With the Brazil friendly mercifully over, the end of the 2010 World Cup cycle is also done for the U.S. – a month and a half after the tournament ended, of course – meaning now the focus can shift onto where the U.S. will turn to find and develop its next World Cup roster.
Now, Major League Soccer academy teams aren’t really going to come into play for the 2014 World Cup, but an interesting development has come into play in just the last couple weeks, with the NCAA enacting a rule chance that will make it easier for prospective college athletes to play alongside professionals without forfeiting their college eligibility.
Per an email received from the NCAA yesterday: “The new legislation allows prospective student-athletes who receive actual and necessary expenses only to remain eligible even if members of the same team received more than actual and necessary expenses. The legislation applies to prospective student-athletes who initially enroll full time on or after Aug 1, 2010.”
What does that mean? In practice, it will allow up-and-coming academy prospects to play in competitive matches with first-team players, such as in an MLS reserve league, the ratification of which is really a mere formality and should come very soon. In effect, it gives high school-aged players the opportunity to test the waters against pros in more than just a training setting without fear of forfeiting their chance to play in college.
The rule change wasn’t inspired by soccer – check out this ESPN.com story from last fall – but MLS loves it.
“This is going to allow young players to really show the type of ability to play at the highest level, giving them a chance to train at a young age, it’s going to expedite their development,” said MLS technical director for player development and scouting Alfonso Mondelo. “It’s going to let the clubs know, these are the guys who we can really put our investment in and bring them on early, or knowing that they’re not quite ready yet and go on to a couple years of college and maybe in a couple years, they’ll be ready.”
D.C. United has plenty of these types of guys, most of whom I’ve mentioned at some point or another this summer since United has made a habit of bringing them into training. Games are always another story. Not to mention, now reserve matches won’t have to be filled out with sales reps who played in college or Ben Olsen‘s brother.
“It’s a huge step forward,” said United general manager Dave Kasper. “It’s motivation for our academy players to work hard and get an opportunity to get on the field with our reserves.”
