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[quote=Anonymous]I think there is a little bit too much negativity about US soccer going on here. Most systems have their flaws. And I would love to see how American parents lamenting about the system here would react to the English system, where small kids are churned in and out of academies every year, cut so cruelly at times from teams that the newcomers and the one who depart are sometimes known to walk past each other along the same corridor. Yes, it's free when you get to that level, but it's also cutthroat, and there is a reason why many young English footballers are found playing college ball in the US. Every country also has a different system. A recent book I read, called Das Reboot, offers a really detailed and interesting take on the reinvention of the German soccer system. Bottom line, no system is perfect, systems have to adapt to the unique context of every country, and most systems have their strengths and weaknesses. Japan, which is producing a pretty regular flow of top footballers now, is another interesting case of a system that is quite different from most other soccer nations, because the Japanese are a very rich nation with a certain culture, where soccer also has to compete with other sports that the Japanese are crazy about.

From where I see it, as the parent of a child playing in the DA system, in spite of many, many flaws -the worst of which are probably the obsessive focus with results at an early age and the priority given to athleticism over instinct and tactical intelligence - it's not all doom and gloom with US soccer. A tournament this summer in Florida featuring some of the top U14 academy players of the world was an encouraging experience. The structure of the tournament meant that all combinations of teams, American and European, played each other before they were separated into 3 flights for the knockouts, based on where they finished in their groups. Bayern  beat Chelsea in the finals of the top flight and I wouldn't be surprised to see many of these players wearing their senior club and national jerseys a few years from now. Bayern had 4 players from the German U15 national pool. Chelsea, Dortmund, Celtics, Liverpool and Atletico Madrid had some of the top prospects that scouts have already started tracking in Europe, according to some of their parents and coaches.

https://www.internationalchampionscup.com/en/youth/futures/2018-futures-tournament.

How did the American kids do? The scores tell the story - that barring one game (Atletico against a surprisingly poor NYCFC academy), the MLS academy teams and state "all-star" teams (which included many DA players from non-MLS academies) ran close to the European academies and in some cases, won. "Our" team lost by one late goal to one of the best European teams; Red Bulls and Sounders academies did really well and lost narrowly in the knockouts to the Bayern and Chelsea kids, respectively; and a few of the state teams also had good results, particularly against the English academies. With a little bit of luck, Red Bulls or Sounders could have made it to the finals. As an aside, the level of play was often astonishingly good, and the finals were so much fun to watch on ESPN (we were back here by then).

What I saw in the games that our team played, and a few others featuring some of the better American teams, was that the best of the US kids were right up there with anyone else in skills, technique, vision and pace of play. Where they seemed to fall short a bit as a team, which led to a disproportionate number of narrow losses, is on the tactical front - that intangible "football brain", which I suspect is as much a product of living, breathing, watching, talking and following soccer as it is of coaching. The best of the European teams just knew when to slow down a game, when to press and where and probe for weaknesses, when to storm forward and when to hold, and when to do the little things to disrupt the rhythm of an opponent who is playing well. They were also ever so slightly better - but that is enough to make the difference at the margin - at decision-making and movement off the ball. I don't know if anyone kept stats, but in every game I saw, the American kids attempted more dribbles and impatient forward passes than their European opponents. Most US teams were trying to play possession-based soccer with high pressing when out of possession, at times rather bravely against the likes of Bayern and Dortmund. But the tactical naivete sometimes meant that they would not be able to adjust when they needed to. As an aside, it's quite amazing how tactically savvy the 14 yo Europeans are, and it's also obvious that no academy is wedded to a rigid style or philosophy. The main difference was thus in the tactical intangibles, or as Paolo Maldini (one of the greatest Italian players ever), who was at the tournament called it, in "knowledge". He asked for coaches in the US to focus on "giving the kids knowledge". I felt that should not just be up to the coaches; should be as much the parents' job to create that environment for kids to imbibe soccer knowledge.

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