Will U.S. Soccer relegate clubs out of GDA after this season or is profit and politics more important? After seeing the scores posted across the country and especially in the Southwest Division it is clear some clubs suck. Be honest with yourself, those teams will not get any better as far a competing against the top quality clubs even if they throw full scholarships at parents. How many years does U.S. Soccer give them?
GDA relegation or profit
- Thread starter SDsun
- Start date
I think it's a great first post and worthy of discussion!
I don't think anyone will be relegated because MLS DOESNT EVEN DO IT. It's funny how everyone is so concerned about more DA when they spent so many years being just fine with ECNL and it's exclusivity. So odd huh? I have found the rhetoric is mostly from ECNL clubs and hope it quiets down because it benefits no one at this point.
Lets be honest instead. If you had delved into Match reports I don't know if you would have posted this. Please take a look at match Reports and tell me what is being valued.
For example just choose any blow out game. Tell me when the subs happened, goals scored, and minutes played. Do we need to be ahead three plus goals to give people minutes?
As always I think if you choosing a DA for next year parents have at their finger tips an invaluable tool. Look at the games, who is played, who starts, when subs occur. It speaks volumes about coaches and what they are valuing.
I honestly have no opinion on it either way as I care about total minutes played and fun, learning, etc. I am not in recruiting mode in anyway though so can absolutely see poster point.
I don't think anyone will be relegated because MLS DOESNT EVEN DO IT. It's funny how everyone is so concerned about more DA when they spent so many years being just fine with ECNL and it's exclusivity. So odd huh? I have found the rhetoric is mostly from ECNL clubs and hope it quiets down because it benefits no one at this point.
Lets be honest instead. If you had delved into Match reports I don't know if you would have posted this. Please take a look at match Reports and tell me what is being valued.
For example just choose any blow out game. Tell me when the subs happened, goals scored, and minutes played. Do we need to be ahead three plus goals to give people minutes?
As always I think if you choosing a DA for next year parents have at their finger tips an invaluable tool. Look at the games, who is played, who starts, when subs occur. It speaks volumes about coaches and what they are valuing.
I honestly have no opinion on it either way as I care about total minutes played and fun, learning, etc. I am not in recruiting mode in anyway though so can absolutely see poster point.
That's obvious but it's a fine line between putting teams against one another when it's blowouts. That's why the match reports are so good and shedding some much insight into who is doing what.
Winning is important.
Being on a team that wins when you play 20 minutes is not good.
Being on a team that doesn't sub not good.
I could go on and on but that's not a popular insight. We judge teams based on points and wins.
Parents don't want to hear that some of these teams are based off on four players and that the other 12 players are just like those "bad DA teams" including their previous Autumn or Summer or Boston.
We need to encourage dialogue and education. People need to look at march reports and watch. I promise you if you do you may change your tune about a "bad DA team" when you see what the coaches are doing with the girls.
Finally because my words get misconstrued I want to make it clear this takes nothing away from the talented gals out there and I wish them a healthy and great season
Isn't the "D" supposed to mean "development"?
Here are some keywords in your post that are redflags: "clubs" "scores" "clubs suck" "teams" "top quality clubs" "them."
Try to take a step back and understand the purpose of the Girls DA. US Soccer wants a consistent youth development program that is funded on the backs of entities other than US Soccer. It mandates that the club participants enable it to monitor the progress of the various "girls" in the program. Each girl's progress is reported to US Soccer throughout their stay. US Soccer doesn't care about scores. It doesn't care how well a team does or doesn't do during the season. It only cares that clubs in the program are developing soccer players. A weak team with 3 potential National players is fantastic, a strong team with no National players is not good. Its all about the players. It is for this reason that the DA requires every DA player to start a minimum of 25% of regular games.
When US Soccer looks at a club, it doesn't focus on "wins and loses," the Development Academy Key Performance Categories for clubs are:
1. Player Development Effectiveness
2. Staff Leadership, Structure and Qualifications
3. Style of Play and Philosophy
4. Training Environment and Personal Development
5. Facilities and Infrastructure
6. Respect
7. Resources
Playoff and showcases are an opportunity to aggregate all the teams into 1 place. The National Team coaches attend these events. I know 1 DA coach (boys) who relayed a story that at the showcases its not unusual for a National Team coach to tell the team coach that he wants to see Bobby moved from the No. 7 position to No. 4, etc., so the National Team coaches can see how that players does at that position, the same thing can occur at playoffs (but less frequently). Really, playoffs are for aggregating teams in one place and just the thrill of competition (which is fun).
