Is USSDA working after 10 yrs?

[JJP]

Reaching the Pinnacle of a sport and traveling to play other Elite teams sounds like a benefit, not a disadvantage.

But here's the issue. There's enough talent in SoCal if you combined CSL, SCDSL and Academy you could put together a top division where there's minimal travel.

Spreading the talent out between multiple leagues, which spreads out the "elite" teams geographically, who benefits from that? Not the kids.

 

[xav10]

But here's the issue. There's enough talent in SoCal if you combined CSL, SCDSL and Academy you could put together a top division where there's minimal travel.

Spreading the talent out between multiple leagues, which spreads out the "elite" teams geographically, who benefits from that? Not the kids.

Before Academy got rolling in So Cal and before SCDSL, up until only about 8 years ago, Coast had Premier League with every weekend in San Juan Capistrano. It was sort of what you describe, i.e. the best teams, one location not too crazy and all the colleges would come there and to surf cup and to dallas cup for the west coast kids to get looks. Highly manageable. Now, not so much...the 13 and 14 year old DA kids this season will have to drive from LA to SD (and vice versa) for one 60-minute game like every other weekend this season. Totally nuts.

 

[JJP]

Before Academy got rolling in So Cal and before SCDSL, up until only about 8 years ago, Coast had Premier League with every weekend in San Juan Capistrano. It was sort of what you describe, i.e. the best teams, one location not too crazy and all the colleges would come there and to surf cup and to dallas cup for the west coast kids to get looks. Highly manageable. Now, not so much...the 13 and 14 year old DA kids this season will have to drive from LA to SD (and vice versa) for one 60-minute game like every other weekend this season. Totally nuts.

And the LA/OC to SD drive is not an easy drive. If the game is scheduled after 12, with traffic the drive can be up to 3 to 3.5 hrs. So say 6 hrs. driving time, an hour early for the game, 1.5 hrs for the game, an hour for a meal. You have literally killed the day for one game, plus requiring the next day for recovery because 6 hrs of car ride is a terrible way to recuperate.

 

[xav10]

And the LA/OC to SD drive is not an easy drive. If the game is scheduled after 12, with traffic the drive can be up to 3 to 3.5 hrs. So say 6 hrs. driving time, an hour early for the game, 1.5 hrs for the game, an hour for a meal. You have literally killed the day for one game, plus requiring the next day for recovery because 6 hrs of car ride is a terrible way to recuperate.

Really incredible that this is what our soccer development minds have come up with

 

[full90]

Seriously. Play local teams each weekend. Occasionally travel and get in two games. And with rosters of 25 freaking kids line off two fields and play two games. How is leaving 8 kids off a roster each weekend helpful for development?

And those Galaxy players on the ground were crazy. How are 18 year olds cramping that much? We were like is it time wasting or at the end of the season are these guys really not fit?

 

[Eusebio]

Some interesting ideas, but the problem with promotion/relegation in youth soccer is that it just brings back the winning at all costs mentality. Coaches will stack teams with man-childs and play jungle ball in order to get into and stay in the Premier flight. And the teams that get relegated will often disband. I think promotion/relegation works great at the professional level, but I don't think it's ideal at the youth level for player development without major modifications.

The DA academy I think can work, but I also think it needs some significant modifications. I've mentioned a few of these before, but here are the changes to make the DA system actually produce tangible results over time:

1). Make it mandatory for every DA player to take and pass a skills combine assessment every year. For example, the skills assessment might include juggle 100 times on the right foot/left foot, dribble through cones within a certain time limit with left/right/both feet, pass accuracy test with both feet, and etc. This will ensure every DA player meets a minimum threshold of technical ability and it slows down coaches from recruiting man-childs that can barely control the ball. It'll also create some semblance of a national standard, so both a 13 year-old DA player in SoCal or Kentucky can juggle/dribble with their left foot. And any player who does not pass the skills combine test will not be eligible to play for a 4 month period.

