American soccer needs an overhaul, but copying Germany won't work

In the aftermath of the USA’s abject failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, almost every commentator said some version of the following:

• American soccer is broken.
• American soccer needs a better plan.
• Germany (sometimes Belgium was thrown in too) reinvented itself; we need something like that.

For Soccer Insider this week, I tried to address this; just copying Germany is too simple of an answer. The USA is starting from farther behind, and needs many more changes before it can start making German-style changes.