Can you guess the country ?

[Unregistered]

100 games in a season? For 2 or 3 teams?

This is nonsense and discredits the rest of the article. This does not happen and proves the author has no clue what he is talking about.

I would agree 100 seems excessive, but if you add HS, club (maybe competing in both NEP and R1 Premier league), tournaments, state cup (and regionals), and ODP..it does make the point -- that's potentially 3 teams (HS, club, ODP) and possibly 50-60 matches. And while not a 100, the point is the dollar/business side is about games (leagues, teams, refs) -- would not be a lot of excitement if a team said we're doing 7 league matches and maybe one tournament, that's it.

But the point remains -- and if you google the article; it does make an interesting point -- the dutch academy at young ages only plays at most 1 x week and in the in between training days they expect the boys to do pick up or just goof around with the other kids or back in their home towns. This is supposedly the South/Central America way -- kids develop in their localities mainly by un to loosely organized constant play.

The American model, by contrast, is a middle road that neither allows players to develop spontanesously, a la Brazil, nor instills skill and discipline by tireless drill and coaching, a la Holland. The MLS Academy programs will hopefully learn the lessons from both models.