TONY LEPORE: In general, we feel like we're making great strides. We've always seen this as a long-term process so we want to be critical of ourselves throughout the process. So we still feel like we have a long way to go. But looking back at the major tenants of the philosophy when started the Academy is a really good way to measure progress.

Soccer America: Such as ...

TONY LEPORE: We wanted more training and fewer games. And we've really flipped that schedule. In terms of hours, we've tripled training in five years.

Before the Development Academy, training was an average of two times a week - so say 3 hours a week, or 12 hours a month. In early Academy we moved that to three times a week. Now it's four times a week -- 6 to 8 hours a week. Which is closer to a player this age in Italy? Before the Academy, we were training 50 percent less in that comparison. Now we've really closed the gap.

That's significant progress. And we've got a 4-to-1 training to game ratio.

Soccer America: Decreasing the number of games was a key part of the Academy's aim for elite players ...

TONY LEPORE: We wanted more meaningful games. Fewer games but more meaningful games. Before we started the Academy in 2007, we surveyed the U-15 boys national team. The average was a 100 matches a year. We asked how many were meaningful games. That was around 10.

We're at an average of 32 games and for the most part the Academy's games are meaningful.

So meaningful games have tripled.

Soccer America: How about the aim to emphasis development over winning?

TONY LEPORE: We have made progress, especially since Claudio Reyna came aboard [as Youth Technical Director in 2010]. He's been a really powerful voice

We've called people out for having too defensive an approach. We have good competition but with a focus on the style of play.

One measure we always look at is how many younger players do we have playing up. We track it through our database and that has tripled.

Young players playing up can be at the expense of winning games if they're physically not ready or physically don't help you. But people are prioritizing that with style of play as well.

This year's Academy final was a really good example not just for style of play -- the possession play, the attacking approach for both teams -- but for the number of young players in that game. ...

Another important facet of the Academy is adopting international rules ...

Soccer America: Another aim of the Academy was removing the pay to play.

TONY LEPORE: We've gone from nine to 23 clubs [out of 80] who fully fund their Academy teams. We feel we have a long way to go, but we're making great strides there.

Soccer America: So would you say the Academy has made youth soccer less expensive?

TONY LEPORE: It's less expensive because we have more of our elite players playing at no cost than we've ever had before in this country.