**Official USMNT Soccer Thread**

Thought it was a pretty good game.

Russia looks like a dangerous team come World Cup.

Diskerued and Aguedelo really showed their worth.

Bad game for Williams but not enough to bench him.

Glad the centerback situation is being taken seriously now. Gonzalez, Besler(sp), John, maybe Brooks should all be looked at
 
Decent enough performance. Draw may be slightly flattering, but it wasn't totally lopsided. I think the final posession stats ended up being nearly even.

Mental errors still a plague. Had to get our goals off Route 1 knockdowns, but whatever, do what you have to do in tough road matches. Obviously no Russia in our region next year.
 
Everyone's pretty much summed it up. I'm really excited to see if Agudelo, Boyd, Diskerud, and Gatt, can really add something to this final round of qualifying.

Michael Bradley is class. His goal was amazing but to set up the second he put that ball on Boyd's head from a good 50 yards away.... with his left.
 
January Camp Cupcake Roster announced.

Benny and Bedoya made it so I'm happy about that. No other real surprises.... Not sure why you call Edson Buddle in at this point but whatever.



U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION – Detailed Roster
GOALKEEPERS (3): Tally Hall (Houston Dynamo), Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire)

DEFENDERS (9): Steven Beitashour (San Jose Earthquakes), Tony Beltran (Real Salt Lake), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), A.J. DeLaGarza (LA Galaxy), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Connor Lade (New York Red Bulls), Alfredo Morales (Hertha Berlin), Justin Morrow (San Jose Earthquakes), Jeff Parke (Philadelphia Union)

MIDFIELDERS (.8): Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (out of contract), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders), Benny Feilhaber (Sporting Kansas City), Joshua Gatt (Molde), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)

FORWARDS (5): Juan Agudelo (Chivas USA), Will Bruin (Houston Dynamo), Edson Buddle (Colorado Rapids), Eddie Johnson (Seattle Sounders), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)

Thoughts?
 
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Wait but isnt this crop of games coming up key in our world cup chances? Or is that not until fall of 2013?
 
^ This is a camp to get a look at MLS players and Scandinavian league players for the friendly coming up vs. Canada in Houston.

JK said he'd take between 6-8 players from this roster to go to camp in FL in preparation for our WCQ vs Honduras on Feb. 6th.

I predict these guys will get the call in for WCQ camp and match.

Gonzalez
Beckerman
Zusi
Diskerud
Gatt
Agudelo
Johnson
 
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Benny was a good player for us off the bench in 09 and 10, but his best days are behind him already.

Omar :pimp:

smh at the canada game being on a tuesday, if it were weekend game i would of drove down there.
 
bout damn time garza and gonzales get called up
cant wait to see how the team develops this year

if any of yal follow MLS these 2 dudes been killing it with galaxy
 
Location of our first home hex game to be announced this week. Denver, KC, and SLC said to be the finalists.

Please not SLC...
 
It should be Denver, right?

Benny is talented. He can pass, he has vision and he can defend. Every match he was featured in during '09 Confed up and '10 WC, he made an positive contribution. He's also one of the more technically gifted players we have at the mid-field position. The fact he's gonna be a part of that SKC team this season is gonna work wonders for him. His days are far from behind him.
 
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One would think...hopeful for Denver. I'd probably make the trip there or to KC. Pass on SLC.

One note on the camp roster...neither Zusi or Agudelo are there this week. Both are on a week trial at West Ham. Will report early next week.
 
For those interested, the Wall Street Journal had an interview with Klinsmann & a feature story. Provided below as a spoiler (links included too).

Jurgen Klinsmann Sounds Off

http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2013/01/22/jurgen-klinsmann-us-mens-national-soccer-team-sounds-off/


Jurgen Klinsmann, the former German star who now coaches the U.S. men’s national soccer team, is a man of strong opinions, especially when the subject is just what it takes to reach the pinnacle of his sport. Klinsmann has done it all in during his career. He’s won a Wolrd Cup as a player and coached a resurgent German side to the 2006 semifinal, in addition to starring for some of the most hallowed clubs in the game, including Bayern Munich and Inter Milan.

Now he is trying to lift the U. S. men’s team into the game’s top tier, a task he says requires a shift that is equal parts, cultural, physical and tactical. In a rare lengthy interview, Klinsmann, whose second and third languages are better than some peoples’ native tongues, expounded upon his experiences and the task at hand.

Excerpts:

On the difference between coaching Germany and the U.S. and the need for a January camp for MLS players:

It is different, but at the same time it’s something that you want to be part of to improve certain things in what we are doing here. It is necessary because the off-season is way too long for the professional players here. In order to catch up with the rest of the world you need to have an 11-month calendar full of training and games if you want to get used to play on a very high intensity level throughout the entire year.

On whether it’s strange that someone used to playing in the game’s palaces is now competing in places like Jamaica and Antigua:

I always loved the variety of what the game has given me. In Europe you have games in Albania and Moldova, in very, very poor eastern European countries. The game gives you the opportunity to travel to places where probably as a normal tourist you never would have gone. We played Iran years ago, where the whole city of Tehran freaked out. 120,000 people. Yeah, we won the game but it was actually not about the game anymore, it was about what you lived through socially.

Now when you go through Concacaf to Antigua or Jamaica, or now you go to Honduras and Costa Rica, I see that as a huge learning opportunity. Inhale it, whatever the opportunity gives to you. If the field is bad as a player, there are always two teams on the field. If the conditions are bad, it’s the conditions for both teams. As a really good player you always find ways to solve it.

