Girls Development Academy

NoGoal said:
Something to think about, if ECNL was doing so poorly developing players. Why did US Soccer approve 75% of the SoCal and 100% of the AZ ECNL clubs for Girls DA? As a lot of posters have been posting.....it's all about money and power! US Soccer will be getting a large slice of the players registration fees, hotel kickbacks, and Nike merchandise sales at the college showcases.
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I don't see it as a GDA vs. ECNL issue. This is about the development of girls soccer as a whole, which happens to include ECNL clubs. If even the best clubs could be doing better to develop players, I think we should all see this as a good thing. And you would want to include the best clubs, not exclude them from the process. The rise of GDA is not knock on ECNL. It just serves a different purpose. Whether it will actually work, I have no idea. Also consider that you yourself noted that the women's national team lacks technical players. ECNL or not, we obviously could be doing something better to develop players.

As for the money, I thought one problem is that the girl's academy system is not fiscally viable. Now it's a grab for money?
 
Glen said:
As for the money, I thought one problem is that the girl's academy system is not fiscally viable. Now it's a grab for money?
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It can be fiscally viable, if the parents are paying for the club fee and travel expense. I was always a skeptic about Girls DA being promoted as being fully funded aka free.

Wasn't one of the purpose of Girls DA to lower the cost? Seriously, someone explain how does training 4 days a week and still playing 1-2 weekend games any different than it is now. I'm not sold US will start favoring technical players and begin playing with Brazilian flair.
 
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Glen said:
I don't see it as a GDA vs. ECNL issue. This is about the development of girls soccer as a whole, which happens to include ECNL clubs. If even the best clubs could be doing better to develop players, I think we should all see this as a good thing. And you would want to include the best clubs, not exclude them from the process. The rise of GDA is not knock on ECNL. It just serves a different purpose. Whether it will actually work, I have no idea. Also consider that you yourself noted that the women's national team lacks technical players. ECNL or not, we obviously could be doing something better to develop players.

As for the money, I thought one problem is that the girl's academy system is not fiscally viable. Now it's a
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isn't imitation the sincerest form of flattery. This has never been about development it's a business plain and simple and us soccer is proving it. LA Premiere and Pats? Do they play girls soccer at those clubs? This is ECNL with us soccer running it. The development model for girls soccer in the US isn't very good. We are just very fortunate that the rest of the world doesn't hold women's soccer in the same regard as we do. The rest of the world is catching up to us were just to arrogant to see it. If the US soccer group was interested in true development they would send someone to Japan for a year and see how they do it. That's the model for development.
 
NoGoal said:
It can be fiscally viable, if the parents are paying for the club fee and travel expense. I was always a skeptic about Girls DA being promoted as being fully funded aka free.

Wasn't one of the purpose of Girls DA to lower the cost? Seriously, someone explain how does training 4 days a week and still playing 1-2 weekend games any different than it is now. I'm not sold US will start favoring technical players and begin playing with Brazilian flair.
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Its not 100% subsidized. Around $2-2.5 k all travel subsidized. So 4 days training and all travel subsidized. That is less than ECNL.
 
soccerobserver said:
Silky J, how do they handle development in Japan?
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Well first you hire one of the main guys out of Brasil to head your program 10 to 15 years ago and you build it with a blueprint. You constantly send your best staff to Spain and Barcelona to learn at their academy and NT centers and you implement it in your system. That goes for player identification, training etc. The ground up. Its taken Barca 25 years to get where they are at. Its taken the Germans 20 years. That's starting with the right plan and acting on it. Not changing it every 3-5 years like we have done.
 
pulguita said:
Well first you hire one of the main guys out of Brasil to head your program 10 to 15 years ago and you build it with a blueprint. You constantly send your best staff to Spain and Barcelona to learn at their academy and NT centers and you implement it in your system. That goes for player identification, training etc. The ground up. Its taken Barca 25 years to get where they are at. Its taken the Germans 20 years. That's starting with the right plan and acting on it. Not changing it every 3-5 years like we have done.
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We want instant results here and it will be hard with a sport that has been flourishing elsewhere for many, many years prior to our interest or involvement in it. We have come a long way already and have actually been pretty darn successful despite our shortcomings, due to our amazing athletes and enormous wealth. But we will stop at nothing short of complete domination (as we should:)) But we may need to be patient... and that is not an American strong-point.
 
pulguita said:
Its not 100% subsidized. Around $2-2.5 k all travel subsidized. So 4 days training and all travel subsidized. That is less than ECNL.
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Please clarify this statement. Is this relating to a specific DA club? I could not find this statement in the Academy Application, and indeed the list of things US Soccer subsidizes (inclded in the FAQ section for players/parents) does not include travel. There are scholarship applications for that, but no blanket coverage. US Soccer pays for entry fee and ref fees for tournaments/games, and provides balls and other branded items from corporate sponsors.
 
