Just off a busy highway in suburban Wayne, Pennsylvania, a collection of drab green-and-beige warehouses exist that look no different than your average recreation center. Get close and you might spot a small metal sign bearing the Philadelphia Union’s crest next to the front door, but there’s little else here that would indicate the place’s true purpose: home of the YSC Academy, the Union’s youth development program.



Just across the street there’s an equally inauspicious structure, an old office park that YSC has converted into a schoolhouse.



Swing the door open, though, and it becomes readily apparent that this is not your average MLS academy. At YSC Sports in Wayne, the Union have created what they believe to be the most innovative youth development program in Major League Soccer, one that’s finally starting to bear fruit. Architecturally, it’s a far cry from the farmhouse at Barcelona’s La Masia, but here, within...