On whether he identifies as an American or a German after living in the U.S. for 15 years:

I certainly feel part of the American lifestyle. I adopted a lot of components. I have the advantage that I can compare a lot of things without bad-mouthing the other side. I can see a lot of ups in Europe and I can see a lot of ups that you have in America without putting down the other side, because every place is unique. Every place has its pro and cons. This country for us as a family and also where it is right now with soccer, it’s a really exciting time, because it has the biggest potential to grow in this country compared with all the other sports.

On the differences between an American and European player:

We would say it would be great if our 18- or 19- or 20-year-olds would have an environment where they get pushed every day, where they are accountable every day, where they understand what it means to be a pro, where they have 11 months of training, games, training games, where they have a chance to build their stamina to build their systems so you can really take in the game as a leading component, not just seven or eight months and then I go on vacation.

On whether talented American teens need to move to Europe:

You can’t answer that because I was not ready to go abroad until I was 24. Why would you send an 18-year old over in that situation? Maybe he has the talent, but maybe he is not ready, the support is not there, the family is not there, and you break his neck because he goes too early. But maybe another 18-year-old is able to do it. He is focused and more mature. [U.S. defender] Michael Bradley is a good example. He was more mature.

On the importance of attitude:

There is a difference between arrogance and confidence. And if you have three or four players on a 23- or 24-man roster that thinks it’s going to be easy you are done. And so [the German team] threw away a quarterfinal against Bulgaria (in 1994). We thought we won it already. It was 1-nil up, we scored a second goal, it was disallowed. It was a clear goal we thought at Giants Stadium, and suddenly they hit you with a free kick and a header and within a few minutes the game was over. And you stand on the field and you say, ‘Hold on a second. Rewind. What just happened? We are the better team.’

On what makes Spain so good:

They have that approach to the game that carries them from title to title, because they never get content they never get settled with the last success and they want to continue to play on a very high level. So it’s the team to beat in world football and also it’s the team to look at and to learn [from]. Last year I was in Brazil for a coaching seminar and the Brazilians, they have so many doubts now because they think, “How come we can’t catch up with Spain?” and it kills them because they are five-time world champions.

On the connection between a culture and the play on the field:

If you play a way on the field that is not what the people want to see, then you are going to fail anyway because there is not an energy connection between the people in the stands and what they see, and it is not only results-based. It is what they see, the body language of the players, the excitement, how they identify with their roles now.

[In Germany before the 2006 World Cup] it was a two-year process that was very different than what the people had experienced before. It was the government that asked for it, the media that asked for it. Everybody was in the same boat. We said the only way was we got to attack we got to go forward, maybe it’s in our DNA, maybe it was wrongfully in our DNA in two world wars. Who knows that? I don’t know; I was not even born yet. But I just said we Germans, we can’t take just defending, just sitting back, and waiting and countering. We’re not good at that. We need to take things into our own hands. We are a hard-working nation, we are doers. We can’t react to whatever happens. The Italians, they react, they sit back, they relax, they have a nice espresso and they say, “O.K., now, once you make your wrong move, [we] are going to counter-break and kill you.”

On his impact on the U.S. style:

I can’t come with my German approach and say this is how I want to do it in the U.S., because in the U.S., it would fail. I have certain experiences in different countries, I can understand many connections there, but I have to do it the way it is best for the players here, not how I would like to have it if I were somewhere else.

On the U.S. team’s mental approach:

We made some progress in terms of having the confidence to challenge the big nations, with a thought in mind to say we want to beat you here if we go to Italy or to Mexico. If we lose, so be it, maybe you were the better team and then we give you a compliment, but until the game is over we are going to give you a real fight.

On his players’ fitness:

The transition that you are trying to go through from reactive to proactive is also a transition on the physical side, because you have to do far more to play this type of a game than if you react to the game. That’s why Italians work two hours on the field on tactics and they barely move. They just walk. They know to perfection how to play in certain spaces, and they only need two chances to win the game. That is their way of doing it. I don’t think we are made for that here. People are for more. They say, “We want to attack, we want to create chances, we want to score as soon as possible.” But if you get into that aggressive-minded game, then you have to become even fitter than you ever were before.

On the importance of peer pressure for U.S. players:

This learning process, more and more they will understand it, that it is important that you know what you eat, that it is important that you know what sleep does to you. It is important that you know what alcohol will do to you if you consume it. The environment didn’t teach them those things before.

You play in Italy, your environment will teach you that. You go out to a restaurant they will watch you carefully what you eat and what you drink and if you drink more than two glasses of wine you get the looks from people. You understand by the looks–am I doing the right thing or the wrong thing? If you are in Europe or in South America, you are right away accountable for your actions. The soccer player is not bothered here at 3 o’clock in a night club, but if you would do that in Italy or Germany you are on the front page the next day or in England on the back page.

On Landon Donovan’s future:

Landon wanted his time off. He made certain decisions throughout the last couple of years that are his decisions. I watch that. I evaluate that. I could have evaluated him a few times when he was with us, not that many times, but a few times. I will make the call at the end of the day if he fits into my plans or not. I told him in December he’s not part of the January camp, and I told him in December he’s not part of the Honduras game. From his perspective, he’s still on his break.