2). Instead of standings and publicizing the playoff/showcases, they should heavily promote the NIKE NATIONAL TEAM DEVELOPMENT RATING. This National Team Development rating would basically be a publicized version of the DA club ratings by US Soccer. The rating is essentially a measure of how well it develops players and the overall academy environment. So it would rate things like: Style of Play, Percentage of Players who pass Skills Combine, Facilities, Average Playing Time of Reserves, Output of Professional Players, Output of College Players, National Team Call-ups, Average Club Costs, Average Travel Costs, Average Player Turn-over Year-over-Year, Player Satisfaction and etc. Every single one of these metrics would be publicly available for every single player and parent to see. With those type of metrics, you'll be able to tell how exactly these academies are functioning. Are they developing players or just poaching players? Do any of their DA graduates play at a professional level or is it primarily a college vehicle? Do they play/develop their Reserves or only rely on their Starters? Do the clubs attempt to make their academy teams affordable and offset costs or do they primarily function as "country-club" academies with excessive club and travel costs?

With this NIKE NATIONAL TEAM DEVELOPMENT RATING, it would be the new benchmark on what attracts players/parents to clubs, not necessarily standings. So if a local DA club has a B+ rating, they would attract better players in the area compared to a rival club who has a C- rating. This rating could be plastered all over their club promotional materials, websites, instagrams, and etc to help with overall recruiting through the club. So if the rival club wants to improve their recruiting and overall image, they would have to improve some of their core issues with their academy such as Club/Travel costs, reduce turnover, or increase professional/college player output. Player development and the academy environment would actually be tied to their bottom line. Also, it would be a mandatory requirement for all DA clubs to show their NT Dev Rating on the front page of their website similar to a Food letter rating, so no hiding from a poor development rating and would further increase the incentive to improve it.

3). Establish the REGIONAL DA OPEN CUP sponsored by Volkswagon. Every region would have a DA Open Cup that would have all the DA academies in that region plus 10-12 regular club teams. The regular club teams could come from various qualifiers such as league winners, state cup finalist, and etc. This DA Open Cup would have roughly 24 teams and be attended heavily by NT scouts, college coaches, pro-scouts, and etc. This tournament accomplishes 3 things. a). It keeps the DA academies honest. They can stay in a closed system for 9 months, but for one month they will be tested against local competition. The DA players will also enjoy the much needed variety. b). Talented players on regular club teams have the opportunity to be seen by DA academies, NT scouts, college coaches, and etc. This significantly expands the player I.D. pool, instead of restricting everything to a closed system where 1-3 DoCs are literally the gatekeepers for large geographic areas/population centers. c). For each regional area, it offers a unifying tournament for all the dozens of leagues and organizations while still allowing for ingenuity from all corners of the map. If a local club like TFA popped up and was able to compete well against top DA teams, then US Soccer can see what TFA is doing differently than the current DA clubs and possibly recommend improvements to the academies if needed. Conversely if TFA was just winning due to man-child Jungle ball, then US Soccer can just dismiss it.

This allows US Soccer to leverage training and development ideas from the entire country and actually use a our huge geographic/population size to our advantage that's unique to America. Currently the DA system leverages or has access to only a tiny fraction of the player pool. And that tiny fraction isn't necessarily the best of the best or trained properly to reach their full potential. Having regional open tournaments with DA/Non-DA participation would provide US Soccer with a deeper root system into regular youth club soccer.

If US Soccer were to implement these 3 things, we'll win the Word Cup within 20 years, have ten or more US born players in Champions League in 15 years, and a watchable MLS league with higher TV ratings in 7 years. If anyone here knows someone at US Soccer, please forward them my post. The fate of US youth soccer depends on you.
Yours Sincerely,
Eusebio

 

[younothat]

Nicely Done Eusebio all those are worth consideration.

For #1 yeah would have to give clubs a year notice or something like that since some existing players won't meet those requirements currently. Would have be part of yearly registration process but like the others things players have to meet to get registered.

#2) With all the DA scouts that could be manged but we would have to change some of them out and get some newer more blood in, sort of like what the academy awards are attempting to do with diversity

#3) Like this one. Instead of the closed showcases 3 times a year, (2) Open cups and (1) DA closed one should works

I would add take some of the ECNL rules and replace or modify the DA ones to make them more reasonable
http://playthewhistle.com/game-day/ecnl-competition-rules-2016.pdf

4) Allow for High School play and a dark period which is there anyway between Dec-Feb

5) Revamp & expand the “training centers" and who gets invited to those. Instead of the all the Politics involved make sure all or more players get invited and can participate at some point not just the few per team that gets sent repeatably and all the other are left out. We can't raise the game by just concentrating on only 1-5% of players.

