Why men's soccer will never be popular in the U.S.

And making the Academy program free is not something that's been done on an MLS level; the teams have done it on their own.

MetroStars/Red Bulls made their academy free maybe 10 years ago. I want to say they were the first. Since then, many other teams have followed and now it looks like every MLS Team Academy is free.

There is a competitive and a financial incentive for a professional club to have a good Academy. You can develop a kid in the Academy and if he turns out to be good enough he'll play on your pro team and hopefully contribute to success on the field. But if you can develop a kid who's good enough to be sold to a Euro team, you're now making millions on a kid that you didn't have to buy or trade any assets for. The only cost in developing the player is the cost of operating the Academy. The money you get by selling the player is like a windfall for the team, and can be sunk back into the Academy. Which is why "pay to play" is no longer necessary (along with the fact that MLS teams are owned by very rich people).

Runner10287 wrote:

Life is passing you by.

https://www.inquirer.com/soccer/mls-schedule-premier-league-nbc-20210506.html

Significant progress, and it only took 45 years.

You stick to script, I'll give you that.

2/10

This is the new group:

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-elite-youth-development-platform

https://www.rsl.com/post/2020/08/04/mls-expands-membership-elite-youth-development-platform-announces-groundbreaking

zxcvzxcv wrote:

This is the new group:

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-elite-youth-development-platformhttps://www.rsl.com/post/2020/08/04/mls-expands-membership-elite-youth-development-platform-announces-groundbreaking

Yeah, so that's basically just the replacement for the US Soccer Developmental Academy (which was folded by US Soccer last year). 64 non-MLS clubs join 30 MLS clubs, in a national, high level soccer league theoretically focused on player development.

The 30 MLS clubs are free for the players. As for the other 64 clubs, I would imagine that most if not all are still pay to play.

The practical effect of having some clubs that are free while others are pay to play is that the best players will go to the clubs that are free, so the MLS clubs have a big advantage here with recruitment. The result is that the MLS Academies tend to have the best teams, although that's not universal.

Having 30 Academies that are free in a big country with millions of kids playing the sport isn't such a great accomplishment, but it is a step in the right direction. And you can see the results already. The talent that this country is now producing is unprecedented, and virtually every kid who is now playing on the national team played on a USSDA club when he was 14-15. Pulisic played for PA Classics, McKennie for FC Dallas, Gio Reyna for NYCFC, and on and on.

critic 100 wrote:

In real football, cheerleaders get wiped out by two 230lb pound linebackers while tackling a 200lb running back on the sidelines, she gets up, shakes off the hit with a smile, and continues to cheer.

The soccer guy gets his foot stepped on, calls 911, gets the surgeon ready for a major operation to remove the leg.

How can any American support such a wimpy sport?

Women's soccer, different. No fake injuries. after falling down, they get up and finish the game.

Any sport that finishes in 90 minutes and the final score... 1 to 0. = let us watch paint dry.

More action in the stands. Maybe, rather than following such a boring sport, the TV crews should focus on the fans.

Great fights there.

Americans only have an attention span of ~20 seconds. They need constant breaks to take another bite of their hotdog and slurp their big gulp. 45 minutes of near constant play is just too much for then too handle.

critic 100 wrote:

In real football, cheerleaders get wiped out by two 230lb pound linebackers while tackling a 200lb running back on the sidelines, she gets up, shakes off the hit with a smile, and continues to cheer.

The soccer guy gets his foot stepped on, calls 911, gets the surgeon ready for a major operation to remove the leg.

How can any American support such a wimpy sport?

Women's soccer, different. No fake injuries. after falling down, they get up and finish the game.

Any sport that finishes in 90 minutes and the final score... 1 to 0. = let us watch paint dry.

More action in the stands. Maybe, rather than following such a boring sport, the TV crews should focus on the fans.

Great fights there.

americans are wimps.

soccer is taking off.

Just stick to sports nobody else plays.

Real men play rugby with no protection.

If there are less goals the outcome is uncertain until the last minute.

That said they are a bunch of premadonnas but better than roided up grunts running 10m then stopping for an ad break.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

That said they are a bunch of premadonnas but better than roided up grunts running 10m then stopping for an ad break.

wow

Only one at a time though wrote:

context wrote:

We in the US long ago discovered that hands and arms are actually useful when playing sports.

Ya but in basketball you can only use one of those hands at a time. Otherwise it's a double dribble. And you can't use your foot either.

Have you ever watched basketball? Two hands are used for:

dunking

passing

receiving a pass

dribbling at the free throw line

shooting

calling timeout

rebounding

pushing yourself off the floor after a flop

They describe over 90% of current MSL(?) players having been developed at one of these 94 clubs. The pay to play clubs in the group are a very big part of that.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Just stick to sports nobody else plays.

Real men play rugby with no protection.

If there are less goals the outcome is uncertain until the last minute.

That said they are a bunch of premadonnas but better than roided up grunts running 10m then stopping for an ad break.

Sorry, but you lose me there. The athletic freaks and steroid cases in the NFL would absolutely destroy any rugby team in the world and leave them for the medics in short order, helmets or not. They are far bigger and stronger.

Not even a soccer fan, just a runner wrote:

Wow, Messi is pretty good.

More Messi highlights:

Lol at a whole thread devoted to telling OP other countries exist besides the US.

zxcvzxcv wrote:

Sorry, but you lose me there. The athletic freaks and steroid cases in the NFL would absolutely destroy any rugby team in the world and leave them for the medics in short order, helmets or not. They are far bigger and stronger.

At what sport? It is ridiculous to say that they would win at their own sport - doh, don't see them smoking Kipchoge over a marathon and they would be completely at sea playing rugby union.

Real men play Rugby League and watch soccer. People who don't like sport play golf and watch rugby union.

NERunner000053 wrote:

Lol at a whole thread devoted to telling OP other countries exist besides the US.

That's not where this thread went at all.

zxcvzxcv wrote:

They describe over 90% of current MSL(?) players having been developed at one of these 94 clubs. The pay to play clubs in the group are a very big part of that.

20 years ago, every one of the top 94 boys clubs in the country would have been pay to play. Today, at least 30 of those clubs are free. That's progress.

johnny99 wrote:

zxcvzxcv wrote:

They describe over 90% of current MSL(?) players having been developed at one of these 94 clubs. The pay to play clubs in the group are a very big part of that.

20 years ago, every one of the top 94 boys clubs in the country would have been pay to play. Today, at least 30 of those clubs are free. That's progress.

And I would be shocked if any of those 94 clubs don't provide full financial aid to anyone that needs it.