On what’s missing in U.S. Soccer:

It’s not the accountability environment that we have in these other soccer-driven countries. [Players in the U.S.] settle very early because they don’t get the peer pressure. If a player makes it to MLS when he is 18- or 19-years old, he thinks he made it. This is the problem we have because we are not socially so connected so deeply to soccer in the daily life. They think, you get a tryout in Europe with West Ham, this is huge, you made it. No, you haven’t even made it if you have the contract with West Ham. And even if you play there and if you become a starter, which would make us happy, that still doesn’t mean that you made it.

My whole talk to Clint Dempsey for 18 months was [about how] he hasn’t made s—. You play for Fulham? Yeah, so? Show me you play for a Champions League team, and then you start on a Champions League team and that you may end up winning the Champions League. There is always another level. If you one day reach the highest level then you’ve got to confirm it, every year. Xavi, Iniesta, Messi. Confirm it to me. Show me that every year you deserve to play for Real Madrid, for Bayern Munich, for Manchester United. Show it to me.

On the best moments he has seen the past 18 months:

You saw sequences in almost all of the games but certainly in the World Cup qualifiers at home against Jamaica, against Guatemala, where they completely outplayed both teams. It could have been three- or four-nil. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. It would have looked nicer. It was great to see how they took the pace to another level. The passing pace, the movement off the ball, playing out of the back with confidence. You didn’t see it for 90 minutes but you see it more and more and more, and this excites us. To play in Italy and to play with them, to challenge, boom-boom-boom, suddenly, there was moments where on the sidelines you say, “It’s working.” Even if it’s not enough time yet, but they are developing that sense.

On the worst of what he has seen:

The inconsistency. You got to prove it in a bad environment as well as in a good environment. You got to prove it on a bad field the same way as on a nice field. You can’t play the passing game, but give the same energy, the same determination, the same confidence. Give the signals to the opponent that we are not here to get beaten. Just adjust to wherever you are. We didn’t adjust to the physicality of Jamaica in Jamaica and then we gave away two or three stupid fouls.

On representing Germany:

You understood you are here to get a job done, because if you don’t get a job done you will hear it all over the place tomorrow. You had that pride and that confidence that you will get the job done. A confidence of a team to win many trophies over many decades, it’s a long-term evolution in the whole society. It’s not something that is only done on the soccer field. The U.S. has the confidence and the drive to say in basketball we will beat any team in the world. That has been built over decades because your system outclasses every other system in the world. So you say, “If we do our job properly, if we go to an Olympics we are going to win.” Brazil has that sense or maybe Spain right now. Germany had it a few years ago, though maybe we are lacking some element now to beat Spain, so it’s a path, a long-term path you have to follow.


Mediocrity Will Not Be Tolerated
Jurgen Klinsmann Is Demanding Much More From U.S. Soccer; Even You, Clint Dempsey


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323940004578258072832363036.html?mod=googlenews_wsj


Carson, Calif.
Jurgen Klinsmann, the former German star who now coaches the U.S. men's national soccer team, has spent the past 18 months taking his sword to the game's sacred cows in the U.S., determined to point out the shortcomings of a culture that he sees as having largely accepted mediocrity.

For players still patting themselves on the back for making the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals, Klinsmann had this to say during a rare in-depth interview last week: "Just because you won a game in the World Cup in the knockout stage, you haven't won anything."

In Klinsmann's eyes, nearly all of his players are below the level he demands. Even Clint Dempsey, who scored 23 goals for English Premier League Club Fulham last year, will have to work harder to truly impress his national coach, a former international star who won a World Cup for Germany in 1990.

"[Dempsey] hasn't made s---. You play for Fulham? Yeah, so? Show me you can play for a Champions League team, and then you start on a Champions League team," Klinsmann says. "There is always another level. If you one day reach the highest level then you've got to confirm it, every year."

Then there's Landon Donovan. Long considered this country's greatest player, he is currently an afterthought. Donovan is on another lengthy vacation following the Major League Soccer season, a concept Klinsmann seems to find baffling.

Klinsmann recently told Donovan he didn't want him at the U.S. team's January camp or at the match against Honduras in a couple of weeks. "It will be defined over the next year what his role with the national team is. But the ultimate call is mine on whether he fits into my plans or doesn't fit into my plans."

And it isn't just the team's stars who are hearing a new message. "Some players are walking around waiting for something to happen, but Jurgen's message is that it's up to you which type of professional you want to be," says Kyle Beckerman, a midfielder who has made 23 appearances with the national team.

Soccer remains the last great puzzle in American sports. It's the only widely played sport that the U.S. hasn't come close to conquering. Forget about producing a team that can compete at the highest international level—something the U.S. has managed in nonendemic sports like hockey, archery and rowing—this vast, wealthy, sports-obsessed nation has never even produced a genuine superstar.

No one knows why exactly. To Klinsmann, who has an American wife and has lived here for 15 years, it's because the culture has never demanded it. American players begin to feel as though they have made it when they get a college scholarship, or an MLS contract, at 18 or 19. While the rest of the world plays 11 months a year, Americans grow up seeing professional athletes play a seven-month season and taking the rest of the year off.

"We don't have the environment telling them nicely, 'OK you had a good week, but next week has to be better, and the next week again,'" he says. "Here it's: 'Oh, take a week off.' No, don't take a week off. If you take a week off as a programmer at Apple, you missed the train, you lost the job. You can't afford it."

