All credit to the United States national team in 1994 for heroic over achievement. An anonymous collection of blue collar clock punchers grinded their way into the World Cup second round, stretching their ability with little more than guts, desire and the bright stuff of dreams.
For Bob Bradley, Always Ways To Improve United States’ Soccer Talent
But if we’re being honest, it really wasn’t a good team.
In terms of talent, it was closer to a broken clock than Clockwork Orange. Girded by home-field advantage, that U.S. team squeezed the absolute most from middling talent.
Still, that assembly of middling talent serves as a useful reference point, for progress has come on the gallop ever since for a steadily evolving United States’ program.
There really can be no comparison between that ’94 band of hard-trying brothers and a far more polished, technically proficient bunch that fills out the player pool today.
The United States may not make hay in South Africa, but who can deny that the talent and the organizational structure are light years ahead for the U.S. program?
Bob Bradley, of course, is the man tasked with guiding the Yanks’ effort in South Africa, and possibly beyond. He inherited managerial duties late in 2006 from Bruce Arena, who had shepherded the American side past an awkward teenage phase, so to speak, and into young adulthood during his eight years in charge. U.S. Soccer officials deemed new leadership necessary after a deflated stumble at World Cup Germany, with Bradley tasked to move the troops forward from there.
Everyone would agree that the level of talent has moved forward at a running pace. But why, specifically, is it so much better? Where has the development gained ground?
In a lengthy interview conducted before the United States gathered for its May pre-World Cup camp, Bradley provided some thoughts.
He told me, first off, that the federation’s residency program in Bradenton, Fla., is a good place to start, having paid tremendous dividends. Landon Donovan (Everton), DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers) and Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan) are notable products of the first under-17 residency cycle, which graduated back in 1999 and set the standard for classes to follow.
But he says the real gold has been spun out of Major League Soccer, which launched in 1996 as the country’s first fully professional, top-tier league since the star-crossed but ultimately ill fated North American Soccer League. The NASL collapsed in 1984 beneath the tremendous weight of its own ambitious.
“Without a doubt, Major League Soccer has made a huge difference in giving more of our players the opportunity to become professionals, and in many cases that’s happening at younger and younger ages,” Bradley said. “It allows the national team staff to see players week in, week out in MLS, to see how they are developing and improving, and then to make decisions about bringing them into camps and seeing where they fit in.”
Inextricably linked to the MLS pollination process is the ever burgeoning stream of athletes who migrate to Europe, adding seasoning, moxie and further know-how to the mix. Beasley, for instance, never would have made his way over to PSV Eindhoven (then subsequently to Manchester City and then Rangers and who knows where next …) if not for his productive years with the Chicago Fire in MLS. Nor would Tim Howard have been plucked by Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United if not for his brave, prodigious work as a bright young talent for Major League Soccer’s club in New York.
“I think what’s gone hand in hand is some of the other individuals, whether through MLS, or whether they made a decision to move their careers to Europe earlier, the experience of some key player is important, guys who have seen what it’s like to play in tough leagues in Europe,” Bradley said.
What about other elements that might move the train of progress down the tracks? There has long been a presumption that the United States could climb considerably faster in the world order if only soccer could attract more top athletes from other sports.
Indeed, there is ample competition within the United States for the fastest feet and biggest bodies; basketball, baseball, American football and even hockey in some cold-weather areas compete with soccer for participation in youth athletics. On the other hand, the United States is the world’s third largest land in population, at more than 300 million. That’s more than seven times the population of Spain, which is Europe’s gold standard in soccer at the moment. Soccer is getting its share of athletes here. So, clearly, the improvement initiative demands more than simply skimming further from the top of the gene pool.
“Without a doubt, the competition from other sports is something that is perhaps different for us,” Bradley said. “Nonetheless, we have a lot of great athletes playing soccer. The continued focus for us is on creating the right environments for our young players.
“If you think of all the stages of development, I think there’s room for improvement at all stages,” he said. “And that includes the youngest stages. We’ve all talked about the need to do better job with our youngest players when they first come into the game, in terms of making sure that the best clubs in the country are putting very good coaches at young ages, coaches who understand how important it is to build a foundation of skills, coaches who understand how to let the game be the teacher at that age, how make it fun but still make sure the most talented kids are getting the right start in the game.
“Then, as they move along, there are different needs at each age group, and it’s incredibly important that we understand each part of the process. There’s been lot of discussion, a lot of good work done by technical committees in the U.S. We’re continuing to improve how things work in each (age group). The focus is to ensure that we’re doing as good as job as possible and improving ourselves at each stage.”
Soccer in the United States is unlike so many other places in the world. Around the globe the sport is laced by the less privileged. It’s a way out of the shanty towns and the forlorn barrios. In the United States, the sport is often the domain of the middle-class and beyond, the families that can afford high-level coaching. Here, young people don’t learn on the streets, but rather in the structured environment of youth clubs. The core comes from the relatively comfortable suburbs rather than from the sharper-edged, working-class urban areas.
The U.S. Soccer structure is built around the club system. It identifies talent through these clubs. But if a child’s family can’t afford the expenses associated with professional coaching and travel to the most competitive tournaments, they may be marginalized by the system. It’s something on which U.S. Soccer leaders have focused, but they know more improvement is needed.
Regardless of the level of challenge, Bradley knows that it is incumbent on the country’s leaders in soccer to keep grinding away, to ensure that areas urban and rural, that neighborhoods rich and poor, regardless of ethnic makeup, all have good opportunities.
“We have to make sure we are creating these little pockets, where soccer is up and running and kids are getting great experiences, and also where the more talented kids are being pushed forward in the right way,” he said.
Beyond that, there’s further challenge due to the enormous amount of land to watch over. But Bradley believes most of the talent finds its way to the top.
“A country as big as ours present unique challenges,” he said. “We all know there are places around the United States that are more established soccer areas than others. But nonetheless, history has shown that good players come from all over the country. And really, one thing is quite clear: any time there’s a person who has experience in the game and really has a feel for youth development, any time you see a person like that get started with a group of young players, regardless of where it is in the country, the next thing you know you’ll start to see a really good group of young players at work.”
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