(06-18-2018 01:17 PM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  

(06-18-2018 12:54 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  

(06-17-2018 07:17 AM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  How can Iceland (a tiny, frigid country with a population less than Wichita) earn a World Cup slot but not the USA? Disgraceful.

In a lot of ways it's advantageous to be a smaller country. Only 4 of the top 10 countries (by population) made it to the world cup.

The larger you are, the harder it is to find efficiency. Iceland can invest in what it wants and accurately see that investment through. It's also probably way easier to make sure that all the talent you need to be scouting gets scouted.

Our problem is the fact that our country is very big, our development system is very loose, and we don't have the resources for evaluation to cover all of that. You can't maximize your success in ANY organization as loose as that.

Germany ran into this issue in the early 2000s. They relied on individual clubs to develop players. Different clubs had different tactical standards. Then Germany started a national development program. They set up over 300 centers and employed about 1,000 part-time coaches with UEFA B credentials. No matter if you're a big club or a local team, your players can get in this program where they will learn the DFB standard for tactics. The DFB makes sure the kids associated with the program get plenty of competition and evalutation as well.

What I'd suggest is a network of development centers that serve local area/region. Every kid in that area who wants to be involved--whether they don't play organized all the way to the top clubs--should be able to be involved. Employ coaches who will travel to teach tactics players twice a week, while taking that time to evaluate their players. There are also needs to be an effort to get all of the area's players practicing/playing with/against each other as much as possible.

Germans care about soccer. Most Americans, OTHO, do not seem to care enough about soccer to demand changes like you listed when regression in performance on the international stage is clearly occurring.

Who cares or doesn't care is pretty irrelevant in this situation, this isn't trying to get something through Congress. Germans weren't demanding their specific changes either. They wanted to improve, but would've been more than happy if they could've improved under their old model. Japan didn't have a lot of people who cared, but they made appropriate changes anyway.

In fact there have been development and organizational changes in swimming, wrestling, weightlifting, powerlifting, gymnastics, etc over the years and less people care about them than soccer.

We had enough people who care to get a change in USSF leadership and that's all we need. The specifics that happen after that are up to the new leadership.