At the quarter pole of new U.S. Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro’s first year in office, it may be too early to give out grades, but it’s not too soon to review his campaign promises and assess his early efforts to keep them. Those promises were often quite general—the platform’s goal was to “aim higher” in order to determine “a new vision for U.S. Soccer”—but Cordeiro did make a number of declarations in his platform that will allow his membership to hold him accountable. Let’s review.



Platform commitment: “Achieve our vision of growing the game and making soccer the preeminent sport in America. To do this, we need to think bigger and Aim Higher than ever before. That includes developing a plan to significantly increase our budget over the coming decade so that we can invest more in all players at all levels over the long term.”



Assessment: Making soccer the preeminent sport in...