Dempsey is apparently listening. He joined Tottenham, a more prestigious English side, this season and scored his fifth goal Sunday. "Jurgen is trying to raise the bar for U.S. Soccer, but Clint has met the challenge at every level," said Lyle Yorks, Dempsey's agent.

Richard Motzkin, Donovan's agent, said he, too, is taking Klinsmann at his word and knows he will have to earn back a spot on the national team after he rejoins his club, the Los Angeles Galaxy, at some still to-be-determined time later this year.

For all involved, Klinsmann has been something of a rude awakening in a country where quasi-anonymous national players can drink in night clubs until 3 a.m. without any repercussions. Play in Italy or Germany, Klinsmann says, "You drink more than two glasses of wine, you get the looks from people."
Likewise, early exits from the World Cup don't cause a lot of people in the U.S. to get too hot and bothered. A mere trip to the knockout round has become a cause for celebration.

By contrast, Germany's early exit at the 2004 European Championship created a national debate within the government and the media about the direction of the country's development program. It allowed Klinsmann, who was named the national coach at the time, to alter Germany's style from defensive and organized to a more freewheeling, proactive approach that he felt reflected how the country wanted to be seen.

"We said the only way was we got to attack, we got to go forward," he says. "Maybe it's in our DNA. Maybe it was wrongfully in our DNA in two world wars. Who knows that? I don't know, I was not even born yet. But I just said we Germans, we can't take just defending."

Back then, Klinsmann's work drew an international spotlight. One morning last week, the man who once starred at Bayern Munich and Inter Milan trudged alone across an empty parking lot at the Home Depot Center near Los Angeles, lugging a backpack and a shoulder bag to lead practice for his team's second-tier players. The best ones, like the players on every other top national team, were busy with their club teams in the European leagues that play through the winter. Two hours later, he stalked the center of the penalty area, badgering his players during a crossing-and-shooting drill. "Hungry, hungry…Time it, time it…Nice, but no goal. Got to be better."

As the U.S. prepares to embark on the final phase of qualification for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Klinsmann is aiming beyond a decent showing and sees the U.S. as a country that needs to be dictating the action. But its national team has never played that way because, in his view, no one ever demanded it. As a result, the players weren't physically or mentally conditioned to press opponents with the relentlessness of the best teams in the world. Long a believer in the constant monitoring of players, Klinsmann has instilled a system of regularly testing the team's strength and fitness and proscribing specific training regimens so each player can mitigate his deficiencies.

Results have been mixed so far. The U.S. team matched its best-ever winning percentage in 2012, but struggled with consistency on the road during World Cup qualifying. "This team needs to measure itself with the best out there in order to get better," Klinsmann says before rushing off to another practice. "That's what we are trying to do."
 
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Like a boss... :lol:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20130128/jurgen-klinsman-helicopter/?sct=sc_t2_a3


Coach Jurgen Klinsmann flies helicopter to, from U.S. camp

We've all been stuck in Los Angeles traffic before, but U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann has found a novel way to get around it by earning his license to be a helicopter pilot.

In fact, during the January U.S. camp, Klinsmann has often been sleeping at home in Orange County and flying a helicopter back up to L.A. for breakfast with the team and full days on the grind with the group. That way Klinsmann is able to see his family and get more hours under his belt as a pilot.

It's also the kind of thing you can do when you're making $2.5 million a year. Klinsmann has always been curious in a lot of things outside of soccer, and becoming a helicopter pilot is just one more to add to the list.
 
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Great article from ESPN FC. Not sure I agree with some of the points but still a good read. Posted as spolier so it doesn't take up too much space...

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/soccerusa/id/1055?cc=5901


America's Next Top Messi
Posted by Roger Bennett

Is U.S. soccer doing everything it can to develop the best players in the country, or is there still a concern that the best players end up in different sports?


1000



Part 1: Whither Lionel?
A cruel accusation is often lobbed at America's soccer powers that be: How can a nation blessed with a diverse population of over 315 million have failed to produce a single Lionel Messi? Or, for that matter, a few more Clint Dempseys and Landon Donovans?

Taylor Twellman bristles at the question. "The people who ask about the development of world-class talent are often the same ones wondering why the national team is not in the top 10 in the rankings," the ESPN analyst and former player said by phone from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., while attending MLS's annual player combine. "Bruce Arena nailed the problem back in 2006 when he wondered aloud what U.S. football would be like if the States was as big as a European country. If America was that small, we, too, could build a system that would leave no stone unturned. [Our nation's] vastness means we don't have that capacity yet."

Twellman points to the combine as proof. "There are so many talented players appearing here that none of us have heard of," he said. "It's just too easy for talent to fall through the cracks right now."

"There are so many talented players appearing here that none of us have heard of. It's just too easy for talent to fall through the cracks right now." -- ESPN's Taylor Twellman

Jimmy Obleda, director of coaching at Fullerton Rangers, the California club that has won back-to-back national youth championships, is more forthright. "The state of youth soccer is just a crazy quagmire right now," he said. "Development is a buzzword. Some clubs do it seriously but others are just playing at it. I often ask myself whether Messi would have made it in the United States, and the honest truth is, he would most probably have been dismissed for being too small and then fallen out of the system."

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-ESPN Insider World Cup 2014 Board
-England's view of the U.S.

