Americans build depth and experience through their under-21, under-18 and under-16 teams
April Heinrichs can thank the U.S. youth teams, and Lauren Gregg, that the U.S. women’s national team hasn’t gotten too old nor too injured to challenge for the gold medal in Sydney.
Thanks to Gregg, Heinrichs has players who can step in for the likes of Briana Scurry, Michelle Akers and Carla Overbeck, who missed plenty of action this spring because of injuries. Siri Mullinix, Lorrie Fair and Danielle Slaton all developed as members of the U.S. under-21 team, which Gregg coached before Heinrichs became the senior team’s head coach. Gregg’s U-21 program also developed Kate Sobrero into a viable national team player.
The U-21s, along with the under-18s, under-16s and the college game, have become the best training ground for aspiring national team players, at least until the proposed women’s professional league, WUSA, starts next year.
Playing for the U.S. youth teams gives players the best exposure to international competition before they reach the senior team.
Mullinix seemed like a youth national team lifer, someone who would never break into the U.S. goalkeeper rotation, because there were so many good goalies, notably Scurry, ahead of her.
Playing four years for the U-21s and in three Nordic Cups prepared her, and when Scurry got hurt, Mullinix made the most of her chance.
“Some of those teams were tougher than the teams the full team played,” former U.S. coach Tony DiCicco said. “They had to play Norway twice in the finals to win those Nordic Cups. Those were great environments. Now [Mullinix has] got her chance [with the full team] and is playing awesome soccer.”
Indeed, Mullinix is expected to start ahead of Scurry in the Olympics.
Fair didn’t make the 1996 Olympic team, but she worked her way up the ladder with the U-21s. Slaton started out with the U-16s before she earned her stripes with the full team.
Sobrero is another success story. She came seemingly from nowhere to start on last year’s world championship team.
“I don’t know if Kate would have been on the women’s national team if not for her period as an overage player with Lauren Gregg with the U-21s [in 1997],” DiCicco said. “Kate was always nervous of that step to the full team, and the U-21s got her over that.”
Not all of the veteran U.S. women have played for the youth teams. Many of them – including 1991 World Cup veterans Michelle Akers, Carla Overbeck, Joy Fawcett, Brandi Chastain, Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and Kristine Lilly – have little or no experience with U.S. youth teams because the teams didn’t exist when those players began playing for the national team.
But seven players from the ’99 U.S. women’s World Cup team – Sobrero, Fair, Tiffany Roberts, Tisha Venturini, Cindy Parlow, Tiffeny Milbrett and Shannon MacMillan – had significant playing time with the under-21s. Danielle Fotopoulos trained at a U-21 camp in 1993.
The best current crop of players at the youth level are Aly Wagner, Aleisha Cramer, Nandi Pryce, Susan Bush, Jenni Branam and Christie Welsh, who were Olympic hopefuls at the start of 2000. They were part of this year’s triumphant Nordic Cup team, which beat host Germany in the Aug. 3 final.
“I’d probably say the most dominant player is Aly, at this point,” U.S. U-21 coach Jillian Ellis said. “This past summer, she’s gotten stronger on the ball, her work rate and defensive presence has definitely improved. I’m sure she’ll get her opportunity.”
WOMEN’S POOL THIN BEFORE ’89. When Anson Dorrance began coaching the U.S. women, there were no U.S. youth teams to give his team depth.
DiCicco had a tougher time in 1995, when injuries to Michelle Akers and Carin Gabarra left his front line decimated.
“Even though we escaped with a win in [the World Cup in] ’91, we had lots of injuries,” Dorrance said. “When Tony inherited the team, obviously having Michelle Akers at less than 100 percent, without enough players to replace her, was an impossible task for him.”
U.S. Soccer created the U-21 program in 1989. The U-16s came into existence some time after that but didn’t play a game until DiCicco took over. The former U.S. boss says that getting the U-16 program untracked was one of his greatest successes.
The Federation created the U-18s just two years ago.
“The period between ’92 and ’95, we still had for sure one of best teams in the world,” DiCicco said, “but our structure was in dire need of being revamped, and that’s what we accomplished.”
The youth programs have also been a training ground for coaches. Ellis had been an assistant for the U-16s and the U-21s before getting the head job. Tracey Leone, the current U-16 coach, also assisted with the U-21s. Even Heinrichs had her stint as a youth coach.
“It’s a great stepping stone for understanding the nuances of the international game and eventually getting to coach at the full team level,” DiCicco said. “April’s done it, getting the women’s job after coaching the U-16s.”
IMPROVING COMPETITION. Competition at the women’s youth level would improve even more if countries had official world championships to shoot for, as the youth men do.
Men’s youth teams have the FIFA U-17 and U-20 world championships to play in, and the women have the Nordic Cup, which is considered the unofficial U-21 world championship.
FIFA is considering a U-18 world championship for girls, to be contested beginning in 2002. The world governing body may be swayed by the fact that UEFA has a U-18 girls championship, which was won by Germany this year.
“It would be tremendous,” Ellis said. “Having a U-18 championship would kind of help that transition. These other countries have a European U-18 tournament to shoot for. It would help our development as far as getting more experience.”
by Soccer America associate editor Dean Caparaz