by Kevin McCauley

I think that most of us that follow United States soccer closely had similar reactions when the 23 man roster was released for the Gold Cup was released last week.

Logan Pause? Jon Busch? Jimmy Conrad? Jay Heaps?

Why in the world would Bob Bradley include players in this Gold Cup roster that not only have no chance of making the roster for next year’s World Cup, but have no chance of making the roster for any future international tournament? Since this tournament lies between the Confederations Cup and the massive World Cup qualifier at the Estadio Azteca against our biggest rivals, El Tri, bringing an “A” squad to the Gold Cup in a year where winning the tournament doesn’t have the reward of qualification for the Confederations Cup is impractical. On the flip side, these are competitive games that could provide invaluable experience to the youngsters. No offense intended to someone who I regard to be a decent footballer, but why are we calling up the likes of 32-year-old Jay Heaps?

Let’s be honest; our youth development system is not only far from world class, but I can’t think of a single knowledgeable U.S. fan that I have met who would consider it to be up to par with the rest of the top 25 footballing nations in the world. Our level of coaching is a joke, and our professional clubs, for the most part, do not have respectable youth academies. The best one in MLS or USL is Vancouver Whitecaps Residency, and not surprisingly, more than half of their players are Canadian. Only two Americans train there, neither of which has ever been called up to the senior roster or offered a senior contract. The only two other youth academies that most would consider to be up to a respectable level are Chicago Fire Premier, run by MLS’s Chicago Fire, and Bradenton Academics, which is run by U.S. Soccer.

So, in all of American soccer, there are three decent youth programs, only one of which is actually run by an American professional team. This, above all else, is the biggest problem facing U.S. soccer and the United States national team.

Of course, this is no fault of Bob Bradley’s; he’s just the senior national team coach, and Director of U.S. Soccer Sunil Gulati has refused to give full control of the system up to any manager, no matter his resume. Don Garber, the commissioner of MLS has to take a little bit of the blame here as well. What better way to keep a financially strapped soccer league running than to produce your own employees at discount prices? His muppetry deserves its own 10,000 word column, but that’s beside the point, which, of course, is figuring out the best way to get around the lack of production of good young players in the short term.

If we have a broken youth system that Bob Bradley doesn’t have the means to improve, how can he work around this problem?

By playing kids in any game that isn’t essential, of course.

These are the reasons why I find the call-ups of older players to this year’s Gold Cup roster absolutely inexcusable. The only way for young American players to become international quality is to start playing in competitive senior international fixtures at a younger age than their foreign counterparts. Obviously, there is no substitute for top-shelf coaching at a young age for footballers; but competitive, high-level game experience is as good a substitute as we can possibly find. The likes of Brek Shea, Abdus Ibrahim, Jorge Flores, etc. need to be in this squad, and need to be playing. I refuse to believe that this national team is better served by veteran players who will never feature in a World Cup dominating Gold Cup than it would be by inexperienced kids getting truly challenged in Gold Cup.

If these kids don’t play now, I absolutely guarantee you they will be worlds behind all of their peers in their early and mid-20s. It took Landon Donovan until the age of 27 to become the player U.S. fans told non-Americans for years he had the potential to be, and he’s someone who both got playing time in the senior squad at a young age and moved to Europe to train at the age of 16. If the best we have to offer doesn’t mature until the age of 27, what chance does Brek Shea have to fulfill his promise without getting games now?

In the best case scenario, we’d see a rich investor give a ton of money to U.S. Soccer and MLS to start a truly world class youth development system in which top foreign coaches from all across the globe would come in and completely re-vamp the coaching system with everyone’s badge being rescinded. We’d start from scratch, and as a result, we’d probably start churning out true international quality youngsters within ten years. That’s not going to happen, however, and even if it did, it would probably take ten years to really see results. The best youth program we have right now is, sadly, out on the field with the big boys.

Today, news came out that Bob Bradley will be allowed to add 7 players to his Gold Cup roster. If a couple of those aforementioned youngsters aren’t part of that addition to his squad, I will not be a happy camper.

Come on, Bob. Do it for the kids.