Recently, fellow Red Nation Online writer Steve Bottjer brought a very interesting tournament to my attention called NextGen Series. Essentially, it’s a European soccer tournament that pits sixteen of the best academy sides against each other over a six month period in a knockout competition and eventually crowns a champion. So it dawned on me, would a similar competition be successful in the CONCACAF region?
There are the obvious factors that could keep this from happening like lack of funding, lengthy travel that spans three regions and many more governing bodies, how to broadcast the tournament, and, to be frank, how to make something like this a priority for most involved.
However, for some nations in CONCACAF this would be a fantastic opportunity and something that, in my opinion, they’d jump at the chance to take part in. One of those nations would be Canada. In this three part series I’m going to look at why a CONCACAF wide academy tournament would be beneficial to Canadian youth development.
The three major reasons a tournament like this would be such a positive is: the step up in competition, preparing players for CONCACAF competition/tournaments at an earlier age and, ultimately, giving Canadian talent more exposure on a larger stage.
When looking at the four professional Canadian soccer teams and the landscape on which they are major players, the one aspect that is abundantly clear is the lack of competition their academies face within North America.
In the case of the three Major League Soccer sides, they play in an MLS Reserve League that in all honesty is considered a joke, as it’s organized as an afterthought to the MLS season and plays in a campaign that spans only 9-10 games. Then there is the Canadian Soccer League (CSL) that both the Toronto FC Academy and Montreal Impact Academy take part in.
While with this option the two teams play double the amount of games, it’s not anywhere near the quality of opposition they need to face, especially considering the wide range of styles CONCACAF has to offer. In the case of Vancouver Whitecaps, they have their highly acclaimed Residency program that takes part in the United Soccer League’s (USL) Premier Development League (PDL). However, they face the same situation in playing lower quality opposition and it’s a big reason why many players have left the program in order to seek other opportunities elsewhere.
Then there is FC Edmonton. Playing in the North American Soccer League (NASL) serves its purpose, but for a team that holds such an importance due to much of the squad being made up of young Canadian players, it doesn’t seem like enough.
A tournament of this nature would go a long way in proving if this young crop of players has what it takes to compete at a higher level, something that we as a country need to figure out with the core of the Canadian Men’s National Team beginning to age. The rest of their experience comes from one off friendly matches (usually against Canadian Universities and Colleges) and annual tournaments like the Dallas Cup. These act as great placeholders but when it comes down to it that’s all they really are and they don’t offer much more due to their abrupt nature.
If CONCACAF and the individual FA’s could create a tournament similar to the NextGen Series, this would give Canadian Soccer at the academy level the step up in class that is much needed. Imagine over a 6 month period TFC, Montreal Impact and the Whitecaps kids take on clubs like Sapprisa, Club America and Olimpia? That would be something not only beneficial to the future of those individual club sides, but it would also give potential Canadian National Team players the proper growth pattern needed to succeed at the highest level”.
On a side note, a knock-on effect of this is it would help improve some of the smaller island nations that help comprise CONCACAF and that are so often Canadian opposition. Anything that helps raise the level of competition is a positive. When Canada competes on the world stage it has to take comfort in having had the best preparation possible. A tournament like this would go a long way to strengthening the team and the region as a whole.
In part two of this series we will look at how a tournament like this would help prepare academy kids for the rigors of CONCACAF competition and all it involves from an earlier age.
Kamal Hylton is Owner/Freelance Soccer Writer at Hylton Sports Media,
he specializes in covering Youth Development in Canada and the
CONCACAF Region as well as European leagues such as Bundesliga, Serie A and UEFA Champions League. Follow him on Twitter to view all
his work.
|