Dos Equis said:
Please clarify this statement. Is this relating to a specific DA club? I could not find this statement in the Academy Application, and indeed the list of things US Soccer subsidizes (inclded in the FAQ section for players/parents) does not include travel. There are scholarship applications for that, but no blanket coverage. US Soccer pays for entry fee and ref fees for tournaments/games, and provides balls and other branded items from corporate sponsors.
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Most definitely not blanket coverage. When filling the DA application, the clubs had to write down the fees that they will charge to DA players, and the number of scholarships. I am guessing that to make their application competitive clubs have been "generous" with these two items. I have heard what US Soccer thought a reasonable fee would be, and it is lees than what I am currently paying. It seems clear that players/club will pay for travel, but here in SoCal, with 11 teams, it seems that most games will be local.
 
Although I was guessing that most SoCal ECNL clubs would apply to DA, I have been surprised by the fact that most have actually applied. It was clear that once one or two ECNL clubs applied, the rest had to because of the competitive advantage that these one or two deserters would gain. But, at the end of the day, by not sticking together as a group, they have lost a fraction of the advantage they have had in recruiting top talent and number of players/fees.
The arrival of girls DA is a great thing for the top players that will make it and are truly dedicated to soccer, and probably for the next group of players that are in the B teams, in and out of the DA teams. I personally do not care about the $600 that I would save if my girls made the DA team, but I do care about the improved training and coaching. In addition, with so many DA clubs in SoCal, shortening driving times to pratise is a plus. But, at the end of the day, the clubs will have to come up with the money needed to partially fund DA teams. Although for now it may not be much with only three teams per club, in the absence of sponsors the money will have to come from other teams in the club, and in a logical word that means that the clubs will have to show all parents that the situation of all/most players are improving with the adoption of DA. Eventually, DA clubs may have to form their own intramural league for B teams.
 
pulguita said:
Sorry you must be in the dark if you have not heard of Pats. They have boys USSDA and have been pretty successful not being MLS affiliated and they also happen to be the largest club is SoCal. All those areas of Pats are under one roof - 196 teams. No other club in SoCal can make that claim. Not Surf, Slammers, Strikers, Legends anyone. All those other locales are their own club using the name. If anyone can support DA Pats can.
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I'm not in the dark... And I've never even seen a girls Pats team anywhere to be completely honest with you. I didn't even know they existed until I read this post... Would you rate them as one of the best 4 GIRLS clubs in OC? Would you rate them as one of the top 10 even? That's great they have a million teams, how many of those are girls? How many of those are elite? How many of those are even competitive flight 1 teams?.... That's embarrassing.
 
mbeach said:
Although I was guessing that most SoCal ECNL clubs would apply to DA, I have been surprised by the fact that most have actually applied. It was clear that once one or two ECNL clubs applied, the rest had to because of the competitive advantage that these one or two deserters would gain. But, at the end of the day, by not sticking together as a group, they have lost a fraction of the advantage they have had in recruiting top talent and number of players/fees.
The arrival of girls DA is a great thing for the top players that will make it and are truly dedicated to soccer, and probably for the next group of players that are in the B teams, in and out of the DA teams. I personally do not care about the $600 that I would save if my girls made the DA team, but I do care about the improved training and coaching. In addition, with so many DA clubs in SoCal, shortening driving times to pratise is a plus. But, at the end of the day, the clubs will have to come up with the money needed to partially fund DA teams. Although for now it may not be much with only three teams per club, in the absence of sponsors the money will have to come from other teams in the club, and in a logical word that means that the clubs will have to show all parents that the situation of all/most players are improving with the adoption of DA. Eventually, DA clubs may have to form their own intramural league for B teams.
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Please elaborate on your thought on improved training and coaching. How is it going to be better? From my take, DA will have the same coaches and training as ECNL?
 
pulguita said:
Sorry you must be in the dark if you have not heard of Pats. They have boys USSDA and have been pretty successful not being MLS affiliated and they also happen to be the largest club is SoCal. All those areas of Pats are under one roof - 196 teams. No other club in SoCal can make that claim. Not Surf, Slammers, Strikers, Legends anyone. All those other locales are their own club using the name. If anyone can support DA Pats can.
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So that we are clear I am very familiar with Pats. My player was a high level club player and actually knows your daughter very well. With Pats having 196 teams how many are successful and how many top level female players have they produced in the last 5 years? I have a good idea of the answer. They are a great boys club.
 
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Gragg said:
Please elaborate on your thought on improved training and coaching. How is it going to be better? From my take, DA will have the same coaches and training as ECNL?
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I have no idea how ECNL training is, but I am guessing that there is not a a unified ECNL way of doing it (each ECNL clubs does what is best for them), nor accountability (does the ECNL league really remove/correct clubs for underperforming?), and that may be part of the problem identified by US Soccer in the current development environment. Furthermore, keep in mind that nobody has forced the ECNL clubs to get rid of the status quo, they have done it voluntarily.
On my side, going from two days of practice plus one day of skills to four days of practice is an obvious improvement. And, even if you do not believe it, same coaches with improved education (higher certification and taking extra courses/qualified advise on a regular bases) makes a huge difference. There is plenty of room to improve the technical and tactical education of our coaches, and once this is done development will necessarily improve. Just look at the game that Manchester City played against Steau two days ago in champions league. A simple tactical trick of the MC coaching staff destroyed another professional team: in possession, MC shifted a full back to the holding midfielder position, to create superiority in the opposite side of the field; then, they either took advantage of that superiority, or would send the ball to the winger who had plenty of space in the sideline vacated by the full back. When have you seen these tactical tricks employed in your daughter's games? Of course, I am not saying that DA teams will play like Barcelona, I am just saying that improving the knowledge of our coaches will be great for development.
 
