There’s a Reason American Kids Aren’t Better at Soccer. I Saw It for Myself All Too Well.

Youth soccer in America reflects some of our worst national systems.

sabato 18 luglio 2026 New tab

2,851 words~13 min read

America’s Broken Soccer Racket

If you ever had a kid play competitive soccer in the U.S., you already know why the national team stalled out in the World Cup.

July 18, 20269:00 AM

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The postmortems on the U.S. Men’s National Team’s elimination in the round of 16 during this World Cup had a lot of ground to cover: exposing the American pay-to-play club system, admiring the human-development-forward youth sports system in Norway, considering the aggressive pre-professional academy system in England, understanding how private equity is hollowing out a working-class sport.

There’s a Reason American Kids Aren’t Better at Soccer. I Saw It for Myself All Too Well.

There’s a Reason American Kids Aren’t Better at Soccer. I Saw It for Myself All Too Well.

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A ‘broken’ system, nascent culture: Why the U.S. has never had a world-class…

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Wall Street ‘greed’ spurs takeover of youth sports, critics say

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