They can’t tap into these communities because almost every elite level of youth soccer involves a ton of money being paid to clubs and coaches. The USMNT still operates under the ODP umbrella and has only recently started US Soccer Development Academy teams, which includes ALL of the MLS clubs.

You hit the nail right on the head. As a Jamaican who has lived here for 20+ years, I find it very disturbing and downright discriminatory that soccer opportunities are not available to the working class. I have my daughter on a select team, its appalling how much money is involved. Myself and most of my counterparts…

Yes, and as long as U.S. youth have to join “premier” teams at a cost of thousands of dollars per year in order to get access to the best coaches, we will continue to be pulling most of our top players from the higher socio-economic groups. This is a serious limitation not found in most other U.S. team sports (e.g.,…