By: Jack Lollis

Imagine the year is 2026. It is early July and the United States Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT) has just come off a quarterfinal win to advance to the semifinals of the World Cup in the United States. There is a general excitement in the U.S. population about the win and a belief that the team will continue to advance.

Now, go back to early July 2018. The USMNT is not present in Russia to represent the U.S., and all of your international friends who have ties to other countries have been trash-talking the USMNT all year. Unfortunately, the second scenario was a reality for every USMNT fan, but the first scenario is not out of the picture for the future.

For many people living in the United States, soccer is not the number one sport, or number two, or even number three. In the America, soccer has traditionally been in the shadows of more popular sports like football, and basketball, and baseball, which is understandable, but not an excuse. This year, American soccer made major news when USMNT failed to qualify for the World Cup, which had not happened since 1990. This news caught the attention of many soccer fans because for the past two decades it has been expected that the U.S. would qualify for the World Cup. The failure to qualify raises many questions about how a nation of over 300 million people failed to put together a 23-man roster able to qualify for the biggest international sports tournament in the world.

For years, there has been speculation about the development process of the men’s national team and how it compares to other nations’ development programs. There have been numerous  and the lack of preparation and development. This lack of preparation and development was brought to the forefront of media this year.

I got a chance to conduct an interview with a current Division III collegiate soccer player, who would like to remain unnamed, so I will call him “Alexan Stewart.” Stewart, who has gone through U.S. development camps, was able to give me a better insight into the development of young soccer players in the United States.

Stewart explains, “The U.S. Soccer Development Academy (USSDA or simply DA) operates with youth up to 18 years of age. It is geared towards a professional career as each youth club plays from August through May. The main reason the USMNT has seen a lack of success is due to inefficiencies in the youth system.”

Stewart says, “For a majority of DA players, they get recruited into collegiate soccer programs. College soccer is inadequate in developing players because it only involves a 4-month season per year. Foreign players are playing strictly in adult leagues for at least 9 months per year.”

This is a major flaw when comparing our development programs to those of other nations, because our developing players spend less time and play in a less competitive setting.

The problem is not that the U.S. does not have development programs, but the problem lies in the level of play and length of development for young USMNT players. USSDA can continue to get the top young soccer talents in America, but if their development programs are ineffective, then the development programs will continue to struggle, and this is what holds the USMNT back compared to other counties.

Stewart says, “This can be seen in the lack of advisement the national organization gives youth clubs in terms of developing future players. Some foreign soccer federations require youth clubs to run certain play styles and systems in order to provide a smooth transition for players joining the national team.”This lack of communication between the national organization and youth clubs is another serious problem, and it causes many problems for players coming up in DA because the national team may not have the same play style as their club team, and that makes the transition for the youth player to the national level more difficult. 

There is a general frustration in America that few people watch soccer because the team can not compete with other powerhouse soccer nations. But this shouldn’t be the case. Croatia made a run to the World Cup final in 2018 and has a national population of under 5 million people. With the right development and front office, the U.S. Men’s National Team can transform from a non-qualifier to qualifying with ease and hanging around with the soccer giants of the world.

The changes have already begun. Last month, Dan Flynn,of the U.S. Soccer Federation, stepped down from the roles he has held since 2000. This did not come as a surprise after the recent failures of the USMNT, but there were questions of why he held those positions for so long with such little success. On this matter, Stewart had this to say, “I think it is important that a change is being made and all we can do is move forward.” This seems to be the mentality many young soccer players in the United States share. Change. It needs to happen. And once change happens, we need to move forward and move on from the past.

Although soccer will never be able to compete with bigger leagues like the NFL, and NBA, it can find success. The men’s national team only gets together on special occasions to play expedition games and tournaments, so being able to rally around a national team should not be a problem, especially if the team can fix its development programs and start to produce soccer stars and wins.