The US Soccer Development Academy announced plans to move to a 10-month season on Friday, starting with the 2012-2013 season.

In an effort to increase the amount of time youth players spend training and playing in competitive games, the US Development Academy has decided to adopt a more traditional schedule widely used by most European countries.

The main reason behind this move is to align the level of meaningful competitive matches and training scenarios for youth teams with the rest of the world. The long term effect of this strategy is to close the performance gap between US soccer players and the quality of talent elite footballing countries in the world are producing annually.

“This is the model that the best countries around the world use for their programs, and I think it makes perfect sense that we do as well,” said US Men’s National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

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