I remember this 15-year old Canadian kid who showed up to the ODP Interregional in Florida with a Mohawk. She was rough around the edges but scored a nice goal in that first match.

Sydney Leroux is still scoring, bagging 2 goals today as a substitute for her new home country (her dad is an American) in the opening match of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, a 3-0 win against France. She actually played for Canada’s U19 team as a 14-year old in 2004. She was named to our All-Rookie team last week for her work this fall with UCLA.

As valuable as Leroux’s contribution was for the U20s Wednesday, it was matched by Penn State goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, who made a pair of highlight-reel saves to keep the French off the board. USA coach Tony DiCicco, architect of the famous 1999 World Cup win for the full team, admitted the match was more even than the scoreline, thanks in large part to Naeher.

Would you believe someone wrote me last week bashing the selection of Naeher to our College Team of the Season? The writer said I was paying last year’s consensus All-America “a false compliment” by naming her to the team. Well I suppose everyone out there has an agenda and their reasons, but one thing I DO NOT DO is give false compliments. Naeher showed again today why she deserves it.

Nikki Washington’s speed was certainly a dangerous weapon Wednesday, and the exceptional play at left from Washington’s North Carolina teammate Meghan Klingenberg highlighted a good display from the USA backline.

Next up is Argentina on Saturday.

We heard the sad news this morning that Leslie Krohn had died after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Leslie was the mother of Danielle Krohn, a good player on a good Hershey Attack team. I met Leslie through covering that team and Region I ODP.

Leslie was very dedicated to helping people in soccer, volunteering with ODP and other things, even after being diagnosed with cancer some time ago. I recall being at the ODP Interregional in 2006 and she had made the drive down to watch her daughter play despite not feeling very well.

I don’t want to pretend I knew her better than I did, but she was unfailingly nice to me whenever I ran across her at soccer events and clearly was dedicated to her family.

Our condolences to her family and friends.

Kaz Tambi’s U17 WNT just lost the final of the first FIFA U17 World Cup, 2-1 in overtime to North Korea.

These young ladies must be shattered right now. How could they not be after leading most of the match and then surrendering an equalizer late, followed by a late winner from the North Koreans in the 2nd OT session?

But in time they’ll have to consider that it’s been an incomparable soccer experience for players of this age, not to mention they were up against an opponent with a state-run system in terms of time together and training. This age group will now be three years ahead of their predecessors in terms of understanding the international game, major event navigation and even big-time travel experiences.

So while there’s no erasing the disappointment for competitors such as these, if with their heads they can see the big picture, they’ll realize it really is all good.

So it’s 3 a.m. EST and yes, I was up working AND watching the U17 Girls National Team take a famous victory over Germany in the semifinal of the FIFA U17 World Cup in New Zealand.

OK, I “watched” via USSF MatchTracker because this event is not available for viewing in the USA. Would it be so hard for Fox Soccer Channel of GOL TV to get a feed of the final? I don’t know if a feed is available so I’ll qualify my plea, but surely there must be some interest in this, yeah? Let me hear ya USA fans!

That notwithstanding, what a great win for the U.S. team. They fell behind to the Germans early and apparently were pinging the bar and both posts with regularity before Victoria DiMartino and Courtney Verloo scored the tying and winning goals in the 2nd half. Are these two promising us to be a great U.S. strike partnership of the future? They are on fire!

Hereis the link to a feature I did on the four standout girls’ soccer players in the DiMartino family - back on the old Top Drawer.

It also “sounds” like defender Rachel Quon is really making her presence felt down under. The Eclipse Select standout tore her ACL several months ago and has made a heroic effort to get back into playing shape just before this event began. Congratulations to her and the entire team. Here is an article we did earlier this year on Rachel and Jenna Richmond, another player who suffered a knee injury and one for whom the event came just a little too soon for her to make a comeback. She definitely would have been in this squad otherwise.

Now Kaz Tambi’s team plays North Korea in the final. What a classic Cold War matchup this could be. Here the North Koreans have just invited inspectors in to look at their nuclear facilities, what better way to say thank you than to give them a good drubbing in the World Cup Final.

Sounds like a plan to me.

But a better plan at the moment is going to bed. Sweet dreams everyone!

What a good run Kaz Tambi’s U17 Women’s National Team are on in New Zealand.

The team had an opening hiccup when they lost the FIFA U17 World Cup opener to Japan, and they were level with Paraguay at halftime of their 2nd game, which had to cause a little anxiety.

But this group has responded to the gutcheck with remarkable poise. A pair of 2nd half goals lifted them over the South Americans, and then the group played well enough in the clutch to eke out a draw vs. France to advance.

