Since the Union's season seems to be spiraling out of control, I started to think about the future of the team and what direction the club needs to go to be successful. The fact is that the only way for a team like the Union to be consistently successful in MLS is by continuing to invest in The YSC Academy.
Every year I look around the league and see teams like the Galaxy, Sounders, and Manchester City's u-11s (also known as NYCFC) spending big money on designated players. It is very obvious that under this ownership group Philly will never be one of those teams. On the bright side, The Union has one distinct advantage over other teams in MLS because they've created a full high school devoted to developing top class talent under the watchful eye of coaches and trainers. Hopefully all of the investment in the academy will pay off in the near future and homegrown players will begin popping up all over PPL park.
Its obviously very exciting when academy players like Sebastian Elney and Sean Wilson are called up to various youth national teams, but the place where most young players fall through the cracks is during the transition from the academy to the pros. As of today most players that graduate from the academy will commit to a college and play NCAA soccer. When these players go to college the Union generally loses control over their development and the staff cannot guide them to first team. That is why it is essential that the Union create a USL-pro team to help young prospects transition from the youth game to Major League Soccer. Yeah, I know we send players over to Harrisburg City Islanders to get some game time but having a Union reserve side would give young players a clear path to the first team and would allow coaches to teach them the system they want to play.
If the Union can successfully transition some of the young talent that is being produced at YSC to MLS it will create a strong club culture and distinct style of play. Hopefully that style does not include giving up all of the possession and trying unsuccessfully to counter-attack, which is what is currently happening. If some youngsters can come into the team and make an impact they can possibly form the core of a team that can compete for the mls cup every year. Who knows? Maybe someday we will see a team of homegrown players from our hometown lifting the cup and representing Philadelphia in the red, white, and blue.
For this year we can only hope that mls does not decide to relegate the bottom three teams and the curse of Rais Mbolhi does not continue to haunt our goalies.
Please leave your thoughts in the comments below!
