# 2004 DA Standings - final



## boomer (Jun 12, 2018)

Final 2004 DA standings attached. League only. Showcase not included.

Offense/defense rankings...

Offense 
1. LAFC
2. Surf
3. LAUFA
4. LA Galaxy
5. Nomads
6. FCGS
7. Strikers
8. RSC - tie
8. Albion - tie
10. Pats
11. SB
12. LAGSD
13. Arsenal

Defense
1. LAFC
2. LA Galaxy
3. Surf
4. Strikers
5. FCGS
6. Nomads
7. Albion
8. LAUFA
9. Pats
10. RSC
11. Arsenal
12. LAGSD
13. SB


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## thedudeabides (Jun 12, 2018)

The bottom four (Pats, Galaxy SD, Santa Barbara, and Arsenal) destroy the false narrative that DA is the best. Not only are these teams pretty weak, they aren't developing any great talent. There are roughly 100 teams in SoCal that are better than those four. The top 5 are all legit top 15 socal teams. The middle 4 have an avg rank of about 50 in socal. I have seen so many posts about should I take my kid to be a DP on a DA or play flight 1, blah, blah. Someone even posted a ranking system of how DA is the best then flight 1, etc. There is no uniformity in any of that, especially with DA, where the variability between Arsenal and LAFC is about 8 or 9 goals. Find a great team that fits your kid with good and respectful players and a coach that can balance winning and development and has your kid's very best interest at heart and stick with that team. DA isn't what it was intended to be. It does not produce world class players. If you aren't playing for a top MLS DA you are just drinking the koolaid and chasing unicorns.


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## Wez (Jun 14, 2018)

thedudeabides said:


> The bottom four (Pats, Galaxy SD, Santa Barbara, and Arsenal) destroy the false narrative that DA is the best.


I don't understand this statement.  Obviously if you mixed the top half of DA into a flight 1 division (regular season play or tournament), they would come out on top, so you're saying because the bottom half of DA is likely to lose a few games in that scenario, that all of DA is illegitimate?


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## thedudeabides (Jun 15, 2018)

Wez said:


> I don't understand this statement.  Obviously if you mixed the top half of DA into a flight 1 division (regular season play or tournament), they would come out on top, so you're saying because the bottom half of DA is likely to lose a few games in that scenario, that all of DA is illegitimate?


No, what I was trying to say is the more clubs we add to DA the more it takes away from it's original intent. There have been numerous statements and bad advice given here regarding DA; making assumptions it is the top echelon and it really isn't because 2/3  of the teams would just be mediocre to good SoCal clubs teams, meaning ranked outside the top 50 in SoCal. I don't believe the mid table DA teams would necessarily come out on top in Flight 1 or CSL Premier.

Only the top 1/3 of DA's in SoCal are what DA should be. Many of the DA's don't follow all the rules and produce mediocre talent. They need to have one system with a uniform structure that is enforced with no barriers to access for players that are truly the best of the best. That's essentially what they do in Europe. If we did that there wouldn't be such a disparity between the top 4 DA's and the bottom 4 in SoCal. Cut the fat.


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## focomoso (Jun 15, 2018)

thedudeabides said:


> No, what I was trying to say is the more clubs we add to DA the more it takes away from it's original intent. There have been numerous statements and bad advice given here regarding DA; making assumptions it is the top echelon and it really isn't because 2/3  of the teams would just be mediocre to good SoCal clubs teams, meaning ranked outside the top 50 in SoCal. I don't believe the mid table DA teams would necessarily come out on top in Flight 1 or CSL Premier.


I'm no DA fanboy, but at least with the younger age groups I'm familiar with, this really isn't true. The lowest DA teams are still better than the top flight 1 / gold teams. This isn't because the DA has some kind of magical formula, it's just that the DAs take the best players out of the clubs.

 1) Clubs with a DA roll their entire top "pre-academy" teams right into the DA which means those top-level club teams aren't in flight 1 / gold anymore.
2) The top DAs take any superstars around. 
3) The one or two best players from the other top club teams often defect to the nearest DA.

Sometimes a club coach is charismatic enough to keep his entire team together, but even then, I don't see these teams as stronger than even the lowest DAs. 

Again, this isn't due to the DA system being better, it's due to the fact that the DA patch is a great recruiting tool.


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## Wez (Jun 15, 2018)

thedudeabides said:


> I don't believe the mid table DA teams would necessarily come out on top in Flight 1 or CSL Premier.
> 
> Only the top 1/3 of DA's in SoCal are what DA should be.


How would you test this theory?  Do you deny the dynamics focomoso stated above?

From my experience with DA (which isn't extensive, but it's at least first hand), there is not a huge difference in the skill and ability of most of the DA teams.  The top 2 in the B05 division this year had two dominant teams at the top and the rest of the field was fairly evenly distributed, with only minor differences in skill and ability that filtered through down to the bottom of the bracket.

Again, for the reasons focomoso stated above, I would bet the results of mixing DA into flt 1 divisions would yield the DA teams as clearly better than what wasn't poached by DA and got left in flt. 1.  It's all guesswork until we get a way to test the theory.

If you watch DA brackets at tourneys like ManCity/Surf, vs. flt. 1 divisions, do you not see a higher level of play taking place?


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## thedudeabides (Jun 15, 2018)

Wez said:


> How would you test this theory?  Do you deny the dynamics focomoso stated above?
> 
> From my experience with DA (which isn't extensive, but it's at least first hand), there is not a huge difference in the skill and ability of most of the DA teams.  The top 2 in the B05 division this year had two dominant teams at the top and the rest of the field was fairly evenly distributed, with only minor differences in skill and ability that filtered through down to the bottom of the bracket.
> 
> ...


