By The Time I Got To Phoenix

So with his real dad being a no-show, it fell to me to take the boy to the Phoenix Showcase for the start of his second year in the hair-brained Development Academy program. I’m not a big fan of this program as you know, and I’m a little bit disappointed that he has chosen to focus on a girl’s sport, but I suppose I have to give him some encouragement. I just don’t get all this ‘play and train like the pros’ business that they’ve got going on. Only one game per day, three-to-one training to game ratio, mandatory rest periods, scientific testing, WTF?! Why can’t we just drive these kids into the ground the way we do with real soccer on the girl’s side?

Anyway, this year’s team is made up of some carry-overs from last year’s roster, some kids from the state’s other academy club, a few from the club that won the state cup, as many of the hot-shots from all the other clubs that we could pick up, and one kid who came through the ranks at our own club. I suppose it is heartening to see all these players coming to the club to be part of our long tradition of developing the best players in the state.

One of the highlights of the showcase was supposed to be the evening games featuring the US U17 MNT playing a round robin series of games against Portugal, The Netherlands and Brazil. I guess it’s nice of us to help bring the game to these developing countries.

However, I was very disappointed with our US roster. A kid from Michigan, one from Indiana, one from Illinois, a bunch from California! In fact the roster was made up of kids from all over the country! What’s the deal? Looks to me like the coach is just one great big RECRUITER! Typical of a coach who doesn’t know anything about developing his own players! That’s the sort of sharp practice poaching that would get him in a lot of trouble if he tried to pull those stunts in the Northern Central Michigan Premier Development Super Olympic Select League. We have a fine committee of distinguished self-important non-entities who would slap that sort of behavior down in a minute. So you better get with it Mr US Soccer! This was the DEVELOPMENT Academy Showcase, remember?