This.
A friend of mine's 10 year old son just took part in a camp where the Hessen football governing body and Eintracht Frankfurt evaluated the top 20 kids at each position from around the state and chose a select few to be filtered into the next level football schools. Once their, football is more or less their job.
IMO, the biggest difference between us and the top 15 nations is depth. Our best starting 11 can compete with just about anyone, but once we get a few injuries we have major problems (look at our recently completed cycle). I'm always impressed / jealous how these guys here just plug someone else in who is just as good, and in some cases even a bit better.
Absolutely 100% correct. the key to developing a world class competitive program, is identifying the potential players at a young age, and giving them the necessary development and training so that when they reach 18-20 years old, they're ready to start getting into the international competitive environment.
Our national team now, if I'm not mistaken, is old. (I haven't looked at ages, so if I'm wrong, please don't crucify me, but I think, that our best players, our most well known players, have been through several cycles already.)
It's very similar to recruiting for football. YOu get a 5 year cycle with players. In theory, the players that should be taking the field for the 2018 world cup for the united state national team, should for the most part be the best athletes playing soccer right now in American high schools.
I really don't know what Klinsman's plan is for transitioning those teenagers to senior team members, but I guarantee you, that he knows that's where the issue lies. Identifying those players when they're pre-teens/young teenagers, adn getting them to grow and learn and develop for the next 8-10 years of their life.
Don't mistake the imporatnce of MLS though, that league needs to grow, and the money needs to grow with it, so that in today's world, where kids see these huge sports contracts, they aren't so likely to focus on basketball, or baseball, or football, rather than soccer when they are in teh middle school/high school age.
It could just be, that value of sports broadcasting right now, in television, could play a big role in helping U.S. Soccer develop, as soccer is televised more and more, and teams can make more money to pay their athletes.
I've been around for awhile, and I can't EVER recall, seeing soccer televised as much as I see it now.
