Girls Development Academy

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FC Kansas City
Cedar Stars Academy
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Empire United
La Roca
Indiana Academy
West Coast FC
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Anyone still think DA is some grand development plan? I'm sorry but most of those clubs aren't very successful and develop anyone for anything. This is a power grab plain and simple and is getting pretty funny. So Pats and most of those clubs that I have never heard of and have never won anything are going to start developing national team players? I honestly cannot stop laughing because all of you parents of youngers are going to get SCREWED!
 
Just because a club has never won anything does not mean they don't develop players. Many of the big successful clubs got that way at least partly by recruiting players developed at other clubs. Note that I also think GDA is a power grab, just like ECNL was.
 
Going from 8 ECNL clubs to 11 DA is about development. Subbing out 2 ECNL clubs for 4 nobody clubs and Beach? Pretty funny stuff.
 
Just because a club has never won anything does not mean they don't develop players. Many of the big successful clubs got that way at least partly by recruiting players developed at other clubs. Note that I also think GDA is a power grab, just like ECNL was.

Maybe it is just me but I seem to think that clubs that develop players tend to win things. Most of the successful ECNL clubs got that way by developing most of their players. In my players graduating class most of the players going to the top schools were at an ECNL club for at least 3 years and many for much longer than that. My player was on one for 9 years. Outside of Beach most of those clubs that are not in the DA are pretty mediocre.
 
This post is SoCal snobbery at its finest as the #1 u17 team in the SW conference this season was SCDS. The u15 SCDS team finished 4th. Arizona definitely has enough talent for a GDA and an ECNL team.

So Arizona has one good ECNL team out of 10 potential teams and that makes them good? And let's be honest if a certain players family didn't move from Seattle it would be zero good teams!
 
Anyone still think DA is some grand development plan? I'm sorry but most of those clubs aren't very successful and develop anyone for anything. This is a power grab plain and simple and is getting pretty funny. So Pats and most of those clubs that I have never heard of and have never won anything are going to start developing national team players? I honestly cannot stop laughing because all of you parents of youngers are going to get SCREWED!
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.
 
Orange County alone has 4 DA Clubs
and we already know what happens with 4 ECNL clubs in the OC. Question is what will happen with 3 DA clubs all along the 210-101 fwy corridor. Is there already a Girls DA club over saturation in SoCal and the league doesn't start play until next year.

I will admit, very smart move by Girls DA to admit 75% of the ECNL clubs in SoCal. Girls DA checked ECNL's king and took their queen in the process.
 
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The walking dead? I think when GDA expands to 1 team per age band then ECNL will get really diluted down as there will be two redundant national leagues. By definition, only one will be truly elite. The other will be elite in name only. After all, if DA has conferred elite status on so many then what is ECNL left with really? For families like mine who have no interest in that level of commitment to a national league, CSL and SCDSL will also be interesting. Will GDA impact them also by having more local games and rivalries and less national travel ? In hindsight, limiting ECNL to 8 clubs might have backfired on ECNL in some sense now that GDA has cast such a wide net. Kind of like limiting the clubs to 3 teams per age group helped create the conditions for SCDSL to break out and enable the mega clubs to pursue unfettered growth and expansion. In 2-3 years when GDA has 1 team per age band I wonder if GDA will have checkmated everybody.
 
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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.

No doubt Pats is a large club, but those 196 teams help support the Boys DA, since they are not MLS affiliated. Now they have to support the girls DA as well. Not so simple. I have not been able to find the long list of girls college commits, or short list of YNT/ID2/ODP/PRO+ players that Pats has produced in any period on the girls side, so their track record is unknown. Their boys program is impressive and a true accomplishment, and clearly they have some administrative and coaching prowess. But most successful coaches (both boys and girls) will tell you training and coaching girls and boys require very different skill sets and approaches (sorry if that seems old fashioned, the truth often is).

As for the power play, it is and always has been a power play at the top of youth soccer, particularly in Socal.
 
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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