I was reading your article comparing US soccer with the rest of the World's soccer - very depressing that!!  Anyways, it made me think of Australia - when were down there in April my boys were scheduled to enjoy a couple of practices with some top clubs in Queensland - the coaches were so welcoming and enthusiastic about showing a couple of US boys a good time, but because of massive flooding everything got canceled at the last minute.  Anyways, while driving in the back bush we stumbled upon a very local soccer club - what a surprise with a huge clubhouse, full-time secretary, and from what they tell me their teenagers apparently get various letters from US universities offering scholarships......It's like do I need to send my boys down there for awhile so they can come back here for university?......Chris and Connor ended up praticing with their age group teams (lots of handshakes afterwards from all the players, so polite down there) and I couldn't believe the atmosphere - I guess practices are universally 1 1/2 hours long and afterwards everyone has dinner in the clubhouse, plays pool, hangs out and on that particular night watched the girls' teams game.  This was on just a regular Tuesday night. 

You are right - and oh my it is depressing!! Here is the link for that particular club:    http://www.bwfc.com.au/   

Maybe we should send Chris, Connor and Alexander too down there for a bit??  We also visited the local public school as international students are their specialty niche where it coincidentally turns out they are quite the draw for the national soccer team (6 boys last year) and I heard about how their footballers have 3 hours of practice in the am 9-12, go to school 12-3 and then as the Headmaster puts it, "well the rest of the day they need to work on their diet and get quality sleep" - and all this support is happening in a sleepy little beach town!!!!!!!  

What am I doing here (in the US) with school from 7:30-3:00pm and then with their club at practice till 8:30pm.... :>)  OMGosh - All I can think is that our house down there is only 2 miles from this school and maybe 1/2 hour drive from the soccer club............The american soccer model is way off unfortunately - makes me think sometimes we should have thought more about baseball (please don't repeat that - my boys would be aghast at me  :>)