Girls Development Academy

[C.A.M.]

I was very disappointed after watching the game. Not at the players. I was upset at the coaches and parents. The coaches for teaching the teams to play advanced kickball and the parents for cheering for it and writing the checks. I would never have let my player play for either of those teams for more than one season and if it was the Blues it would have been a mid-season move. There were enough talented players to at least attempt to pass out of the back.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

My anger is sooooooooo high at watching some of these girls team play that I am a perpetual grouch. It freaking drives me crazy!!!!! Parents in the stands telling their girls "Great Pass" for creating 50/50 balls from long balls instead of just passing to the open girl 15 yards from them or for taking a shot when double teamed instead of making the simple pass to a runner who is wide open on an empty net or passing the buck to other players when they don't go get the ball back when they lose it, etc... Let's not get to the "yeah girls" that come when a player does all these unnecessary skills and the defender just takes the ball off her feet or the pass is 7 yards behind the intended player.

Then coaches emphasizing it's the thing to do by granting these players more game time like WTF???? My head is going to explode.

What makes it worse is comparing these games to our boys U11/12 DA combo team and their competition as they execute these principles at a efficiency level that is 200% higher than what we are seeing on the girls side. IN FACT, they haven't played one team all season that played kick ball or ultra direct. Not one. Even the ones we beat down 12, 13, 14 to very little. One team had their keeper punting the first time we played them and the next time the team just suffered through the mistakes all our keepers make when learning to play out the back.

If we can get the girls to play half as good as the younger boys are, we will all be in a better place and I hope the DA system can get that done.

 

[C.A.M.]

None of which was present in this game.

agreed

 

[C.A.M.]

How common is it to have someone take goal kicks for the goalie? Seems odd at this level.

Only one I've seen at this level and this includes the U14s.

 

[outside!]

None of which was present in this game.

What about the older games from the same two clubs?

 

[GoWest]

Has anyone heard anything about a "coming huge DA exodus".....? Not being cryptic but is there any traction to this rumbling?

 

[SoccerFan]

Im not a huge soccer guy so I don't really know what to watch tactically. I was there just watching and thought the same thing. LAGSD looked much more like playing with a plan the other was horrible.....my 2 pesos

My DD’s team faced the same issue last weekend! The other DA team “athletes” changed their style and started to play kick ball. Could this have been encouraged at half? Maybe, because at half they were loosing 2-0 and for the entire 2nd half their coach did not stop shouting at them. It appeared that the win at no cost mentality ruled for this game.

 

[Sheriff Joe]

My DD’s team faced the same issue last weekend! The other DA team “athletes” changed their style and started to play kick ball. Could this have been encouraged at half? Maybe, because at half they were loosing 2-0 and for the entire 2nd half their coach did not stop shouting at them. It appeared that the win at no cost mentality ruled for this game.

I think Al Davis said it best,.................

 

[Pitch pop]

Has anyone heard anything about a "coming huge DA exodus".....? Not being cryptic but is there any traction to this rumbling?

Do tell.......

 

[Sons of Pitches]

Do tell.......

I have heard that the Eagles tryouts have been crowded with Real Socal players as players were following a coach from one club to another. But I have not heard of a mass exodus from the DA as a whole.

 

[timbuck]

Has anyone heard anything about a "coming huge DA exodus".....? Not being cryptic but is there any traction to this rumbling?

I have heard that parents feel that 4 days a week is crushing their kids.
I have heard some incoming g05 DA players/parents say "We want to play High School. So since these girls will be in 8th/7th grade next year, this is a year for us to try it." I'm sure some 04 players felt similar last year or are thinking more about it now that the season is coming to a close.

 

[El Clasico]

If we can get the girls to play half as good as the younger boys are, we will all be in a better place and I hope the DA system can get that done.

That's a lot faith in a system that has yet to get it done in ten years of trying...

 

[GoWest]

Do tell.......

Rumblings include 15-25 current DA clubs on the fence about leaving. Is there that much discontent with the upstart league? Things must be pretty tangled for major clubs like Hawks, Mass and PDA to simply pull the plug.