6) Modify some of the FIFA "Adult" rules such as:
a) Change the current restrictive sub rules until U18 or something like that and replace those with the NCCA sub rules or what ECNL does where you have (7) subs in a half, can't renter in the same half but at least you can in a different half unlike DA where there is no re-entry what so ever. Too many players in DA ride the pine due to the (3) movement sub rules or worn out or injured players can be left on the field due to all the sub movements or subs already being used later in the game.
b) Change the DA Five Yellow Card Accumulations rule to miss a game deal. There is no yellow card accumulation policy for ECNL Competitions. In DA make that 10 Yellows or none at all.

7) Change the Recruiting; Try-Outs; process to be more like ECNL where you can recruit players anytime but clubs can't train, invite a player to train, invite a player to tryout or try out a player from another DA teams prior to a set date like May 1st and have some "open" months like April and June where players can train and tryout with a variety of member clubs if the want to.

Ok some of these may not be popular and I'm not a socialist liberal or anything like that. But we must open up the youth soccer world to more players and allow for broader demographics to participate? How?

8) Invest the 100 million dollar+ US soccer war chest in something more meaningful than Wall Street.
a) Investing in more Soccer Infrastructure? more fields to play on , training facilitates, coaching educational programs, etc.
b) what about Partnering with middle or high school programs and offering coaching education so kids have actual soccer trained coaches rather than the history or gym rat teacher who just happens to be a part time soccer buff.
c) Perhaps futsal programs at elementary school where most have black tops anyway, offer some alternatives to the basketball on courts or something alone those lines. Seems like US soccer could do much more with the kind of $ they are generating & basically sitting on.

9) Create regional all star teams not just the YNT a highly charged political system for the 1%. Almost every body I talk to says we have the players but so many of them are overlooked for what reasons. LET the PLAYERS have a voice in who they think should be "all stars", give them 50% weight, 25% for the coaches and 25% for the scouts our something along those lines. My Little League did this and everybody was happier and we went father than many of the bigger more affluent communities that used the old coaches or scout systems.

10) Do something about the competitive imbalance.

Level the playing field; MLS teams have a big advantage in recruiting so come up with a way to reward homegrown players development rather than poaching from other clubs.
Require the MLS clubs, US soccer, or those well to do clubs to contribute to funding local youth teams and/or a real development Super "D" league where players could be promoted. Each team would be required to have X% of "home grown" players not just a collection of players from other clubs who get nothing in return currently.

Is DA working? Yes and No

The level of play, skill level and talent has increased ever year no doubt but we have a long way to GO IMO.

 

[ray8]

I get your point, but playing in the MIC tournament last April, it was clear that organizations like Barcelona and Real Madrid were producing teams that were there to win and it wasn't teams of giants. Isn't the ultimate measure of development, wins?

Soccer in the US plays with all the athletes who chose not to play Football / Baseball / Basketball. If soccer can figure out a way to attract our best athletes, we will start to win intl. competitions. It feels to me like we're slowly moving in that direction.

If you want your son to become a soccer player stay the hell away from anyone who tells you winning is a measure of development.
Has anyone ever explained to you guys why there are no tables for the younger academy levels? Bitter truth is the academies don't know why.
And Real Madrid and Barcelona aren't at MIC Cup to win. They almost always win because they're so damn good. But they're in business to protect and nourish talented boys, not win games.

 

[Wez]

If you want your son to become a soccer player stay the hell away from anyone who tells you winning is a measure of development.
Has anyone ever explained to you guys why there are no tables for the younger academy levels? Bitter truth is the academies don't know why.
And Real Madrid and Barcelona aren't at MIC Cup to win. They almost always win because they're so damn good. But they're in business to protect and nourish talented boys, not win games.

Jeez, angry much?

 

[ray8]

And those Galaxy players on the ground were crazy. How are 18 year olds cramping that much? We were like is it time wasting or at the end of the season are these guys really not fit?

The tournament is played after a long season of boot and run games, often played while ignoring overuse injuries. Academy soccer games after U15 are endurance events.

