American Talent Pool Too Shallow, RSL will never improve

Stucki · 10-20-2005, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clarette

According to my highly scientific Google search, Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar played for the Portland Timbers.

Is he the Cuban that defected during the Gold Cup?

clarette · 10-20-2005, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stucki

Is he the Cuban that defected during the Gold Cup?

Considering that the FO says he's from Guadalajara, I sincerely doubt it.

🕺

Aerick · 10-20-2005, 08:38 PM

Bringing that local kid in could be good for marketing, unless he has the capability of seriously undermining the teams chances at a mildly successful year next season.

SoccerPrime · 10-21-2005, 06:31 AM

Worthen is considered a elite player in USL1, for what that is worth.
I say give him a chance. We seem perfectly willing to do that for all of our non-Utahn players. The worse he could be is another Leighton O'Brien.... 🙁

Thats great about the other trialists Nessie.
Have you heard anything about the Brazilian and Paraguyan that was also rumored to be on trial at RSL?

prk166 · 10-21-2005, 09:41 AM

A lack of talented American hockey players hasn't stopped the NHL from expanding to 30 teams. I don't think this is the problems the MLS faces as expands.

Super Phil · 10-22-2005, 08:19 AM

I don't care where the players come from. There are so many soccer players around the world that your scouting really does need to be global. You are making a mistake if you limit your talent-base. The players are out there....the trick is finding them and getting them here.

Jim Umber · 10-23-2005, 09:16 AM

I believe that the problem isn't that there aren't any good American players, but that we don't have a very good system for finding them and developing them.

Maybe every MLS team should also have a USL1 team for developement. Or the Reserve teams might be expanded and their number of games expanded, too, so it would be like a Reserve League. Every Reserve player would be playing for promotion to the real team (senior team?). Every senior player would be fighting to keep from being relegated to the Reserve team. I'm not sure that the current rules really give us that effect. What with the senior players who didn't get into the main event playing in the Reserve games. I think that whole plan, while a good idea, needs to be re-thought out and refined a bit.

I also believe it would be a good idea to have them play in Double-Headers with the Senior team. They would have a greater turn out and be playing before greater crowds. And we would be less likely to see the same players playing in both games (which is a waste of the whole Reserve Team concept).

...or not. I could be wrong...but I don't think so!

Rover · 10-23-2005, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Umber

I believe that the problem isn't that there aren't any good American players, but that we don't have a very good system for finding them and developing them.

I don't know if everyone is familiar with the youth "system" in the USA but it is not in any way a unified effort. That's the American way, but it has caused problems in identifying top talent. Whether it's USYSA, AYSO, ODP, NCAA, or the USSF, different organizations have different missions and they can get in the way of each other.

Introducing professionalism to training and development at a younger age is the key in my opinion. We have such a disparity in coaching across youth soccer that we lose a number of years to uneducated coaches. Not a criticism of the coaches--mostly volunteer parents who keep the leagues going. But better coaching at younger ages and links to MLS through youth leagues would help everyone.