Chasing the Game: Youth Soccer in America is a weekly podcast for soccer parents, coaches, and players who want to understand how youth soccer development really works in the United States.Hosted by two dads, filmmaker Liron Unreich and investor Matt Tartaglia, the show covers everything from grassroots soccer to elite pathways like MLS NEXT and ECNL. Combining data, real experience, and expert insights from academy directors, college coaches, and former pros, each episode explains what families truly need to know.Weekly episodes focus on the core aspects of youth soccer: player development, coaching culture, college recruiting, tryouts, travel costs, and the challenges of parenting in youth sports in today’s competitive environment.For families navigating youth soccer’s complex system, Chasing the Game offers practical advice, credible voices, and relatable stories from two dads working to make sense of American player development, one episode at a time.
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What is Chasing the Game - Youth Soccer in America?
Chasing the Game - Youth Soccer in America is a sports podcast hosted by Liron Unreich, Matt Tartaglia, with 39 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.
About the host
Liron Unreich, Matt Tartaglia hosts Chasing the Game - Youth Soccer in America, a sports show with 39 episodes published.
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Episode #38
The Long Game. How Do You Keep Kids Loving Soccer?
Jul 22, 202624 min
The Long Game. How Do You Keep Kids Loving Soccer? How do you keep kids loving soccer when the game keeps asking them to carry more? This final episode of our Summer Best Of series steps back from rankings, pathways, costs, and development models to ask a bigger question. After a year of conversations, what actually matters when the final whistle blows on a child’s youth soccer journey? Liron Unreich and Matt Tartaglia revisit some of the voices that shaped the first season, including Dr. Jonathan Jenkins, Don Farr, Tali Sommer, Ryan Farr, Andrew May, Peguy Luyindula, and David Rodriguez. Together they explore listening before solving, protecting enjoyment, giving late developers time, and remembering that the child has to stay more important than the sport. The Long Game closes the series with optimism. Youth soccer is still worth believing in, but only if we never lose sight of why children started playing in the first place. In this episode: • Why listening should come before solving when a child wants to quit • What parents often forget while chasing development • Why freedom and enjoyment create better long-term players • How Ryan Farr’s journey challenges early specialization • Why growth goals matter more than outcome goals • Why the child has to remain more important than the sport • What the best guests from Season One taught us about long-term development • Why the future of American youth soccer is still worth fighting for (00:00) - The Long Game (01:37) - Listen Before You Solve (05:13) - Why Parents Love Watching (08:27) - Playing Free (11:21) - Late Development Is Real (14:15) - Growth Over Goals (18:13) - The Child Before The Sport (20:37) - Why We Still Believe (21:51) - End of Season Reflections Click here to view the episode transcript.
SOUND FIXED. sorry. Reload Episode. Parents hear the word development everywhere in youth soccer. Clubs say it. Coaches say it. Trainers say it. But if training does not transfer to the game, the word can hide more than it explains. In this Best Of Part 3 episode, Liron and Matt revisit clips from Sean McCafferty, Juan Santamaria, Nil Congost, Christian Gonzalez, Evan Rosenthal, Matt Poland, Dr. Chris Platts, and Jose Campos. The episode moves from winning and false progress to skill, recognition, specificity, sacrifice, late developers, and the coaching humility required to see the player in front of you. In this episode: Why winning all the time can create false progress Why wanting to win is still part of development How environment challenges talent Why technique is not the same as game skill Why general practice creates general outcomes How parents get pulled toward training that looks good but may not transfer Why the simple action under pressure is often elite Why coaches and parents should be careful when predicting a player’s future (00:00) - What Is Development? (01:17) - False Progress (04:05) - Winning Matters (05:49) - The Barcelona Fantasy (08:37) - Technique Is Not Skill (12:13) - Specific Training (14:37) - Style Before Substance (18:10) - The Last 15 Percent (21:20) - Late Developers (26:45) - Coaching the Player (29:15) - What Parents Should Look For Click here to view the episode transcript.
