# U.S. Soccer Development Academy Releases 2017-2018 Regular Season Schedule



## Myleftfoot (Jun 1, 2017)

Here we go again! 
http://www.ussoccerda.com/20170601-development-academy-2017-2018-regular-season-schedule-release


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## younothat (Jun 1, 2017)

Interesting, schedules have changed somewhat for the U15 and up age groups, they now regularly play the northern teams although the regular season instead of just the Southwest teams.  Looks like a lot more travel.

The southwest players would  likely welcome the change,  does get boring playing the same local teams up to 3x times a year, just now have to deal with the travel logistics for those teams.


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## Wez (Jun 1, 2017)

Anyone have a link to the USS website page that says which birth year applies to which division, can't seem to find it?


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## justneededaname (Jun 1, 2017)

For 17-18

U12 - 2006
U13 - 2005 
etc...


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## Wez (Jun 1, 2017)

justneededaname said:


> For 17-18
> 
> U12 - 2006
> U13 - 2005
> etc...


Did they post that on their website somewhere?


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## JackZ (Jun 2, 2017)

Wez said:


> Did they post that on their website somewhere?


It's somewhere out there, it was stated that AFTER the first year of the birth year change DA would fall into alignment with the U bracketing. Alas, no more confusion.


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## xav10 (Jun 2, 2017)

Wez said:


> Did they post that on their website somewhere?


At the beginning of last year they announced the complicated notion that your "year" is the age you will be in the year the season ends.

E.g., we are now in 2017 and the season is ending this month. Therefore, kids who turn 12 in calendar 2017 are U12. Kids who turn 13 in calendar 2017 are U13, etc.

So for the combined youngest '04 teams this year (but only this year), the 04s will, essentially, skip their U13 year and go straight to U14 (because they will turn 14 in 2018, when the next season ends). The 05s were the "real" U12s this year, weirdly, and they will go U13.

It gets a bit clearer starting next season (ie in August) when the 06s are U12, because they turn 12 in 2018.

I re-read the above and it still takes practice to digest it!


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## Wez (Jun 2, 2017)

xav10 said:


> At the beginning of last year they announced the complicated notion that your "year" is the age you will be in the year the season ends.
> 
> E.g., we are now in 2017 and the season is ending this month. Therefore, kids who turn 12 in calendar 2017 are U12. Kids who turn 13 in calendar 2017 are U13, etc.
> 
> ...


Thank you for the clarification it is helpful.  I'm guessing they haven't posted a grid that explains this on their website yet.


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## xav10 (Jun 2, 2017)

Over the past year I have definitely seen, somewhere in US Soccer or USSDA webland, the grid, so if you look for it you'll find it.


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## younothat (Jun 2, 2017)

There is another new twist to the calendar/birth year change for the new 17-18 season:

A limited number  (I heard (2) per team) later calendar/birth year players can play down in the the 17-18' season for ussda.

Another words if you're player is a Dec/Nov (not sure what the cut off month(s) are yet)  Birth year 02' for 17-18's they can play down with the U15's instead of there normal birth/calendar year  group which will be the combo U16/17  (02/01's) group for 17-18.

I'm really hoping clubs use this for those players on the " later physical development path" and not to game the system or try to win more games at the cost of development,. 

This is another example of what ussda is attempting:

"In pursuit of improving U.S. Soccer's longer term objectives for talent identification and individual development of young players, U.S. Soccer Director of Talent Identification Tony Lepore has called in the group of players for a four-day camp that will focus on identifying the most talented players in the '02 and '03 birth years who appear to be on a later physical development path and/or are born in the second half of the year. Such parameters serve to reduce the impact of physical maturity and relative age effect on identification and evaluation of talent"
http://www.ussoccerda.com/20170526-news-ynt-boys-64-player-roster-announced-for-us-soccer-futures-camp-at-ntc


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## timbuck (Jun 2, 2017)

Maybe they should do 6 month age bands if they really want to identify these kids?


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## uburoi (Jun 2, 2017)

Newbie here. For u12 there appears to be many weekends with no games, which is fine since it's a long season. Are some of those open weekends planned for other academy events? Also, games seem to only be Saturdays. And are 2 games for Aand B teams, can some kids play both games?


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## SBFDad (Jun 2, 2017)

uburoi said:


> Newbie here. For u12 there appears to be many weekends with no games, which is fine since it's a long season. Are some of those open weekends planned for other academy events? Also, games seem to only be Saturdays. And are 2 games for Aand B teams, can some kids play both games?


The schedule is just preliminary at this point.

Based on the experience at U12 this past year...games will be rescheduled and you will have some on Sundays, some weekends with Saturday and Sunday games, and a number of weekends off. We had 32 games total (64 between both groups) over 9 months. Players can only play in 1 of the 2 games scheduled per day.  There was a futsal event with a few short games. Then the club-to-club possibility of playing USSDA blessed tournaments (LA Galaxy Cup, Surf Cup, Man City Cup, Generation Adidas, Dallas Cup).

It's a long haul, but an enjoyable one. My son didn't think it was too much. In the end, he wants to play games. From a parent perspective, you get used to it...most weekends being occupied. The schedule is released well in advance so planning future months for vacations and such is possible.

