'Crisis' in youth sports comes into focus after early US World Cup exit

ATLANTA/NEW YORK, July 16 : Another early World Cup exit underscores a fractured youth sports culture in the United States, as the nation hopes to catch up with footballing powerhouses that have no clogs in their talent pipeline.The Americans have not reached the quarter-finals of the global showpiece since 2002 and their last-16 exit this year rekindled a longstanding debate: Why is the world's richest country - and one of the largest - unable to compete with the best?"We need to fundamentally restructure the youth side of the sport in our country," U.S. Soccer's Chief Operating Officer Dan Helfrich told Reuters."That means everything from lowering costs and lowering barriers to participate. It means increasing access in all parts of our country, this vast country, where right now it's in