Re: World Soccer XIII: Through the Group Stages
I don't mean talent in the sense that if the kid shows he's a great baseball player he should go play football.
I mean if soccer was able to attract and keep more kids playing for longer, the number of top end talented players would increase simply by having a greater pool to work from.
But because there are so many other choices, and because other sports leagues are much more readily available on TV and in the media, soccer doesn't keep as many players once they reach High school and college age.
Obviously the training, and coaching structure still needs to be there as well.
The size of the player pool isn't the problem. Sure, things would be better with more people playing, but that's not really the issue.
It's worth noting (and the NYT article does exactly this) that many of tbe best, most skilled, and most promising players on the US roster are the ones who got into the pro system at a much earlier age:
The U.S. diverges all the way to the last stages of a player’s development. In other places around the world, the late teenage years are a kind of finishing school, a period when elite players grow into their bodies, sharpen their technical ability and gain a more sophisticated understanding of game tactics. At the same time, they are engaged in a fierce competition to rise through the ranks of their clubs and reach the first team (the equivalent of being promoted from a minor-league baseball team to the big-league club).
An elite American player of that age is still likely to be playing in college, which the rest of the soccer-playing world finds bizarre. He plays a short competitive season of three or four months. If he possesses anything approaching international-level talent, he probably has no peer on his team and rarely one on an opposing squad. He may not realize it at the time, but the game, in essence, is too easy for him.
Of the 23 players chosen for the U.S. team going to the World Cup, 15 of them played at least some college soccer. Among the 8 who went straight into the professional ranks are several of the team’s most accomplished performers, including Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Tim Howard, and promising players like Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley (son of the head coach, Bob Bradley). Did they rise to the top of the American talent pool because they bypassed college? Or did they skip it because they were the rare Americans good enough as teenagers to attract legitimate professional opportunities? The answer is probably a little bit of both. But you will find no one in the soccer world who says they would have enhanced their careers by staying in school.
If you broaden the player pool and don't solve this problem, then nothing changes. And going to Europe won't be much of an option except for the elite (and noticed) kids.
That's why the development of MLS team academies is far more promising. That will not only strengthen the US player pool, but will also strengthen the local soccer communities where those teams play (the emphasis that Ajax puts on their local area is worth noting, for example) - and that, in turn, will help grow the depth of the player pool far more than any arcane restriction on playing other sports.
The single biggest thing that strikes me when reading about DC United's academy signings is that these kids (aged 17 and 19, respectively) have now signed pro contracts with a team they grew up watching and rooting for in the DC area. This will be the first generation that's really had a chance to grow up with a national team that's relevant, a domestic team to root for, and a domestic team that's invested in developing soccer talent in the area.
The single biggest decision is the NCAA's ruling that would preserve the college eligibility of kids attending and playing in these academies. To put it in a hockey context, think of some of the academy teams as Major Junior - you have lots of prospects, but you could also have some players that wouldn't meet the NCAA's strict definition of amateurism. However, it doesn't kill your eligibility to play in that league. Therefore, MLS teams can develop talent and evaluate them at 18 - if they're ready to sign, then sign 'em, if not they can still go to college if they like - the next missing piece is to develop a reserve league for players that would fall in between those two tracks.
Point being - you grow the pool of players by increasing the level of training and skill development. You were proposing to increase skill level by enlarging the pool of players, which I think has it exactly backwards.
)
Yeah, god forbid kids have options. 
