In part one of this series we looked at how a CONCACAF academy tournament would benefit Canadian soccer by giving it a step up in
competition. In this article we will be looking at how a competition of this nature much like Next Gen Series in Europe will help prepare these players at an earlier age for what CONCACAF has to offer.
As we all know too well CONCACAF isn’t the easiest region to navigate through, with everything from vast changing climates, hostile grounds, drastic differences in style/philosophy, right down to even the changes in refereeing standards. For a young player this can be a lot to handle immediately after turning pro, and while taking part in CONCACAF U17 or U20 tournaments at international level does help aid in this regard, those matches only come along once in a while. To be immersed in different hostile environments on a regular or semi regular basis and generally being able to witness first hand other countries in this region would pay huge dividends.
The ability for players to take mental notes of specific opposition, coaching styles, referees and weather conditions is part of what makes players successful no matter where they play. If this can be done at the academy level, Canadian players and coaches would be better equipped to handle their surroundings, which is something that has come into question many times.
At its most basic level this would allow players to know what they're up against, whether it be for international or domestic competition. For example, if a coach is unable to get video on a specific team or country (which happens more than you'd think in CONCACAF) the “feeling out” process during games wouldn’t take as long and the surprises opposition could throw out would be dealt with much easier.
Playing different types of players at an earlier age also enables players to try new things and add to their overall game. A Canadian player would learn and grow much quicker if they were playing kids from various CONCACAF nations rather than to just playing other Canadian kids daily. To give an analogy, it’s much in the same way kids expand their mind when reading different types of books instead of just reading The Cat in the Hat everyday. Don’t get me wrong, I love Dr. Seuss as a kid growing up but who knows what would have become of society if that’s all we had to read? When soccer players are at the academy level this should be when it’s most acceptable to be inventive. However, it’s tough to do so when everything is the same everyday and nothing becomes challenging anymore.
Ultimately a tournament like this would give the best of both worlds - the difficulty of a new challenge with the steady improvement Canadian soccer craves so much at this level. Canada’s youth development structure in many ways is going through what is referred to as “bottlenecking”, which is often used when describing how Canada has so many young players and only four professional academies to go to. Using Toronto FC as an example, this is currently what the likes of defender Doneil Henry, midfielder Oscar Cordon and forward Stefan Vukovic, amongst others, are going through. In essence they are “all dressed up with no place to go”. A competition like this would allow the club to still keep it’s depth while safe in the knowledge their players are getting the proper preparation needed.
In the final part to this series we’ll be looking at how a competition of this nature would give budding Canadian talent more exposure from a global perspective region.
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.
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