You're on fire today. BTW, ECNL and the GDA was all the same coaches, just new signs out front. As the world watched and turned, we made soccer even worse for the females. What a complete mess. The male Ego is to blame, moo!
Women's CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying
- Thread starter kickingandscreaming
- Start date
Heres an idea that will drive everyone crazy but will generate development over wins.
GA, ECNL, USNT, etc make all parents / spectators pass a certification test before clubs / leadership respond to their questions. The "Parent / Spectator" certification program would test on general soccer, posession, and development concepts. (over wins alone)
As I said super annoying but this would change everything if clubs adopted and stuck to it.
Coaches + Refs go certification programs why not parents / spectators.
GA, ECNL, USNT, etc make all parents / spectators pass a certification test before clubs / leadership respond to their questions. The "Parent / Spectator" certification program would test on general soccer, posession, and development concepts. (over wins alone)
As I said super annoying but this would change everything if clubs adopted and stuck to it.
Coaches + Refs go certification programs why not parents / spectators.
YNT doesn’t start till u15 so it’s all 11v11.
There are barely enough people to watch NWSL or MLS so I wouldn’t expect much revenue generation for a youth expedition. Can’t really compare it with Little League baseball simply based on the popularity of baseball in the US.
If the point is to have a broad net to find the best talent for the YNT’s respective age group, why would you combine age groups? (Or did I miss something)?
maybe 4 regions rather than 8?
The LLWS is entirely run by volunteers. Even the umpires get no more than travel expenses.
4 regions makes it harder, I would go further and say 16 regions, with socal and texas getting 2-3 teams.
If we want youth soccer to be cheaper and open to more players, This Is The Way
The advantage that LLWS has is that there is a surplus of volunteers who know all the rules and proper methods of play for baseball. Soccer still depends on imported experts, what the Nomads director Derek Armstrong at one time called "soccer people".
Also, I should point out that there is another community of youth baseball teams (the so-called "travel Teams") that have paid coaches and compete in expensive tournaments. The truly elite players (or at least those with parents who can afford it) end up there, but you never see their tournaments on national TV.
Help me understand how 4 teams makes it harder. Maybe I am misunderstanding the purpose of this “event”.
In baseball, you don't have to be in a club team to be recruited.
4 teams makes it harder because it means more travelling together to train. We can't mitigate all traveling but 4 regions in the US is a high cost for traveling due to our large land mass. Overall, it would be for the benefit of US women's soccer if we used the cost of travel to subsidize more regional training areas and develop more elite girls. We have a lot of elite athletes who are not getting the training at club to reach their potential bc of the need to win, understandably bc the market dictates this. At the regional trainings, the focus is on the totality of the soccer player. Also, the bigger we cast our net, the better the overall development of our entire player system.
I've seen a lot of girls that have high potential but most don't develop because their parents/families are not soccer players therefore don't understand what they need to be great soccer players or many families don't have the financial capability to do extra trainings. This is what the regional trainings should be facilitating.
The best players are generally those that have money and family soccer backgrounds.
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
I am using "development" in its most general definition - to represent a player's growth in technical and tactical skills. My contention is that on the girls' side, the US Youth National Teams contribute little directly to a player's growth in technical and tactical skills. In the US, the primary purposes of Youth National Teams are to evaluate players and prepare them for competitions. The bulk of player development takes place at the club level.
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
I was imprecise in my previous post when I said, "Let ECNL take care of developing players". More precisely, I should have stated, "Allow players to develop as they have been on their ECNL (or GA, or ...) teams". I didn't mean to imply that ECNL was actually developing players.
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
I like this idea. My gut feeling is that coming up with a meaningful, general certification that all clubs agree on might be difficult.
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
So, each year - U15 to U18 --> 4 age groups (No difference that current YNT camps, correct?)
I'm thinking 4 regions isn't enough. Maybe 8 is too big. I think some sort of analysis like the following might be useful. Take the Power 5 conferences and see where the girls came from. Divide geographically to make this number reasonably equivalent among 6 regions.
This would give National Team coaches exposure to about 6x as many girls as they would typically see.
My kid started training for the U14 YNT when she was 11 back in 2015. I know, big pipe dream. She had one invite to the United States Youth Soccer Training Center when she was 12. I see Kicker said it starts at U15 now. No more U14 Team?
u15 through u23
never was a u14….”Training Cemters” we their regional concept of casting a wide net to ID talent that started at u12.