With LA Galaxy, Surf and LAFC yes, they are playing at a higher level than everyone else but there are a few SoCal teams out there that could beat them on a good day. As far as the other mid to lower tier DA's that I have watched in person frequently; nope, they would not automatically win gold/premier or flt 1 in the '04's and I would take that bet all day long. I watched all of the televised DA games at Man City. I was also at national Cup and some of the other big tourneys such as Cerritos and Surf, where I watched both DA and non DA and I have absolutely no doubt that the top 30-40 teams in SoCal are as good or better than the mid to lower DA teams. I also know YSR composite scores verifies this as well as many games being played between DA and non DA proving this. There will also be further proof as some of these DA's age out and play in CSL and Flt 1. But, why is DA shooting their sites on just being better than non-DA? I thought they were trying to produce world class players. That's clearly not happening. I can give you multiple examples of players that I believe to be strong D1 prospects and a few European League prospects that have either not been recruited by a DA or have passed up opportunities on DA teams. Time will tell based on where they ultimately end up but unlike Europe where the best essentially all go to one place, the best US players scatter into several different systems, many of which are non-DA. 

It would be interesting if there was some good objective measures to prove what is working and what isn't. Maybe that's one of our big problems. There are a lot of confounding factors that need to be sorted out. Is success, sending a bunch of kids to an MLS draft where their avg. salary throughout their career will likely be in the sub six figures? Doesn't sound world class or very promising to me. Our overly fragmented and politically charged system is ruining our ability to build world class players and while club soccer shares in the blame, DA is leading the charge of mediocrity.


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## Wez (Jun 15, 2018)

thedudeabides said:


> It would be interesting if there was some good objective measures to prove what is working and what isn't. Maybe that's one of our big problems.


Agreed.

Can't the best Flt. 1 (and CSL equivalent) join the big tournies in the DA brackets, to see if they really are as good?


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## jpeter (Jun 15, 2018)

Wez said:


> Agreed.
> 
> Can't the best Flt. 1 (and CSL equivalent) join the big tournies in the DA brackets, to see if they really are as good?


No, not really when there da only specific brackets like at surf, man City, etc.

DA is a closed circuit also so those teams don't cross play a variety of teams like some of other circuits do when they play tournaments.

Without some form of promotion regulation or change that's doesn't keep rewarding established clubs with auto matic team entry every year no matter how they perform or give up 100+ goals da is going to remain where it is now... Severely unbalanced without enough comp for the top teams


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## Wez (Jun 15, 2018)

jpeter said:


> No, not really when there da only specific brackets like at surf, man City, etc.


If true, that's unfortunate, any team that feels they can take down DA teams, should get the chance, assuming they are already at the top of the flt. 1 rankings.


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## R2564952 (Jun 17, 2018)

Why do people hate on the  DAteams?  If you feel your son plays at the level, feel free to tryout and take a spot from a so called (bottom DA team) . You feel it’s too far from you? Guess what?  Many families make the sacrifice week in and week out. If your son isn’t playing academy, why comment on a subject that doesn’t pertain to you, it’s the same argument that’s been heard over and over. We know we know, poor kids play better and the system is ran by money


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## Kante (Jun 18, 2018)

Here's consolidated end of season "standings" for u12 thru u14 socal academies. 3pts for win, one pt for draw. does not include showcase games. Thought it might be helpful to see all of the youngers' results in one place given the comments of some folks who are talking about who deserves and does not deserve to be academy.


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## Kante (Jun 18, 2018)

"Only the top 1/3 of DA's in SoCal are what DA should be. Many of the DA's don't follow all the rules and produce mediocre talent. They need to have one system with a uniform structure that is enforced with no barriers to access for players that are truly the best of the best. That's essentially what they do in Europe. If we did that there wouldn't be such a disparity between the top 4 DA's and the bottom 4 in SoCal. Cut the fat."

Am new to the academy with our son playing for the first time this year. When you say "many of the DA's don't follow all the rules...", what are you talking about specifically?


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## GKDad65 (Jun 24, 2018)

thedudeabides said:


> The bottom four (Pats, Galaxy SD, Santa Barbara, and Arsenal) destroy the false narrative that DA is the best. Not only are these teams pretty weak, they aren't developing any great talent. There are roughly 100 teams in SoCal that are better than those four. The top 5 are all legit top 15 socal teams. The middle 4 have an avg rank of about 50 in socal. I have seen so many posts about should I take my kid to be a DP on a DA or play flight 1, blah, blah. Someone even posted a ranking system of how DA is the best then flight 1, etc. There is no uniformity in any of that, especially with DA, where the variability between Arsenal and LAFC is about 8 or 9 goals. Find a great team that fits your kid with good and respectful players and a coach that can balance winning and development and has your kid's very best interest at heart and stick with that team. DA isn't what it was intended to be. It does not produce world class players. If you aren't playing for a top MLS DA you are just drinking the koolaid and chasing unicorns.


No peeing in the Kool-Aid!!!!


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## PaytoplayinLancaster? (Jun 24, 2018)

Kante said:


> Here's consolidated end of season "standings" for u12 thru u14 socal academies. 3pts for win, one pt for draw. does not include showcase games. Thought it might be helpful to see all of the youngers' results in one place given the comments of some folks who are talking about who deserves and does not deserve to be academy.


Your U12 bracket is missing the whole San Diego division.  It would be good to see both divisions and how they finished.


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## Kante (Jun 25, 2018)

PaytoplayinLancaster? said:


> Your U12 bracket is missing the whole San Diego division.  It would be good to see both divisions and how they finished.


Here's San Diego and Los Angeles u12.


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## PaytoplayinLancaster? (Jun 26, 2018)

Thank you Kante.


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