 

[JJP]

It's easy to pile on the academy system, but IMO academy was still better than the other options out there in the US. If we're going to compare USSDA to top European academies, then sure USSDA falls short, but I do think USSDA is taking steps in the right direction and hopefully can improve with some of the ideas and suggestions from this website.

Unfortunately the US is not like Germany, and we can't pivot on a dime and build out 155 "Centers of Excellence" which is what the Germans did after they crashed and burned in 2004, where they trained up coaches to the highest standards, built out top of the line facilities and equipment, and had their federation work with all the clubs to improve their training in accordance with their improved best practices.

That's what it will take to compete with the Europeans.

 

[thedudeabides]

After 10 years, is U.S. Soccer’s Development Academy working?

Experts are split on whether the DA is truly changing the youth soccer landscape.
Read more at https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/feat...velopment-academy-working#ptEi4UGy1BK9vKry.99

For all the strides it has made, the Academy has not yet won over all its critics, many of whom complain about inflexibility, imbalance, travel and top-down organization. It’s a fair time to ask: Is the DA working?

I really don't think so and here are my observations that I am sure all the DA lemmings will jump all over. First of all, I'm not saying DA is necessarily a bad thing, I'm just saying it can't prove it is better. Secondly, there is a huge disparity between the top DA's and the bottom ones, period. So trying to say you have this standardized system that attracts the best players is simply not true and the more DA's that get formed, the more there will be separation between the top and bottom. So much so, that strong non-DA club players will continue to turn down weak DA offers.

DA is just a meaningless label like anything else that lacks empirical data proving why their system of development is better. Our club is not DA and as teams age out of DA age groups our teams beat those teams more times than not. For one thing, the DA kids tend to play a little soft and appear to be mentally weaker. Yes, this is a gross generalization but they are told for years how great they are when they weren't all that. Maybe mommy/daddy has a big check book or knows someone, but these kids actually think they are better than all non-DA players and that is far from reality. I have talked to numerous coaches that have had their top kids approached by DA and have turned it down. Two of our dads that went down to DA tryouts came back and literally said our team could easily beat them. One dad genuinely wanted to know why they should spend that kind of time and money when their kid was already on a great team, was happy and was being properly developed. The other dad that also recognized this was still unsure because he was told "DA is just a higher level". Once again, simply a perception built on nothing.

Yes, I know it's all about the development. That's what losing coaches always say. Development and winning aren't mutually exclusive. When you properly develop a kid/team, this will naturally yield more wins and learning to win is an extremely important part of development. Winning starts with taking a team and developing a system based on the strengths and weaknesses of the players; not conforming to one system of play that hasn't even been demonstrated to be very successful. Secondly, and more importantly, keeping those kids together for many years has a huge impact on the overall chemistry and success of a team.

The team I am associated with lost two of our bottom starters to DA and they were unsuccessful at getting anyone in our top 4 (yes, they recruited 6 players total from our team). Ironically, one of the kids they cut, we picked up and he is significantly better than the two we lost. Yes, these are all anecdotes but our ranking was already very high and actually improved more since losing two to DA, so I do have empirical proof that we are better off now. I'll take the numerous years of experience, coaching and playing, that our three coaches bring compared to a sea of coaches that simply rotate around like an assembly line proudly displaying their A and B licenses. In the end, these coaches will never be able to form the personal relationships and bonds with their players like ours can because they have been relegated to a player mill.

Like anything that involves monetary transactions and people that are used to engineering every aspect of their children's lives, politics will get involved. There are now something like 30 DA's in SoCal....really, you think that is an exclusive club? Do you think it is possible that there is serious talent dilution when you have that many DA's? Do you honestly think that there aren't a significant number of kids/parents that have shunned DA because of the numerous barriers to entry? It will get to the point where the DA label won't mean that much anymore. It is already heading that way and people will try to create something even higher. We have already seen that with the numerous acronyms of leagues/levels that I can't even keep up with any more.

Don't get me wrong, if there was really a system where the best kids could congregate without politics and money involved; like they have with the professional academies in Europe, then DA could work. Until then, find a club with good players, coaches and parents where your kid is comfortable and happy and watch his/her game thrive. If it doesn't work out or the team ends up mediocre, you still get to walk away with a happy kid with a little bit more money in your pocket. All this jumping around chasing the perceived best opportunity for your kid is ruining soccer. We'll see some of these DA's one day on the pitch. You can't hide in your exclusive club forever. When the final whistle blows, you will likely be scratching your head wondering why you spent so much time and money chasing unicorns.

