Soccer talk: What’s wrong in the U.S. and how can it be fixed?

The recent failure of the United States Men’s National Team to qualify for next year’s World Cup has generated a lot of discussion about what went wrong and what is wrong in the U.S. soccer system.

Among those chiming in is Michael Lippert, a retired local club and high school coach who owned the Soccer Center gear and apparel store until it closed this year. He recently made two blog posts about what he thinks is wrong with soccer in the U.S. and how he would fix it.

Lippert and Kentucky Youth Soccer Association Technical Director Adrian Parrish generated a Twitter thread discussing it, and Lippert recently was a guest on EPL 1300 with Matthew Laurence. The show amazingly offers local soccer talk on WLXG 1300 AM. The Lippert episode is no longer available online, sadly.

Lippert’s first blog: “What’s Wrong With U.S. Soccer You Ask? Everything,” pulls no punches.

“Our first problem is… the kids. … our world is different today. Back then I didn’t have Xbox, YouTube, internet, iPads, smartphones or SnapChat to take my attention. I had to focus my attention on socializing with my friends through sports and school. There were no other ways to connect. That connection to soccer was powerful and stimulated my passion for the sport.”

He also takes a shot at how soccer is organized in this country, including locally.

“Our next problem is the youth system. Shocking right? AYSO, US Club, USYSA, ODP, ECNL, Development Academy, etc… they aren’t working together to improve the game. They are competing for players, selling that their approach is better.”

In Lippert’s follow-up post, “The Solutions. The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change,” he argues for a massive consolidation of soccer in the U.S., and a unifying strategy. And he wants to make it more affordable.

“Our 1st goal should be to reduce this cost and make it affordable for every family.  So how can do that?  Well here we go…  First, we have to change the structure of US Soccer.  We don’t need to start over, just modify and realign.  We have to consolidate branches or re-purpose them.’

There will be a lot of people who might not agree with everything Lippert says, including me. But it’s great that this kind of discussion is taking place locally.

Parrish recently joined Coach Reed Maltbie, a California coaching expert, speaker and author, for his “Shot Happens” podcast.

An intro to the segment on CoachReed.com states: “Adrian also talks about the elephant in the room, and that’s the transition between rec soccer and travel soccer. If our rec coaches are not developing our players from the earliest age and instilling a love of the game, the academies are already a step behind by losing possible players or forced to reteach basics. As Adrian shares, this does not mean we professionalize the younger kids, but rather give our rec coaches the materials and teaching they need to be competent teachers.”

Listen to the podcast here: http://coachreed.com/podcast/shothappens/shot-happens-adrian-parrish/

And check out the Lippert-Parrish Twitter conversation below: