Developing and harnessing the growing power of youth soccer in the U.S. is a bear of a task. It’s made so difficult primarily by its fragmentary nature and the sheer scale of the map - the U.S. is enormous. Any national league has to adapt and follow suit.
But what about national leagues?
The Development Academy, U.S. Soccer’s own developmental arm, is pushing forward with a single-league model that’s attempting to consolidate power into one concentrated stream. Meanwhile, U.S. Club Soccer is pushing forward into year four of its National Premier Leagues model that owns its own place on the developmental map. In lieu of one league, the NPL fronts 19 for the 2014-15 season stretching from Southern California to New England. It also has more age groups, though U.S. Soccer extended into its territory by recently founding a U14 division.
With another 10-month season staring the NPL down, the lessons learned over the past three seasons aren’t lost on U.S. Club Soccer executive vice president Christian Lavers.
