17-18 boys applications

Ilikefutbol said:
In trying to figure out '05 DA's for 17/18, this is what I found on the US Soccer website map (http://www.ussoccerda.com/2016-u-13-14-club-map): If this has been covered before, my bad. Strange thing is, the expansion announcement shows only LAFC and LAG-SD in the newly promoted/existing. What's the true story of what '05 U13 will be DA for 17/18?
SOUTHWEST
  1. Albion SC
  2. Arsenal FC
  3. Central California Aztecs
  4. FC Golden State
  5. L.A. United Futbol Academy
  6. L.A. Galaxy
  7. Nomads SC
  8. Pateadores
  9. Real So Cal
  10. San Diego Surf
  11. Santa Barbara Soccer Club
  12. Strikers FC
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Yes those 12 existing clubs you listed plus 2 new for a total of 14 in U13(05) for 17-18'

Existing:

Albion SC
Arsenal FC
Central California Aztecs
FC Golden State
L.A. United Futbol Academy
L.A. Galaxy
Nomads SC
Pateadores
Real So Cal
San Diego Surf
Santa Barbara Soccer Club
Strikers FC

New:

13. LA Galaxy San Diego
14. Los Angeles Football Club
 
JJP said:
The idea is to get as many players as possible into the USSDA player pool trained in the Dutch/Ajax/Cruyff/Barcelona 4-3-3 system.
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Is that really the explicit or even tacit goal of USSDA? I'm scouring the DA site and I don't see anything about a specific style of play.
 
JJP said:
The USSDA wants to concentrate the best players on fewer teams that play each other, the only way to get that done is to reduce the number of DA clubs at the older age groups. There needs to be more clubs for younger players both to cast the widest net, and because very few parents are willing to travel at the younger ages. The driving most parents are willing to do for a top 16 year old is a lot more than what most parents are willing to do for a top 12 year old.

I'm not sure why you think jockeying for positions at other clubs would have any impact, that kind of stuff was happening before DA.

I think it's a good idea to funnel kids out at each age group. In fact I'd prefer to see fewer DA teams and more weeding out. There's too many DA teams for the level of talent out there IMO.

I don't think 12 is too early to weed out kids, I seriously doubt you will miss even one future pro among the kids weeded out at 12.
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I agree with most of this. Actually I think there's too many u12s. Dargle made that point about the talent at the 06 group, and I'm seeing a lot of DAs looking at 06 kids who obviously have no future as pros.

It's probably too fine a point, but I think we'd be better off investing in solid u11/12 to u14 programs than providing a wider entry point.

I'm not sure why you think jockeying for positions at other clubs would have any impact, that kind of stuff was happening before DA.
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Since the old system isn't effective for development, it's neither here nor there to refer to it.

But my point is part of a larger argument that I think as a soccer culture we spend too much of our time trying to identify talent. (e.g.: DA tryouts run into a quarter of year.) We have the fantasy that we can pick the future players and isolate them from the masses of jungleballers. It's understandable why we do that -- the vastness of the problem -- but ultimately the ignorance in the wider soccer culture keeps showing up into the DA programs. There just isn't enough of a demand for quality soccer training, and the USSF doesn't have the resources to oversee the DA enough to insure quality training.

Clubs have to meet bunch of requirements to get DA status. Clubs with DA status can attract better coaches, USSDA also helps train DA coaches to make them better, which leads to a better product on the field, higher status for the club, which should eventually pull in more paying customers. DA has not been going on long enough to determine whether the expense of DA is worth it for the clubs, and only those privy to a club's books really know whether the club is making a profit off DA. The only benefit a club definitely receives from DA is higher status.

I'm not sure why you are concerned with unhappy u13 families. Why would they be unhappy? In sports you have to compete to make the top teams. DA is supposed to be about identifying and training the best players, not giving out participation trophys. If a kid can't make DA after u12, there are plenty of good non-DA options out there.
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I hope you're right, but it strikes me as glass half-full thinking. What I foresee happening is the u12 DA clubs going through the motions, but not really changing much in terms of their style of play or the focus on trophies. They'll know their u12 DA team is going to blow up and they have to go back to the usual focus on winning. One u12 squad isn't enough to change their business model.

I mean does the USSDA make meaningful effort to train DA club coaches? Are they really going to be investing in coaches that are at u12 only DA clubs?

