On Friday, the United States Soccer Federation announced that the US Soccer Developmental Academy will be playing a 10-month season starting in September and ending in June. The new schedule applies to the 2012-13 season. US Youth Soccer technical director Claudio Reyna "Going to a 10-month season is an important step in the evolution of elite player development.

One of Jurgen Klinsmann's goals upon becoming coach of the U.S. national team was to revamp the system from senior team to youth structure, and with Friday's announcement, he has certainly made a major change to the latter.

Starting in September, the U.S. Development Academy will operate on a 10-month schedule, mimicking the development systems of nations around the world.

Photo Credit: Alfonso Jimenez via Wikimedia Commons
Ever since Amado Guevara was shown the door, I've been clamoring for an actual #10 Creative Midfielder for our team - to absolutely no avail. That genius Bruce Arena (besides destroying our pretty good backline in 2007) saddled us with the perenially injured Claudio Reyna, who (as a defensive midfielder) was absolutely not the creative player we needed.

By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 2, 2012) US Soccer Players -- The ballot for the National Soccer Hall of Fame's Class of 2012 was released earlier this week, with two of the nominees presenting themselves as obvious choices. Claudio Reyna and Tony Meola should have no problem getting the requisite number of votes to make them first ballot Hall of Famers.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

U.S. Soccer released its ballot for the National Soccer Hall of Fame on Tuesday, with 31 former players -- and 12 first-time nominees -- making the final ballot for the Class of 2012.

Among the first-timers are former U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola and captain Claudio Reyna.

For the seventh consecutive year, I'm one of the voters for the National Soccer Hall of Fame, and it's a responsibility I take very seriously. I've made each of my previous six ballots and the rationales behind them public, so there's no need to change now.

There are 12 newcomers on the 31-player ballot for 2012.

Player Development is such a hot-button topic right now in the United States, and as US Soccer and Major League Soccer moves forward with youth development models and curriculums, Leander Schaerlaeckens of ESPN caught up with some of the top minds in US soccer to discuss 'where do we go from here?'
Bob Bradley, head coach, Egypt national soccer team

"It still comes down to how many good people get with clubs and are working with young kids to make sure things are done right.

"Wilma...!" -- Fred Flintstone in a paroxysm of ecstasy after he convinces Betty Rubble to "role play a bit."

We'll keep you posted. More on this at 5.

Wait, start from the beginning.

Out of seemingly nowhere, the U.S. Soccer Federation has cleared house. Today, the U.S. power that be announced U.

Under-20's US National Team coach Claudio Reyna has called in 36 players for seven days of training starting Monday, January 2nd in Fort Lauderdale. Ramos's squad features 14 professional players, drawing from Major League Soccer and the Scandinavian leagues currently on break. Roster GK: Jesus Guzman (Santos Laguna; Dallas, Texas), Daniel Medina Meza (UANL Tigres; El Paso, Texas), Tyler Miller (Northwestern; Woodbury, N.

First, let us be among many, but hopefully not the last, to wish all our readers a Happy New Year. We wish you blessings, good fortune and health in 2012. We begin a comprehensive look at the Men's U-23 Olympic Team this week, and we're very excited about those pieces given our background as a [...]

The best answer for a new USMNT system? More of it, sooner. Now, we are actually fully designed to make these leaps we like to to talk about. Claudio Reyna is THE MAN.And gosh, I did not even recognize former Steamers goal monster Don Ebert at first.- Greg Seltzer

Roy Rees coached the USA at four U-17 World Cups, from 1987 through 1993, a tenure during which the young Americans celebrated historic victories over Brazil and Italy. Rees also co-founded the Houston Texans in 1983 and helped create the Dallas Texans in 1993. He died on Saturday at age 74.
Mike Woitalla of Soccer America writes of 'one of the pioneers of the modern period of US Soccer'.

CHICAGO (Nov. 22, 2011) - FOX Soccer will broadcast all three U.S. Under-17 Men's National Team matches during the 2011 Nike International Friendlies in conjunction with the Development Academy Winter Showcase in December. The U.S. will take on Brazil, France and Turkey during the competition, which will be held at the Premier Sports Campus in Sarasota, Fla.

After the conclusion of U-23 camp last week, ussoccer.com with both the coaches who led the 10 days of training in Duisburg, Germany.

• Claudio Reyna talks about what he saw as head coach of the U-23s during the training Camp.
• Tab Ramos wraps up the first camp of the U-20 World Cup Cycle.

