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.