Restructuring US soccer needs to be done on both ends of the spectrum. You can open up the lowest levels of youth play to everyone, but you'll still run into problems as they age up into high school and have to pick sports. You'll continue to have athletes look at the realm of possibilities beyond youth play and go, "Well, I can be Lebron James the soccer player...and hope I make it onto a 23 person national team or get selected overseas to play...or I can be Lebron James of the NBA and make billions of dollars, cos darn if I'm not good at that too." Statistically speaking, the more kids you get involved young, the more kids you'll have choosing soccer over American football, baseball, and basketball, but strategically speaking, you're still missing out on the kids who will choose against the sport because they're not likely to make a future of it.
We need to be opening up the game to younger, underfunded kids AND making sure we have good funnels to the upper levels of play (like pro club associated academies) and make sure that when we do get kids who are good enough, we do well with marketing them to overseas clubs where they can get good training and experience and money that they could bring back to the US.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; [it] is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
