GOAL Convo: Robles on MLS NEXT rule changes, including three-period games, meant to American soccer forward
For Luis Robles, change is just fine.
The Technical Director of MLS NEXT wants to be on the cutting edge of things as he tries to figure out how American soccer can solve its problem with player development. Sound complicated? It is, Robles admits. The United States is very large, and it is the mission – if not duty – of MLS NEXT to bring everyone to the professional game, not just those who are affiliated with MLS clubs.
"We know that we can't solve all the problems, but everything within our realm, we will do our best to solve those problems, and then in that process, we just invite more people to be part of our community. It's not going to be an overnight thing. It's going to take time," he tells GOAL.
That means taking a few risks. MLS NEXT is now bigger, with 43,000 players involved. More players might mean more talent.
And then, there's the technical aspects. MLS NEXT has been open to tinkering with things, drawing inspiration from Europe but also spending some time looking inwards. The organization has made headlines for introducing "quality of play" rankings – effectively removing wins and losses from U-13 soccer. But that's not the only shift they've made. Pitches have gotten smaller at youth levels to address the issues that come with physical growth and soccer skill.
"The one thing that was really interesting about being in this space is that growth and maturation is not a perfect science. If anything, at that age, it's like a lottery," he explains.
The other one might be even more significant. Now, U-13s won't play two halves. Instead, this MLS NEXT season – which kicked off in full earlier this month – will feature games that have three 25-minute periods. Every single player on a matchday roster must play for at least one full period.
Some might describe it as inauthentic. For Robles, it's openness to change – even if there are a few detractors.
"There's a lot of noise. This is why it's so important to have the right North Star. And our North Star goes to the ends of what's best for the player. We're not thinking about what's best for the player at this exact moment. We're thinking long term, through the objectives like, how do we develop the next generation of talent? How do we continue to grow the game?" he says.
And that's the crux of it all. American soccer is at a key moment. There is a World Cup to play on home soil in nine months. And in Robles' mind, there are many, many more that can be won sometime in the future. The former MLS star sees every single change – big or small – as yet another step to doing just that.
Robles spoke with GOAL about where MLS NEXT is heading next in the latest GOAL Convo, a recurring Q&A with central figures in the American game.
Get the MLS Season Pass today!Stream games nowWill GlennON CATCHING UP TO THE REST OF THE WORLD
GOAL: How does this country develop, or continue to evolve as a soccer nation?
ROBLES: The word is evolve. I grew up in a different time, where soccer was not even close to where it is now. And what's transpired over the last 30 years is in huge part because of Major League Soccer. But remember, Major League Soccer only kicked off because of the World Cup. What's beautiful is we have this bookend. In 94, we had a World Cup that launched MLS. And now next summer we're gonna have North America 26, and like, it gives everyone a moment to just reflect on the current state of play.
But that current state of play is so visceral because of, like, the polarizing nature of it. Everyone's experience is so different. If you ask my generation, it was very homogeneous. Everyone played for the local club. You go to these different tournaments that you hope you get invited to. The greater the tournament, the better the team, and the competition is going to be. And so you aspire for that. But no matter what, there was a state cup, which was the king of the mountain. You walk the walk, you have to walk the talk, and it's not like that way anymore.
GOAL: So what does the landscape look like now?
ROBLES: Well, a lot of people who grew up with my experience, they can't help but wonder why [it changed]. And then the new people that are in it, that have kids and had my experience, they're just like, "this is so messed up." And then if you're completely new to it, this is where it gets really challenging. The American spirit is to admire greatness, even to the point where we'll watch a Jamaican break the world record and feel Jamaican in the moment, because America wants the best. We're used to the best. So now we go into this, youth landscape, and if you're new to this sport, you're like, "OK, what's the best right now?" Everyone says it's the Premier League. It almost doesn't matter if it's true because it's the way it's marketed.
GOAL: So MLS is just seen as a tier below?
ROBLES: Yeah. And MLS sort of gets put as second fiddle. And yet, when you come into the youth experience, you're like, "Wait, hold on a sec. Like, that's connected to a pro league. I want some of that."…And so, as we go into 2026, people are now, like, soccer, soccer, soccer [because of the World Cup]. And there is a lot of attention with MLS, because there's [Lionel] Messi, and now there's Son Heung-Min, and I think there's going to be even more players. Which then brings us to MLS NEXT. I want my kids to play there. But then, why is it that it's so polarizing? That's what we're trying to solve.
GOAL: What do you mean by that?
ROBLES: I constantly remind my group is we have to give everyone the Ritz Carlton experience. In the moment, we just sit, we listen, we try to help. We know that we can't solve all the problems, but everything within our realm, we will do our best to solve those problems, and then in that process, we just invite more people to be part of our community. It's not going to be an overnight thing. It's going to take time. But as we look to 2025 and 2026, that group of people went from 16,000 to 43,000. And it won't stop.
AdvertisementWill GlennON THE GROWTH OF MLS NEXT
GOAL: That's one of the things that fascinates me. Because the way this has always been cast is that there's so many people here, there's so much talent. Surely we're going to unearth the next great player or another great era. But does more volume, literally just mean better footballers and how do you contend with that?
ROBLES: The example that you can look at right away is Iceland. In 2016, Iceland went on an incredible Euro run. If you look at that, there's only 300,000 people in Iceland. How did that work out? Another example that you can look at is the Basque Country. How is it that the Basque Country continues to produce World Cup-class players, whether that's Athletic Bilbao or Real Sociedad? The bigger, more philosophical question is: 'Is it the factory, or is it the fields?' I think the fields have plenty of crops. I think the harvest is right. We have to get the factory right. And that's what we're working on.
GOAL: So, when you say that, what does that come down to?
