Yesterday on the Major League Soccer Talk Podcast, one of our guests Jamie Trecker of FOX Sports articulated an opinion which I happen to believe is well founded regarding the lack of player development by the USSF despite having a well funded and staffed National Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

Here are the lists of players that attended the Academy between the Spring of 2002 and Spring of 2005.

Freddy Adu Corey Ashe Michael Bradley Adrian Chevannes Steve Curfman Joey Diaramando Eddie Gaven Chris Germani Jose Gomez’ Brian Grazier Guillermo Gonzalez, Michael Harrington, Drew Hanson, Kyle Helton, Phil Marfuggi, Brian Mascharenhas, Brandon Oot, Brandon Owens, Jacob Peterson, Marcus Rein, Stephan Sandbo, Jonathan Spector, Danny Szetela, Julian Valentin, Eric Vogl, Tim Ward, Jamie Watson, Chase Wileman, Kevin Alston, Eric Avila, Michael Balogun, Fernando Ayala, Michael Del Pra, Richard Edgar, Gabriel Farfan, Michael Farfan, Greg Folk, Jordan Graye, Jeremy Hall, Jesse Henderson, Rodrigo Hidalgo, Cameron Jordan, Quavas Kirk, Eric Lichaj,Dax McCarty, Kyle Nakazawa, Evan Newton, Marcus Rein, Bryant Rueckner, Estuardo Sanchez, Ofori Sarkodie, Jeff Scannela, Jay Singh, Adam Sloustcher, Ryan Sokora, Nate Sturgis, Blake Wagner, Jonathan Villenueva, Kenneth Walker, Taylor Waspi, Mark Wilste, Nic Besango, Carlos Borja, Alundus Brooks, Richard Edgar, Amaechi Igwe, Cameron Jordan, Brett King, Cesar Nunez, Michael Stephens, Jozy Altidore, Eddie Ababio, Brian Arguez, David Arvizu, Joe Bendik, Johnathan Collier, Victor Cortez, Greg Eckhardt, Omar Gonzalez, Jeremy Hall, Hector Jimenez, Christin Jimenez, Per Marosevic, Danny Ortega, Brian Perk, Ryan Peterman, Joe Sorrentino, Michael Stevens, Nevan Subotic,Anthony Wallace, Preston Zimmerman

Again this is listed for the readers to make up their own minds. To the USSF’s credit they’ve expanded the development academy program and had a summer showcase event in Sarasota, FL two weekends ago. Clearly a few names on this list have been good national team players, even if not for the US like Nevan Subotic. Some others have been credible professionals at the MLS and USL levels. Some have even made it over to Europe. But I’m curious to know if our readers share my view and that of our guest the other day, Jamie Trecker that far too many names on the above list did not develop to their potential in the US Development system.