MakeAPlay said:
So that we are clear I am very familiar with Pats. My player was a high level club player and actually knows your daughter very well. With Pats having 196 teams how many are successful and how many top level female players have they produced in the last 5 years? I have a good idea of the answer. They are a great boys club.
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As the saying goes you have me a a disadvantage sir as I do not know who your daughter is. However, lets not beat around the bush but Pats has suffered on the girls side being squarely put in the middle of 4 ECNL clubs in their major draw area. US Soccer recognizes the quality of the organization and the coaching staff and their dedication to the boys side in terms of DA. With that being said I am sure that now that Pats will be on an equal playing field with this movement US Soccer is probably pretty confident that players will move to Pats due to their coaching reputation and club organization. Further, now the old ECNL clubs will have to produce according to the DA guidelines or they will be removed. Something that doesn't happen with ECNL currently. There is no standards of training, coaching quality or education level in ECNL. That all is mandated in the DA. Produce to their satisfaction or you are out.
 
pulguita said:
Further, now the old ECNL clubs will have to produce according to the DA guidelines or they will be removed. Something that doesn't happen with ECNL currently. There is no standards of training, coaching quality or education level in ECNL. That all is mandated in the DA. Produce to their satisfaction or you are out.
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Does this happen on the boys side? Are there underperforming clubs that are kicked out and replaced with better performing? I like the idea of relegation, but with 74 GDA clubs currently and maybe more to be added, I don't see it as all that exclusive.
 
pulguita said:
As the saying goes you have me a a disadvantage sir as I do not know who your daughter is. However, lets not beat around the bush but Pats has suffered on the girls side being squarely put in the middle of 4 ECNL clubs in their major draw area. US Soccer recognizes the quality of the organization and the coaching staff and their dedication to the boys side in terms of DA. With that being said I am sure that now that Pats will be on an equal playing field with this movement US Soccer is probably pretty confident that players will move to Pats due to their coaching reputation and club organization. Further, now the old ECNL clubs will have to produce according to the DA guidelines or they will be removed. Something that doesn't happen with ECNL currently. There is no standards of training, coaching quality or education level in ECNL. That all is mandated in the DA. Produce to their satisfaction or you are out.
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Hey I get it. It's a shiny new object. However if ECNL was doing so poorly why admit most of the ECNL clubs? it is strictly a power play. I know you truly believe as I do that if they were serious about development on the girls side that they would open a residential academy like they have for the boys (I believe you said this several times to me). At the end of the day it is about the player, the family and the coach.

Good luck to your daughter this weekend. That Chinese team will be better than Santa Clara!
 
SoccerDad77 said:
I'm not in the dark... And I've never even seen a girls Pats team anywhere to be completely honest with you. I didn't even know they existed until I read this post... Would you rate them as one of the best 4 GIRLS clubs in OC? Would you rate them as one of the top 10 even? That's great they have a million teams, how many of those are girls? How many of those are elite? How many of those are even competitive flight 1 teams?.... That's embarrassing.
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SD77, just looking at how the chips are laid out, I am not sure the Executives at GDA care about getting the best of the best from a "pure soccer" standpoint...Pats appears to have success, size and scale as an organization...maybe GDA executing a multi-year strategy...Stage 1 obtain the biggest market share possible with the biggest "organizations" not necessarily the best "girls soccer" clubs...in stage 2 upgraded coaching credentials and the increased practices create visible, tangible differences between the GDA and everybody else...better players with 1,000's more touches on the ball per year as well as higher credentialed coaches...in stage 3 maybe there will be some consolidation ...over time ECNL slowly morphs into something else but the biggest exodus to come when when DA expands to 1 team per age band...CSL and SCDSL stay basically the same w DA Clubs feeding their most ambitious soccer families into GDA???...
 
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meatsweats said:
Does this happen on the boys side? Are there underperforming clubs that are kicked out and replaced with better performing? I like the idea of relegation, but with 74 GDA clubs currently and maybe more to be added, I don't see it as all that exclusive.
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In theory or on paper yes in reality not so much. USSF stated they regularly review / audit DA clubs but they have been slow doing so or very selective.

Have yet to see any club kicked out. May have been sent areas to correct during eval or not approved for full status but those full DA clubs seem to have very strong connectios.

Is DA or ECNL operations that much different than club? Same old boys network running they show so really more of a extension of club for all those but mls organizatios.
 
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