Soccer123
SILVER ELITE
When does Pats hand out Da offers? Wait till May with the rest of them or get an early start?
Pateadores Girls DA 03/04 - Observations
- Thread starter bababooey
- Start date
The 2003 age group is probably the strongest and deepest out there.The 04 age group in general is light years behind. How is it development for the 03 girl whose practicing with an 04girl whose way behind in speed, technical skills, tactical skills, and soccer iq?
LadiesMan217
GOLD
If the kid is a stud then you will receive an offer now. If almost a stud, you will get a call back.
chargerfan
GOLD
Try telling this to an 04 parent who thinks their kid is a superstar. The fact of the matter is they will pay to sit the bench while the 03s play. Make no mistake, these teams will play the bigger, better girls so they can win. I wouldn't even be surprised if they are separated by birth year at practice.
LadiesMan217
GOLD
A 04 girl way behind in those skills compared to a 03 should not be playing DA.
Exactly, that's my point from the post I commented on who said that development should have DA split evenly the number of 04 and 03 girls. There's not enough 04 girls who qualify to do that.
Don't have all the answers at all but:
1. Remember the very purpose of this entire experiment is development and the US women's national team is not composed of women all of the same age group.
2. It can be argued that by a certain level after puberty has settled that a lot of things even out. At this point a lot of 03's are stronger because of the fact that there is a big difference between an eighth grader and a sixth grader
3. If development was important the clubs would not go heavy on 03.
4. You are making a very broad based generalization about the 03 v 04- which I do happen to agree with- but we have to be open to the fact that due to the failures at YNT level we do in fact have a soccer problem here in the US. Direct vs possession etc
5. A lot of parents classify "talent" as being on a winning team. When discussing a DA there is danger in that because that is not the philosophy. As I believe we can all concede there was truly an ugly style of soccer in display at recent championships ahem...enough said
chargerfan
GOLD
But there are enough parents who will put up with their kid sitting the bench just to say they are on a DA team.
LadiesMan217
GOLD
Well then 04 must just suck and we must skip that year for any future soccer players - so no DA for 04 players. DA is not about teaching soccer to crap players. At 04 they must already have the concept down.
LadiesMan217
GOLD
My understanding is in the US we cannot get enough qualified coaches for that many teams. Plus the costs, travel, talent pool. The 2 year thing only sounds silly because we are use to the 1 year thing - maybe?
chargerfan
GOLD
Point is only a small percentage of 04s can hang with top level 03s, and you can assume the 03s on DA at least at surf and Carlsbad will be top level. Not that 04s suck, they just at a disadvantage .
So instead of taking a year to get some "good" coaches to be "better" or even "great" coaches, we we jam 2 age groups together?
I really hope DA is a great thing. Will we see the biggest, most physical kids on DA teams? Or will we see technical kids? Will DA take a team of 22 strikers and covert them to defensive specialists?
I really hope that all of the teams will look to play a great style of soccer now, so that when they are the u20 and beyond teams, we will dominate once again. And I hope they find coaches that will work well with young female athletes.
LadiesMan217
GOLD
I don't watch 03's -vs- 04's so I'll take your word for it. Most of the 03's are going to have hip flexor issues next year anyways as they hit that biggest growth spike; so, the 04's will take over
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bababooey
GOLD
I think it is a little unfair to pass judgment on these DA teams before we really know how they will be constructed.
As for the 03 versus 04 debate, yes, the 03 players should be a little bigger and maybe more technically advanced than the 04's. However, I think there are plenty of 04's that can play with 03's and be impact players. With the age change this past year, I lost contact with many of the 04's from prior seasons. Two of the best midfielders I saw play this season were smaller players (one from Beach DeMelo and one from Slammers ECNL - an 04 I believe), so I don't think size has much to do with this.
To me the age old question is this......as a parent would you rather have your dd rostered to a DA/ECNL team knowing she will not get much playing time, but will participate in all of the training and go up against quality players in practice -OR- would you rather your dd be on a lower quality team, but she is a star on that team and plays the bulk of the minutes? As a parent, I vacillate between the two options.
As for the 03 versus 04 debate, yes, the 03 players should be a little bigger and maybe more technically advanced than the 04's. However, I think there are plenty of 04's that can play with 03's and be impact players. With the age change this past year, I lost contact with many of the 04's from prior seasons. Two of the best midfielders I saw play this season were smaller players (one from Beach DeMelo and one from Slammers ECNL - an 04 I believe), so I don't think size has much to do with this.
To me the age old question is this......as a parent would you rather have your dd rostered to a DA/ECNL team knowing she will not get much playing time, but will participate in all of the training and go up against quality players in practice -OR- would you rather your dd be on a lower quality team, but she is a star on that team and plays the bulk of the minutes? As a parent, I vacillate between the two options.
I think you guys are missing the point. It is US Soccer that came out with their philosophy and how they are going to improve DEVELOPMENT. Part of their philosophy was less games, more training, AND combined age groups. THEY said something to the effect that it is good to play against older girls every other year. How it helps the older girls I don't know and I agree with you, it does not seem logical that it would be advantageous for the olders to play against the youngers. Again, that is their philosophy not mine. So if that is their philosphy and it is somehow going to improve DEVELOPMENT in the long run, how can they let the clubs simply ignore this element? For example, if a DA club came out and said they are only going to train 2X per week, US Soccer would order the club to add 2 more trainings or be dropped from DA. That's all I'm saying.
transplant
SILVER
Maybe I missed this somewhere - but won't the kids who are the younger '04's next season be the "older" '04's the following season as the 03's age up to the next level?
ESPNANALYST
SILVER ELITE
There was supposed to be a mix. There isn't. They shouldn't even call it an 03/04 band at this point. Basically if the clubs have their way your daughter will be playing DA every other year- now plot that out on a recruiting timeline and pray your recruit year says DA and not Academy 2 DP because it's the 02 year to be top dog
ESPNANALYST
SILVER ELITE
The band is supposed to be a hybrid. On the boys side it is- mostly top heavy but it is. Every girls club is going with mostly 03 just based on first blush so take it with a grain of salt.
If clubs do this every family will be affected with one year on and one year off unless it is the 1 player (and yes it should only be 1-2) who are the strong young ones
Lots more info by next week hopefully to end speculation
Yes that's the way it supposed to go. They also said they encourage girls to play up so this is definitely part of their plan. How are they going to do this if all the teams are stuck with just older girls?