One thing in particular I thought was a great change from club is the max 1 game per day and max 2 games over a 3 day period. This rule isn't important in league play as even club sides only play 1 league game a day, but it was a big deal at Man City Cup. No more 2 games a day and possibly 5 games over 3 days. It was great. The old club approach to tournaments is too much of a grind. It's not good for the kids.


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## mahrez (Jun 2, 2017)

uburoi said:


> Newbie here. For u12 there appears to be many weekends with no games, which is fine since it's a long season. Are some of those open weekends planned for other academy events? Also, games seem to only be Saturdays. And are 2 games for Aand B teams, can some kids play both games?


One game a day,  most are on same day so no unless they are some sat & sun ones but even so w/ the roster sizes one game a weekend is typically for the U12's but 2 in a weekend is possible.

"The Academy game schedule provides on average 1 game per week over the course of 30 weeks throughout the fall and spring Academy seasons. The Academy scheduling philosophy is to provide a regular season and event schedule framework that will provide meaningful competition to support player development."

The 2017-2018 Academy season will feature 3 showcase and postseason playoff events:

Player Health and Safety - Games are scheduled with built in rest days along with medical and support staff to ensure players have what they need to compete at the highest level
http://www.ussoccerda.com/20170601-development-academy-2017-2018-regular-season-schedule-release

With the 3x showcases that another potential 9 games.  Those are normally shorten a bit time wise when back to back.

For the full sided ages the back to back weekend games can be a bit of a grind especially the road games, helps to have the larger rosters on those.

Yes the age band for ussda now conforms to the calendar year like CAL South but with 2 exceptions per team.


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## Wez (Jun 2, 2017)

mahrez said:


> Yes the age band for ussda now conforms to the calendar year like CAL South but *with 2 exceptions per team*.


What does this mean?


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## justneededaname (Jun 2, 2017)

uburoi said:


> And are 2 games for Aand B teams, can some kids play both games?


At U12, they are for A and B teams. From my experience this year, I know players were not allowed to play in both games. The roster can be changed right up to kick off, but once they are on the roster for one game they cannot play in the other.


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## SBFDad (Jun 2, 2017)

Wez said:


> What does this mean?


It means USSDA will allow up to two older players to play on a younger squad for the coming season. For example, two 2004s can be rostered with the 2005s (guessing this will apply across several age groups). Hopefully DA clubs will use this new rule to benefit the player and not the team. What I mean is...

Player focused - the 2005s rostering two quality late birth month 2004s that are smaller and need more time to physically develop than other 2004s.
Team focused - placing a couple of physically dominant 2004s on the 2005 roster in order to bolster the team and make them more competitive. 

I hope US Soccer monitors the application of this rule very closely and makes sure it is being used for its player focused intention.


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## DefenseWins (Jun 2, 2017)

SBFDad said:


> It means USSDA will allow up to two older players to play on a younger squad for the coming season. For example, two 2004s can be rostered with the 2005s (guessing this will apply across several age groups). Hopefully DA clubs will use this new rule to benefit the player and not the team. What I mean is...
> 
> Player focused - the 2005s rostering two quality late birth month 2004s that are smaller and need more time to physically develop than other 2004s.
> Team focused - placing a couple of physically dominant 2004s on the 2005 roster in order to bolster the team and make them more competitive.
> ...


I think this will only apply to the certain age groups specified above.  

"Birth year 02' for 17-18's they can play down with the U15's instead of there normal birth/calendar year group which will be the combo U16/17 (02/01's) group for 17-18."


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## True love (Jun 2, 2017)

Wow I like this article. Click on link 

Development academies: the saga continues
by Ahmet Guvener, June 1st, 2017 9:59PM

After my last article, some of the readers correctly stated that I did not include the U-12, U-13 and U-14 categories in the analysis. I knew I did not and I did it on a purpose. I wanted to see the distribution of the full pledged (U-12 through U-18) and U-15/16 and U-17/18 academies in the country.

U.S. Soccer recently included the U-12 category in the Development Academy (DA) system as well as breaking the U13-14 category into U-13 and U-14. It also started the girls DA. All these moves were in the correct direction.

Especially breaking the U-13/14 into two categories created the chance for both age groups to compete. In the past, the U-13/14 category would be dominated by U-14 players and only the very talented U-13 players were able to compete. For boys, there might be a substantial physical difference between a 12 year old and a 13 year old since they are transitioning from childhood into puberty.  Hopefully, in the years to come, the U-15/16 category will also be broken down into U-15 and U-16.

I will talk about the boys DAs in the USA only.

There are a total of 146 DAs across 25 states and District of Colombia. These 146 DAs do not necessarily represent 146 unique clubs, since some clubs have affiliated DAs in the same state as well as in different states. For example, Chicago Fire has four DAs, three in Illinois and one in Indiana.

If you look at all the DAs, you will see four categories with a few exceptions in each category:

https://www.socceramerica.com/article/73615/development-academies-the-saga-continues.html


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## soccerstud (Jun 5, 2017)

Myleftfoot said:


> Here we go again!
> http://www.ussoccerda.com/20170601-development-academy-2017-2018-regular-season-schedule-release


Nice, thanks for sharing...

Interesting to see TFA only at U12 (2006) Age group, what will happen to their current U12 (2004) group of kids.  Probably all going to LAFC/Galaxy/FC Golden State?


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## Dr. Richard Hurtz (Jun 5, 2017)

So where were all the scouts..  ??  I only saw them at like 8 out of the 30 games


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