After playing 14 years of pro ball and serving half-a-decade as an MLS assistant coach, Richie Williams now focuses full-time on the youth game.

Over the past 5 years, the landscape of the youth soccer world has changed dramatically, and the pace and magnitude of change shows no signs of slowing down.

No other coach of a U.S. national team on the men's side had as illustrious career in the U.S. jersey as new U-20 boss Tab Ramos, who played in three World Cups, two Copa Americas, the Olympics and the U-20 World Cup.

Johan Cruyff, speaking with Rob Draper of the UK's Daily Mail, recounted seeing Pep Guardiola for the first time - shortly after Cruyff had been named Barcelona coach and Guardiola was a "scrawny teenager" in Barcelona's youth team

For insight into coaching boys* when they hit puberty and how to challenge early-bloomers, we spoke to U.S. Hall of Fame coach Manfred "Manny" Schellscheidt, who had been the technical director of U.S. Soccer's U-14 boys National Identification Program since 1998 and is one of the nation's most experienced youth coaches.

The goalkeeper coach, or the person filling that role, oversees every aspect of the goalkeepers training. This means running the keeper drills and suggesting strategies as well as overseeing the keepers' interaction with the rest of the team. The more involved the goalkeeper coach is, the better he can guide the goalkeepers' development and nurture their ability to read the game.

Not very long ago, Zach Pfeffer was still fine-tuning his skills in the basement of his Pennsylvania home with his twin brother, Jared.

I was literally left speechless upon entering Portland's Jeld-Wen Field nearly two weeks ago for the U.S. women's national team friendly against Canada, the second game in the so-called "Celebration Series." It was still an hour before kickoff and, as Fats Waller famously sang, "The joint was jumpin'!"