Section B · Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, October 14, 1998
Commentary
U.S. soccer needs to change rules to be competitive
An important change may happen soon in American soccer. No, it's not the upcoming appointment of Bruce Arena as national team head coach. That pales in comparison.
Instead, the U.S. soccer community is collectively asking itself an important question: "How are our players developed, and is this the right way to go about it?"
The answer will determine the direction of soccer player development in this country, and with it, the future of the game here.
While the failure of the U.S. team at the World Cup was certainly indicative of flaws in our national coaching systems, the lack of U.S. success in the Olympics (essentially the world under-23 championships) and in last year's under-20 World Championships, despite having squads with plenty of ability, is far more instructive in allowing us to pinpoint American problems in player development.
Those teams were sent up against teams made up of full-time professionals like lambs to the slaughter. That they acquitted themselves reasonably well, while attaining no real success, is to their credit.
When a typical top-notch American
soccer player is 21, he is completing his senior year of college, having played four years under the inordinately short and restricted NCAA schedule and regulations.
Ronaldo, two-time FIFA World Player of the Year, turned 22 three weeks ago, and is currently in his eighth professional season. Michael Owen, were he American, would be a freshman in college with rules as to how much he could practice.
Even among Americans, there is a
Sam Pierron
decided difference between those who follow the college path and those who go to Europe for training, like John O'Brien, who came up through the Ajax (Amsterdam) youth system.
Soccer players, with the exceptions of defenders and goalkeepers, should be in the prime of their careers at a younger
In short, the traditional American structure of sending kids to play in a college program is costing U.S. soccer its shot at the brass ring.
age than the traditional American system allows them to be.
The roots of this situation are complex, but it boils down to the United States, until 1996, being without a professional outdoor soccer league; thus, college soccer was an end unto itself rather than the professional development program that college basketball and football have become.
This type of thinking should not be alien to the American sports fan. Comparison can best be made with baseball, and the point driven home for Americans unfamiliar with the rest of the world's club system.
Baseball, like soccer, relies more on skill than on physical factors (look at David Wells, for Pete's sake) Professional baseball teams understand that young players need intensified instruction to allow their potential its full expression. After all, only recently have college baseball players made a consistent impact in the big leagues.
To this day, the big leagues rely on their own coaching and development systems rather than those of the amateur high school and college coaches; the best examples of this in the modern day are the Latin American "academies" run by the big-league clubs that resemble noth-
In short, the traditional American structure of sending kids to play in a college program is costing U.S. Soccer its shot at the brass ring.
Sam Pierron
sports columnist
ing so much as the international soccer club structure.
After years of trying to develop players through centralized coaching structures and player selection systems like the Olympic Development Program, U.S. soccer is beginning to understand that success will come from professional teams developing players rather than having to remail 22-year-olds.
To this end, the Major League Soccer has started "Project 40", in which players who wish to bypass all or the remainder of their collegiate careers can do so, signing a contract with the league and receiving $40,000 to spend on their future education should they choose to continue their education.
Already, two high school players (the Wizards' Nino DaSilva and Jamar Beasley of the Revolution) have elected to come to the Major League Soccer
straight out of high school.
Several other key figures left college early, like DC United's Ben Olsen and Wizards defender (and Olathe East grad) Scott Vermillion. The trend seems to be accelerating, and I'm sure we'll see several more underclassmen sign on with the league after this college season
The U.S. Soccer Federation itself is trying to remake its development programs, and commissioned a report from noted youth development expert Carlos Queiroz of Portugal. Not surprisingly, Queiroz advocated the professionalization of American youth soccer development.
This line of thinking is becoming more and more prevalent. In fact, a *Home Improvement* episode is supposedly about the oldest son trying to convince his parents to let him play professional soccer instead of going to college (the actor, Zachary Ty Bryan, is in fact a toprate youth player in California).
While the advantages of earning an education are indisputable, the current system is inadequate in terms of player development. Only by changing the system, giving non-college options more credibility, will U.S. soccer ever compete with "the big boys".
—E-mail spierron@ukans.edu for comments
Pierron is an Olathe senior in political science.
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