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Mark -- Good points and some that I'm sure will be visited. It will be interesting to see who will reply to these questions as all are valid and do 'stir the pot'.

Anybody else suffer a hemorage during Freddy Adu's interview on PTI today?!

(hate to turn this away from technical/important stuff)

Missed it L-E Dude, what happened?

I hate to break this to you, especially Man u,but you are misinformed and have probably bought all the propaganda crap the clowns selling it in this country have produced. Most of our information comes from our mystified fanaticism over a small number of "experts" that only want to make money off camps, clinics and other insundry devices. In England and most other places in Europe organized socce ris frowned upon unti 9-11 years old. This means that a natural evolution takes place and that the most athletic and skillful players are choosing to play. In our country we have contaminated this process by over organization. We do not understand or develop the subtleties of the game mainly because there is no money it fostering this. By the way you are insane if you do not think Van Nistleropy is abundantly athletic. He would not be starting up top fot Alex Ferguson if he were not. That is another example of the ignorance we possess in the USA. Which is exactly the reason why we are not in the World Cup any longer. Where were all the criticisms amidst the hype of this team. Grass roots is the answer. Just build fields and let kids play without worrying about money, recruiting or any of that other crap that they have to deal with. Adopt a code of ethics that with a nationwide federation that forbids self seeking and enlist the all out aid of the pople that truly have experience rather that book readers and capitalists and for gods sake get rid of Bruce and Donovan.

mcbride is worthy of our praise and our pride—i hated to see most of the rest of the team let him down—yes—he needed help!—and as far as an earlier post—we have chosen premier league over ODP in our home—and feel there is no comparison—premier is far superior—and that may be a clue about our selection process in the US—

Balnogowan,

Just so you know, I was born in England and played there until I was 10. I played organized soccer from the age of 5, playing in numerous 5 and 6 aside tournaments from the ages of 5-8 before growing to 11 a side when I was at Under 9 and Under 10. The professional teams there begin having academy sides at Under 11, but begin watching the competitions and players at the age of 8 or so. Thanks for your input, but I mean, you're talking to someone who actually lived this in England and played organized soccer from 5 onwards which was definitely not frowned upon. So no, I didn't buy all the propaganda crap that this country produces because I didn't even live in this country, much less hear anything from it concerning soccer.

Good point purpleandyellow!

As for Man U Fan's response, I'd like to add that in 1999 I had the opportunity to take our B-C team to England/Wales for four competition games, two pro games, and tons of sightseeing.

Of the four matches, one was against the Tranmere Rovers (then 1st Division, right under EPL) U16 team. The Tranmere Rovers boys were all 5-10/6-2 and totally groomed for the professional game. Our team that was comprised of rising juniors/seniors and three recently graduated All-State players. We battled their U16 team to a 0-1 loss in the 84th minute (I might add ), but the point is that they had the best of a picked crop training daily year-round for development in their school-boy system. Yes, the boys went to school from 8-12, but after that it was all soccer 9 months out of the year.

Is this a direction for U.S. Soccer to emulate?