For parents, that question is not only about fees. It is about sacrifice, access, pressure, private training, travel, college hopes, and whether the money is actually helping the player. In this Best Of episode, Liron and Matt revisit the cost conversation through clips from Peguy Luyindula, Danny Buttita, Evan Rosenthal, Dr. Chris Platz, Justin Phelps, Tom Bowen, Ryan Farr, Phil Gordon, and Alex Rando. The episode moves past the easy complaint that youth soccer is expensive. It asks a better question: what are parents buying, what are they not buying, and does the spending match the child’s why? Chasing the Game is a weekly show for parents trying to navigate youth soccer in America: the money, the leagues, the pressure, and what actually develops a player. (00:00) - The Cost Question (02:06) - Why Soccer Costs More Here (05:05) - Pay-to-Play and Access (08:06) - Scholarships Inside Clubs (10:20) - Start With Why (14:38) - When Sacrifice Becomes Pressure (17:08) - The Scholarship Reality (18:26) - Academics and the College Path (20:50) - College or Contract (23:12) - Ask Better Questions (25:10) - Never Spend Blindly Click here to view the episode transcript.
The Youth Soccer Maze: Finding the Right Path | Best Of Part 1
Jul 1, 202625 min
Summer is here, and so is our first Best Of episode. But this isn’t a greatest-hits collection. Instead of replaying our biggest social clips, we went back through 35 episodes and chose the conversations that quietly shaped how we think about youth soccer. We call this episode The Maze because that’s what the American youth soccer system often feels like. Every decision feels urgent. Every club promises opportunity. Every badge seems important. Looking back, we realized these conversations were all answering the same question: How do parents know they’re making the right decision? Featuring insights from Sean McCafferty, Andrew May, Ditmer de Jong, Filippo Giovannoli, Jose Campos, Tom Bowen, and more, this episode explores club fit, player development, rankings, self-regulation, physical maturity, and why finding the right environment matters more than chasing the biggest badge. In this episode * Why fit beats prestige * Why parent ego quietly shapes decisions * How self-regulation separates long-term players * Why rankings only tell part of the story * How biology fools parents and coaches * Why challenging yourself is essential for development (00:00) - The Maze (02:36) - Badge, Fit, and Timing (06:17) - The Ego Trap (10:10) - Self-Regulation (12:03) - Europe and Environment (14:37) - Rankings and Identity (17:24) - The Bigger Pond (20:52) - Biology Can Fool Us (23:46) - What We Learned Click here to view the episode transcript.
Winning Is Part of Development with Juan Santamaria
Jun 24, 202659 min
Winning is part of development. Juan Santamaria, Sporting Director and Vice President at Cedar Stars Academy, joins Chasing the Game to talk about competition, mentality, playing time, college recruiting, MLS academies, and what parents misunderstand about the pathway. This episode gets into the uncomfortable parts of serious youth soccer: losing players to MLS academies, helping families through the college process, the cost of showcases, why players need to drive their own recruiting, and when parents have to step back. Juan also gives a clear answer on what a player needs by age 13, what parents should stop chasing, what they should ask clubs, and the warning sign that a player may be in the wrong environment. More from Chasing the Game: Chasing the Game - Youth Soccer in America chasingthegame.us (00:00) - Winning Is Allowed (01:45) - Meet Juan Santamaria (05:52) - Losing Players to MLS Academies (11:06) - What a Sporting Director Actually Does (18:09) - Can Cedar Stars Keep Top Players? (24:11) - “You Have to Be a Monster” (29:03) - The College Recruiting Reality (35:00) - MLS, Europe, and the Pro Path (39:00) - The Cost of the Pathway (46:00) - When Parents Need to Step Back (49:00) - Winning Is Part of Development (51:40) - Quick Fire: Resilience, Pathway, Complacency Click here to view the episode transcript.
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