MakeAPlay
DA
Some B team players do make it with good coaching. Mine was one of them and she is pretty decent now and passed a lot of the early developing girls. Personally peaking in college is better than at 12.
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It's all in a name....
- Thread starter sbay
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Some B team players do make it with good coaching. Mine was one of them and she is pretty decent now and passed a lot of the early developing girls. Personally peaking in college is better than at 12.
mommato2girls
SILVER
I think some clubs do have more flexible training/practice schedules and allow for kids to intermingle quite a bit. Our old club for example held tryouts, picked two rosters to field the A and B teams but kids weren't told which team they were on until after spring league.The coaches worked together, practice was at the same time, side by side. All kids practiced together broken up into different groups focusing on different things, they all got to know the kids pretty well. After spring they offered the girls A or B. The practices however were kept the same, the girls floated between the teams and they borrowed players regularly either way. It was't until State Cup that you could see the real break down of the 2 teams. Both teams attended the same skills clinics, trainings etc. I liked that approach. You weren't guaranteed a spot on the A team the following year, you had to try out and the kids were all really motivated to work hard to secure their spot.
dfbmike
BRONZE
You are thinking about academy clubs, which are the minority in Europe. The majority of clubs are actually located in cities and townships where most of the players play on the same team for many, many years together and know each other well, go to school together etc etc. The scouting is different and that is how the good players get discovered and moved to academy or if you think you got what it takes you go try out yourself, but generally speaking players will play for their city or district club. In addition gaming circuits, or leagues with promotion and relegation, are a huge part of european soccer...tournaments, not so much.
Ummm . . . it sounds like you have only a limited familiarity with elite clubs and teams at the younger age groups in this area. They sometimes call their teams different things, but most clubs with Development Academy teams or affiliations call their top U-11 and below teams some version of pre-development academy. At LA Galaxy South Bay and Strikers FC, it is "Pre-Academy." At Real Socal, it is "ATD," or "Academy Development Team." At FC Golden State, it is "Pre-Development Academy." See below for the description:
http://fcgoldenstate.com/us-academy.htm#top
F.C. GOLDEN STATE PRE-DEVELOPMENT ACADEMY (PDA)
In addition to the USSDA, FC Golden State fields PDA teams from U8 to U14 that compete in USYSA Leagues and CalSouth State/National Cups. The PDA provides a direct pathway to the USSDA by providing the same training mission, methodology, and periodization of the USSDA to younger players implemented with three training sessions a week under the guidance of the USSDA directors and staff.
Perhaps you are thinking about the U-Little internal programs that some clubs run for kids before U7 or U8 (unless you're referring to the USSDA club of that name on the east coast, but that would be odd in this forum).
TheyBothPlay
BRONZE
Great in theory, but then how does have FC Golden State have "PDA" girls' teams when they don't have a DA girls program?
If you look at FC Golden State's 2015 club profile for CSL, none of the girls teams had the PDA designation. Those only started this year, which coincides with US Soccer's announcement of the Girls' Development Academy commencing in Fall 2017. I don't have any inside knowledge of this club, but presumably they are claiming to (1) be preparing girls to be ready for FCGS to become a Girls Academy Club in the next few years, (2) claiming to be preparing them for Development Academy level with any DA club, or (3) they submitted an application and it was rejected (but the team names were already set). None of those would be inconsistent with my original point that the PDA designation is incredible loose, with some teams designated as pre-academy or the like being in Flight 2, and some clubs having Academy teams that were populated by recruits rather than kids from their PDA teams.
Now that there is GDA no club is going to be permitted to use the word academy in their club any longer. Girls sides go away with it cause there was none. Also, any affiliated clubs will not be permitted to claim any connection to academy or use the logo on their website. So if your club has the same name but a different 501 C than the club awarded the Academy you won't be able to use any reference. US Soccer will be enforcing that. Not sure if ECNL will be doing the same thing. Might help clear things up for the consumer.
