U.S. Soccer announced the new head coaches for the nation’s Under-17 and U-20 women’s national teams on Monday, and while many area soccer fans are already familiar with U-20s boss Steve Swanson thanks to his impressive work with the University of Virginia women’s program over the past decade, U-17s coach Albertin Montoya is a younger, less-prominent figure who has spent most of his career on the West Coast.

Given how crucial the middle teenage years can be in terms of player development, Montoya’s efforts may prove to be particularly influential on the future of the senior national team. This week he was the subject of two in-depth Q&A sessions, one for U.S. Soccer’s official website and the other by Jeff Kassouf, editor of leading women’s soccer blog The Equalizer.

 

Both make for fascinating reading for aspiring young players, their parents or anyone else interested in the way forward for a U.S. women’s program which finds itself at something of a crossroads in the wake of the senior squad’s valiant, but imperfect, performance in the 2011 Women’s World Cup.

“It’s not good enough now to just rely on our athleticism that we’ve always had,” Montoya told ussoccer.com. “We have to take a step back and make sure we spend more time on the technical part of the game.  Every training session with our U-17s we’ll spend at least 30-45 minutes on cleaning up their game technically. Our passing needs to be better, the pace of the pass, right foot, left foot, the way they receive the ball, the way they take the touch away from pressure, and we can’t just count on a bad touch and then use our speed to get to it.”

 

Montoya also alludes to the importance of finding effective ways to prioritize the formation of well-rounded, technically proficient players rather than successful teams at the youth level, drawing comparisons with the renowned academy system at European club powerhouse FC Barcelona.

“We are starting to reward clubs that are developing players and not just winning teams,” Montoya explained to Kassouf. “What happens in the club world right now; there is so much emphasis on winning. There is a lot of pressure on these club coaches and coaching directors, too, to produce winning teams and development has really taken a back seat. That’s unfortunate.

 

"But there are club teams that are producing some special players and if we can get the message out that ‘hey, that’s what we are looking for now,’ then the Xavis of the world and the [Lionel] Messis, those are the type of players that can play.”