Fred Lipka, Vice President, Player Youth, and Development explained on the MLS Today show why today’s youth players from the United States and Canada are at a different level than before.

 

Before we are very much the same kind of player, which were very physical, running, very hard worker, very dedicated to the game – but not really technical and not really [a] fast thinker,” Lipka said. “Now we are a larger spectrum of players, which can be physical, always dedicated to the game, good culture of effort.

 

But now we have players we can find in Europe, we can find in Argentina, we can find in Brazil. I would say with almost the same level of talent.”

 

In my opinion, there has been significant progress made during the last decade. I am not sure, however, if this progress is despite our current system or due to our current system.  There is no doubt the matter is complicated; made even more so by North America’s massive size.

 

I would like to know your thoughts? Is MLS player development meeting the world’s best? Or are we still underperforming as a nation?

 

Click here to watch the entire show.