A rich white kid sport.

After missing the 2018 World Cup for the first time since 1986 the U.S. national soccer team is trying to figure out what they can do to prevent this from happening again in the future. Although soccer isn't anywhere close to being the biggest sport in America it is nothing short of an embarrassment. A result that has brought on demand for widespread change across all levels of soccer in the United States.

In America soccer will likely never attract a large percentage of our nation's greatest athletes. Imagine if world class athletes like Lebron James, Mike Trout, and Odell Beckham Jr. chose soccer as their sport of choice. This reality makes it that much more important that we make soccer accessible to all of our nation's youth and that isn't happening when parents are expected to pay near $5,000 a year for their child to participate in competitive youth soccer.

That obviously alienates so many communities, including Hispanic communities, the black communities, the rural communities and under-represented communities. Soccer, right now, has become a rich, white kid sport. - Hope Solo

While working as a sports performance coach here in Arizona I have seen it first hand with the youth soccer clubs that would come into our facility for training. Parents are spending thousands of dollars each year for their child to have a roster spot on the competitive club team to then only have to pay even more to ensure their child can travel to all of the out of state tournaments. Many soccer enthusiast believe that the U.S. men's national team will continue to underachieve until youth soccer is fixed.

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Hope for a better future.

The current youth system is only good for identifying those willing to pay not those who can actually play. While missing the World Cup was a disappointment there may be a silver lining. Conversations on how to improve our youth soccer system in the U.S. are finally getting the attention they deserve.

Some current suggestions I have seen being thrown around are:

• Make the sport more affordable for all families in America.
• Introduce programs that would allow disadvantaged demographics to participate.
• Scout across more rural parts of the country and not just at the expensive sponsored tournaments.
• Bride the gap between East and West coast by investing in free soccer facilities for the American youth that are strategically placed across the country.

With a lot of work ahead only time will tell if these proposed improvements will be enough to someday allow the U.S. to compete in a World Cup final. American soccer fans will have to be patient as these changes will take time to implement and even longer to permeate the youth soccer system. With the 2026 World Cup being jointly hosted by the United States we can all hope to at least see enough improvement by then to qualify and put on a good showing for our home nation.