I thought he had some really interesting thoughts on the youth program going forward, and this excerpt about who should be the next full team manager and why was interesting.

"That begs the question of what is there specifically about the American player that needs to be understood. Donovan provided an example.
"In Mexico -- and this has been part of a perspective that I've gained -- and in Latin America in general, players are sort of told more what to do situation by situation tactically on the field; how to do things, where to move, what to do," he said.
"In America we're taught in our society to question things. 'Why are we doing that? You want me to go there, but why? Why not go here?' I think that's part of the American psyche. It's not just America; it's not unique to Americans. There are other countries that are like that too, but that's one small example of how the American psyche is."
Donovan added that managers familiar with the American system, like FC Dallas' Oscar Pareja and New York City FC's Patrick Vieira have been in the U.S. long enough to know what makes the American player tick.
"I promise you if you talk to [Pareja or Vieira], they'll say there is a big difference between the American player and the Latin player or the English player or the French player," he said. "They will tell you the same."


I like that he is emphasizing the American player in terms of mindset/psyche instead of technical ability. I'm sure he isn't the first person to say it, but I found myself agreeing with a lot of what he said.

Link?

I searched google, but didn't find the right article.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/major-league-soccer/story/3431723/landon-donovan-urges-mls-and-us-national-team-to-change-youth-development-policy

jeffk said:

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Link?

I searched google, but didn't find the right article.

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I thought I linked it, my bad.

I read this article the other day and almost started a thread myself, but I would have posted this quote:

Quote:

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"All I see is at Leon, and their teams start at under-15, but they have seasoned coaches who dedicate their lives to coaching kids," he said. "I think part of the issue in the U.S. still is that you have people coaching the under-14s who really want to be the coach for the full team. So their focus is on winning, results, performances versus developing players."

Donovan recalled how, when he was just starting his professional career with Bayer Leverkusen, there were "50-year-old men" whose life was dedicated to developing young players.

"They had no desire to be the first team coach," he said. "They just liked developing and helping the academy kids or whatever. They made a living at it. But that's where their desire was.

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To me, this is the biggest issue with American Soccer. We don't have a large enough stable of willing teachers to nurture our young talent.

Thanks for the linky.

I agree with him on the next coach.

Regardless of what you think of it, you can't swim upstream against American individualism/exceptionalism.

As far as youth development is concerned, I think it's chicken/egg and Jeff is 100% right. The reason coaches are so desperate to move up is because there's no money in youth coaching. And there won't be money in youth coaching until interest in the sport grows.

AG@RICE said:

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I read this article the other day and almost started a thread myself, but I would have posted this quote:

Quote:

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"All I see is at Leon, and their teams start at under-15, but they have seasoned coaches who dedicate their lives to coaching kids," he said. "I think part of the issue in the U.S. still is that you have people coaching the under-14s who really want to be the coach for the full team. So their focus is on winning, results, performances versus developing players."

Donovan recalled how, when he was just starting his professional career with Bayer Leverkusen, there were "50-year-old men" whose life was dedicated to developing young players.

"They had no desire to be the first team coach," he said. "They just liked developing and helping the academy kids or whatever. They made a living at it. But that's where their desire was.

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To me, this is the biggest issue with American Soccer. We don't have a large enough stable of willing teachers to nurture our young talent.

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A lot of those other nations invest a lot of money into their coaching infrastructure as well, to where those guys can have a career doing it. I don't really think that's the case here, yet.

I see everyone else touched on this already. So on a similar topic, do you think the coaches should be set coaching a specific level, or they follow a group up as they go from 11-16? So when the 16 year olds age up, they recycle back down and pick up the next 11s?

I think players require different kinds of coaching, or concentration on different parts of the game at different ages, so it probably makes more sense to just keep them in a set spot.

Quote:

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To me, this is the biggest issue with American Soccer. We don't have a large enough stable of willing teachers to nurture our young talent.

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It reminds me of the Icelandic system. They have quality coaches from the ground up. All training in the same way, for the same type of system. It's a very impressive system they dedicated themselves to.

Not sure how you do that on the scale we'd need, since it's not funded by anything other than the players themselves here.

The one thing I disagree with Landon on...I dont mind America's system being different. It doesnt have to mirror this country or that country. We can forge our own way of doing things...but right now it's too disjointed. It's completely different from city to city, club to club, coach to coach. We need to streamline how we train players from the local level up.

But Pulisic brought up a great point recently:

Quote:

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"Why is it that EU players are allowed to move country once they turn 16 but non-Europeans can only do so at 18?" he writes on the Players' Tribune. "Why aren't we campaigning for a level playing field, where our best 16 year olds who may not have an EU passport like I had are free to move when they turn 16, like the best young players in Europe can? And in the meanwhile, as long as some of our best young players aren't getting the opportunity like I had to go to Europe when they're 16 are we doing everything in our power to make sure the level of play in US soccer is high enough so that they can continue to develop up to their maximum potential?
[url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/may/26/christian-pulisic-interview-borussia-dortmund-us-soccer][/url]
"In the US system, too often the best player on an under-17 team will be treated like a 'star' not having to work for the ball, being the focus of the offense at all times, etc at a time when they should be having to fight tooth and nail for their spot," writes Pulisic.
"In Europe, on the other hand, the average level of ability around you is just so much higher. It's a pool of players where everyone has been 'the best player,' and everyone is fighting for a spot truly week in and week out. Which makes the intensity and humility that you need to bring to the field every day both from a mental and physical perspective just unlike anything that you can really experience in US developmental soccer. Without those experiences, there's simply no way that I would be at anywhere close to the level that I am today."

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Those two years are so huge in development of players that will make a career playing soccer. This is a huge disadvantage for young American talent.

If you haven't...read this.

It's a story of Pulisic, and the guy who helped get him to Europe at a young age. He's doing the same with others, and he's at the beginning stage of creating a World Academy, to compete with the Euro squads now for young talent.

https://www.theringer.com/2018/2/28/17046268/soccer-christian-pulisic-rob-moore-agent-usmnt-america

We had a good thread about it a while back, not sure exactly how long ago.

Gracias. I'll look it up.