80% of Boys Academy players are privately trained by academy staff...

[Unregistered]

If we're just going to make blanket assumptions, then anybody who spends the time and energy criticizing any organization as much as you have definitely has a competing interest.

The system is fine. There are success stories happening every year whether you want to believe it or not. Team trophies shouldn't be a priority until the highest level. The clue is the name...Development Academy. They seem to be providing the training and playing opportunities for the right players to thrive. Ultimately, it's on the individual player to find the drive to make it to the highest level if that's their goal anyway.

Do you have a kid playing? If so enough said- you do not have the ability to be objective. If you truly did and your child was actually talented just think how much better he or she would get with the truly top talent and how much better the experience would be. No need to wonder

[Unregistered]

If we're just going to make blanket assumptions, then anybody who spends the time and energy criticizing any organization as much as you have definitely has a competing interest.

The system is fine. There are success stories happening every year whether you want to believe it or not. Team trophies shouldn't be a priority until the highest level. The clue is the name...Development Academy. They seem to be providing the training and playing opportunities for the right players to thrive. Ultimately, it's on the individual player to find the drive to make it to the highest level if that's their goal anyway.

The system is only fine if you are ok with mediocrity and political decision making. Numerous kids on the rosters have no chance to get to the pros or next level, no matter how much "development" happens....

[Unregistered]

If we're just going to make blanket assumptions, then anybody who spends the time and energy criticizing any organization as much as you have definitely has a competing interest.

The system is fine. There are success stories happening every year whether you want to believe it or not. Team trophies shouldn't be a priority until the highest level. The clue is the name...Development Academy. They seem to be providing the training and playing opportunities for the right players to thrive. Ultimately, it's on the individual player to find the drive to make it to the highest level if that's their goal anyway.

Not true- it's time to come to grips with reality. The system has the potential to be so much better, but the timbers have no competition so they do not have to do anything g different and will still attract money and players. The sounders cannot operate like this- Seattle united and crossfire would take the top players in Seattle - who by the way all finish above the timbers each year....,

[Unregistered]

Just so all the locals know what the rest of the country says about our darling academy. And notice that the most prolific mention of player ability and development is not even one of our own, he is from Florida and our academy is finally making strides to improve because we brought in someone from the outside who initially had the ability to be unbiased to clubs or money..,,

18. Portland Timbers
Top product: D Marco Farfan
Top current player: F Lucas Cini

The Timbers made some encouraging academy strides over the past few years, one of which was hiring former Fire academy head Larry Sunderland to spearhead the system. They’d have been even lower on this list two years ago. That’s meant searches for talent further afield, which led to the capture of South Florida star recruit Lucas Cini, who joined for the 2016-17 season. That said, the academy is still working from behind, and its past in producing senior team players is nothing to laud. Its current academy stock, meanwhile, has a few bright spots (Adrian Villegas for one) but is, on the whole, lacking much depth or technical gravitas. It is improving, and it would be no surprise to see the Timbers rise on this list in the coming years. It would be a continuation of the trend, anyway. But it is digging itself out of an academy ditch far deeper than the club’s overall health would lead you to believe.

[Unregistered]

The system is only fine if you are ok with mediocrity and political decision making. Numerous kids on the rosters have no chance to get to the pros or next level, no matter how much "development" happens....

That's the issue with such a large program - too may clubs, coaches and players that aren't "top talent", and the "top talent" is spread out so thin. Is 1 NT players on a team really getting the most out of it when no one on their team is close to that level? Or they play other teams just like theirs?

[Unregistered]

Not true- it's time to come to grips with reality. The system has the potential to be so much better, but the timbers have no competition so they do not have to do anything g different and will still attract money and players. The sounders cannot operate like this- Seattle united and crossfire would take the top players in Seattle - who by the way all finish above the timbers each year....,

http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/media_kit/keystatistics/
The reality is Washington youth soccer isn't just a little bigger than Oregon. It's got 4x the amount of kids.

The pool isn't big enough to do what they do.

[Unregistered]

http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/media_kit/keystatistics/
The reality is Washington youth soccer isn't just a little bigger than Oregon. It's got 4x the amount of kids.

The pool isn't big enough to do what they do.

We have plenty of players in the PDX Metro market. The trouble is that we don't train them correctly. We are led by a group of money hungry people that back our state organization where tournaments, leagues, cups, RTC, ODP and Pre RTC are ruining the game. Hopefully one day these idiots will figure it out.

You don't have to look any further than Iceland (350,000 people total) and the Netherlands to see that we have enough players in our Metro area

[Unregistered]

We have plenty of players in the PDX Metro market. The trouble is that we don't train them correctly. We are led by a group of money hungry people that back our state organization where tournaments, leagues, cups, RTC, ODP and Pre RTC are ruining the game. Hopefully one day these idiots will figure it out.

You don't have to look any further than Iceland (350,000 people total) and the Netherlands to see that we have enough players in our Metro area

Ok...Iceland. What exactly are they doing that's different?

I don't think you're appreciating the fact that if every single youth athlete in Oregon chose soccer exclusively and trained with the very best methods and coaches year round we would still only produce 1 world class player per decade.

The system is fine as is. If a top player really wants it, then they can get it. If you've got a better way of developing players then start your club and set the world on fire with all your success.

[Unregistered]

We have plenty of players in the PDX Metro market. The trouble is that we don't train them correctly. We are led by a group of money hungry people that back our state organization where tournaments, leagues, cups, RTC, ODP and Pre RTC are ruining the game. Hopefully one day these idiots will figure it out.

You don't have to look any further than Iceland (350,000 people total) and the Netherlands to see that we have enough players in our Metro area

Why we (USA) stink at Soccer/World Football (Men's).