Photo: Courtesy MLS Soccer

MLS

LA Galaxy defeated Houston Dynamo 1–0 to win the MLS Cup. Landon Donovan scored the lone goal and was named MVP. Player ratings are here.

All teams must submit their protected list to the league for Tuesday's Expansion Draft by 5pm today.

The league made two big announcements on Sunday, one concerning the shift to a conference-based schedule, the about changes to the playoff format aimed a rewarding those teams with better regular season records.

Having taken over the head coaching role for the purpose of the recent U-23 camp in Germany, New Jersey native Claudio Reyna spoke to Yanks Abroad about his role within the US Soccer hierarchy.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Carlos Bocanegra has enjoyed a distinguished career as a U.S. national team defender, and he joined exclusive company on Tuesday, becoming the 12th player in U.S. Soccer history to reach 100 caps.

The steady U.S. captain marked the 3-2 victory over Slovenia by joining Cobi Jones, Jeff Agoos, Landon Donovan, Marcelo Balboa, Claudio Reyna, Paul Caligiuri, Eric Wynalda, Kasey Keller, Earnie Stewart, Tony Meola and Joe-Max Moore in the century club at the start of his 90-minute shift.

Claudio Reyna has some final words on the field yesterday
Training is done and all there's one thing left to do at this U-23 Men's National Team Camp in Germany: play.
Today two U.S. teams will make the one hour bus trip to Leverkusen to face Bayer Leverkusen's U-23s/Reserves and U-19 team.

Este joven jugador Joe Corona acaba de jugar hace poco con la seleccion mexicana que viajo a la Copa America, solo que al final no fue tomado en cuenta por Tena para formar parte del tri en Argentina , este juvenil ahora defiende la casaca del rival acerrimo en Concacaf en un partido amistoso.

Terrence Boyd Scored the Tying Goal for the U-23s This Morning
This morning the U-23 U.S. Men's National Team headed 30 km due east from Duisburg to Bochum to face VfL Bochum in a scrimmage today. The Bochum team was a combination of first team players and youth players. It's an international break in Germany so no sign of the People's Rooney, but nonetheless it was a spirited match played in front of an appreciative crowd of about 200 people.

Teal Bunbury, who has two caps with the U.S. Men's National Team, had to withdraw from the Under-23 roster after suffering an ankle injury.

Sporting Kansas City forward Teal Bunbury was forced to withdraw from U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team training camp roster after suffering a right ankle contusion in his team's 2-0 loss to Houston in the MLS Western Conference Final.

Teal Bunbury, who has two caps with the U.S. Men's National Team, had to withdraw from the Under-23 roster after suffering an ankle injury.

Sporting Kansas City forward Teal Bunbury was forced to withdraw from U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team training camp roster after suffering a right ankle contusion in his team's 2-0 loss to Houston in the MLS Western Conference Final.

*Midfielder Jose Villarreal, a Leuzinger High product, and defender Zarek Valentin, who made 24 starts for the Goats this season, were among 31 players selected for the camp, which will run Monday through Nov. 16 in Germany under Claudio Reyna, U.S. youth technical director.

And check out all those German-based players on the full squad:

Goalkeepers: David Bingham (San Jose), Cody Cropper (Ipswich, England), Sean Johnson (Chicago), Jon Kempin (Sporting KC)

Defenders: Gale Agbossoumonde (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany), Anthony Brooks (Hertha Berlin, Germany), Sean Cunningham (Molde, Norway), Royal-Dominique Fennell (Stuttgarter Kickers, Germany), Greg Garza (no club), Perry Kitchen (D,C.

Joe Corona will get his chance with the United States after all.

The Tijuana attacker and one-time Mexican youth international is among 31 players called into a United States Under-23/Under-20 combined training camp by new U-23 coach Caleb Porter.

The players will train in Duisburg, Germany, from Nov.

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America recently caught up with United States Under-20 national team coach Tab Ramos to discuss what are key components in playing for the US now that Jurgen Klinsmann is the head coach.
SA: U.S. Soccer Youth Technical Director Claudio Reyna has talked about the national teams at all levels, from Jurgen Klinsmann's senior team on down, playing similar styles and in a similar system.

U.S. Soccer has named Caleb Porter the head coach of the U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team, effective immediately. Porter will lead the U-23 team in its quest to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games when they compete in CONCACAF qualifying in March next year.
In addition to Porter, U.S. Soccer has hired former U.

photo by Tony Quinn/ISIphotos.com

U.S. Soccer has named Caleb Porter and Tab Ramos as head coaches of its U-23 and U-20 men's national teams.

