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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I recently when down an internet rabbit hole to understand why the US doesn't have better soccer players. The most interesting theory, that I think is likely on point, is that soccer in the US is too structured. Kids only play in leagues but don't play in organic street games like they do in many parts of the world. It's in those informal settings that kids develop the best skills. Think of basketball in the US - many of the top players grew up playing in their streets or neighborhood courts, they weren't shuttled around every weekend to be coached. [/quote]

I went down an internet rabbit hole and came up with an entirely different conclusion: US soccer isn't structured enough.  As posters have pointed out, youth soccer development in Europe is led by the academies of professional clubs.  In England's case, the English FA imposed technical standards and invested over $2B in youth development at its academies in the ten years between 2012 and 2021.  A small nation like Portugal has a robust landscape of professional academies that bring kids into their systems at young ages in an attempt to develop them into excellent players over time, and often times sell them.

I think it's the quality and standards provided by professional clubs that is the difference.  Here, we have MLS Academies as the top tier.  Some have residential programs and strong youth development programs but not all of them.  Their are only 26 in the entire United States.  And maybe it happens in other areas, but I don't know that any other professional teams in the US subsidize their own academies.  In DC United's case, their youngest team is U14, much, much older than European professional academies.  In Europe, there would be multiple professional clubs, at varying levels, in a population center this size.  The standards and expectations at the professional academies would be much higher than those at our local clubs.  I don't know that this sort of tiered professional landscape is even possible here thanks to the prevalence of other sports.

I picked a 10 player starting lineup (we're talking about field players, right?) for Manchester City and checked Wikipedia to see at what age they started at a professional academy: Walker 7, Dias <11, Akanji <12, Lewis 8, Rodri <10, Foden 4, DeBruyne 6, Doku <10 (he joined his 4th club, Anderlecht, at 10), Haaland 5, Silva ?.

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