Q & A With Jurgen Klinsmann

TDS: How would you compare American youth development to that in Germany and other leading soccer nations?
 

JK: “The quality of play in youth development is pretty similar to the European nations and more traditional soccer nations. The game is now played a lot more – in certain states they play 10 or 11 months. Soccer is similar to basketball, the more you play the better you get. ”The problem with the U.S. is you don’t have unorganized soccer or street soccer. That’s basically where you learn the game, similar to basketball, you learn it in the backyard or in the streets. The game got more and more popular in the last 10-15 years and the amount of games and training sessions they get now means at a physical and technical level there is no big difference. ”What’s difficult for U.S. kids is that they are always interrupted in their development. They switch from club level to school level and back, and this doesn’t exist in the other soccer nations. They are all the time playing club playing in their spare time. So they have to deal with that problem and that is tough for the U.S. kids. But it is a good level. It is important for them to keep a consistency in the next couple of years to get better year by year. Because of the educational system in the U.S. , it’s not easy to have that consistency.”
 

TDS: Would you tell them then, not to play high school soccer?
 

JK: “No, In high school they go through a lot of emotions also. High school soccer means a lot to them. They want to be with their buddies at school and be recognized as a good athlete. They just need to understand that they have to stay consistent between the different seasons. The high school coaches themselves need to get a specific soccer education and not just a general physical education. The more soccer background these guys have, the more influence they have on the development of the players as well.”
 

TDS: What’s the challenge of an event like this, to recognize individual vs team-oriented ability?
 

JK: “Initially it was kind of just a showcase to bring in the recruiting coaches. This year I said I wanted an educational background behind the whole thing. I said that, when the kids walk away from the camp on Sunday, I want them to have something that really helps them in the future. So what we did was bring in two top youth coaches from Europe, from Bayern Munich and AC Milan They worked on Tuesday and on Wednesday with the kids in different sessions in classes and also on the field. Different experts work with them on position play and on psychological elements, and in every area we try to give them bullet points, three, four, five key messages that they can take with them or keep in mind when go back to their club or high school. The second part is the games, where they have a chance to be seen by coaches, but even here we changed the format.
” We keep it more educational. For example I said to the referees, ‘we are all in the same boat.’ We need to tell the players what happens when a kid yells at the ref. How does the ref react to that and what happens when a kid loses focus or loses his rhythm and gets distracted. In these scrimmages the ref any time can stop the game, hold the time up and talk to players, the same with the coach. The coach can call to the ref and say ‘hey ref give me a chance to talk to them’.
”So the kids understand it is not only to showcase themselves but to get some key messages and lessons too. We want to emphasize development and education with the games themselves. I think that’s kind of unique, you don’t see that even in the big soccer nations. It was nice because the coaches with Bayern Munich and AC Milan were so impressed. They said, “Juergen, we never had something like that before. That approach is great because you try to show them every aspect of the game. Once these guys go back into their environments they will go back to their teammates and pass on the messages, and you get a kind of chain reaction.
On the issue of yelling at referees, in Europe if you kind of lift up your hand you can be sent off. Here in the Under 10 or Under 12 they are already screaming at the ref and in MLS you see them arguing with the ref. If you want to stop that you need to start getting message out at an event like this and having a chain reaction. So far the kids have been very attentive and staying focused. They are disciplined and it's a crucial age. There is so much going through their minds. Now is the chosen time to see if their future goes up or down.”