Look for Talent in Europe….Novel Idea

Written by: tyler ransburgh

After winning the Milk Cup and ramping up to the U-20 World Cup next year in Colombia, I have high hopes for the young soccer talent in the US and have been reading anything I can get my hands on. This week I can across an article on Sports Illustrated called “U.S. Under-20 team makes strides“. Overall a good article written by George Dohrmann about the current state of the U-20 team.

A paragraph at the end of the story caught me by surprise:

“Such a wealth of talent a little more than a year removed from the failure in Egypt, when it appeared the cupboard was barren, can be credited to U.S. Soccer’s expanded search for talent. Rather than rely on the U.S. residency program or college programs to supply players, Rongen and others at U.S. Soccer scouted Europe, Mexico and elsewhere for prospects eligible to play for the U.S. Combined with the improvement of the MLS academy system and more young players bypassing college for professional opportunities abroad, it has created a deeper and better pool of players.”

The important sentence being “Rather than rely on the U.S. residency program or college programs to supply players, Rongen and others at U.S. Soccer scouted Europe, Mexico and elsewhere for prospects eligible to play for the U.S.”

Ahhhhh, what? Are you telling me the US Soccer Federation has not been scouring Europe and other places for US talent since the beginning of time?

Hey, Sunil Gulati, there is this fantastic site called Yanks Abroad. They have these weekly previews and recaps of all the US players playing in foreign leagues. Im not talking about the Howard’s and Dempsey’s (they do have articles on the top players as well), but all the players the average soccer fan has never or rarely heard of.

Overall I thought that the World Cup this year was disappointing. When is the next time we will get a road to the semis with no soccer powerhouses on the schedule? But after reading that US Soccer has not been tracking US players in Europe until recently, is just depressing.