American Athletes gravitate to sports are much more popular to our families based on tv viewing, fame and history with sport in this country, these sports also offer full ride scholarships & lottery winner salaries for the top shelf: Soccer offers a homegrown salary of around 50K to 60K for our very best who skip college. So there is not much incentive to follow any dream in Soccer only for the diehards who play for the true love of the game, which is fine. But this ilk is not our best athletes and best sportsman, it's a passionate group much like our clueless Timbers Army. Buty they have no competition from authentic athletes or a system that places them in any limelight, like all the mainstream sports do.

Exhibit A: American Football

Exhibit B: American Basketball

Exhibit C : American Baseball (very few full rides if any, but incredible farm system for youngers)

Then you have these sports who are very close to Soccer in Popularity or exceed it in the US:

Exhibit D : Hockey

Exhibit E : LAX (growing like crazy)

Exhibit F : Track n Field (Distance & Sprinters) but there is so crossover to other sports.

Girls have no paydays in any sport, so title ix incentives their participation in Soccer and the colleges give out aid hand over fist, to most decent and better than average HS level players. The ECNL was built to attract clubs and make the college coaches cherry picking easier and scouting travel much easier. Strange model but it did have some takers until US Soccer blew the college coaches jamborees with the inception of a Girls DA this year. Plus most of the world doesn't even take Women's football seriously, but the few countries that do have already passed up the USA in the last 2 decades, which is to be expected.

Back to the issue of training methods for soccer players in the USA.
Volunteer parents from the ages of 5 to 10 years old for most. Strike 1.
Ages 10 to 14 Mix of parents and soccer lovers who have the free time to coach teams, now most angle to get paid a decent wage for their time, which is fair, but most are steering blindly at the wheel in regards to development. Strike 2.
Ages 15 to 18 The coaches who have experience in the former two developmental stages are placed with these players. Strike 3.

Sure there are exceptions in this process but that's how it works for the masses.

This snapshot could include another 100 elements that challenge our country in the sport of Soccer..but the proof is out there anytime you see an MLS game or watch us play competitive World powers in the sport, we are way behind.

You make salient points about the 'leadership' in our state, sadly most clubs are trying to copy this twisted model, expect different results and then ridicule them for doing it the same way they are.

It's a cluster, but it's our cluster.

[Unregistered]

Ok...Iceland. What exactly are they doing that's different?

I don't think you're appreciating the fact that if every single youth athlete in Oregon chose soccer exclusively and trained with the very best methods and coaches year round we would still only produce 1 world class player per decade.

The system is fine as is. If a top player really wants it, then they can get it. If you've got a better way of developing players then start your club and set the world on fire with all your success.

Iceland and other countries have made smart decisions to support soccer, hire great coaches, provide facilities, opportunities, etc. Teeny, tiny country yet they've made a splash on the world soccer stage in a short amount of time. We don't need more managers, we need managers who know W T F they're doing. A soccer culture and more money would be nice too.

[Unregistered]

Iceland and other countries have made smart decisions to support soccer, hire great coaches, provide facilities, opportunities, etc. Teeny, tiny country yet they've made a splash on the world soccer stage in a short amount of time. We don't need more managers, we need managers who know W T F they're doing. A soccer culture and more money would be nice too.

Invest in fields and invest in coaches.

Don't mandate style of play or curriculum, but do invest heavily in coaching education.

[Unregistered]

Invest in fields and invest in coaches.

Don't mandate style of play or curriculum, but do invest heavily in coaching education.

Yes to this!!!

[Unregistered]

We have plenty of players in the PDX Metro market. The trouble is that we don't train them correctly. We are led by a group of money hungry people that back our state organization where tournaments, leagues, cups, RTC, ODP and Pre RTC are ruining the game. Hopefully one day these idiots will figure it out.

You don't have to look any further than Iceland (350,000 people total) and the Netherlands to see that we have enough players in our Metro area

With all of the soccer IQ in the state of Oregon, I am surprised that we are not a the center of the soccer universe. Hopefully the US Soccer federation people are keeping up with Talking Soccer

[Unregistered]

Ok...Iceland. What exactly are they doing that's different?

I don't think you're appreciating the fact that if every single youth athlete in Oregon chose soccer exclusively and trained with the very best methods and coaches year round we would still only produce 1 world class player per decade.

The system is fine as is. If a top player really wants it, then they can get it. If you've got a better way of developing players then start your club and set the world on fire with all your success.

Sounds like you need a trip overseas.
95% of your clubs are not built to do it right. They are built to survive financially.

[Unregistered]

Iceland and other countries have made smart decisions to support soccer, hire great coaches, provide facilities, opportunities, etc. Teeny, tiny country yet they've made a splash on the world soccer stage in a short amount of time. We don't need more managers, we need managers who know W T F they're doing. A soccer culture and more money would be nice too.

BINGO!

we don't need more players or coaches. We need educated coaches.

Other countries are jealous of our player pool of athletes.
They laugh when they watch your coach train your child.

They laugh when your child's team punts the ball 20 times a game.
They laugh when your coach focuses on fitness more then technique.
They laugh when your coach has them in exercises where they stand in lines getting one Rep every two minutes.
They laughed at us just three years ago when we played 11v11 at U11.
They laugh at us because we call offsides at young ages.
They laugh at us because we make kids retake throw ins instead of just letting the ball play keeping lots of roll time with the ball.
They laugh at us because we travel all over the country to play games when you can go 20 minutes away to play a friendly against an older team if needed.
95% of coaches in this area are dinosaurs coaching the game like it's 1987