From coaches to pushy parents, US men’s soccer is married to mediocrity

T he American soccer community is still reeling from the fallout between former USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter and the Reyna family. It left the men’s soccer program in an absolute shambles – without a head coach, sporting director, or general manager. The whole thing is a mess, and yet we see similar things in soccer across the US every day. It’s a product of the industry we’ve created. Parents feel entitled because they hand over big money for their child to play – they effectively pay to have an opinion.

As the men’s game in America continues to stall – the women’s game is still thriving after two successive World Cup victories – the rest of the world looks at us and wonders why we can’t figure it out. Why is US soccer still a laughing stock?

People don’t want to hear the reasons why, because they’re totally counterproductive to the industry we’ve created. But here’s the first one: There are too many kids playing soccer.

Let me rephrase that. It’s wonderful that kids are playing the beautiful game, no doubt. But there are too many parents paying thousands of dollars for their kids to play alongside truly great players. That’s not helping our best ones (and it doesn’t help the average ones, who are outclassed in every game they play). Our best players need to be playing with and against each other, not alongside a bunch of kids who effectively act as training cones.

The boutique club programs they’re meant to play in aren’t helping either. A while back, the US Soccer Federation deemphasized high school soccer in order to prioritize club soccer. That was a mistake. Our best young players now have no idea what pressure is – they play their biggest games in front of a few parents in lawn chairs rather than in a buzzing