I don't know, my son is still young so I haven't see the system up close, but what I hear is that a lot of non-MLS academies are mailing it in when it comes to really developing intelligence in players, and instead rely on their DA status to have the top players roll in.
 
mahrez said:
The single age u11/12 clubs (150) are for those new to da.
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New to DA you say? So you would expect some of TFA, WC, CV, and now Legends, Murietta Surf, LA Prem FC, and Rebels to get u13 and u14 in the near future?
(I realize that there's been a lot of expansion, but right now of the 22 u11/12 DAs in So-Cal, 14 have the u13 and u14 status.)

I just think the single-year setup seems to be maximally disruptive to clubs, kids and parents without really providing the benefits that JCC talked about.
 
Bubbles said:
New to DA you say? So you would expect some of TFA, WC, CV, and now Legends, Murietta Surf, LA Prem FC, and Rebels to get u13 and u14 in the near future?
(I realize that there's been a lot of expansion, but right now of the 22 u11/12 DAs in So-Cal, 14 have the u13 and u14 status.)

I just think the single-year setup seems to be maximally disruptive to clubs, kids and parents without really providing the benefits that JCC talked about.
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It's not quite right to have said that 150 clubs are new to DA. I believe the way to read the stats is that 150 of the DA clubs have U12 teams currently, which includes both U12-only clubs and full academies. Last year, a number of teams received U12-only status. I don't know how many applied for U13 status for this year, but I know some did and those applications were all denied in SoCal except for the Academies affiliated with MLS teams (LAFC and LA Galaxy San Diego). You would therefore be ill-advised to assume that if you move your child to one of the U12-only Academies you listed that they would be able to stay there for more than one year and still play Academy. Not impossible, of course. It could be that DA wanted to see them for more than one year in operation before granting expansion. Nevertheless, the stated purpose of allowing U12-only Academies in the first place (rather than simply allowing existing Academies to start at U12) was to provide a broader entry point while not forcing 11 year-old kids to drive quite as far as they transition from perhaps two practices a week to 3-4. They could have accomplished the first objective by simply allowing existing DA's to have 4 U12 teams, but having U12-only DA clubs spread geographically helped alleviate the travel concern. It is therefore consistent with that purpose to conclude that they don't want to expand all of those academies, but rather funnel the kids into existing academies in subsequent years, after winnowing out the kids who proved to not be academy material.
 
Thanks Dargle, I always appreciate your well-reasoned posts. That clarified what Mahrez said, which made it seem like u12 was an entry point for clubs into the core program.
 
See attached or use link for ussda style of play
https://tinyurl.com/jmzc5oj

Some of the existing single age group clubs (u11/u12) have a good opportunity each year to apply for additional teams. Gets more selective as more teams are added so following the ussda mandates is one of the keys.

Those late to the party are at a disadvantage, current system favors the establishment heavily so that's one thing, geography in LA county for example with many established clubs already will make promotion increasingly difficulty for these new clubs
 
Bubbles said:
Is that really the explicit or even tacit goal of USSDA? I'm scouring the DA site and I don't see anything about a specific style of play.
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Teams that are trying to win, what they do is limit touches by weaker players and force feed the ball to their best players, who are almost always the most physically mature, strongest, fastest players. Bypassing weaker players results in lots of long ball, or direct play.

This style of play works until u16 because by then all the boys have had their growth spurt and relative age effects and the benefits of early physical maturity are gone. So by u16, the boys need to be able to play a more advanced, sophisticated passing system.

However, it takes years of practice and A TON of talent and kids that have high soccer IQ to make these advanced passing systems work. When kids are learning these advanced passing systems, there will be a lot of losses at the younger age groups, because a lot of kids just don't have the soccer IQ or skills to make these systems work, and weaker players, who typically turn the ball over at much higher rates, are touching the ball more. Even the kids who have the talent to operate a Cruyff style 4-3-3 will still make mistakes and turnovers.

There have been some posters on this board who have ripped teams for not playing advanced passing systems, and booting it to speed forwards. I think that criticism is unfair. The clubs have to look out for themselves, and winning teams make more money, because parents pay for those clubs. If parents paid money to losing teams that strictly enforced Cruyff style 4-3-3, that's what clubs would provide.

