SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums United Soccer Coaches & National Awards NSCAA comments about U.S. Soccer's Development Academy

Ok, here's are the elements I was trying to reconcile in that statement:

"U.S. Soccer is the national governing body of the sport. Includes news, video, tournaments, coverage of all US National teams and information on USSF member organizations." --www.ussoccer.com

"As the governing body of soccer in all its forms in the United States, U.S. Soccer has played an integral part in charting the course for the sport in the USA for almost 100 years. In that time, the Federation’s mission statement has been very simple and very clear: to make soccer, in all its forms, a preeminent sport in the United States and to continue the development of soccer at all recreational and competitive levels.

To that end, the sports exponential growth in the past two decades has been nothing short of remarkable.

Multiple soccer specific stadiums have opened their doors to resounding success, and new arenas around the country are currently being planned and built. The National Training Center in Carson, California is entering its seventh year of existence, and in 2007 the U.S. Soccer Development Academy kicked off with much fanfare at the state of the art facility." --www.ussoccer.com/about

"But US Soccer has nothing to do with Academy." --Big Daddy

"And USSF is directly managing the Academy." --Big Daddy

Big Daddy will have to resolve that, but I'm guessing that he meant to say that US Youth Soccer has nothing to do with the DA.

Ah, that would make sense.

Traveling yesterday......

Got hung up on acronyms. Guess I confused US Soccer with US Club Soccer. Have only heard folks (and have adopted as my own) people refer to USSF as....USSF.

No worries--all is clear now! (There's that alphabet soup for ya!) USSF seems to refer to itself almost exclusively as US Soccer these days--guess it sorta emphasizes the all-encompassing nature of the organization.

Pretty good article. And thankfully.....portrays an outcome without all the drama. Should work out for all sides.

"Soccer is not an American-driven game. [Elsewhere] soccer is all global," says U.S. national team coach Juergen Klinsmann, who grew up in the German club system. "It's 11 months a year. You might get three or four weeks off. That's it. So if a kid goes to college [in the U.S.] and plays a three-month season, he loses eight months compared to all the other kids the same age."

Sooo...if college participation is a problem, why have 14-18 year olds play ten month seasons just to achieve a 3 month college one? A 22 year old emerges from the college system having played 12 months of high level games in 4 years. His global counterpart has played 40 months in 4 years. If this is the problem, then the Development Academy should be a 10 month league geared for players who are 18-22 and who choose not to play for college (note I did not say forego college). The players would be more mature and be able drive themselves and...oh nevermind...I just realized it might be harder to squeeze money from parents of a 20 year old than a 16 year old. And for a second there I was concerned about making soccer better rather than profit. My bad.

Who is it that you think is making a profit on USSDA?

And - I expect most DA programs will be free, or very close to free, in the near future.

Loosely applying the theory of constraints....T Robinson has a good point.

Moving to a 10 month Academy is fantastic for development for 14-18 year olds. Great first step.

But what happens when most of these kids come rolling out of Academy and straight into NCAA programs? The Fall season is what......3 1/2 months? Time allowed on the ball in the spring....is another 2 months?

Does it make sense to train 10 months a year from 14-18 and then from 18-22 scale it back to 5-6 months?

NCAA needs to loosen up rules on practice.......or more likely talented kids will not go to college or leave early to compete professionally. Or......they will stay put and regress, as compared to their international peers.

The answer my friends......is club affiliation. In effect, a minor league system. A professional development environment that is more than a few months over summer break. Every Academy program shoudl be partnered up with an MLS club. Top players in Academy get pulled up to train with reserves and maybe 1st team. Lets assume SCU was affiliated with New England Revolution. At 18 a kid could sign a pro contract and be loaned to say, the Battery.

MLS could also form a developpmental league or an alliance with leagues in Mexico or other countires in the region. Outside of the MLS season.....younger players could continue to train and play. Just like winter leagues in baseball.