Book excerpt: Soccer youth participation in the US declined by nearly 25% in recent years . The US men's national team went from the verge of a breakthrough to elimination from the 2018 World Cup. What's gone wrong with American soccer and what can be done to fix it? "The Shoeless Ones" was Pele's first team. The greatest footballer of all time had no cleats, shin guards, grass fields, cone drills, or heroic soccer-parent carpooling from practices, games, and tournaments. Heck, he learned to play with a sock stuffed with rags. Let's return football to its roots, to the blacktops, vacant lots, and patios where kids play and creativity flourishes. Let's undress the corrupted American version of soccer and shut down the club, travel pay to play system for a grassroots uprising so American kids can compete with the world's best. What we are doing now is not working, and even worse, everybody knows it. From what we've seen in our travels around the world and travails in America's youth soccer programs, once we start playing what we'll be calling Shoeless Soccer in honor of its stripped-down approach, the sky's the limit.