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John Ellinger Speaks on U17 World Championship, the next group of residency players
By Robert Ziegler, 09.10.2003.
With another crop of players delivered to the next level, John Ellinger now begins another cycle of cultivating the top level of American youth soccer talent.
Ellinger, head coach of the U.S. U17 National team and director of the national residency program in Bradenton, Florida, doesn’t have the luxury of much down time following last month’s quarterfinal loss to eventual champions Brazil at the FIFA U17 World Championship in Finland. School and training have begun for the current class of 40 players in residency.
There has been a certain amount of venom directed at the team and coach from some of the more fanatical sectors of U.S. soccer support, who were apparently convinced (based on their knowing the names of some of the players) that the U.S. was going to win the event. Perhaps one can see a silver lining to this cloud of ill-founded criticism in that at least there are fans and some media who are paying attention to what just a few years ago would have been an unknown event in U.S. soccer circles. Still, bowing out in the quarterfinals to a team that cruised through the event with a 15-1 aggregate score is not exactly cause for mourning, panic or worse.
It is also important to remember the directive from the head coach of the full national team, and the technical director for U.S. Soccer, Bruce Arena, that the only international team where winning really matters is the full team. The job of the youth national team coaches is to present players to the next level. The Argentina coach, asked if finishing third was a tragedy, responded that the only tragedy would be if none of the team’s players made it to the full national team someday.
Judging by the impact of a number of U.S. U17 players already on college soccer programs (as well as the progress of professional players Jonathan Spector, Guillermo Gonzalez and Eddie Gaven), this mission is clearly being accomplished. None of which is to say there isn’t plenty of room for improvement as the game continues to progress in this country, or that there isn’t some disappointment with individual match performances in Finland, including from Ellinger.
“I’m disappointed for the guys,” Ellinger said. “With a different draw we might have cracked the semis, and we know we could have played better at the end, but Brazil was just good.”
Ellinger agreed there was overuse of the longball during the final two matches against Spain and Brazil.
“We tell them, when you’re playing out of the back, to look long and if it’s there, you make that play,” Ellinger said. “Brazil, Argentina, Spain, they all have that option and they all can make that pass. Our guys think they can make that pass, but don’t’ make it all the time, and if you try it and it doesn’t work, you get that kickball effect. If you can’t make it, you need to keep possession which is the other option we didn’t use enough.”
As an evaluation of the U.S. youth development system, Ellinger said the tournament helps show what he believes to be the case: That the talent pool and developmental structure are getting better all the time, but that “the rest of the world isn’t standing still either.”
Along with that is the fact that leading soccer nations, including finalists Brazil and Spain, have a full roster of players, even at this age, who are developed by professional teams.
“I’ve said it all the while, we have a real professional environment (in Bradenton). We’ve closed the gap, but it’s not what the rest of the world has. Brazil’s players are coming from Corinthians, Santos, Flamengo and the other clubs. These guys train in that environment every day. They are preparing to play for the first team at their club. If our system was the best than everybody else would be doing it. The best system is a youth reserve system, where the youth players are sliding in with the full pro team.”
New group of players begins training in Bradenton
Ellinger now begins the work of building the next U17 team over two years. The 40 players in residency, including a handful of returning 1987 birth year players and a host of 88s, have begun training and classes. Some of the new players have made an exceptional first impression.
Ellinger mentioned Estuardo Sanchez (Los Angeles), Jeremy Hall (Tampa), Jonathan Villanueva (Dallas), Ryan Soroka (Philadelphia), Quavas Kirk (Chicago), Taylor Waspi (Chicago), Eric Lichaj (Chicago) and Jesse Henderson (Detroit) as early standouts among the group.
“The starting talent is always higher than the cycle before,” Ellinger said of the early days of training. “This is a very good group of athletes, we just don’t know yet who the soccer players will turn out to be. We’ve only had a few days of training because of some storms. We’ll have some games on the 21st (against older youth sides) and hopefully that will begin to sort itself out.”
One late change in the 40-man roster published earlier in the summer (also in the National Teams section on Top Drawer Soccer), forward Robbie Rogers of the LA-area has decided not to return to residency and will continue playing with South Bay Soccer and on a men’s team in LA alongside Orange County Blue Star player-coach Nick Theslof and former German World Cup star Juergen Klinsmann. Nomads striker Eric Avila, an attacking player who is highly-skilled with the ball at his feet, has taken the available spot at residency.
A spot that Ellinger doesn’t anticipate coming open in Bradenton anytime soon is his.
“I’m under contract until the end of 2005 and have an option to extend,” he said. “I like what I’m doing. You have to like your job and I like working with this age group. Opportunities have come, and you never say never, but right now I have no thoughts of leaving residency, and I have no indication (from any of his bosses) saying something else.”
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