Part 3 in a Five-Part Series | Read Part 1, Part 2

Claudio Reyna is the new Technical Director for US Soccer. He addressed assembled youth coaches at the recent USSF Development Academy Spring Showcase in Sarasota, Florida. TopDrawerSoccer.com was there and is presenting a rundown of Reyna’s comments both to the coaches and in an exclusive interview with Managing Editor Robert Ziegler later that week.

Our Interview with Claudio Reyna

While he was taking in games from the USSF Development Academy Spring Showcase, Claudio Reyna was kind enough to have a conversation with me about his mission.

Question - In your presentation to the Academy coaches you talked about establishing and using international standards as a benchmark and a gauge, how are you, other than of course your playing experience, going to get a really good grasp of what goes on internationally at the youth level and what we should be shooting for?

Answer: When I say internationally, I try to focus on a few places that do it really well. There’s different countries and different clubs. It’s not about copying anything from just one place. There’s a lot of places in different countries that are now doing things very similarly, with small differences. We’re going to have small differences here because we’re the U.S. and because of the way we’re set up. It’s important to see what they’re doing and the picture they’re painting on all levels, not just what the game on the field looks like, but the training environment they are putting their kids in, what they are teaching them at the different stages and ages. Development obviously means many years, not just 2 or 3 years, so it means what we’re talking from age 5 or 6 to basically 19 years old and after that kids should either be turning pro or usually that’s when it ends all over the world. So it’s about bringing those standards here. The way they are doing all over the world is what we need to compare to. We can’t create our own standards. It’s clear they set the benchmark on development. We need to get people to think that, although they’ve come a long way, there is still a long way to go. It’s a little bit of an inconvenient truth type of reality. I think the coaches understand that. We want to support them to help everybody become better. Everybody needs to come together to support that.

Questions: Do you think you’ve had a pretty receptive hearing to that message from the coaching community?

Answer: Yes. I’m not talking to everybody but we’re talking to many different people. They’ve been very receptive, very welcoming. A lot of clubs already want to work with us, not only with the Academy but with younger ages and on the boys and girls side as well. The Federation sets the plan and direction and that’s what we need to do and work together with different age groups and organizations and it’s very important. It’s going to take time and it’s a project absolutely, but we’re more or less on the same page and that’s where the best countries and better developed countries like Spain and Holland and France and Germany, in their development, are doing. I’ve picked a number of places but they’re very similar in what they’re doing.

My intentions are purely about the advancement of the game on all levels. The image we have within our country and around the world needs to show a high, high standard. How we behave and play and everything, that’s how we develop good players. The environment means a bit of everything and people lose sight of that. This is all from my experiences and what I see good people doing around the world is creating a good environment for kids to develop, never mind just the coaching but how they do it, where they do it and when they do it. They are all working for each other and I think we have a way sometimes of getting in each other’s way by creating too many obstacles and hurdles. That’s my main message to anybody in the soccer community. We’ve got to improve our standards.

Part 4: Getting clubs to follow the gameplan

Missed a part? Read Part 1, Part 2