I have heard that parents feel that 4 days a week is crushing their kids.
I have heard some incoming g05 DA players/parents say "We want to play High School. So since these girls will be in 8th/7th grade next year, this is a year for us to try it." I'm sure some 04 players felt similar last year or are thinking more about it now that the season is coming to a close.

Well, parents do have a say. That may be feeding the discontent?

 

[GoWest]

@davin posted this link on the ECNL thread. Good read. Thanks davin.

http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news...-soccer-leaving-us-girls-development-academy/

 

[Simisoccerfan]

I have heard that the Eagles tryouts have been crowded with Real Socal players as players were following a coach from one club to another. But I have not heard of a mass exodus from the DA as a whole.

I have heard the same mostly for the 02 age.

 

[C.A.M.]

That's a lot faith in a system that has yet to get it done in ten years of trying...

I'm not sure where people are getting that the boys aren't better players coming through the DA. If this comes from the US National team that losts, they weren't Academy players. Take a look at the players who are U20 and below and see how these young men are starting to be invited to big European teams. We perform well in the international tournaments at the U23 and below. It's the top team we have suffered at and nearly every player that was on the squad that bowed out was a seasoned professional.

When our younger national teams and DA teams play, it doesn't look very different than what you are seeing in Europe or South America. People were complaining about us looking a very tight game to the younger England team and then England went and won the tourney by a much bigger margin versus a "more established" European foe in the finals.

I like the way Tad Ramos said it, paraphrasing here... "No MLS club wants to give our 18 year old young men a chance even when they are captain of our US Youth Team Squads and Player of the Tournament, but will DP a 18 year old from South America in a minute.". Well these young men that we are ignoring and devauling are being noticed across the pond by the best soccer countries in the world.

And for those doing the comparing.... Our neighbors to the immediate South have a development and club system that has been in place much longer than ours. Also, their pro league is valued higher than ours for competition level. They have players that have been going to Europe and playing top tier longer than we have been. Still, they haven't went any further than we have in the World Cup. And they were a game a way from not qualifying for the World Cup itself and wouldn't have gotten there without a win from our team.

Now look at the countries that are not in the World Cup and their soccer tradition compared to ours. All this to say. This ish ain't easy and there is no magic formula.

 

[El Clasico]

I'm not sure where people are getting that the boys aren't better players coming through the DA. If this comes from the US National team that losts, they weren't Academy players. Take a look at the players who are U20 and below and see how these young men are starting to be invited to big European teams. We perform well in the international tournaments at the U23 and below. It's the top team we have suffered at and nearly every player that was on the squad that bowed out was a seasoned professional.

When our younger national teams and DA teams play, it doesn't look very different than what you are seeing in Europe or South America. People were complaining about us looking a very tight game to the younger England team and then England went and won the tourney by a much bigger margin versus a "more established" European foe in the finals.

I like the way Tad Ramos said it, paraphrasing here... "No MLS club wants to give our 18 year old young men a chance even when they are captain of our US Youth Team Squads and Player of the Tournament, but will DP a 18 year old from South America in a minute.". Well these young men that we are ignoring and devauling are being noticed across the pond by the best soccer countries in the world.

And for those doing the comparing.... Our neighbors to the immediate South have a development and club system that has been in place much longer than ours. Also, their pro league is valued higher than ours for competition level. They have players that have been going to Europe and playing top tier longer than we have been. Still, they haven't went any further than we have in the World Cup. And they were a game a way from not qualifying for the World Cup itself and wouldn't have gotten there without a win from our team.

Now look at the countries that are not in the World Cup and their soccer tradition compared to ours. All this to say. This ish ain't easy and there is no magic formula.

This response helps understand the biggest problem we have here in the US. That here in the US, first you have to figure out what the problem is and you clearly don't. You can't fix something if don't know where it is broke. The problem in the states is not the "athlete" but the people developing them and the people selecting them. Of course we have talent that is wanted "across the pond" because they see some of our athletes, the ones who also happen to be soccer players, and say, "we should go get that guy, he has potential and, unlike the Americans, we know what to do with him and how to develop that potential. As pathetic as the MLS is, to blame them for the lack of development in our youth is comical.