MakeAPlay
DA
No I am not talking about any silly local clubs and their designations to trick ignorant U-little parents. I am talking about PDA out of New Jersey one of the best clubs in America and a DA member on the girls and boys side.
To be honest I don't care a whole lot about it. My kid is already a YNT player and in college starting and doing well.
At
For pros, it doesn't help at all, as playing against much weaker opposition tends to get them sloppy.
For youth players, it's good to play opponents of different skill levels. Against weaker opposition, kids learn to take advantage of skill differential. They need learn to speed up and slow down. That aspect of youth development, I believe, US Soccer neglects. Haven't your team played an inferior team and failed to dominate?
OK, so again refocusing back to the issue that started this. It seems to me that Cal South could come up with some basic guidelines for naming teams. A few ideas were thrown out there that seems simple and easy. IMO it shouldn't be as easy just to rename yourself whatever you wish!
For example, B2004 surf cup, Celtic renamed itself Celtic USSDA and played in that USSDA category. They do not have a USSDA, but changed their name. The following week they played at west coast, same team played, but now they were Celtic Academy..no longer USSDA.
This is one example, but there are so many other confusing things happening with the names, which is why this thread started.
For example, B2004 surf cup, Celtic renamed itself Celtic USSDA and played in that USSDA category. They do not have a USSDA, but changed their name. The following week they played at west coast, same team played, but now they were Celtic Academy..no longer USSDA.
This is one example, but there are so many other confusing things happening with the names, which is why this thread started.
younothat
PREMIER
Tournaments want your $. Your team could be named "GOATS" and they will take your money, they don't care.
Each team has a unique team number, DA league ones are different vs CS ones. If the tournaments cared about who was called what or who is on the roster they could require team numbers on the application or consider that when making the brackets.
Best advice is to forget about the names or being concerned with who is playing on what team, the coaches name, comparing etc. Doesn't really matter in the end "who you're playing only how you're playing"
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Night Owl
SILVER ELITE
Soccer Clubs now in days are big money fundraisers for the top dogs running the show. Everyone wants a franchise McDonald's in their neiborhood and its hard to survive in a small mama & papa club. Add certain gourmet words to the name of the team & it will be a $$$ magnet. I just hate to always be guessing what francise team we are playing this time. They sould just create a league of their own, they have enough teams to battle each other.
For the smaller clubs, congratulations for developing great soccer players.
Your thoughts???
For the smaller clubs, congratulations for developing great soccer players.
Your thoughts???
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God
SILVER ELITE
younothat
PREMIER
They have always been top-focused only, nothing new.
Targeting the best players is what they do, that's fine they are good recruiters, anybody can cherry pick but who develops these players that come to them in the first place?
The top focus system is not working in the USA, we haven't even been able to qualify for the Olympics in 8 years on the men's side. The quality has not improved at the top, time for a change.
The average and weaker players don't get the same resources as the top tier, not about "targeting" only one of the three groups in a club.
We can't figure out how to “Develop All Players to Their Potential” so we are getting rid or the reserve & all the tier 3 teams is what some organizations like Galaxy and Galaxy South Bay has done to some extent. Hey at least they admit they can't develop and don't try to "lie" to their customers.
There are 190 teams besides the "top" ones in a club like the PATS should they target & focus on their top 10 teams only? Yes they should if they are trying to " maximize the probability of developing quality professionals" but let's face it that's not what they are doing. This is youth club soccer, suppose to be fun for all the kids not just the "elite" ones.
"Iceland has figured out how to meld the best of both the top-down and bottom-up approaches regarding player development"
http://thesefootballtimes.co/2015/02/05/the-icelandic-football-model/
"Everyone gets the same coach, everyone gets the same opportunity, and everyone gets the same amount of training sessions. The very best players might get to play with age group above to get better training opportunities. The girls are allowed to play with the boys to get more speed within a training session.”
The boldness of the Icelandic approach is the player-first philosophy and where football is not used as a way to eek money from parents and players"
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