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
Since it's not my money, I'll continue my journey into fantasy land.
Beyond U18, there is little for the National Team to gain by keeping the net wider than it is currently. Most of those top players will be in college the following year playing soccer, and a few will be pros. Keep the U20 and U23 processes in place as is.
In addition to seeing more players overall, the regional national team idea creates competition against players with better skill and overall athleticism than the US youth teams currently see in CONCACAF tournaments. Other than Mexico and Canada, most players get better competition from their club team. The money spent on CONCACAF gives little bang for the buck in terms of competition.
Creativity would be needed to reduce costs. College campus housing is often available in the summer. There is no need for a huge complex of fields as the total number of teams is 24 (6 regions x 4 age groups) so expensive areas like San Diego can be avoided. Local sponsorships would be useful. Consider combining this with 2 USWNT exhibitions to kick off and end the event. Maybe have an NWSL game or two as well. Americans love a tournament and crowning a National Champion. I'd tap into that.
The most important outcome of this for the National Team would be that they would have more influence on training. Six times as many girls are involved. More teams and coaches will be able to tout their National Team players, and more parents will seek out the training that is leading to invitations.
You’ll also need 6 x’s the staff to manage and operate. Under this scenerio each region will need to run regional camps to narrow down the player pool and prepare for the National event. So what happens after the National event? When does the final Team get selected, train together in regards to whatever Event Cycle they are in (CONCACAF qualifiers, ect)?
Does this scenario play out every year regardless of the Event Cycle or only in the age groups that aren’t in a Cycle at that point?
Not hating, just spitballing as you may be on to something.
Recruit them at age 15 after someone else developed them.
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
Good questions. In general, I am guided by the idea that DA tried to do too much on its own. The National Team should focus on the very top-tier players and athletes. Don't compete with ECNL, GA, etc. Form close associations and use influence to guide training.
Here's my idea of the cycle with 6 geographic regions. Create 2 divisions - the "East" and the "West" with 3 regions in each - split with a predominantly North/South running border that, ideally doesn't split a state. Each age group would play 5 games in a year - one against each region. ** I like the East-West geographic set up as it helps limit the number of time zones crossed for games within the division. **
Within your division the two game will be played sometime between late Dec - Apr. These games will be "one-offs" - a single game between two regions in the division played on a Sunday afternoon with the teams arriving on a Friday. ** I like this set-up because you can get a training and game in a long weekend with little school being missed, or the game could be at the end of a normal training camp week. **
In mid-early July have a big event with all 6 regions. In this event, teams play the 3 teams from the "other" division. I like 3 days in between games, but that will take about 11 days (3 game days, 6 "between" days and 2 days prior to the first game for the arrival day and a day of prep.) If they use 2 days between games, that makes it 9 days.
"You’ll also need 6 x’s the staff to manage and operate."
Create a Youth National Team Coaching Certification that would train ECNL, GA, etc. coaches to run training sessions. Have a regional rep on the National Team Payroll, but have the certified coaches participate in training sessions, meetings, etc. Maybe you have a certain number of positions available, and coaches apply for the opportunity to go through the program. Pay them a stipend if selected to participate in Regional Team coaching, but no need to make them full-time employees with benefits, etc.
"Does this scenario play out every year regardless of the Event Cycle or only in the age groups that aren’t in a Cycle at that point?"
Don't have the National Championship for the age group in the years that have CONCACAF (oldest age group in the CONCACAF participating teams). Maybe a modified competition could take place - 2 East teams and 2 West excluding the CONCACAF participants.
"Under this scenario each region will need to run regional camps to narrow down the player pool and prepare for the National event. When does the final Team get selected, train together in regards to whatever Event Cycle they are in (CONCACAF qualifiers, etc)?"
Use the Training Center idea. Have one or two in October to determine players selected. Use 4 to 5 day training camp between Christmas and New Year for teams to train together. At the end of the camp, have two teams play their division game. If TC's aren't sufficient to select the team, use 4-5 day camp to do so and don't play the game at the end of camp.
I'd always try to associate any of the regional games with other Women's soccer events - especially USWNT games - but also NWSL, etc.
Is there is none.
It was posted on the DA website.