Good profile on Christian Pulisic

[Hagios]

There's a stereotype of the American player. Olsen, who embodied it, knows it as a sort of England-lite – hardworking, not particularly skilled or artistic, coachable – and lite.

Though fading, it's real.

"I notice it less and less, is what I would say, each couple of years," Burke said.

Stereotypical American players do not become No. 10s. Systematically and directly, the country has insisted on it.

Pre-USSDA, the imbalance of games instead of practices made it too easy for coaches to emphasize winning what were relatively meaningless youth tournaments in the short term, over longterm player development. Trophy chasing incentivized excessively direct soccer, leaving even less of a place for vision or vibrant passing.

An overmatched and underprepared team drops players deeper in defense, launches passes to the two or three attackers it leaves upfield and, tactically speaking, just hopes for the best.

The lengthened game leaves a void for the undersized-but-sly player. His knack for gliding into space unseen loses utility when his teammates, out of habit, don't bother to look at it.

http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2016/06/christian_pulisic_us_soccer.html

Good article, as much about the youth development system as Pulisic himself.

 

[cgori]

Fantastic article, thanks for linking.

 

[Titans Bastard]

That is a great article. It covers a hell of a lot of big issues in US development.

A few things that jumped out at me:

His parents had been blunt about the facts of the situation. He would have no friends, no position in the team, run into his fear of the language barrier harder than ever and arrive with no guarantee of ever making the first team.

...

Coaches, former players and academy directors from around the country agreed that every young player's situation should be considered individually. But the most game-ready American prospects, looking at a true chance of professional playing time and wanting to, are better off leaving their home country.

This is an underrated factor in the decision to go abroad. Pulisic had the maturity and the support structure to transition well to BVB. Pulisic's family was able to send a parent abroad with him - a tough decision, plus you have to be in a position where that is financially feasible. Some kids do not have those things and they often fare poorly abroad regardless of their talent. The culture shock on and off the field can be rough and the social/emotional well-being of a kid makes a real difference in development.

He was born to two parents who played the sport, knew what to tell him about it but found themselves having to say very little. Kelley and Mark Pulisic's son was obsessed with soccer – sometimes defiantly so – and absorbed an understanding of its timing, spacing and artistry through an unusually high level of exposure to the game.

Yet another good US player whose parents played the game. Many of better players have some sort of significant family influence in their development. In Pulisic's case, his parents seem to have done a great job managing his psychological development as well as helping him on the field.

The USSDA system, which brought the top pre-existing clubs in the country into a national league with regional divisions, mandates a minimum of four practices and one rest day per week, a maximum of one game per weekend and only allows up to two consecutive game days at showcases and playoffs. Each club in the system is subject to 10 evaluations per year by a member of U.S. Soccer's men's scouting network staff, meant to ensure a certain standard and focus of coaching.

"There's a level of accountability now that didn't used to exist," Bethlehem Steel FC head coach Brendan Burke said. "So you can't have as much of a discrepancy between academies."

I think the USSDA system is a step forward, but USSF insiders make more of it than it really is. The accountability really could be greater. The USSF used to publish public reports on each academy in a variety of aspects, but they seem to have stopped doing so a few years ago. It's also a closed shop, which can lead to deadwood in the bottom parts of the USSDA. In fairness, the USSF has (slowly) been forcing mergers and kicking out weaker clubs -- particularly in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

And of course, most of the coaches are the same non-world-beating coaches from before.

This was some of the best preparation to be found anywhere in America and remained as much until U.S. Soccer put 20 of the country's best U-17s in residency at Bradenton in 1999. The group included future national team mainstays Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Oguchi Onyewu and Kyle Beckerman, who is joined by Pulisic on the current U.S. roster.

Bradenton sucks, but they sure do hold on desperately to that 1999 class -- which was only there for a few months because the program had just started. Over the full two year residency, Bradenton's results are much less impressive. Fortunately, in the last few cycles many Bradenton players have been leaving early to sign pro contracts, including Pulisic.

He wants to be the U.S. No. 10 — a central attacking midfielder around whom his team's offense and, ideally, the entire game, revolves. But at 13, 14 years old, his body lagged behind the on-field problem solving ability that had otherwise rendered his size irrelevant.

Worth noting - Pulisic has played exclusively as a winger for the USMNT and for Dortmund so far. For youth national teams and (at times) for BVB's youth teams, he's played centrally. He's versatile and I'm not sure where he'll end up long-term.