Quote: "Offends" is the wrong word, for me anyway. What "bothers" me is the presumption that Academy training is the single best avenue to USMNT success (which we all KNOW is the primary reason this is being done), combined with the 6-months good, 10-months-better logic. Guess I've seen too many mediocre Academy programs, and too many productive high school and college programs, to believe that one way is inherently "better" than the other.
Exactly. You don't see the top basketball people telling people to move to AAU year round if you are a star (and there are a lot of really bad high school basketball coaches). In fact, Georgetown has a freshman on their team who never played AAU ball. If you're good, you're good. Other sports just do a better job of identifying talent (someone like Anthony Davis, a late bloomer who is going to be the #1 pick in the NBA draft, would have never made it in soccer because he wasn't good until his senior season). High school has many benefits, including forcing the top players to take over games. To act like there is only one way to get to the top, which USSF is certainly doing, is incorrect. It's ok though, we can continue to watch our U17 National Team embarrass themselves at the World Cup to show how much better our top young players are than previous times due to the new fad.
What makes me laugh is how all the DA team statements I've read make it sound like they had no choice in the matter and this move was forced upon them, and then the USSF said the teams passed the move overwhelmingly.
We really need to stop trying to emulate other countries and come up with our own method. But since we do copy so much, why is it that we are still pay to play?
