David Kerr

New on the FC Cincinnati coaching staff front: Eric Lichaj has joined @FCCincinnati2 as an assistant coach, where he will be focused on player development. A USMNT defender in his playing days, Lichaj has been a @FCCincyAcademy Head Coach for the last 4 years. #AllForCincy

@Mr_Lincoln The more of them we have the more success we’ll have

@_davidskerr Those qualifications really translate into USMNT success

Coaches that travel hours every weekend, run training sessions 4 days a week, deal with parents, and develop extensive macro cycle periodization plans for their teams absolutely deserve to be paid well. It is a full time job and requires extensive qualifications and labor

@al_popp Sadly yes in most cases but there are exceptions, however pay to play at those ages shouldn’t be terribly expensive, and if it is shame on that club for charging that much for the younger age groups. There’s always other less expensive clubs that should offer good environments

@_davidskerr This is great, thanks David! I agree completely. My question is pay-to-play mandatory for u9-u11 to get a realistic shot at an academy spot at u12?

There’s a lot of frustration amongst the general population with the loss Monday, but it’s just as frustrating to see the blatant misinformation being spread about youth soccer in the country. Easily 95% of the posts I am seeing are objectively false

@NolaMrSteve That is absolutely an issue. There’s levels to coaches and not every coach is deserving of full time level pay. It should be earned and depends on what level they’re coaching at. The time commitment a coach puts in matters as well

@_davidskerr Yes, however the overwhelming majority of so called coaching is few drills mainly scrimmage, I was always amazed at how little kicking is done in training at all levels

@Freakoutery State associations don’t usually, but lots of clubs do. Just one club for example Vardar in Michigan has quite a few players that get financial aid benefits

@_davidskerr I coach two rec teams in this league. My league's financial aid policy only covers registration, not the giant wall of costs associated with playing Academy level travel soccer.

@BryanMorry Agreed, youth soccer is too expensive and part of it is absolutely exploiting families. I’m about to have a kid of my own and will experience the burden myself. However in the United States, there is no feasible way to get rid of pay for play for non professional clubs sadly

@_davidskerr But if we think people remortgaging their house to chase a dream is in any way ok,then we have lost our minds. I’m ok with how the US did. It’s not our sport. It never has been. It never will be. That’s ok.

@Freakoutery Most youth clubs around the country now do offer financial aid or have scholarship players. Those players just have to be good enough to earn it. No club around the country the last few years has been willing to turn down a star player. The MLS academies are all free to play

@_davidskerr x.com/Freakoutery/st…

@devinburr10 @Spider_Ram2024 Definitely don’t disagree here. This is a major issue of having too many leagues

@_davidskerr @Spider_Ram2024 But it’s not the top 2-3 teams in a metro area traveling. It’s 20+. Clubs are convincing parents their kid “has” to be on the EA/MLS Next 2/ECNL-RL team for success. Traveling should be for the elite of elite…not for anyone who has some competence on a ball.

@NBAL2M @JOEYK20121 Our teams are free to play, fully subsidized

@_davidskerr @JOEYK20121 This is his clubs pitch. We need you to pay 1k more so I can get the same coach I would have. lol

@JeanTarrou007 So far, 9 and more on the way. Not the most but just trying to do my part and provide opportunities for players that have earned it

@_davidskerr How many bonafide pros have you produced? Don’t bother answering. We know.

@Here4ChelseaFC Fair to that, there’s a big difference between being able to put food on the table and save for retirement, and clearly immorally profiting off of youth soccer

@_davidskerr That’s not what he is arguing though. Alexi is in favor of milking the system for all it’s worth, Bart just wants people to make what they deserve.

@gmsmadrid If a European club invites a player of ours on trial, absolutely I encourage it. That’s a life changing experience and if that player gets invited to join the club great for them! We just had a player leave for LASK and to that I say good for him! Another is on trial at Schalke

@_davidskerr Do you encourage your best kids to tryout at higher level teams? If not, you may be in it for yourself to look good with winning.

@JOEYK20121 They don’t which is an issue, particularly at the u10-12 ages which is when technical development is the most critical. Improving the number of quality coaches is one of the biggest to-do’s imo

@_davidskerr Then why does the US still stink if all the coaches have extensive qualifications?

@stokaakaunt Either via our discovery program which is at u11/12 or by identification via scouting live or video recorded games. Players can get scouted via our camps and invited for a trial but those camps are not the primary method for player identification within our market

@_davidskerr Can you give us insight on how your club selects players for the academy? Or is this an obvious take based on self interest? A google search seems to indicate camps ( not the academy but half day camps) cost $250 per half day. So yea. I’m sure for you it’s working great

@shawnaspiess @JohnFSilver It’s an absolute grind and has the stress of a full time job. A lot of kids aren’t cut out for it because well, they’re kids. It’s a brutal lifestyle at times for the players and parents. Especially at the very high levels where there’s a ton of pressure. Mental health matters

Let's not forget the strain on the body and mind of young players. I'm thinking about a top tier female volleyball athlete I had as a high school student. She was recruited by every top D1 school. Senior year she was toast mentally and physically. All of the travel since 8 years old, driving to practices daily 1.5 hours away to be on the best club team and other stress factors made her decline offers. She lost the pure love of the game. Sure she went on to play in college but it was not under the circumstances of the previous 10 years. This is a common occurrence in youth sports.

@shawnaspiess @CoachFrankCyp Not so sure about that. In a country with as much money as we have, if we implement relegation to early, there’s a risk clubs abandon playing homegrowns and import even more players from abroad that will deliver more immediate results. How we implement pro/rel is vital

@CoachFrankCyp @_davidskerr MLS Relegation would be one good step. Not holding my breath.

@pkmckay147 @JohnFSilver ODP technically is this, I think there should be more funding and emphasis towards ODP for players not in MLS Next

@_davidskerr @JohnFSilver That is one of Belgium's strengths when they reinvented their own program after 1998. Would it help to establish centres of excellence and high level competition in each state? Do these exist already? I realise some states are huge so might not help

@Brockster310 All 30 MLS academies are free to play. However most MLS Next clubs are still pay for play

How many MLS clubs offer free academies like Ajax FC and many Europeans clubs do for its local youth? Detroit, RSL… any others?

@Spider_Ram2024 Because the top 2-3 teams in each metro area would slaughter every team by an average of 10 goals a game if competition was restricted to an hour radius (besides So Cal and Northeast). Because our country has so many sports, the talent pool is thin so competition is further away

@_davidskerr Why drive 4 hours to games when there are similar competition (unless you are the top 1%) 1 hour away? It’s insanity. You should be compensated, but yall are also making it unnecessarily expensive for no reason.

@DMRudyMiller Increase in coaching quality, particularly at u10-12 where a player’s technical foundation is formed, would be the single most impactful thing our country can do for top talent production in my opinion. It’s what Europe and South America are light years ahead of us at

@_davidskerr That’s under the assumption they know what they’re doing. There are way too many teams to assume these coaches are great coaches.