US Soccer-Watch Out World

As we come ever closer to Christmas I am back in England enjoying family, friends, and the festive football period. The weather on the other hand, has been dismal with a record amount of rain seen this side of the Atlantic.  As I look out the window, it takes me back a few weeks to when I flew into Tampa Bay, Florida where I spent three days at a tournament bathed in sunshine. The teams in that tournament were the soccer academies that are part of the revolutionary ‘US Soccer Development Academy system’. Going into the sixth year it looks to be a system that is bearing fruit but still has a few kinks to work out. This was the first time I have seen most of the Academy sides and opened my eyes to how US soccer is looking to improve.

There are 80 teams across the country split into seven different leagues based on the geographic position of your club. US Soccer wanted to replicate the academy systems that are seen in Europe that offer players the best coaches, training, and facilities and one day play represent their country. The United States Soccer Association’s goal is to win the World Cup and replacing head coach Bob Bradley, who saw his side reach the Quarter Finals in South Africa, with Jurgen Klinsmann is the next step. The German has already indicated that the current crop of American youngsters that failed to qualify for the Olympics are not good enough to improve the current members of the national team.  That’s where the development academy system comes in.  The academies are a mix of local clubs that have combined to create an elite team, and MLS sides that have invested in their own youth systems. Every club has to follow a set of rules in terms of training and formations. Each team has to emphasize technique and playing a passing game which starts at the back. They also have to play a variation of a 4-3-3, the same formation Klinsmann is trying to implement with the national team. This season see’s the first year where teams will play ten months out of the year. Previously they would play for their High Schools and then start the Academy season in November. US Soccer has made the decision to prevent academy players from playing for their respective high schools and extended their competitive season. Each development academy team plays everyone in their league at the weekends and trains three times a week. They all converge in Florida for the tournament I attended, and then a showcase that see’s the top teams at the end of the season play each other in a mini tournament to see who will be the Development Academy Champion.

So what did I see? I saw a lot of positives, but let’s start with the negatives. The first is the rules with the formation stating every team has to play a variation of a 4-3-3. Now you can play in different ways like a 4-2-3-1 or tweak the formation by having your full backs attack at every opportunity for example. This is all well and good but to have all 80 teams play the same formation is stunting a player’s development. Sure they are becoming comfortable playing the same way as Jurgen Klinsmann’s side, but defensively they only face one formation. I saw many incidents of full backs becoming lazy and only mark the wingers. If the ball is the on your left hand side and you’re a right back, your job is to tuck in and cover your center back. Like I said I saw right backs not performing their duty and staying wide to make sure their winger wasn't the man to score. It wasn't just the full backs either; I saw it all over the field because they know how every team is going to attack because they are told to play the same way.

One to watch: Junior Flores

This brings me to my next point, each team is told to play short and try and play from the back. That is fantastic and I believe they are looking at Barcelona as a model. The problem is US Soccer is not looking at the whole package. I saw a lot of nice moves and build up play but when they reach the final third problems arise. I mentioned they have taken Barcelona as the example to follow but from a spectator’s point of view they have worked hard on the buildup play over and over and when have no idea how they will look to score. Barcelona has creative players that can produce something from nothing and I witnessed a few players in Tampa who have that same capability. The problem is the coach berates them when they try something out of the ordinary with the shout “pass the ball, pass the ball!”. Every team I saw, whether it was Seattle Sounders or a smaller Academy like Empire Revolution, lacked the creativity to carve open a team. I blame the coaches for stifling creative player development…you have to let them dribble at defenders and attempt a piece of skill if you want to see them prosper. What if Ronaldo’s or Messi’s coach told them to just cut back and pass all the time? We would have seen two robots that played within a system instead of the spectacular talent we see on a weekly basis. Pinging the ball 40 yards is another art that has not been developed in the US with the theory that passing the ball in the air is just “hoofing” it. I believe that to be wrong, and I was proven right when I witnessed the Portugal U17’s play in the Nike Friendly’s tournament held at the same venue. The American boys were scathed for trying a diagonal ball or playing directly into the striker’s feet, but the Portuguese side passed the ball short and long so they didn't become predictable. The Academy sides were predictable which goes back to my first point about being easy to defend.

Another star in the making:
Rubio Rubin

The system is only six years old and of course there will be some kinks that will need to be ironed out but I want all my readers to know that I came away from that lovely weekend in Tampa Bay with high hopes for US Soccer. I spoke about the build-up play and I saw players so composed on the ball in tight areas and retaining possession. In the National team you have midfielders like Jermaine Jones and Maurice Edu who are fit, hard working midfielders but they lack the composure you need at the top level. I saw teams like Portland Timbers, Real Salt Lake, and Columbus Crew play some lovely football that Pep Guardiola himself would be pleased to watch. The advantage the MLS teams has over the private academies is the fact they are fully funded, meaning the club can pick the best players in their surrounding areas and parents do not have to pay a dime. The smaller academies charge a fee to cover the costs of running such a program and this can lead to many problems. The academies that share states with MLS sides struggle to retain their best players and see them move to the bigger teams. The fact that the MLS teams are fully funded allows everyone, from all economic backgrounds, a chance to play. In America the price to play for academies range from $1500, all the way up to $4000, so the smaller academies are restricted to whom they can recruit. Hopefully, we will see more teams become fully funded and give a wider range of young talent the chance to play this wonderful game.

All Fighting For The
Same Cause

The last item I want to touch on is a very sensitive issue of race and seeing a variety of races representing the red, white, and blue. I mentioned I saw Portugal U17’s versus the USA U17’s team. In the past, mainly due to the price of playing soccer, we saw middle class white men representing America who won games by defending stoutly and scoring on the counter attack. On this warm Saturday evening I saw a USA team with only two white players in the starting eleven with the rest made up of African-Americans or Latino descent. America as a nation is the melting pot of the world and we see the demographics changing every year, a perfect example to prove this point was seen in this year’s election. The Latino population love football and grow up watching the game with great passion. The USA team was fascinating to watch because they were all comfortable on the ball, creative, and tried to control the game. Klinsmann’s side never controls possession or pins an opponent in their own half for long spells, but this team at least tried. Portugal won 4-3 but looking past the score the US coaching team must of took a lot of positives away with them that night. I just felt with the talent that I saw watching the academy teams and then witnessing the USA U17 team, which is a product of the six years of hard work gone into the academy system, US soccer is on the up and the world better be ready.

Overall, I had a great weekend and I believe that US Soccer, along with Jurgen Klinsmann, now have a model and, a product that can produce talent for the their national team. I believe they cannot rest on their laurels and should tweak the system. Academy’s only run U16 and U18 teams and intend to add a U14 side, eventually I would like to see teams as young as U10 so they kids can work with the best coaches in their area at a younger age. If we see other ethnic groups representing the stars and stripes, and stop with discriminating against dual citizens, we could see US Soccer challenging amongst the big boys in every World Cup. My final point is that the country needs to find their own identity, not copy a philosophy that is used by a team in another part of the world with different football principles. This being said, a nation of baseball lovers is slowly creeping up on the rest of the world and while we may not see the benefit of this system in Rio, come 2020 the rest of the world just might need to watch out.