ROBLES: It starts with recruitment. It has competition. It involves the environment. And the single most important thing is coaching.
GOAL: I wanted to ask about coaching, becauseevery time I talk to someone about American soccer in the future of it, it's like, "We need better coaches!" That's such an abstract statement, though?
ROBLES: It is, but I'd personify it. I played for Major League Soccer. That's a humbling experience, because when you talk to an American, it's usually, "Oh, I'm sorry. I don't follow MLS." And you get to a point where, like, that's, that's fine, right? I'm not offended at all, and it just continues to remind you that we still have a ways to go. And so I think when we look at the factory situation, and we talk about coaches, instead of being negative, we need to ask what we can do to help, what can we do to solve that? That is the vantage point that we take at NEXT: Instead of complaining about not being where we want to be, or instead of being critical of not being where we want to be, what can we do today to get one step closer to where we want, right?
So I can confidently say that when the coaching space [opened] this past year, I influenced to open up the French course. That's EFCL: the elite formation coaching license. It's an incredible coaching experience that some of the current MLS coaches have gone through. They look back and say, 'This might be one of the most influential experiences of my life.' Why is that? Whether that's Greg Vanney, Nico Estevez, Luchi Gonzalez, Wilfried Nancy, these are all coaches who have gone through it. The event starts in Clairefontaine, the International Institute of France, and it ends there. And along the way, you spend time in MLS environments as well as professional European environments. And that has actually helped some of these coaches. And I want to point to Greg Vanney again and Wilfried Nancy, the reigning MLS Coach of the Year [Nancy] and the reigning MLS champion of the year [Vanney], they've gone through it. So this past year with NEXT, we opened it up to everyone.
And we opened it up this past year to non-MLS academies and those outside of our landscape. So we actually have an ECNL director who's involved in the program as well. I guess my perspective is, if we want to get to where we're going, what can we give others that they may not have yet? So we start with this position of, let's give, let's serve, and then let's deliver. And through that experience, we're hoping that we bring more into the fold and more into our community as we continue to grow the game.
Getty Images SportON DEVELOPING TALENT FOR MLS
GOAL: How do you manage all of this, while sort of not gatekeeping MLS? Because surely the focus is still on MLS academies, or are you just like we want as many footballers in as many different clubs as we can?
ROBLES: The answer is, we do both. Because the key objectives to NEXT, from my perspective, is we want to develop the next generation of talent to impact the professional game….I do think that MLS has a responsibility to grow the game. And what makes MLS NEXT so uniquely different is that we are a league that is connected to the professional game. So we also have a responsibility to develop professional talent.
GOAL: So, regardless of whether that's going to be a player going to MLS, Europe, Mexico, or what have you?
ROBLES: My focus is making MLS the biggest and best league in the world. The best way that we can do that is to develop domestic players. One of the only things that we can control is player development. We cannot control if the next Messi is coming through the door. We can't control when players decide they're coming to the league, but what we can control is what we are developing domestically, and our main lever to activate that is NEXT.
GOAL: And how have clubs aligned to that philosophy? Especially because different clubs treat academies differently, different clubs treat players differently…
ROBLES: There are two different perspectives that I can identify. There are the ones who are part of the original Development Academy (DA), which was the league that U.S. Soccer ran, and they were there early, so it was at the advent of MLS academies.And then you have the second bucket, which is people who want to join [MLS NEXT]
For us, it's always going to be player-centric, because even the four areas that were identified: Environment, competition, recruitment, and coaching. It's built around the player. And so we continue to find more ways that we can give to clubs, that we can give to players, knowing that if we can bring more players into the mix, we have a better chance of developing better professionals. But even a perspective that's changed over time.
What you start to understand, and this is what we're learning, is that there are multiple different paths to where we want to go. How can we help, and how can we possibly influence those paths, knowing that the end point is we want to get them into the league, and that player that comes into the league is going to help elevate the floor? So this is one of the most dynamic things about NEXT. It comes with a great responsibility, but I still think an equally great responsibility is, how do we continue to grow the game in this country?
IMAGNON THE ROLE OF MLS NEXT PRO
GOAL: So where does MLS Next Pro fit here?
ROBLES: So previously, the pathway to pro was that the majority of people went to college, which is fine. Even my own experience, I graduated high school, I played club soccer, I went to the University of Portland, and then I went abroad. For a lot of people, it is through college, what I experienced while I was in Germany is, even though I showed up at 22 years old, a lot of the players that I played with on the second team were 17 through 21. And that is the gap that Next Pro serves is, it's possible that college may not be your best next step, and being in an environment where you can be exposed to the professional game younger in that competition could be what's best for your development.
NEXT Pro creates a different pathway to the professional game that might be better for players who are coming through MLS academies to go directly into the first team. And the number continues to grow because the opportunity gets bigger. And as Next Pro grows, it will play an instrumental role and be a critical part of player development to become a professional. Take Cavan Sullivan; you've heard of him because in Next Pro, he made his professional debut. Instead of just throwing him into the first team environment, he made his professional debut earlier, and that's a good thing. And so now more and more players are making that pro debut in an environment that is dynamically different.
GOAL: The sense is that some clubs have used Next Pro as a valuable stepping stone
ROBLES: Just one experience is, imagine you're 18 years old, and it was difficult at that moment because maybe there was a winger ahead of you, and so you're leaving a U-18 MLS academy to go to Villanova, like you're going to a college. And by October, you're doing so well, but you have to see that out, whereas in NEXT Pro, even in a couple more months of competition, it may be so that that winger is no longer there, and now you can just play [with the first team]. So it brings a little bit more fluidity to that pathway. Again, everyone's development is going to be a little bit different, but it's also nice to have another arrow in the quiver, if you will, when it comes to attacking the individual player development and the pathway that everyone goes through.