As Jeff Kassouf wrote in The Guardian this week, it was no surprise to see the rest of the world finally catch up to the U.S. Women’s National Team on the international stage. The disappointing performance by the USWNT in the 2023 Women’s World Cup indeed was inevitable, and just like the USMNT missing qualification for 2018 World Cup, this should lead to a pulling out of the current system by the roots to fix, and ONLY U.S. Soccer themselves can do it.
Unfortunately, U.S. Soccer is not likely to do so, and has actually never shown the courage to lead at the youth level.
The youth soccer system in the USA is – and always has been – completely upside down and broken. Only the lure of serious money for MLS clubs has driven real investment in talent ID and Academies for the boys.
NOTHING like that exists, or is remotely likely to exist for the girls.
Youth soccer in the USA is almost entirely driven by greed of the men who claim to be “leading” clubs. Try a quick search on Guidestar of “Form 990s” for the big clubs in your area and find out quickly how many people – who have likely never held a job outside of youth soccer – make well over 200K from a “non-profit”. Dig deeper and you’re likely to find many also earn incomes from other jobs and side gigs galore, some even coaching college teams while also running clubs. Where do they find the time?
Nothing about youth soccer in the USA is organized with any national leadership in a system solely designed to IDENTIFY AND DEVELOP talented youth in any systematic way. ECNL has tried / come closest on the girls side by creating a competitive national platform that at least applies pressure to players to improve and win.
MLS NEXT is also trying, and at least the connection to the pro academies starts to form some vision of what it takes to be professional (not developing super athletes for run-and-gun NCAA futures that end the day they graduate).
But this country is too big to just let the free market do it’s thing.
What needs to happen is what Anson Dorrance proposed a LONG time ago, when he was the USWNT Coach. Divide the country into 4 territories and FULLY develop 4 independent national teams at every age level. Only U.S. Soccer can create that system, and then once created ONLY U.S. Soccer can set the rules for how players are identified and involved… and how they’re protected from too much soccer!
There needs to be rules set that create both rest periods AND windows of time for talent to develop in a professional environment away from the players’ day to day clubs. US Soccer can set those rules via regulations on the youth system in some ways, but they also hold that real key – the decisions on who to “call up” and the power to fund all the related expenses.
This country has the talent pool and economics to field multiple rosters of players that should be favored to win World Cups (in both genders), and we always will. But our current system of allowing an alphabet soup of national associations, leagues, and talent scouting to simply churn through a disorganized process of natural selection; and then just thinking hiring the right head coach to pick players du jour has always been destined to fail.
U.S. Soccer MUST take control of the youth structure nationally. Not another league like the ill fated Development Academies, but by spending money and playing hard ball with the youth structures in the US. There needs to be a “winner” in the alphabet soup of youth soccer “system”. U.S. Soccer is the only queen-and-king maker.