 

[Wez]

I really don't think so and here are my observations that I am sure all the DA lemmings will jump all over. First of all, I'm not saying DA is necessarily a bad thing, I'm just saying it can't prove it is better. Secondly, there is a huge disparity between the top DA's and the bottom ones, period. So trying to say you have this standardized system that attracts the best players is simply not true and the more DA's that get formed, the more there will be separation between the top and bottom. So much so, that strong non-DA club players will continue to turn down weak DA offers.

DA is just a meaningless label like anything else that lacks empirical data proving why their system of development is better. Our club is not DA and as teams age out of DA age groups our teams beat those teams more times than not. For one thing, the DA kids tend to play a little soft and appear to be mentally weaker. Yes, this is a gross generalization but they are told for years how great they are when they weren't all that. Maybe mommy/daddy has a big check book or knows someone, but these kids actually think they are better than all non-DA players and that is far from reality. I have talked to numerous coaches that have had their top kids approached by DA and have turned it down. Two of our dads that went down to DA tryouts came back and literally said our team could easily beat them. One dad genuinely wanted to know why they should spend that kind of time and money when their kid was already on a great team, was happy and was being properly developed. The other dad that also recognized this was still unsure because he was told "DA is just a higher level". Once again, simply a perception built on nothing.

Yes, I know it's all about the development. That's what losing coaches always say. Development and winning aren't mutually exclusive. When you properly develop a kid/team, this will naturally yield more wins and learning to win is an extremely important part of development. Winning starts with taking a team and developing a system based on the strengths and weaknesses of the players; not conforming to one system of play that hasn't even been demonstrated to be very successful. Secondly, and more importantly, keeping those kids together for many years has a huge impact on the overall chemistry and success of a team.

The team I am associated with lost two of our bottom starters to DA and they were unsuccessful at getting anyone in our top 4 (yes, they recruited 6 players total from our team). Ironically, one of the kids they cut, we picked up and he is significantly better than the two we lost. Yes, these are all anecdotes but our ranking was already very high and actually improved more since losing two to DA, so I do have empirical proof that we are better off now. I'll take the numerous years of experience, coaching and playing, that our three coaches bring compared to a sea of coaches that simply rotate around like an assembly line proudly displaying their A and B licenses. In the end, these coaches will never be able to form the personal relationships and bonds with their players like ours can because they have been relegated to a player mill.

Like anything that involves monetary transactions and people that are used to engineering every aspect of their children's lives, politics will get involved. There are now something like 30 DA's in SoCal....really, you think that is an exclusive club? Do you think it is possible that there is serious talent dilution when you have that many DA's? Do you honestly think that there aren't a significant number of kids/parents that have shunned DA because of the numerous barriers to entry? It will get to the point where the DA label won't mean that much anymore. It is already heading that way and people will try to create something even higher. We have already seen that with the numerous acronyms of leagues/levels that I can't even keep up with any more.

Don't get me wrong, if there was really a system where the best kids could congregate without politics and money involved; like they have with the professional academies in Europe, then DA could work. Until then, find a club with good players, coaches and parents where your kid is comfortable and happy and watch his/her game thrive. If it doesn't work out or the team ends up mediocre, you still get to walk away with a happy kid with a little bit more money in your pocket. All this jumping around chasing the perceived best opportunity for your kid is ruining soccer. We'll see some of these DA's one day on the pitch. You can't hide in your exclusive club forever. When the final whistle blows, you will likely be scratching your head wondering why you spent so much time and money chasing unicorns.

Do you mind me asking what team you are with?

 

[Zvezdas]

I really don't think so and here are my observations that I am sure all the DA lemmings will jump all over. First of all, I'm not saying DA is necessarily a bad thing, I'm just saying it can't prove it is better. Secondly, there is a huge disparity between the top DA's and the bottom ones, period. So trying to say you have this standardized system that attracts the best players is simply not true and the more DA's that get formed, the more there will be separation between the top and bottom. So much so, that strong non-DA club players will continue to turn down weak DA offers.