It’s good to have friends around the world and I’ve been fortunate enough to have a Kiwi give some independent feedback on the team’s performances. He really likes Vicki DiMartino who has shown some real finishing ability at this event, scoring in each group stage game, including a couple of golazos. He also gave good marks to the team defense for having improved from the first match, citing the work of Amber Brooks in defensive midfield against France in particular.

Well Saturday night the team delivered in the clutch again. DiMartino scored her fourth and strike partner Courtney Verloo bagged two goals for the U.S., with Kristen Mewis adding another in a 4-2 win over South Korea. Now the team goes to the semifinals.

The win was surely a team effort and now the squad will play in the semifinals against an old adversary of the full women’s national team, Germany.

It’s impossible to project these things, but it’s pretty evident the U.S. team is improving as it goes. Teams would overlook them at their own peril.

Just a shout out to the U17 Girls National Team down in New Zealand.

Tough stuff tonight to be leading in the 2nd Half and have Japan score a couple of goals to snatch the three points. The biggest thing about all of this is you get the chance to show your mettle, to respond the right way to adversity and continue to represent the colors well.

Today was a first as this is the inaugural FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup. From the sounds of it the team played with a lot of passion and were undone by some uneven stretches. This is definitely the kind of thing that can be corrected and there’s no question the team can advance out of group stage with a couple of wins in the next two matches.

I’m sure all of our readers join me in wishing this group nothing but the best for the remainder of the competition. Keep your heads up. You can do nothing about the last game but everything about the rest of the contests. You have what it takes.

Into our 2nd year of the USSF Development Academy and the returns are positive. Sunil Gulati, John Hackworth and everyone else who has truly been behind this and helped make it work our deserving of congratulations.

But just by entering a more sophisticated player development environment you start to realize how much more there is to do. I’ve been talking with Erik Visser on Top Drawer Soccer radio and he is prescribing some very specific ideas about methods and system that bear listening to.

As financial incentive continues to be a big issue in the implementation of all of this, I’m increasingly burdened to start pushing the next big steps in the reform movement. This is a little raw, but please give it a read and respond with your thoughts. We need a little fast-forward action to further establish the concept of the youth professional in our country.

I’m told the big inhibition to MLS clubs signing their own youth programs is that the roster isn’t big enough and they don’t want to “take a chance” on the young player not being good enough to help them. So let’s do the follwoing:

Let each team expand their roster from 28 to 32 players, and make the additional 4 slots “Youth Development” slots. They key is that the players under these contracts are given guaranteed 3-year contracts that do not count against the salary cap. They don’t have to be huge contracts but make them something at least livable for a single young man, say $32K for year, plus the same college provision that the current Generation Adidas contracts have, plus something for expenses. The players have to be between 16 and 19 when they sign to be eligible, and after perhaps the first year of the program, they CAN NOT have played college soccer.

Including college and expenses this should add up to $250K per team, per year. If the league is going to 20 teams pretty soon that is about $5 million per year to give up to 80 young players the chance to train and play as professionals for 3 years.

As with other pro leagues around the world, some of those players will fail to make it - they end up with a college education opportunity just like someone who has been given a scholarship. They just won’t end up playing college soccer.

Some of the players will advance to the first team of an MLS franchise, helping more American players become professionals.

SOME of the players will attract attention from overseas, much more likely for them as they are in a professional environment rather than a club or a college. This will give them a better financial opportunity AND bring some money back to MLS clubs in transfer fees.

A few of these players will really strike it big, having been helped by the chance to live and play as a pro from a younger age. These are the guys who will collect the bigger paychecks and ultimately draw more money in the transfer market, a few of which will easily fund this program.

The money for this at the beginning can come from a sponsor. In fact I would argue that this is a better use of the Generation adidas money.

Now along with this, our Development Academy should be set up in tiers, where the non -pro clubs will be aligned with the MLS teams - and they will feed into each of those clubs as part of a territory. The MLS teams will pay something to each of these clubs up front so they can make the academy programs free for their older players. Something like $50K per year to participating club, which comes out to maybe $5 million

Additionally, any money coming in for these young pros will filter back through the MLS club to the youth clubs. A 5 percent fee of a $5million transfer fee would pretty much make a youth club’s year, or more. You have to do this so it’s not just a payout. It helps give incentive for the clubs to be doing things the right way, to increase their chances of producing a marketable player.

By the way none of this prevents a player from going to Europe if that’s what he wants, nor should it stop a club from working out an arrangement with Euro clubs, but it gives a much more imminent option for players with their domestic league.

