When a U.S. Youth National Team plays a club, college or professional team at a training camp, it’s easy to overreact to the final score.

If the U15 GNT beats a college team 5-0, fans rejoice. Their prayers, apparently, have been answered. If the U18 MNT loses to a pro team 6-1, fans despair. Their team, they fear, will never live up to its potential.

But if national team coaches could say one thing to their loyal, but capricious, fan-base?

Chill out.

Training camps are about player development, not wins and losses. And the final score can sometimes be deceiving.

After his team’s 3-2 win over the California men last Friday, U18 MNT coach Mike Matkovich revealed that, while he was happy for his players to win, he felt Tuesday’s 6-1 loss to a pro team was better for his players’ development.
 
“Sometimes [a win like this] doesn’t really give us what we need for international games,” he said. “We lost the other day by 5 goals, but there’s a lot more to be learned from that experience than this, winning a 3-2 game.” 

In other words, a loss is sometimes better in the long run than a win – because a loss provides a wealth of teachable moments, while a win can create a false sense of security among players and fans alike.

And the goal of the U.S. Youth National Teams is not to beat college teams in a scrimmage. Their ultimate mission is to compete – and win – on the international stage.

“We try to prepare them to a level where they’re in over their head, because when we go overseas, that’s what it’ll be like,” Matkovich said. “When we lose here to a pro team, it’s like we’re in the Pacific Ocean, and we’re facing a tsunami from inside a tug boat, and it’s good: we need those games. Our players don’t get enough hard games where their deficiencies are exposed. It’s about lessons. Short term a loss hurts, but long term it’ll make our players better.”

He has a point.

As good as Youth National Team players might look to the untrained eye, they’ve still got a long way to go before contending legitimately on the international level.

“When we go to Europe, we’re going against guys that have been playing at a top level since they were 12 years old,” he said. “Looking at the big picture, we’re still a country that’s emerging in a lot of ways – we don’t have a real national style or identity, and we’re not as technically sophisticated as other countries already are.

“We need to play against older teams and emphasize technical speed and quickness to our guys, because there’s not as much time and space on the international level and we need to prepare them for that.”

The situation Matkovich describes is comparable to taking an animal raised in captivity and releasing it in the wild. Before you let it go, you need to teach it how to survive.

So the next time a Youth National Team wins or loses a game at a training camp, try not to lose face.

Instead, evaluate the players’ touch, their fitness, their communication, ball-skills and mental toughness.

Because those things, not the final score of a scrimmage, will determine how ready they are to take on the best the world has to offer.