I Can't thank you enough for all the information. Thanks for helping us out.
To be a devils advocate though this thread really was an example of what clubs are selling us. They say things like we should not be in C DA "because it's a bad team", or they say X DA "will lose all the time".
It's been a bad couple of months for trash talking and it's not parent driven.
What is your take on that?
To be a devils advocate though this thread really was an example of what clubs are selling us. They say things like we should not be in C DA "because it's a bad team", or they say X DA "will lose all the time".
It's been a bad couple of months for trash talking and it's not parent driven.
What is your take on that?
The question still stands regardless of U.S. Soccer's mantra of development, when should the relegate a club? Will it forever be a closed MLS type system? You are kidding yourself if you think U.S. Soccer will unilaterally look within all GDA clubs on player selection. They will cherry pick from top clubs to fill national team spots 99 out of 100 times. We all know losses count.
You do seem focused on clubs.
What always strikes me as odd on this forum is the creepy pro club pro USSDA and anti player rhetoric. It's like creepy coaches and club DOC and their henchmen lurk on here to spew their propaganda. That's fine just make your own category. Call it creepy ass socal coaches with nothing better to do. The only thing that matters is your player nothing else. So take a good hard look at the scores this week and ask your self a question do you as a paying parent believe that USSDA scouts will look at the center back of a team that lost 10-1 or 6-0 and is losing a majority of their games. Or will they look real hard at the teams on the other side of the result. The sell is everyone has a chance for their daughter to be scouted. While that's kinda true. Its also a low down lie. The clubs need you to be sheep. They need to sell the narrative that all is equal. When is reality is not equal. Their is a reason why a team loses by 4,5 or 6 goals. It's because they are not as good right now as the other team. No one at US soccer says yeah they lost by 9 goals but their training sessions are fantastic so let's select the losing teams players. US Soccer is NOT a wait and see enterprise they are not a developer of talent. They are simply a we take and select the best player RIGHT NOW.
There are always outliers
The best player I know was local club forever and after she signed went to bigs. I am not a fan of the outlier stories because I don't want to paint false hope but it goes two ways.
A team that relies on 2-3 players while the rest ride on coat tails isn't much better. You also won't get looks on a team where your DD doesn't play. You also won't get noticed on a team that is showcasing certain players.
It goes both ways
The best player I know was local club forever and after she signed went to bigs. I am not a fan of the outlier stories because I don't want to paint false hope but it goes two ways.
A team that relies on 2-3 players while the rest ride on coat tails isn't much better. You also won't get looks on a team where your DD doesn't play. You also won't get noticed on a team that is showcasing certain players.
It goes both ways
My point is that the talking points of DA while exciting to many are just that talk. Is DA really giving the majority of players better options or fewer ones. Very few nationally will make a national training camp. Yet the narrative that many parents hear and believe is that their DD has a better chance by simply being on DA. When in reality maybe having more options, high school, ecnl, ODP, ID2 etc was better. Outliers exist sure but they also exist outside of DA. Good teams exist outside of DA. The US soccer/club hype machine is in full steam ahead mode.
Mystery Train
GOLD
I was told on good authority that at least one DA club director was given a timeframe of two years to make his DA teams competitive or have the designation pulled. Now I don't know how "competitive" is defined by them, but it makes sense that they would try to protect their league by eliminating clubs that struggle. It's a quandary though because they are trying to elevate "development" but the member clubs are still concerned about all the things (wins, marketing, money) that the existing system values. The success or failure of the DA will only be evident over a span of years. For this season, it's going to be a dog's breakfast, particularly in the older levels where more players may have stayed in the ECNL rather than make a change late in the recruitment process. If the DA teams struggle will there be any patience to stick it out? Or will parents panic and jump back to ECNL? Unless all the DA teams are fully funded, it's just an ECNL alternative with different rules rather than a truly new system.
But WE do. We are SoCal, we can't help ourselves. We are the "scorpion" in MAP's joke. I bet that if you offered the top 50 DA players in each age group a full scholarship to their college of choice but they had to play on a bronze level team (with great coaching), you'd find few takers.