In 1998 France won the World Cup.  Attention created out of their success focused on the regulation of soccer activity at the youth level.  This balanced a player for development, and provided a system that retained players instead of being burnt out of the game by the age of 15. 

 

The U.S. does not have a national soccer calendar, and because we don't it is evident that there are challenges on providing balance with clubs and players. I wouldn't say that not having a soccer calendar is the fault of the USSF because they have so many member organizations and the calendar would be hard to compile.  As the game progresses, some significant changes will have to be made as to how many games per year a youth player can compete in, national cup dates, league dates, ODP dates, training to competition ratios and a standard break time for player recovery. 

 

Action can only take place as much as the clubs themselves want to put emphasis on this.  The system between national league, Super Y-League, national cup,  US Club Soccer, and the Super Y-League ODP system provide the opportunity to make a balanced calendar.   The Super Y-League and the  US Club Soccer National Cup will closely match the season of MLS and the A-League, and the Lamar Hunt US Soccer Open Cup.  We want to build this into being the traditional season for players, because it will provide consistency with all of soccer starting at the top level. 

 

One of the largest factors in the list of calendar problems is the state ODP program activities.  This has become more of a second club team to players, taking them away from their club commitments.  With the new Super Y-League ODP system we are able to avoid conflicts with clubs, since this system is built around the clubs. This will push the ODP changeover issue even more with clubs that want a balanced calendar.

 

The one factor that can't be controlled is scholastic soccer. Each of the scholastic state associations are even more fragmented then the US Youth Soccer state associations. As more clubs are moving towards having their players compete in their clubs year round, this will be less of an issue.