***Official USMNT Thread***
- Thread starter ianoconnor
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Wife and I were belly laughing last night that the only way Zardes is any good is when someone kicks it off his face and it goes into the goal. We hadn't laughed that hard in awhile.
Boyd is what, our 4th best player right now? And considering Adams, Weston and Pulisic injury history he might be higher than that.
Tim Ream is going to cost us goals. Think Miazga fits in there somewhere. Would love to see
Zimmerman, Miazga, Long, Lima with Lima pushing forward and it being more of a three man back line.
And if Yedlin or Lima can hold down that spot, you could, and hear me out, move Adams back into his natural position in the MF.
Boyd is what, our 4th best player right now? And considering Adams, Weston and Pulisic injury history he might be higher than that.
Tim Ream is going to cost us goals. Think Miazga fits in there somewhere. Would love to see
Zimmerman, Miazga, Long, Lima with Lima pushing forward and it being more of a three man back line.
And if Yedlin or Lima can hold down that spot, you could, and hear me out, move Adams back into his natural position in the MF.
Right. But its a ton more socioeconomic. I would assume a good chunk of those teams are made up of Coltons and Atticus whose moms drive Yukons and yell at fast food managers. US Soccer to become top level needs to include the Latin kids, and PfP eliminates, for the most part, the Latin and Urban kids.
Most of the AAU teams are sponsored. So allot of the "Urban" i.e. black kids, don't pay. Yes Chesson does, but a bunch of his teammates don't. This has been going on for a long time. I went to a high school that was very expensive and gave out, "hardship" scholarships for kids, but it was just a way to get the hoops team into the State tournament. This hasn't happened yet with the Latin core of this county, because most of this country wants to pretend they don't exist. Plus a hoops team only needs one dominant player to be good, to put together a competent soccer development program you need allot more than one good player and a blacktop.
A great model are the MLB academies in the Dominican Republic. If some of these MLS teams would take that model and put them in say, East LA, the returns would be amazing. We lost Jonathan Gonzalez and Efrain Alvarez to the Mexican Federation because nobody in US Soccer even tried to get them. They are both going to be world class players and would be in our player pool right now. Both were born and grew up in LA.
I’d guess sponsorships from places like Adidas, Nike, local stores, etc…cover the cost for those kids. I could be wrong.
The soccer programs in the Des Moines metro offer free or reduced tuition but the amounts available are pretty small as I think there is just a certain $ amount set aside and once it is gone, it’s gone. Can’t take any more non-paying players after that.
Allot of the European teams have started putting money into various youth clubs throughout the United States. I think this is where allot of the growth will come from, and where we will find some players that didn't come up through the PtP system. Bayern Munich and a few others actually have offices and scouts in the United States. Problem is, US Soccer/MLS tell these kids, hey if you don't go to an MLS academy and go overseas, you won't see the National Team. They use one to build up the other, but the MLS academies don't have the ability to develop world class talent. Its just a sh*t situation and now I'm forced to watch Will Trapp.