With the U.S. national team poised to slog through the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualification, the state of the country's youth development program is once more in the spotlight. The squad remains overly reliant on the creative contributions of a veteran duo who served during the past two campaigns – the often absent Donovan and Dempsey. The pipeline designed to replenish their talent has been bruised by a series of high-profile embarrassments: the under-23 squad's dramatic collapse against El Salvador eliminated it from Olympic contention; the under-20s failed to qualify for the 2011 World Cup; and a vaunted under-17 squad was eliminated at the round of 16 stage of the U-17 World Cup.

Jurgen Klinsmann raised expectations on the day he became national team coach in August 2011. When asked to define his most critical priorities, the new coach said, "There are a lot of different challenges ahead of us ... the foundation is youth -- how they should be trained, how often they should train, how much time they should spend with the ball, how they should develop their talent."

In truth, efforts to build that strategic foundation began in 2007, when a United States Soccer Federation task force triggered the creation of a Development Academy system of 63 clubs nationwide (since expanded to 80) with the 19 MLS teams playing a key role. The men charged with injecting order into chaos are Tony Lepore, U.S. Soccer's development academy director of scouting, and Alfonso Mondelo and Jeff Agoos, technical directors at MLS. Despite the modest resources they have at their disposal -- the national program has an annual budget of just $2.65 million -- a conversation with the trio reveals they remain strategically focused and ambition rich.

Mondelo and Agoos are the Starsky and Hutch responsible for overseeing MLS's youth system. The two work so closely together, they make a habit of finishing off each other's ideas. "Our model was inverted to the rest of the world's," the Bilbao-born Mondelo explained, describing the traditional U.S. system that had grown haphazardly since the 1970s as an abandoned garden overrun by weeds. "Pay-to-play youth soccer became a vast money-making industry, but once the NASL disappeared, we were left with no professional ranks for the players to aspire towards. A system emerged in which lots of clubs focused their efforts on average players so they could make more money and anyone with an English accent passed themselves off as a coach."

"Our youth system became one that emphasized winning games," said Agoos, a five-time MLS Cup winner, "because that was the way you caught the college scouts' eyes in order to gain a scholarship. This need to win meant our clubs favored a really defensive style that helped win games without ever truly developing the players."

"The Academy strategy was launched because we could no longer accept that way of thinking," Lepore said. "We needed a program that was centered on building up elite players' technique."

The new model was designed to dismantle the anarchic reality of old norms, or as Agoos describes it, "to build an environment where our coaches felt comfortable leaving the little runts on the field when their team was 1-0 down with 10 minutes to play." Most coaches had felt compelled to put on their bigger, more physical players to salvage the game. "We wanted our little guys on the field so they could learn from the challenge," Agoos said, "because it's better to lose the game and gain the experience."

As Mondelo explains, the Academy's development was timed perfectly from MLS's perspective. "When our league kicked off in 1996, youth development was not something we could focus on as we just wanted to get MLS up and running." With the league entering its 18th season, improving the quality of play has become a top priority, a self-interest Agoos freely admits. "Our goal now is to build a system targeted at producing pro players instead of college talent and there is a world of difference between the two. We focus on the individual not the team -- the one or two players in every squad who we can push to the pro level. Having MLS as an aspirational destination for these kids is game-changing.

"The key now is to build an environment where everything from the infrastructure, facilities, coaching and training are done right," Agoos continued. "We are still a distance from where we want to go."

Part 2: A revolution of details
All three men articulated the values which underpin the academy system in well-drilled fashion, yet the passion they share could not help but bubble up, especially as they described the ways in which the transformative impact has been felt.

"The first thing we realized was the 4,000 prospects we consider our elite were playing way too many games," Lepore said. A survey revealed the average under-15 player took to the field over 100 times a year, suiting up for high school, club, district, regional and national teams.

Mondelo had witnessed the impact of these old habits firsthand. "Our kids were playing two or three games a week, then packing six matches at a weekend tournament," he said. "They became phenomenal athletes who could single-handedly win games, but by the time they were suddenly matched against international opposition at 18 years old, they were exposed for what they were -- which was average."

Agoos outlined the new approach. "We wanted to move to a schedule of four to five days training, one game a week and one day of complete rest. We were looking to hit a ratio of at least four days training for every game, whereas before it was the other way around."

Lepore eagerly reeled off the numbers. "The average American club used to offer just 12 hours of training a month. With our new emphasis on training, we are aiming for eight hours a week which, over the newly extended 10-month season, computes to 350 hours a year."

This number still lags behind Ajax's 576 hours, Barcelona's 768 hours and Sao Paulo's colossal 1,040 hours, but the coach points out with glee how close it is to Italy's total, where the elite practice 432 hours. "Until we eliminate the gap, our players will be technically deficient as they lack the repetition," Lepore said.

A subtle but seismic change occurred once the academies adopted the complete international rules of play in 2007. "For most of our kids, it was the first time they had played 90 minutes with proper substitutions and no re-entry -- even in the college game they can sub in and out," Lepore said. "People don't understand the magnitude of this decision. Games with re-entry create a frantic style of soccer and our kids were not learning how to pace themselves within the flow of the game."

Part 3: "You can't grow a redwood yesterday"

The trio comes at the player development challenge from different perspectives. Lepore was formerly a middle school guidance counselor; Mondelo, an assistant coach on the USMNT; and Agoos, a long-serving U.S. international. Yet all three share a single quality: They consider their project a work in progress. None appeared defensive about the system's fallibilities.

