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Aaron Nielsen ,

April 6, 2017 Email

Aaron Nielsen



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With the CONCACAF U-17 Championship being held in late April, Canada Soccer has recently made their player pool announcement for the tournament. As has become more common, and like we saw for the recent Canadian Men's U-20 side, most players are from either Toronto FC or Vancouver Whitecaps Academies. This was also the case in terms of the 2015 U-17 side, which saw nine Toronto FC and six Whitecaps players chosen. However, two players from the tournament, and who are still to be regarded as the great upside from that team were Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla and Duwayne Ewart, who didn't have any attachment to a MLS club at that time. While the rest of the players’ stock have dropped, but there still hope for Kadin Chung, Matthew Baldisimo, Munir Saleh, Aidan Daniels and Malik Johnson will turn out to be decent pros. At the U-17 level it is difficult to tell if in fact the best players were selected, especially with the amount of information made available for players playing at this level. One side that was ignored in 2015 and only has two players in the 2017 side is the Montreal Impact Academy, who are regarded as one of the top clubs at the U16 USSDA level. This is the top American academy league that both the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps play in, with Montreal winning about 70% of their games at that level. The treatment of Quebec by the CSA is an issue all to its own, although even if the Impact had a fair share of call-ups it would still mean that the three MLS Academy teams dominate youth development, at least in the opinion of the CSA. What the three MLS Academies have become are "Centers of Excellence" for Canadian Soccer. This is a model used by many other countries, which has turned out to be a failure. England invested millions into their "Center of Excellence", although the amount of pro players it developed was very poor compared to the money spent, while the United States just closed their U.S. Soccer Under-17 Residency Program. The biggest criticism is that it shrunk the potential player pool, with countries emphasizing on only the few players at these facilities or academies, instead the total amount of players playing at this age group. Beyond this, the other issue Canada has with this system is both the CSA and the players themselves are under the influence of MLS sides. This effects which players are chosen, it causes players to quit at a younger age for those not accepted in the academies, and it restricts player movement as well, with the MLS club owning the players’ development rights. It also creates a monopoly on Canadian soccer development in Canada, unless you are a strong program like Sigma Academy who can convince players that playing for Canada’s U15/17/20 program is not necessary as part of development - which also can create later issues with a player’s commitment to the senior national team. Just mentioning Sigma tells us that the notion soccer in Canada is only run by the MLS Academies is not in fact the case. So when looking at the U-17 side, one begins to ask questions where are the Sigma players on this team who at this age group will be accepted to Division 1 NCAA programs in a year’s time? Or where are the players from Power FC, Durham and ANB Academy, who were the strongest Ontario Academies at the U-17 age group during the 2016 outdoor season. There was also a Canadian U-16 Championship last year, but there are no players on the U-17 team from the two clubs who played in the final, Edmonton Juventus or Winnipeg Bonivital SC, or even the Wexford Rangers who represented Ontario. To be fair, I am interested in the development of many of the players selected to the U-17 side. Six of the ten are Toronto FC players who played in League One Ontario last season. with Rocco Romeo being a consistent starter while Luca Petrasso and Terique Mohammed are players with exciting upside. In terms of the Whitecaps, they are currently first in the USSDA Northwest Division and the Canada U-17 team includes their top performers José Hernández, Alessandro Hojabrpour, Michael Baldisimo, Jake Ruby and Gabriel Escobar. It should be said that very few of the Vancouver players are actually from Vancouver, with the Whitecaps bringing in players anywhere from BC to Manitoba with their residency program, which also shows that the CSA is allowing the Whitecaps to do their scouting for them. Canada’s best player at this age group is Alphonso Davies and he was not included as Vancouver prefers him playing for them rather than representing Canada, which was the same issue with the U-20 Tournament. With Canada’s U20s having an easier draw than the U-17 CONCACAF Tournament, I'm not confident in saying Canada will do well, because as always we don't have the depth of next-level players, and at this point outside of the US I don't know the overall quality of players from the other CONCACAF National U-17 Sides. Unlike the 2015 U-17 Canadian side, in my view there is no Ewart or Tabla on this team, which raises further concerns on how we will do in the tournament. I'm willing to listen to the argument that the 24 players selected to the Canadian U-17 side are the best we have to offer, and that might be the case. Although like most things, such as MLS when dealing with Soccer in North America, I can't just believe what the CSA might say. The CSA has become a PR firm with just positive opinion on ongoing development of youth soccer yet continued failure on the field. Canada was embarrassed at the recent U-20 CONCACAF tournament, yet outside of a very positive match report against Antigua (one of the worst countries in the World) nothing has been said by the CSA administration about the tournament since it was completed, compared to the positive spin written prior to the tournament, which I feel was more realistically previewed (and proven) in my CONCACAF U-20 preview article. A simple analysis of Canadian Soccer is that it’s not competitive, and it is politics of the worst kind. It puts power in the hands of people who have no track record of success, it alienates a large part of the population and any issues are covered up by attempts at positive spins. A solution, in my opinion, is simply take control of the game. In each region have a tiered system of leagues with divisions where all clubs compete against each other fairly and then have an open national tournament with each region’s champions competing for a national championship. Maybe Toronto FC and the Whitecaps may win this tournament each year, but it will also give an opportunity for other clubs to compete at this level. It will also allow for a fair assessment of all players playing at the top tier in the game, which would increase the potential player pool ten-fold. Finally, at the end of the day, it would also hold each club accountable for their own player development and determine where the CSA should be focusing their attention. Currently, all I can judge Canada on is how it competes at an international stage, because this is the only level of soccer where results will reflect the truth and not PR. The CSA has even made this difficult by choosing not to select their best players, although if the recent U20 Championship shows anything we are worse than Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica and miles behind Mexico and the United States. In my opinion, based on how we currently run the game, especially if we continue to do so, I can only conclude this will always be the case. Something as a soccer community we should be ashamed of and more people need to actively be looking to help change the landscape. Aaron Neilsen is a co-founder of Prospect XI (Prospect Eleven), a scouting network and online magazine dedicated to tracking/highlighting young players that refer to as "prospects" as well as their development pathways both within North America and worldwide. Follow PXI via www.prospectxi.com or on twitter @ProspectXI.