The American Experience In Football: How The U.S Could Become Football's Top National Team
A Recap
In part 1 of this series I talked about how the US isn't a top nation in football despite having all the factors that qualify it to be so.
In part 2 I explained the actual political, social, logistical, and economical reasons behind the US not being a top nation in football.
In this final part, I will talk about how the United States of America could become a top nation in football within this decade.
USDA
The United States Development Academy was a league started in 2007. The structure of it is pretty simple.
12 years and younger would train on the football basics
14 years and older would start playing football games across the country
The number of games would increase the older players get until they're 19 and are picked to train with teams in the MLS
That was a United States Soccer Federation (USSF) project to develop football in the country at the youth level. It included 200 teams, including girls. That was the project why the Wall Street Journal recorded the highest number in football participation in 2008 as you might have read in part 1 with 7.11 million between ages 6 and 18.
9 years after the USDA started, the USSF decided to have national teams at the youth level starting from 14 years old and above. Before that, the United States didn't have teams at the youth level to participate in tournaments.
The problems persisted, however, lack of advertisement, travel expenses, and finally, COVID meant the end of the USDA. However, we should take a lot at what the USDA did to football in America.
The USDA Outcome
In the 13 years that the project was running there was a lot of improvement. Let's break down the USMNT players who were developed during that time, you should be able to identify some of those. From the back to the front of players in Europe:
Feel free to skip this part as it will be mainly the names of players. There will be a TLDR version after it.
Goalkeepers: Zack Steffen (Manchester City)
Defense: Sergiño Dest (Barcelona), Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Chris Richards (1899 Hoffenheim), John Brooks (VfL Wolfsburg), DeAndre Yedlin (Inter Miami, previously Galatasaray and Newcastle)
Midfield: Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Gianluca Busio (Venezia), Yunus Musah (Valencia)
Attack: Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Giovanni Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Timothy Weah (Lille)
And of course, there are still players who haven't regular playing times in Europe like De La Fuente, Mathew Hoppe, and Brendon Aaronson. I could keep naming names in players playing in Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Spain, and Germany.
TLDR Version
Almost 50 American players are playing in Europe. Most of them are a result of the USDA. And those are only 2 generations of the USDA, there are still more. Yes, there are still better nations. But, for a national team that had Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, and Cobi Jones as its best players, this is a great improvement. With all due respect to those names of course.
The improvement can also be seen in how the USA has managed to outdo Mexico, Columbia, and Chile in the Fifa ranking. This is also the program underperforming, by the way. Gregg Berhalter, current coach of the US national team, said in 2016 that there are still amazing players to bask in the scene within 6-7 years.
So, is it over now the USDA was unfolded?
The NEXT Step
In 2020, the MLS started a soccer league that is even bigger than the USDA. It included a total of 590 age-group teams from 130 different clubs. 9000 players aged between 13 and 19 are part of this league.
This comes with detailed development programs tailored to each person. It also aims to help players pick universities and clubs that suit them. An all-around project that also learned from its past mistakes.
What Improved
Many of the talents that made it in Europe left the US at an early age and headed to different European countries, Germany in specific. The reason for that is the US didn't have good youth coaches. That is why the MLS Next project includes a partnership with the Ligue 1 a partnership that includes educating more than 100 youth coaches.
That is why now, there are many of those young players expressing an ambition to win the 2026 World Cup which will be hosted in the United States.
In Conclusion
It seems like the reason the United States of America wasn't doing so well in football is a self-inflicted wound. The country had all the aspects that would have made it a force to reckon with but chose not to improve on that for one reason or another.
My prediction is that the United States of America will soon become a top nation in football and that there's no escape from that now.
I get your reasoning and feel your hope, but it takes more than that to become World Champion. Sadly for the USA, this kind of youth development is happening all over the world. Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Brasil, Japan, UK, even China… The difference in my opinion to become the true top, is the football factor in the DNA. And that is currently still lacking in the USA. It takes decades to have that extra X-factor that wins semifinals and finals.
When you apply "this kind of youth development" across a country with a population like the U.S would be like applying it to all of the European countries you mentioned like 1 country.
I literally named all the talents that came from the previous project and it was on a much smaller scale. Those are names within 1 or two generations as I said in the article.
That clearly shows the DNA isn't lacking, it's just not attended. All nations that rose to the top had National programs behind them, the 2014 Germany World Cup was a direct result of a project starting before 2006. Same with France, Spain, and any country you could think of. Even England reaching the Euro Final and World Cup Semi-Final was a result of the England DNA project which is also what led Gareth Southgate to eventually become England's manager.
I totally agree, it seems to me that sooner or later the United States will be a great team that will compete with very good results in international tournaments. They have everything they need to become a world soccer power.
Just seems to be the direction.
I think the main reason is that it is taking a while to become more popular.
U.S.A. is still very much about American football, Baseball, and Basketball.
Football has never been as popular as the other sports as much as I love the sport.
I guess it is an American thing.
!CTP
We'll see as years go by. And by then we won't remember your comment nor my post lol!
The womans' team has been world champions multiple times. They have helped the popularity of soccer in the US. Thanks for sharing on ListNerds.
The truth is that it'll take time before the concept of football settles in the US. I've watched some American TV, read some of their journal and most times they're always about basketball, baseball and American football. The US needs a cultural campaign to be able to raise their footballing standards to that of the best countries in the world.
I think until they start winning, they won't care about it. It was all over TV when their women team won it. I think if the men's team reach a quarter or semi final they will care much more about it as it