Those eager for reasons to be optimistic about the future of football in the United States may find them in the candor with which the coaches frame the six major challenges that lie ahead:

1. Coaching: Who watches the watchmen?
"In other countries being known as a developmental coach who passes players on from the under-14 level is a mark of pride," Mondelo said. "Here, the best coaches all gravitate to U-17 and U-18, and between the ages of 5 and 13, parents coaching soccer out of a book still predominate."

Agoos believes a solution may be on the horizon. "Unlike other nations, most of our coaches never played the game at a high level, but we are starting to target the first generation of MLS players who have retired from the league. If we can engage and educate them, we will have a steady supply of intelligent individuals with experience."

2. Retention: What would Kobe do?
"Our footballing system is designed so young, talented athletes remain attracted to NFL and NBA," Mondelo said with a sigh. "Look how many NBA stars played soccer at an early age. If the right soccer environment had existed, they could have seen their future as paid professionals in our league. Cultural change is needed before young athletes can see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

Lepore takes a more optimistic stance. "Talent is not born, it is developed, so I don't focus on the ones we don't get because we have millions of players aged 6 to 10. Soccer may be the No. 1 sport in Germany in a way it is not in America, but the sport's profile is climbing here as more kids follow it on broadcast television and can now become true fans."

3. Geography: From sea to shining sea
"Smaller countries like Holland can excel as they can easily maintain complete control over their system," Lepore said. "We do not have the resources to cover the whole country, so we are developing hot spots to focus on based on the last 10 years of development, which point towards New York, California, Dallas, Chicago and Philadelphia. We won't be starting an academy in Boise anytime soon."

4. Scouting and Recruitment: Beyond the suburbs
Is the academy system doing a good job of recruiting talent from urban areas?
"Part of good development is having an effective scouting network," Mondelo said. "In Spain, Barcelona scouts know every kid in Catalonia. Here we don't know what is going on in Brooklyn or in the Haitian community in the Bronx. That will change, but right now, even if we find a talented kid in upstate New York we have no club to plug him into."

"Scouts from the Mexican Federation, Pachuca and Manchester City visit us far more than the U.S. national team scouts," said Fullerton Rangers coach Obleda.

Lepore, who oversees a national scouting network consisting of nine technical advisers, disagrees. "We spend more time than people imagine at every age group in key markets. For proof, you only need to look at our under-14 national team squad. It is a true reflection of a diverse American society."

5. Lack of Incentive: The profit motive
"Because it is centrally run, MLS clubs don't have the incentive of a cash windfall for successfully developing young players," Agoos said. The situation is exacerbated by U.S. labor laws that prevent the prospects from signing contracts. "The players can move anywhere until they are 18, which is an additional deterrent to serious development," Lepore said. "Profit is inherent in South American systems like Brazil or Argentina and so their clubs scout aggressively. In MLS that process is just beginning."

6. Lowering the age group: Putting the youth back into development
The academy system is poised to drop down to the under-14 level in August 2013. Lepore described the change as a "huge step." Mondelo shares the excitement but admitted that "the key formative years begin at 8 years of age. What players don't learn by that time is very hard to give them. If you watch recreational football the way it is played at those ages right now, the biggest kids dominate -- a trait which can actually hurt development, but like everything else, this is a process."

Part 4: If not now, when?
A burning question remains. If these are the real barriers facing United States football, how long will it take to overcome them?

"There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the future as we are feeling the changes right now," Lepore said. "We have five academy graduates currently training with the national team squad including Will Bruin, Juan Agudelo and Josh Gatt. We have eight under-14 players moving to international academies including 12-year-old Ben Lederman [from Calabasas, Calif.] who is at Barcelona. But this is a long process. Just look at Spain as a model. When people talked about their national team in the '80s they only did so with disappointment. It took 20 years for their investment in youth coaching to pay off. That is now our timeline."

"It is only a matter of time before the United States develops a true world star," Mondelo said. "Messi is a once-in-a-generation talent but the club resources we are investing coupled with our new focus of developing professional players will allow us to train a true world-class talent and this could be a real turning point for the American game."

The coach paused to catch his breath before offering up a note of caution. "We have to be patient. Every time we have a kid who can kick the ball straight three times like Jozy [Altidore], [Freddy] Adu or Juan Agudelo -- we make them the world's best, blow them up, then kill them."

Not for the first time, Agoos leaned in to finish his partner's point. "The quality is getting better every year. Just look at the Under-17 Cup. That game used to be a demolition derby and now it is increasingly competitive, but you can't grow a redwood yesterday," he said with a smile before shaking his head. "Americans want everything yesterday."
 
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Part 1: Whither Lionel?
A cruel accusation is often lobbed at America's soccer powers that be: How can a nation blessed with a diverse population of over 315 million have failed to produce a single Lionel Messi? Or, for that matter, a few more Clint Dempseys and Landon Donovans?

Taylor Twellman bristles at the question. "The people who ask about the development of world-class talent are often the same ones wondering why the national team is not in the top 10 in the rankings," the ESPN analyst and former player said by phone from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., while attending MLS's annual player combine. "Bruce Arena nailed the problem back in 2006 when he wondered aloud what U.S. football would be like if the States was as big as a European country. If America was that small, we, too, could build a system that would leave no stone unturned. [Our nation's] vastness means we don't have that capacity yet."

