Success of U.S. in World Cup does not justify America’s youth soccer system
The United States’ wins in this World Cup are tremendous for the sport, and a terrible development for America’s kids, and their parents.
A 2-0 record and six points should be celebrated, but do not let the results serve as cover, or rationalization, for a youth development system that uses “Well, that’s the market” to justify predatory exploitation practices.
One of the sport’s bigger surprises, and disappointments, over the last 20 years is the lack of advancement in these international tournaments by the U.S.; this is the first time the U.S. has made it out of group play since 2002.
The culprit behind this mediocrity has been a developmental system that annually is the subject of criticism from media, former players, and coaches. Foreign coaches have written papers about America’s developmental system.
Reaching the round of 16 does not mean it’s working, or fixed. Because America’s youth soccer system is legalized crime that is in desperate need of real oversight, because its mission and moral compass are shattered.
Former U.S. player calls America’s youth soccer ‘malpractice’
Former long time Major League Soccer forward, and pro player in England, Eddie Lewis was a member of that U.S. team in 2002 that reached the quarterfinals. His generation of American soccer players changed the sport in this country, and its perception abroad.
He is not a fan of a developmental system that he did not have to navigate, or pay for, when he was a kid growing up in Southern California. It didn’t exist then.
“We could spend the entire day talking about the inefficiencies and, in my opinion, the almost malpractice of a lot of youth soccer clubs,” Lewis told me last week.
Malpractice is not a word that should ever be used to describe youth sports, but, when the cleat fits.
“The pressure to continue to make parents pay and travel and participate in endless amounts of tournaments that are not necessarily focused on trying to make that player the best player they can become, but instead how do we fund this club?” Lewis said. “It’s not necessarily the club’s fault; they are a business.”
Those two sentences could be applied to baseball, tennis, basketball, hockey, field hockey, and every other sport a kid plays in this country. Soccer is the worst.
It’s the worst because the root of soccer’s global popularity is that it’s cheap. America’s developmental system has made it expensive.
An 8-year-old joins a “select,” or “club” team and immediately the expenses start adding up; expenses start with a mandatory “kit” that is a box of excessive club-related gear that is “necessary” because the league has a deal with a local retailer.
Then there are the tournaments that require multiple night’s hotel stay to play a few games where an increasing number of the facilities charge admission to parents to watch a match their funds already fund.
If the player is “good,” the teenager could play on an “elite” club team that can cost as much as $30,000. A year.
Lewis’ former U.S. men’s national teammate, Landon Donovan, is more aggressive, and visible, in calling out the club system that too often looks more like it recruits from actual country clubs.
“We are not developing players like the rest of the world. Our college system is not competitive enough to feed into professional soccer,” Donovan said in a recent appearance on the Rich Eisen Show. “The bigger problem is our youth soccer in this country is a disaster. The worst, worst coaches are coaching our 8 and 9-year-olds, and they aren’t learning anything. They’re not loving the game. It’s totally backwards.”
Do not let the results fool America
Ted Cruz and Tommy Tuberville are not our only elected officials working on sports. The Senate’s version of Bert and Ernie is focused legislation for the big-time college game, while there are other politicians trying to help out the lower levels where the players don’t have a transfer portal, or can make millions in NIL.
Congressman Chris Deluzion (D-Penn.) has introduced the “Let Kids Play Act,” which is designed “to prohibit vulture investors from investing in youth sports, and for other purposes.”
Youth sports should exist to exist; to break even, or a modest return rather than some 20% fantasy of a private equity firm. It has become a seven-figure lucrative, at least, because it plays on a parent’s most vulnerable emotion: Their kids.
Whatever happens for the remainder of this World Cup cannot be used to justify a system that has nothing to do with development, or kids playing sports.