I also think there are just a very limited number of kids who have that combo of high level ball skills, speed and high soccer IQ to make these advanced passing systems work. Since so few teams have the talent needed to run the academy 4-3-3, they end up direct passing or longballing to their best players out of the academy 4-3-3 formation. However, I do think there is less longballing and more advanced passing in academy League than in any other league I have seen, except for futsal leagues.
 
Bubbles said:
I hope you're right, but it strikes me as glass half-full thinking. What I foresee happening is the u12 DA clubs going through the motions, but not really changing much in terms of their style of play or the focus on trophies. They'll know their u12 DA team is going to blow up and they have to go back to the usual focus on winning. One u12 squad isn't enough to change their business model.
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That could happen. USSDA does scout all the teams pretty heavily, so if a club should mail it in on the DA system, I imagine USSDA would find out sooner or later, and possibly revoke DA status.

I can't tell you what teams with only a u12 DA team are doing. My son's team, which is full DA, has started rolling out the DA passing drills and systems to their younger non-DA teams, which I believe will raise the level of play throughout the club. Now a full DA team has greater incentive to do this because they want to funnel the best kids who get this training through their DA system, but still this is an example of DA training filtering its way through to all levels of a club.

I mean does the USSDA make meaningful effort to train DA club coaches? Are they really going to be investing in coaches that are at u12 only DA clubs?
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I don't know for sure, it's what I've heard so I should have made that clear. Sorry if I was misleading, not my intention. I've heard that USSDA provides lot of packets with detailed drills, guidance in coaching the systems they want DA teams to employ. Beyond that I'm not sure and someone else would have to answer this.
 
Bubbles said:
I'm seeing a lot of DAs looking at 06 kids who obviously have no future as pros.
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Bubbles said:
But my point is part of a larger argument that I think as a soccer culture we spend too much of our time trying to identify talent. (e.g.: DA tryouts run into a quarter of year.) We have the fantasy that we can pick the future players and isolate them from the masses of jungleballers.
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Aren't these two statements contradictory?
 
Bubbles said:
Not really, no.
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Ok, maybe I'm missing the point. To me it seems like you're saying you can tell a 10 year olds ability to become a pro some day and then saying, "We have the fantasy that we can pick the future players".
 
Bubbles said:
New to DA you say? So you would expect some of TFA, WC, CV, and now Legends, Murietta Surf, LA Prem FC, and Rebels to get u13 and u14 in the near future?
(I realize that there's been a lot of expansion, but right now of the 22 u11/12 DAs in So-Cal, 14 have the u13 and u14 status.)

I just think the single-year setup seems to be maximally disruptive to clubs, kids and parents without really providing the benefits that JCC talked about.
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Yes for 16-17 in SC just (5) new u12 only, (2) of which have since been promoted and now (4) new this coming season in 17-18.

For 18/19 and beyond how well the scouting, auidts, reviews goes from them will be a key factor when applying for promotion.

DA is set up to cherry pick for the YNT, couple top prospect's at best playing for the more well known clubs spread out among the 80 or clubs around the usa will make it and everybody else is just "developing"
 
I agree -- before high school, it's vital that kids grow a passion for the game. Yes skills matter, but if you don't love the game, you'll leave it.
 
Wez said:
Mahrez, any thoughts on how strong the B05 LAFC Academy team will be?
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LAFC has ~(9) 05' players on the current U12 DA team that are well versed & trained so they should do well in the future.

There is strong interest in that age group with a large pool of players (some clubs didn't promote to U13 DA for example) but LAFC is doing things a bit different from most with scouting and outreach. The LAFC invitational at Bell Gardens couple weeks ago didn't include the 05's because that existing pool of potential players is already large: http://lafc.academy/first-annual-lafc-invitational-draws-hundreds/

LAFC will have strong technical teams that emphasis medium to longer turn development over immediate results so they will not sacrifice style of play or stack rosters with 22 players where 5 don't get on the game day roster or 7 sub's sit on the bench and not get into the games.

Still taking applications at: http://lafc.academy/
 
Sophisticated passing patterns and soccer smarts are huge but so is the ability to take opponents on. I hope that is not being lost with the DA clubs. Many of your worlds best players learned on the streets and then were taught the system. Only the best can do all three and we are in very short supply in this country
 
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