Twellman points to the combine as proof. "There are so many talented players appearing here that none of us have heard of," he said. "It's just too easy for talent to fall through the cracks right now."

"There are so many talented players appearing here that none of us have heard of. It's just too easy for talent to fall through the cracks right now." -- ESPN's Taylor Twellman

Jimmy Obleda, director of coaching at Fullerton Rangers, the California club that has won back-to-back national youth championships, is more forthright. "The state of youth soccer is just a crazy quagmire right now," he said. "Development is a buzzword. Some clubs do it seriously but others are just playing at it. I often ask myself whether Messi would have made it in the United States, and the honest truth is, he would most probably have been dismissed for being too small and then fallen out of the system."

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With the U.S. national team poised to slog through the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualification, the state of the country's youth development program is once more in the spotlight. The squad remains overly reliant on the creative contributions of a veteran duo who served during the past two campaigns – the often absent Donovan and Dempsey. The pipeline designed to replenish their talent has been bruised by a series of high-profile embarrassments: the under-23 squad's dramatic collapse against El Salvador eliminated it from Olympic contention; the under-20s failed to qualify for the 2011 World Cup; and a vaunted under-17 squad was eliminated at the round of 16 stage of the U-17 World Cup.

Jurgen Klinsmann raised expectations on the day he became national team coach in August 2011. When asked to define his most critical priorities, the new coach said, "There are a lot of different challenges ahead of us ... the foundation is youth -- how they should be trained, how often they should train, how much time they should spend with the ball, how they should develop their talent."

In truth, efforts to build that strategic foundation began in 2007, when a United States Soccer Federation task force triggered the creation of a Development Academy system of 63 clubs nationwide (since expanded to 80) with the 19 MLS teams playing a key role. The men charged with injecting order into chaos are Tony Lepore, U.S. Soccer's development academy director of scouting, and Alfonso Mondelo and Jeff Agoos, technical directors at MLS. Despite the modest resources they have at their disposal -- the national program has an annual budget of just $2.65 million -- a conversation with the trio reveals they remain strategically focused and ambition rich.

Mondelo and Agoos are the Starsky and Hutch responsible for overseeing MLS's youth system. The two work so closely together, they make a habit of finishing off each other's ideas. "Our model was inverted to the rest of the world's," the Bilbao-born Mondelo explained, describing the traditional U.S. system that had grown haphazardly since the 1970s as an abandoned garden overrun by weeds. "Pay-to-play youth soccer became a vast money-making industry, but once the NASL disappeared, we were left with no professional ranks for the players to aspire towards. A system emerged in which lots of clubs focused their efforts on average players so they could make more money and anyone with an English accent passed themselves off as a coach."

"Our youth system became one that emphasized winning games," said Agoos, a five-time MLS Cup winner, "because that was the way you caught the college scouts' eyes in order to gain a scholarship. This need to win meant our clubs favored a really defensive style that helped win games without ever truly developing the players."

"The Academy strategy was launched because we could no longer accept that way of thinking," Lepore said. "We needed a program that was centered on building up elite players' technique."

The new model was designed to dismantle the anarchic reality of old norms, or as Agoos describes it, "to build an environment where our coaches felt comfortable leaving the little runts on the field when their team was 1-0 down with 10 minutes to play." Most coaches had felt compelled to put on their bigger, more physical players to salvage the game. "We wanted our little guys on the field so they could learn from the challenge," Agoos said, "because it's better to lose the game and gain the experience."

As Mondelo explains, the Academy's development was timed perfectly from MLS's perspective. "When our league kicked off in 1996, youth development was not something we could focus on as we just wanted to get MLS up and running." With the league entering its 18th season, improving the quality of play has become a top priority, a self-interest Agoos freely admits. "Our goal now is to build a system targeted at producing pro players instead of college talent and there is a world of difference between the two. We focus on the individual not the team -- the one or two players in every squad who we can push to the pro level. Having MLS as an aspirational destination for these kids is game-changing.

"The key now is to build an environment where everything from the infrastructure, facilities, coaching and training are done right," Agoos continued. "We are still a distance from where we want to go."

Part 2: A revolution of details
All three men articulated the values which underpin the academy system in well-drilled fashion, yet the passion they share could not help but bubble up, especially as they described the ways in which the transformative impact has been felt.

"The first thing we realized was the 4,000 prospects we consider our elite were playing way too many games," Lepore said. A survey revealed the average under-15 player took to the field over 100 times a year, suiting up for high school, club, district, regional and national teams.

Mondelo had witnessed the impact of these old habits firsthand. "Our kids were playing two or three games a week, then packing six matches at a weekend tournament," he said. "They became phenomenal athletes who could single-handedly win games, but by the time they were suddenly matched against international opposition at 18 years old, they were exposed for what they were -- which was average."

Agoos outlined the new approach. "We wanted to move to a schedule of four to five days training, one game a week and one day of complete rest. We were looking to hit a ratio of at least four days training for every game, whereas before it was the other way around."

Lepore eagerly reeled off the numbers. "The average American club used to offer just 12 hours of training a month. With our new emphasis on training, we are aiming for eight hours a week which, over the newly extended 10-month season, computes to 350 hours a year."

This number still lags behind Ajax's 576 hours, Barcelona's 768 hours and Sao Paulo's colossal 1,040 hours, but the coach points out with glee how close it is to Italy's total, where the elite practice 432 hours. "Until we eliminate the gap, our players will be technically deficient as they lack the repetition," Lepore said.