Porter will coach the U-23 team and lead it through qualifying for the the 2012 Olympic games in London. Porter is to remain as head coach of Akron University, and will coach both the Zips and U.

Playoff update

If the playoffs started today, the Philadelphia Union would be the second seed in the Eastern Conference, level on 48 points with Kansas City but with an inferior win-loss-draw record. Kansas City defeated New York 2–0 on Saturday to draw level with the Union, which means New York has the last wild card spot with 43 points going into Thursday's game with the Union.

Some 78 clubs currently comprise US Soccer's Development Academy and three of those clubs—FC Delco, PA Classics and Players Development Academy—are part of the Philadelphia Union's Youth Development Affiliate program.

Evaluations of these clubs were first started by US Soccer in 2007 with the founding of the Development Academy.

One of the things to do when reviewing the release of the USSDA/USSF Academy ratings is figure out how the MLS teams rate compared to each other. The Philadelphia Union are hard to rate as their structure is unique at the Academy level. One of the ratings (Player Development) seems to favor teams on the East as they are more likely to get picked for national team games due to a proximity bias and it also rewards teams that sign players that they don't intend to play.

As U.S. Soccer's Youth Technical Director, Claudio Reyna believes a key to improving American player development is convincing more youth clubs to strive for a style of play conducive to nurturing talent. The 78-club U.S. Soccer Development Academy, which kicked off its fifth season this month, is a integral part of the national team program's quest to improve American soccer.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Union

In this week's power rankings roundup, the Philadelphia Union leap four spots from no. 10 to sixth at MLSsoccer.com. They jump three spots to no. 6 at SBI and at Soccer America. The Union move up two spots to sixth at WV Hooligan. At ESPN, the Union move up two spots to ninth.

All the news that's fit to drink.
And because you'd rather have a beer than be reading all the time... we've taken the day's top news and given it the Reader's Digest-treatment so you can get to that post-work pint quicker.
* Grant Wahl says FIFA needs to get it's own "Red Zone Channel" like the NFL.

- Jason Davis
The theme most prevalent thus far in Jurgen Klinsmann's tenure as USMNT head coach - all month and change of it - is the movement towards integrating America's abundant Latin soccer influence into the team. In part because Klinsmann has made it his cause cause célèbre (in concert with imbuing in the team a more attacking, fluid style - more on that in a minute), we can't go more than a few hours without a new piece waxing on about it, without the Paul Gardners of the world bellowing "FINALLY!

Oct. 7, 2001, is a day that lives in U.S. Soccer history on many levels. Being the first team to represent the United States in international competition since Sept. 11, the U.S. pulled out a thrilling 2-1 victory against Jamaica, and with the other results in CONCACAF qualifying improbably going their way, the team qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup that day.

Jurgen has some work to do.When the US Men's National Team took on Belgium, it was yet another learning experience. The team was coming off a 1-0 loss against Costa Rica and was hoping to improve on the performance. They did not. The Americans fell 1-0 to a remarkably powerful Belgium side. Still, there were several things I noticed throughout this match and really over the past two matches.

Charles Boehm wrote recently about how the new USSF curriculum that was created by Claudio Reyna is starting to make it's way into our youth soccer setting here in the United States.
Last year U.S. Soccer hired Claudio Reyna as the federation's youth technical director, tasking the former Men's National Team star with evaluating and revitalizing the nation's approach to player development from the ground up.

We asked former U.S. MNT midfielder Claudio Reyna about his thoughts on the last time the USA met Belgium. Reyna played 90 minutes in that game, which was just months before the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France.
"We came off playing a strong Dutch team in Miami and it was one of the first times in our history where we played back-to-back friendlies against European teams," said Reyna.

Recently, I wrote an article looking at the DP strategies for five MLS teams from the Western Conference. In this article I follow up with five teams from the Eastern Conference to give us an idea of how they are approaching DPs. If you're interested in exploring the DP rule further, there are also articles on DP salaries and production from the first half of the season and the track record of DPs from previous seasons.

Costa Rica's national team is in the midst of a rebuilding process. After last month's defeat to Ecuador, Los Ticos fired their head coach Ricardo La Volpe. His replacement (for the time being) is interim head coach Ronald Gonzalez.
Gonzalez earned more than 60 caps for Costa Rica and featured at the 1990 FIFA World Cup.