‘We're keeping score’ - Philadelphia Union, FC Dallas and MLS academies walk tightrope between developing the next Cavan Sullivan and the universal truth of sport - winning

From the outside perspective, in the eyes of eager fans, all that matters is that their club brings out the best, brightest and most promising talents. It’s why Cavan Sullivan, now 15, was so hyped when he came out of the Union Academy. He was destined for first team soccer, and a level raiser. 

Most footballers aren’t that good at that age. So, putting the right players at the right age groups to simultaneously develop them and win soccer matches is a tricky world to navigate. 

It’s a universal issue. Every MLS academy confronts the same pressures from its players, parents and coaches alike. They want competitors who will give their all. But they also need to be put in the right place, at the right time, to become the best version of themselves when they are ready to move into the first team.

“The ultimate goal isn't for the U15s to be national champions,” Scheer said. “That might happen in the process. But our ultimate goal is to develop first team players.”

The Union’s approach is highly technical. Dollar for dollar, they are comfortably the academy most rife with talent in Major League Soccer. Sullivan is, of course, the standout, but they have brought countless big names through the ranks over the years - and either made them first team regulars or flipped them for a tidy profit. 

They take it game by game, focusing on the minutiae. Carnell is uncompromising in his system and principles of play. Everyone else has to learn them and be ready to plug and play at each level. Sometimes, that means a U15 playing up, but just for 30 minutes. Others, that might mean someone playing at their usual age group for all 90. 

And then, as Sullivan showed by leading the Union to a Generation Adidas Cup victory in 2024, you just need to win. Balancing that isn’t easy. But Scheer insists that the Union do enough psychological training - and rely on good coaching at all levels - to ensure that the right mindset is instilled. Academy pedigree takes care of the rest, especially when it comes to recruitment. 

“If we just roll the balls out and we don't care about winning, and it's only focused on, ‘Hey, let's develop, develop, develop with no intensity or no competitive drive,’ you're not going to develop winners,” Scheer said.

“It was the wild west,” John Gall, now head coach of North Texas SC, told GOAL. 

The Welshman arrived in the Dallas youth soccer scene in 2001, and walked into a chaotic, unpredictable place. It was fiercely competitive, dedicated hopelessly, often dangerously to winning, with Gall recalling “parents fighting on the touch lines.” 

That proved to be a hard graft in learning what the space is about. There was no margin for failure. The teams that won had the best players. And those clubs would look for the best players to continue to build - never mind that these were teenagers still honing their craft. 

“If you didn't win, your kids were going somewhere else, because the other coach would be poaching them, and they would be nicking the players,” Gall said.

That forced a certain mentality that has carried through to the FC Dallas academy, helping them develop a battle-hardened sort of player. It is often a cliche associated with the USMNT that the spine of some of their great sides had a certain Texan toughness. But Gall, who saw the fiestiness first hand, can vouch for it. 

“I learned really quickly that winning is a part of this development process,” he said. 

And it has helped FC Dallas become a dominant force in the youth scene. 

It all starts with training, he said. Gall’s approach, first at various academy levels and then with MLS Next Pro winners North Texas SC, was to gameify everything - from the most basic of training drills to scrimmages in practice. In possession drills, his team get points for winning the ball in certain parts of the field, or for passing at the right time. He has found that the result is an ultra competitive squad. 

That cocktail, he insists, is what makes Dallas so effective. 

“I’m not talking about lifting a trophy. I'm not talking about getting a medal, I'm not talking about finishing first,” he said. “This mindset is crucial, and if you don't have that, you're going to develop players who, No. 1, don't know how to win. Then No. 2, don't know how to lose. And No. 3, the first team manager is looking at you like, ‘What are you sending me?”

But some academies require a different approach. St. Louis SC is relatively young on the MLS scene. They have played just two full seasons at the professional level, and are still fleshing out their youth academy. But they do have one crucial advantage: talent. 

Many teams like to claim that they are the “soccer capital of the United States.” St. Louis, which has a rich tradition with the game, can back up that assertion more authentically than most. It also means that they don’t have to reach too far beyond their local digs. 

“That's a big difference in what we see with some of the other academies in the country,” academy director Dale Schilly said. “We strive, and we think we can be successful, to have a high percentage of our kids from the St Louis market. Currently, 94 percent of our players are from the St Louis market, six percent are from outside the market.” 

And to develop them, that means going heavy on the training, rely on the baseline of talent they have, and trust that winning will come as part of the process.

“Training to develop players and training to help make the individual better, hopefully benefit you on both sides of that coin… the side of developing players and affect whether you’re winning games, just based on the training environment,” Schilly said. 

Part of their appeal, he claims, is their ability and willingness to move players up. They don’t quite have the pull of the best out there, Schilly said. But he hopes that once the rest of the scene sees the quality of player they can produce - mixed with a winning culture - they will be able to pull from outside of the immediate area. 

“We’re not quite there yet, just being so young,” he said. “But when you look at the top academies in the country, the Philly Unions, Red Bulls, FC Dallas, RSL, you start talking about those programs, their successes on the field help attract better players from across the country.”

But then there’s the question of how young players should start trying to win. Sam Al-Basith has coached in the LA Galaxy academy at the U12-U15 levels. He holds his sides to high standards - but understands that players in their early years can’t necessarily be pushed too hard. 

He discovered that earlier this year, when one of his youth sides underperformed at a tournament. 

“It was a bit of a poor performance, up and down, you know?” he said. “I didn't batter them for it. I held them to high standards. But it's just that understanding. They're young people, how can they gain the most from this moment?” 

And, more importantly, at that age, some respond better than others. 

“Some 13-year-olds may be really mature within their age and stage as a human, in terms of growth maturation and mental maturity,” he said. “And then some others that still have the maturation of a 10 year old, so you have to take that into consideration.”

It seemed unfair that the Union played Sullivan in the 2024 GA Cup. The youngster was on the precipice of the first team, a level above the competition around him. He needed to be out with senior pros, not on the grass of U-17 football. But Scheer and the staff sanctioned the move. 

Sullivan, of course, did his part, scoring the equalizer in the final. The Union won the tournament on penalties. 

Some, of course, didn’t have a problem with it. 

“The reason why he's going to Manchester City is not because he's just a good player, but because the kid is a winner. The kid is feisty, he's aggressive, he's assertive, he's a go-getter,” Gall said. 

Still, his inclusion spoke to a wider mentality. For all of the right noises that clubs make about developing players, sending the right guys to the first team and ensuring the right systems are in place, winning tends to take precedence. It happens in Dallas, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and pretty much everywhere else. 

“There's a scoreboard, a clock and we're keeping score,” Gall said. “At the end of the day, people are judging you on results.”