as a top tier squad year after year. Having four or five interesting sports doesn't cancel out a 100x larger population difference.

I believe our coaching development and player development programs suck, and a big problem is that to get into any kind of competitive league as a youth, kids must come from families with lots of
A) money
B) time

They make people drive all over the state for competitions. So 95% of kids are immediately ruled out. Parents working multiple jobs to stay afloat, not enough cars, too expensive, too busy, etc. It's basically trust fund kids that have the opportunity to develop, and that's it. American pros are already on record complaining about this.

What they need to do is find a way to partly fund these programs with money from somewhere else, like pro leagues, or whatever. That's probably why Europe has a big advantage, because there is so much money already in their soccer leagues. The second thing they need to do is make it more local, or centralize it with bringing kids in with transportation or room/board, same effect. Needs to be less of a time suck on busy parents.