DA is just a meaningless label like anything else that lacks empirical data proving why their system of development is better. Our club is not DA and as teams age out of DA age groups our teams beat those teams more times than not. For one thing, the DA kids tend to play a little soft and appear to be mentally weaker. Yes, this is a gross generalization but they are told for years how great they are when they weren't all that. Maybe mommy/daddy has a big check book or knows someone, but these kids actually think they are better than all non-DA players and that is far from reality. I have talked to numerous coaches that have had their top kids approached by DA and have turned it down. Two of our dads that went down to DA tryouts came back and literally said our team could easily beat them. One dad genuinely wanted to know why they should spend that kind of time and money when their kid was already on a great team, was happy and was being properly developed. The other dad that also recognized this was still unsure because he was told "DA is just a higher level". Once again, simply a perception built on nothing.

Yes, I know it's all about the development. That's what losing coaches always say. Development and winning aren't mutually exclusive. When you properly develop a kid/team, this will naturally yield more wins and learning to win is an extremely important part of development. Winning starts with taking a team and developing a system based on the strengths and weaknesses of the players; not conforming to one system of play that hasn't even been demonstrated to be very successful. Secondly, and more importantly, keeping those kids together for many years has a huge impact on the overall chemistry and success of a team.

The team I am associated with lost two of our bottom starters to DA and they were unsuccessful at getting anyone in our top 4 (yes, they recruited 6 players total from our team). Ironically, one of the kids they cut, we picked up and he is significantly better than the two we lost. Yes, these are all anecdotes but our ranking was already very high and actually improved more since losing two to DA, so I do have empirical proof that we are better off now. I'll take the numerous years of experience, coaching and playing, that our three coaches bring compared to a sea of coaches that simply rotate around like an assembly line proudly displaying their A and B licenses. In the end, these coaches will never be able to form the personal relationships and bonds with their players like ours can because they have been relegated to a player mill.

Like anything that involves monetary transactions and people that are used to engineering every aspect of their children's lives, politics will get involved. There are now something like 30 DA's in SoCal....really, you think that is an exclusive club? Do you think it is possible that there is serious talent dilution when you have that many DA's? Do you honestly think that there aren't a significant number of kids/parents that have shunned DA because of the numerous barriers to entry? It will get to the point where the DA label won't mean that much anymore. It is already heading that way and people will try to create something even higher. We have already seen that with the numerous acronyms of leagues/levels that I can't even keep up with any more.

Don't get me wrong, if there was really a system where the best kids could congregate without politics and money involved; like they have with the professional academies in Europe, then DA could work. Until then, find a club with good players, coaches and parents where your kid is comfortable and happy and watch his/her game thrive. If it doesn't work out or the team ends up mediocre, you still get to walk away with a happy kid with a little bit more money in your pocket. All this jumping around chasing the perceived best opportunity for your kid is ruining soccer. We'll see some of these DA's one day on the pitch. You can't hide in your exclusive club forever. When the final whistle blows, you will likely be scratching your head wondering why you spent so much time and money chasing unicorns.

I agree with most of your argument, however even the best Euro academies are not free of politics! An idea that European top academies gather only the best kids and are politics free is just another blatant lie some here on the board like to propagate.

 

[Wez]

There are now something like 30 DA's in SoCal....really, you think that is an exclusive club?

Population of 24million, more than half the population of the entire Country of Spain. 59 teams have competed in La Liga, so 30 feels about right, but you make a lot of great points. I think the DA program is a work in progress and is improving. How else do you separate talent so you can be reasonably assured you will have a challenging match at each age group. You're never quite sure what you're going to get when you play SCDSL flt 1.

 

[thedudeabides]

To be honest, USSF is looking for an identity in how to develop players and in all fairness we havent found that identity yet..getting closer but not there yet.

We have too many options, we have a clutter of playing options and were not getting the right mindset when developing players.

Our ideologies and beliefs arent one, we have a ton of conflicting ideas that are not allowing us to look at what our goal really is.

I agree with the post that we have players that are just long ball and physical, demographically caucasians are winning at the youth levels, physically their just better. But when it comes to the ball movement the foreign immigrant status are doing a better job. Were Similar to the British. Soccer iq needs to develop not ATHLETES, we are way ahead in terms of physical preparedness, we just dont have the brains yet. We have raw ability, we need to convert it into something. So are we gonna actually address mental development more or are we gonna think about how strong physically were gonna get. Lets keep in mind conditioning and strength training arent the same thing. Take a look at Modric of madrid vs bradley of toronto, who wins physically? Bradley from the looks of it, but modric brain and ability would still beat him physically. Its about bridging that gap.