Not to be taken as a dig on you but you would have to go south and across the pond and spend as much time in their system as you have in ours to see the difference...which you clearly have not done.

Bottom line...you don't know what you don't know.

 

[splinter]

I have heard that parents feel that 4 days a week is crushing their kids.
I have heard some incoming g05 DA players/parents say "We want to play High School. So since these girls will be in 8th/7th grade next year, this is a year for us to try it." I'm sure some 04 players felt similar last year or are thinking more about it now that the season is coming to a close.

I have two 04’s in DA and we have decided to move them for next year so they can play multiple sports in high school. We will do Freshman year this way and if they decide soccer is all they want we will look to come back to DA the following year. It is tough giving up 4 hours a night between the drive and practice that many nights a week when we have a top non DA team practicing 2 minutes from our house.

 

[push_up]

Bottom line...you don't know what you don't know.

I think your post is the nicest bitch-slap I have read in a few years.

 

[timmyh]

@davin posted this link on the ECNL thread. Good read. Thanks davin.

http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news...-soccer-leaving-us-girls-development-academy/

Something I have yet to see brought up yet is that it may not be a coincidence that the 3 "big" clubs who are leaving the DA for ECNL (PDA, Hawks, and PDA) all list their club leader as an ECNL board member.
It could be interpreted that the DA defections are likely as much about politics as it is about soccer (echoing the Dallas Sting debacle last year, when another club with an ECNL board member agreed to forego DA in return for being given a 2nd ECNL spot for their ill-prepared Austin franchise).

 

[jose]

By choice? Whose choice? Baker hasn't been to very many DA games this season. Doesn't seem very vested.

what age?

'04

 

[C.A.M.]

This response helps understand the biggest problem we have here in the US. That here in the US, first you have to figure out what the problem is and you clearly don't. You can't fix something if don't know where it is broke. The problem in the states is not the "athlete" but the people developing them and the people selecting them. Of course we have talent that is wanted "across the pond" because they see some of our athletes, the ones who also happen to be soccer players, and say, "we should go get that guy, he has potential and, unlike the Americans, we know what to do with him and how to develop that potential. As pathetic as the MLS is, to blame them for the lack of development in our youth is comical.

Not to be taken as a dig on you but you would have to go south and across the pond and spend as much time in their system as you have in ours to see the difference...which you clearly have not done.

Bottom line...you don't know what you don't know.

We are going to clear up something - you don't know where I've been and what I've done so keep those opinions to yourself.

Also - this discussion saying we are behind the world - is strictly on the men's side as our Women have dominated world soccer for decades and we can continue to do so as the game grows if we don't sit on our laurels and truly develop these young girls instead of just throwing them out to win and not learn.

Thing is we have people wanting to instill the culture of these other places into the game HERE. It's not going to work. Nothing is wrong with these other cultures, so it isn't a slight and I understand wanting to take what is successful around the globe and implementing it here to get things going down the right path. Bringing the greatest coaches from around the world to set the baseline of technique and tactics is fine (my boys club does just that), but they can't bring the culture. If you really analyze what makes the game special in other places in the world, it's the culture of the game that each country has. The DNA for each and every country that sets them apart from it's neighbor and competitors.

If you have truly traveled the world you know one thing, Americans do things our way even if it is stupid and ass backwards. You also know that somehow we make that crap work for us because we are a strange bunch of people. What we need to do is create the AMERICAN identity of soccer. Take what everyone else does, keep what works for us and toss the rest. Just like the US Women did from day one. Until we make the game ours and mold our play to our ideals, designs, athletes, coaches, lifestyles and thinking processes we will remain a 2nd tier team because it will be unnatural. Stop trying to have us be European or South American. We're not them. We don't think the same. Embrace who we are and mold the game to us and we will flourish.

It's OK to be in the quarter finals of the World Cup or miss it once in a while. This is part of the growing pains. This is the journey to greatness and it's not going to happen right away. Like all the great coaches in soccer say, "We must suffer to win!".