The win over England is a nice development, but I don't think the MLS academies are having a huge impact just yet. I've found that the work done by the MLS academies thus far has been really overrated, as they have not yet produced talent that can actually help Canada in games that matter, such as Friday's debacle.
Canada has traditionally done quite well in youth competition, particularly at the U-17 level, however when player compete at the older age ranks they are losing ground to other nations. Canada beat England last year in a friendly before the CONCACAF U-20 qualifiers and then proceeded to lose to El Salvador, Cuba and Honduras. Historically, outside of these international tournaments there have not been many places for youth to play competitively against top level competition. Players aren't getting first team minutes in MLS or NASL or other leagues.
When the most promising youth prospect around right now (Zanatta) has to leave Vancouver to get a shot at a professional career it speaks volumes.
Hopefully the new USL clubs, and regional leagues like League1 Ontario and PLSQ will help close that gap where players who aren't good enough for MLS, but are too good for academy teams have somewhere to play and develop, and eventually move up to the first team or to Europe. It's still too early to tell whether these clubs will help Canada improve in international soccer, but it is a good step.
Outside of that mini rant, it's nice to see that today's lineup had a 15 year old (Davies), 16 year old (Tabla) and 17 year old player (Chung) in the starting 11, all signed to USL contracts. As well as an 18 year old player (Shome) signed to an NASL contract, and one signed to a contract in the Scottish Premier League (Zanatta). If these players can actually get lots of pro minutes this year, it is a good sign that our best youth prospects are getting somewhere to develop when a few years ago they would not have.
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