A subtle but seismic change occurred once the academies adopted the complete international rules of play in 2007. "For most of our kids, it was the first time they had played 90 minutes with proper substitutions and no re-entry -- even in the college game they can sub in and out," Lepore said. "People don't understand the magnitude of this decision. Games with re-entry create a frantic style of soccer and our kids were not learning how to pace themselves within the flow of the game."

Part 3: "You can't grow a redwood yesterday"

The trio comes at the player development challenge from different perspectives. Lepore was formerly a middle school guidance counselor; Mondelo, an assistant coach on the USMNT; and Agoos, a long-serving U.S. international. Yet all three share a single quality: They consider their project a work in progress. None appeared defensive about the system's fallibilities.

Those eager for reasons to be optimistic about the future of football in the United States may find them in the candor with which the coaches frame the six major challenges that lie ahead:

1. Coaching: Who watches the watchmen?
"In other countries being known as a developmental coach who passes players on from the under-14 level is a mark of pride," Mondelo said. "Here, the best coaches all gravitate to U-17 and U-18, and between the ages of 5 and 13, parents coaching soccer out of a book still predominate."

Agoos believes a solution may be on the horizon. "Unlike other nations, most of our coaches never played the game at a high level, but we are starting to target the first generation of MLS players who have retired from the league. If we can engage and educate them, we will have a steady supply of intelligent individuals with experience."

2. Retention: What would Kobe do?
"Our footballing system is designed so young, talented athletes remain attracted to NFL and NBA," Mondelo said with a sigh. "Look how many NBA stars played soccer at an early age. If the right soccer environment had existed, they could have seen their future as paid professionals in our league. Cultural change is needed before young athletes can see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

Lepore takes a more optimistic stance. "Talent is not born, it is developed, so I don't focus on the ones we don't get because we have millions of players aged 6 to 10. Soccer may be the No. 1 sport in Germany in a way it is not in America, but the sport's profile is climbing here as more kids follow it on broadcast television and can now become true fans."

3. Geography: From sea to shining sea
"Smaller countries like Holland can excel as they can easily maintain complete control over their system," Lepore said. "We do not have the resources to cover the whole country, so we are developing hot spots to focus on based on the last 10 years of development, which point towards New York, California, Dallas, Chicago and Philadelphia. We won't be starting an academy in Boise anytime soon."

4. Scouting and Recruitment: Beyond the suburbs
Is the academy system doing a good job of recruiting talent from urban areas?
"Part of good development is having an effective scouting network," Mondelo said. "In Spain, Barcelona scouts know every kid in Catalonia. Here we don't know what is going on in Brooklyn or in the Haitian community in the Bronx. That will change, but right now, even if we find a talented kid in upstate New York we have no club to plug him into."

"Scouts from the Mexican Federation, Pachuca and Manchester City visit us far more than the U.S. national team scouts," said Fullerton Rangers coach Obleda.

Lepore, who oversees a national scouting network consisting of nine technical advisers, disagrees. "We spend more time than people imagine at every age group in key markets. For proof, you only need to look at our under-14 national team squad. It is a true reflection of a diverse American society."

5. Lack of Incentive: The profit motive
"Because it is centrally run, MLS clubs don't have the incentive of a cash windfall for successfully developing young players," Agoos said. The situation is exacerbated by U.S. labor laws that prevent the prospects from signing contracts. "The players can move anywhere until they are 18, which is an additional deterrent to serious development," Lepore said. "Profit is inherent in South American systems like Brazil or Argentina and so their clubs scout aggressively. In MLS that process is just beginning."

6. Lowering the age group: Putting the youth back into development
The academy system is poised to drop down to the under-14 level in August 2013. Lepore described the change as a "huge step." Mondelo shares the excitement but admitted that "the key formative years begin at 8 years of age. What players don't learn by that time is very hard to give them. If you watch recreational football the way it is played at those ages right now, the biggest kids dominate -- a trait which can actually hurt development, but like everything else, this is a process."

Part 4: If not now, when?
A burning question remains. If these are the real barriers facing United States football, how long will it take to overcome them?

"There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the future as we are feeling the changes right now," Lepore said. "We have five academy graduates currently training with the national team squad including Will Bruin, Juan Agudelo and Josh Gatt. We have eight under-14 players moving to international academies including 12-year-old Ben Lederman [from Calabasas, Calif.] who is at Barcelona. But this is a long process. Just look at Spain as a model. When people talked about their national team in the '80s they only did so with disappointment. It took 20 years for their investment in youth coaching to pay off. That is now our timeline."

"It is only a matter of time before the United States develops a true world star," Mondelo said. "Messi is a once-in-a-generation talent but the club resources we are investing coupled with our new focus of developing professional players will allow us to train a true world-class talent and this could be a real turning point for the American game."

The coach paused to catch his breath before offering up a note of caution. "We have to be patient. Every time we have a kid who can kick the ball straight three times like Jozy [Altidore], [Freddy] Adu or Juan Agudelo -- we make them the world's best, blow them up, then kill them."

Not for the first time, Agoos leaned in to finish his partner's point. "The quality is getting better every year. Just look at the Under-17 Cup. That game used to be a demolition derby and now it is increasingly competitive, but you can't grow a redwood yesterday," he said with a smile before shaking his head. "Americans want everything yesterday."

Thanks for this!
 
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