stories of Wayne Gretzky and Pistol Pete Maravich? It doesn’t take a city full of competition to develop skills.
Unlike in my day or Frank’s, people today don’t think outside the box, much less try things outside the box. Wayne Gretzky had a father that built a rink in his backyard and taught him to think outside the box and built his passion in a positive way. Pete Maravich’s father drove him relentlessly and was never satisfied with what he did. Without pickup or a possessed kid that will play on their own, you have to find competition where you can. The clubs big and small separate and recruit kids early. Changing the entire playing field as it is now is, probably next to impossible. Parents have been sold a bill of goods and don’t let their children go anywhere unsupervised.
I don’t think that kids who play “on their own” are thinking outside the box or are possessed. Pistol Pete’s parents could not have stopped him from playing if they tried. Parents should be supporting, not pushing. Passion can take kids in many directions. My middle child would always complete his homework. We never had to say or do anything. Never knew another kid who liked doing homework.
The claim that this will lower costs is a sign that this is just a power move by USSF staff because there is virtually no value being created here. What are the costs? Uniforms, fields, officials, coaches. When you get above 1,000 players in your club, you have to go to an office with a paid staff person. If not, you burn out the volunteer parents who’ve run it up to that point. USSF does not have the cash flow to drop any meaningful amount of money on youth soccer.
I know the baseball context very well, their, there is a large influx of players from the Carribean belt, Puerto Rico to Venezuela, even eastern Columbia. 99% of these players come from working class or just dirt poor families. Here in the USA baseball has become a sport for the middle class. Still millions play, but we lost the working class because it’s not affordable. It is the same in soccer. This is the main issue that needs to be solved. Affordability. You can say all you want about 1000 players and costs, etc, in my town there are latino clubs where they offer youth (0-13) leagues at the same place every Saturday, you show, same place, you play a game, they have many teams, enough for leagues, there are parent or friend coaches, the cost, about $20 / month, they get whatever unis, every team for themselves. These kids many go on to play after 13 in HS, which is FREE. The good ones will get recruited to the serious mens games in their youth ‘club’ where there are ‘cash’ payments. They can play in this context long time and be winning above $10K per year, part time. This is not a small context cross USA. The private latino leagues, this model it is all across USA from Virginia to California. If you drive by one, and you are WASP you will never go in because you know you will be like sore thumb. These players all play outside USSF and never come in. This is the issue. Not sure how they will solve it, but that is the issue, the working class, which is a big % immigrant latino today, they are outside the system, and today, more than ever. Not sure how this change solves this. Not at all. Re-arrange chairs on the titinanic, for me. For me, you must integration HS and College, you must be supporting training of HS and College coaches, you must integrate HSs into the system. You can never get the latinos out of their clubs, you will never offer a better context, same place, every saturday/sunday, $20 a month, fugetaboutit. Ain’t gonna happen. Where you can get them is in HS, the largest context for soccer for boys and girls, in all the USA and it’s free, and in this moment, our YNTs men and women don’t ever look there. Then our colleges are the largest U23 context in the world, hands down, for men and women, and we do not recruit their either. This, madness. This, the problem.