So is DA training developing world class talent...no, its not. Its just a serious and rigorous environment that will aid a player with natural talent even more. We cant expect all players to be mentally similar, not all will go through same path, not all will be professional level. Some things you cant rush or buy.

I also believe that the labeling were doing with DA, flight 1 bla bla bla doesnt help, we need to organize under 1 umbrella, its ridiculous that we have youth traveling the country for games when in our own backyard we have so many teams and players.

For Socal, lets merge coast league with scdsl and have best teams from scdsl and coast go at it along with DA teams, thats how good development will take place, have the relegation in place for the youth levels. So theres an incentive both ways. And if Usssf wants to revolutionize youth development, have scouts and coaches for a state team, best 23 players from state in each category like odp but better, have them compete against other state teams. All structured and simple.

A calendar needs to be put in place also, a 2 season setup like Spring/early summer and a fall season that are equally strong would be best. In between you could have a state cup and national cup in the summer, avoid money grab tournaments in deserts *cough cough* norco*, which doesnt help develop players..

If DA wants to not be apart of the regular youth setup then let them be, having professional backing is great but doesnt make sense to have a slammers DA with a galaxy DA, the professional youth clubs should be playing against the professional youth clubs, La vs Dal, this would be the alternate to having the state team as i mentioned, just scratch state team thing i said ahah. Professional vs professional, non professional vs non professional, however id like to see Galaxy takin part in a major tournament like state cup pitted against best teams. Just my 2 cents

Do you mind me asking what team you are with?

I would be happy to have a private conversation with you about it. Given I mentioned experiences with anonymous players, I would rather not tell you the club, as it would immediately identify these players. Thanks

 

[thedudeabides]

I agree with most of your argument, however even the best Euro academies are not free of politics! An idea that European top academies gather only the best kids and are politics free is just another blatant lie some here on the board like to propagate.

True, but having my son train in Europe a few times and seeing those systems up close, it is night and day compared to here. they are training kids to be professional. We are training kids for college. Not saying one is better than the other, just a simple observation. They admitted that we were closing the gap tremendously as far as the talent we produced in the states but said the politics of our club system was hindering us. That and many of the best U.S athletes are not choosing soccer are the biggest issues in U.S. soccer in my opinion.

 

[thedudeabides]

But here's the issue. There's enough talent in SoCal if you combined CSL, SCDSL and Academy you could put together a top division where there's minimal travel.

Spreading the talent out between multiple leagues, which spreads out the "elite" teams geographically, who benefits from that? Not the kids.

100% agree. That is the crux of the problem.

 

[BJ18]

I would be happy to have a private conversation with you about it. Given I mentioned experiences with anonymous players, I would rather not tell you the club, as it would immediately identify these players. Thanks

I count 21 DA teams in Socal at the entry U12 level. And the following year, U13, the DA teams shrink to fewer than that (13 teams). See below:

SOUTHWEST

1. Albion SC
2. Arsenal FC
3. FC Golden State
4. LA Galaxy
5. LA Galaxy San Diego
6. Los Angeles Football Club
7. Los Angeles United Futbol Academy
8. Nomads SC
9. Pateadores
10. Real So Cal
11. San Diego Surf
12. Santa Barbara Soccer Club
13. Strikers FC

And then, one less team at the next age group of U15 and older (12 teams). So, I am not sure where you get 30 teams.
However, I do believe NOT all the best players opt to play in a DA system for a number of reasons. With that being said, the consistency of good competition on a week to week basis has its' benefits. Don't you think?

 

[espola]

True, but having my son train in Europe a few times and seeing those systems up close, it is night and day compared to here. they are training kids to be professional. We are training kids for college. Not saying one is better than the other, just a simple observation. They admitted that we were closing the gap tremendously as far as the talent we produced in the states but said the politics of our club system was hindering us. That and many of the best U.S athletes are not choosing soccer are the biggest issues in U.S. soccer in my opinion.

What particular techniques distinguish training to be professional from training for college?