Do the coaches in this country know how to identify a good player?

I’m not trying to be funny here, and the question is definitely not rhetorical. When you talk about getting from A to B as a soccer nation, there are a lot of things that need to be improved and a lot of them are being addressed in recent years through the USSF Development Academy and now the new training curriculum introduced by USSF Technical Director Claudio Reyna.

But something I haven’t heard much about is the actual art or talent of recognizing good players. Do we even know what we’re looking for?

In conversations with coaches I often hear a wide variance of views on this player or that player. It seems to me however, in talking with coaches from Brazil or Holland for instance, that these coaches are on the same page in looking for a player’s technical and tactical qualities.

Now to be sure, complaining that coaches don’t know a good player when they see one can be little more than a know-nothing parent seeking to explain away the rejection that is breaking his son or daughter’s heart. I’m not talking about that. But I do feel there’s little conversation about what people are actually looking for. College coaches need to ID talent as part of their livelihood, but most of the college game is on a different avenue from what will get us to the next level professionally and internationally.

I asked Reyna about this at the U.S. Soccer Summit last month at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. I have to admit a personal failure here in that it’s apparent from his answer he thought I was asking about how U.S. Soccer does in identifying the best players for youth national teams, whereas I was asking about the actual skill or eye for recognizing talent, and how do we develop THAT skill.

Still, his answer does highlight these new U.S. Soccer Market Training Centers, which is a way the federation is utilizing its extensive Academy scouting network. It started with bringing in Academy players, and now it has expanded to invite non-Academy players, at pre-Academy ages, to these day-long sessions in front of scouts.

Not surprisingly, around each of these event locations there are stories of club-level intrigue with accusations of a recruiting agenda or old-school cronyism  being present in connection with who is selected to attend. This is just a reflection of what has gone on in our country for years with its multiple and often disjointed player ID system. The market training centers may not be perfect but they are a very good development in our system.

Here is what Reyna had to say.

Next Monday: Overcoming a culture of pessimism and being suitably ambitious as a soccer nation.

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