Very valid point. Personally I'm not ready to send my kid to some lower league in Europe or SOuth America just yet. He is, we parentals....are not.
If my kid played baseball.......there is a model that takes kids straight out of high school. That model doesn't exist, practically, yet for soccer in the US. If it did....thats what he'd be doing.
The funny thing about Academy and college....all of those expectations are stuff that outside people have laid on the Academy program. Clubs. USSF from the getgo....has been to the best of my knowledge, very neutral on next steps for successful Academy players. Our culture in America says that the "next level" is college...and I'm sure we're all guilty of accepting that paradigm. Pretty certain Academy has NEVER taken that path tho.
I think what they are wanting...is that MLS Academies become their Youth teams and funnel the better players into the professional ranks. And given that there are what...18 MLS franchises and 80 odd Academies....my guess is they would want to poach the better players off of the non MLS Academies also.
Just dont' think we're there yet. I think when they start pulling 13-14 year olds into Academy instead of at 15-16...and also 10 month Academy versus 7 month Academy...in a few years you will have players ready to step into MLS reserves instead of being ready to step into ACC or Southern Conference play.