The benefit for college soccer is that fewer players, way fewer I’m guessing, would leave school early as the professional opportunity is there for them much earlier. Going to school for 3 years and then going pro before the last isn’t really helping that player’s development so much, it’s just throwing a crimp into the college program. We’ll still be getting players from college soccer through the draft, and college soccer is still a great opportunity for thousands of players every year so this is important too. MLS can agree to take players before or after a 4-year college soccer program, not during (the league rules already allow clubs who had players in their youth system to retain rights to them when they go to play college soccer).

If we can get a sponsor to fund it at the beginning, some leadership from the Federation to get the youth clubs in line, and cooperation and vision from the MLS clubs to recognize that for us to become great as a league and a nation, we have to start developing our own players and giving them a REAL chance to make it as pros, this could come together as a very significant step forward.

People can say it’s far-fetched to think the clubs or MLS or college programs will agree to this, but when I started writing about the Academy 5 or 6 years ago, that’s what they said then. With some vision and an understanding that it is the best long-term financial setup for everyone, it can happen.

Well this was probably as nerve-wracking and entertaining a “meaningless” game as you could expect. While the result naturally disappoints, I was very glad to see Bob Bradley use so many young players in this match at Trinidad & Tobago.

I think the group showed a lot of individual talent, worked together in some pretty good ways, but ultimately lost because of some inexperience, particularly down the stretch. It also showed that a number of these key young players, like Jozmer Altidore, Freddy Adu and Maurice Edu, plus goalkeeper Brad Guzan, have not been playing too much of late with their professional clubs in Europe. Hopefully that will change before too long as all three have so much to offer the national team if they can keep the rust off and confidence high.

Glad to see Charlie Davies score his first international goal. He looked promising in the Olympics as well. Jose Francisco Torres shows a lot of promise in midfield. As I mentioned the other day, the backline ended up being pretty experimental, but Heath Pearce looks better and better, hey?

Now for the final qualifier in Denver let’s get back to the total blowout motif.

A while ago I blogged that the USA Men’s National Team needs to murder its CONCACAF opponents when it plays them in World Cup Qualifiers at home.

To reiterate, we’ve gone past the point of being satisfied with qualifying for the World Cup, so eking out 1-0 wins against teams from Central America and the Caribbean, especially at home, is not satisfactory. All that does is keep us in one place, which is too far a leap from the heavyweights of the world that we want to be reckoned as competitive with.

Our mentality has to be that we vastly superior to our federation’s competition, but rather than be complacent with the notion, we need to go out and prove it. Yes, Cuba was weak to start with and made weaker by a short bench and a 1st half red card, but even more so was it important to really run up a big score.

I liked the players’ attitude Saturday about getting forward and we want to see more and more of this. If CONCACAF are going to continue to have this convoluted and drawn out qualifying process, we should purpose to make the states that make it up feel pain via lopsided wins, especially when they come to the U.S.

Wednesday should be a chance to see some of the young hopefuls in the U.S. setup play a full match. It will also be interesting in terms of the backline we have available to play after Bob Bradley released a number of European-based professionals (a smart move in the long term).

I’ll take more of what we saw Saturday please.

What do you think? Should the U.S. look for big margins of victory against its CONCACAF opponents at home?

Looking at all these recruiting commitments rolling in for 2010 graduates on the Girls side and it makes my head spin. If I can think back that far, I’m pretty sure my opinions on career path early in my junior year of high school were subject to change (come to think of it, I still haven’t figured out what I’m good at, if anything).

Yet the norm is for players to make a verbal sometime during their junior year. It used to be that National Signing Day (February of the senior year) was about when the decisions were made. At that point an “early decision” was something like October or November of the 12th grade. Then the big rush was for players to commit in the summer before the senior year. “Get it out of the way” was the counsel heard from many sides, and you can concentrate on your final year of high school socially and academically. There is some of this thinking in other sports.

But now for Girls soccer, a decision in the summer before 12th grade is almost considered late. Players are looking at the beginning of September and October of the junior year as kind of a benchmark, with the spring of sophomore year of the summer between 10th and 11th grade very common as the time for a verbal to be made. Each year there are a few more 9th and 10th graders giving verbals.

It’s a free country, and if someone WANTS to do this, fine. But I want to encourage every family out there, especially of elite players, to not think like they HAVE to make the decision. Make it when you are ready. If a school absolutely won’t wait for you, that should tell you something.

Incidentally, the only way you could regulate this would be to say no contact, direct or indirect, prior to July 1 of the senior year. I do not think this would be a measured response by the NCAA so I hope things I hear whispers about do not become reality. Players and their families are still governed by the 1st Amendment before they are governed by the NCAA.

The emphasis on the early decision is not beneficial for most athletes (and almost every school is looking for this, matter what they say), but in the end it will be up to players and their parents to reverse the tide.

So just relax. It almost never hurts to wait.