College Soccer is our 600 pound gorilla, so let's embrace it (him)

I’ve read some comments by soccer writers that express fear that the aggressive recruiting of South American players by European clubs will contribute to the decline of the “beautiful game.”  How?  Well, the thought is it breaks up the tight soccer culture in those countries by encouraging in-country clubs to develop and market their best players for export.  If these export markets favor a more physical game and place less value on some of the technically-skilled creativity that South American soccer is known for, then the homegrown style of play and players with traditional South American style get pushed aside.

In this scenario, clubs and their directors of player development become more like Wall Street bankers as they try to fit their players to what they think will be most valuable on the world soccer market.  Of course, every country seeks ways to create an export surplus (get more money selling things to other countries than you pay out to buy their stuff).  With a bad economy worldwide and a lot of poverty in the South American communities where many players come from, the transfer fees that can be brought in for a player mean a lot to these clubs and communities.  On top of that, many of these players send money from their salary back home to help support family members.  It’s probably not an overstatement to say that the money exchanged can mean life or death for some in the community.

We had a supply and demand issue a few years back involving South America that has some peculiar similarities.  When we (North Americans and Europeans) first got worried about deforestation in the Amazon and other rainforest areas of Central and South America, we approached South Americans with an attitude that the problem was they were supplying too many products that caused loss of rainforest areas.  We spent most of our efforts telling them what they couldn't do to earn income for their families, but little effort on identifying how to share responsibility or educating our own folks about being smart about our demand and use of those products.  We loved exotic hardwoods, coffee, beef, and other products that caused the deforestation, yet we forgot that if we didn’t ask for so much of it, they wouldn’t cut the forests down to provide it.

I’m not bringing this up to analyze what is going on with South American soccer players.  I even doubt that transfers of these players to European clubs is a danger to the Latin soccer style.  What I’m interested in is looking at what forces shape youth soccer development in the USA, since supply and demand forces affect us too.  The differences are big, and relevant to how we can support and even influence the sport as fans.

OK, so what forces of supply and demand influence youth soccer here at home?  A few players each year will go directly to pro clubs: MLS or Internationally.  But the number of players who go to college programs is enormous compared to that.  Also, very few clubs with youth players in the USA have any transfer fee rights if a pro club comes knocking, so demand from pro clubs is much less likely to influence youth development programs in the way it does in other countries.  Part of this is due to our “pay to play” setup in the USA versus the recruitment-based approach taken by European or South American youth development programs who are oriented toward sending players on to professional contracts. 

Also, while colleges don’t pay transfer fees to youth clubs and don’t pay salaries to players, they have scholarship money.  We moms and dads like scholarship money…a lot.  Think about it this way:  if you had to make a bet with your child: a 1 in a million chance that he gets a multi-million dollar pro contract but if he doesn’t he lives in poverty, or a 1 in a hundred chance that he gets most of his college education paid for and can get a good job, where would you want to “bet” your child?  We may hear about the superstar Brazilians who make it, but for all those that don’t, they have few job opportunities.

So really, the college game is the 600 pound gorilla that influences youth development in the USA.  If we want our style of play and our soccer culture to go in a good direction, that is the pivot point for the whole thing.  Unlike in other countries, the big influence here is not foreign pro clubs, domestic pro clubs, or even the national teams, its really the college game.

But when I read articles and blogs about soccer, it seems like there is so much focus on how the national team or the MLS will influence the growth and direction of the sport here.  I’m going to say that we have misguided ourselves.  Yes, it all matters – TV ratings for World Cup games influence advertisers to spend money on soccer broadcasts and sponsorships, MLS success can give kids a local pro team to root for and stars to follow, etc.  But the way the college game is played, its continued health and creation of scholarship opportunities, and the types of players in demand at top college programs will be the single biggest influence on both youth programs below it and the growth and success of MLS clubs and national teams above it.

When I watched last year’s College Cup winning Akron squad, I was excited about the style of play that was dominating the NCAA tournament.  I saw crisp and rapid passes, players who were really confident on the ball and used lots of surfaces of their feet, and a lot of play with the ball on the ground.  That is a description that would fit Barcelona pretty well.  No surprise, that Akron squad placed a record 5 players in the first round of the MLS draft.

Was what I saw just a flash in the pan?  The year before, I was very unimpressed with the play of then-champion Virginia, it looked like that overly-defensive, slow, plodding, long-ball stuff that can give the college game a bad name and put fans to sleep.  I hope I saw an emerging style in that Akron squad, a style that will come to dominate the college game.  As fans, we each play a very small role in the overall demand side of our soccer economics, but what if we all did our best to get behind and support the college programs that get us excited, that show us a game that is inspiring and skillful to watch?  College soccer’s influence on the future of the sport is overlooked by many, but it’s evolution may actually hold the key to moving the sport to the next level in the US.