US Soccer Splits Boys DA U18/U19 clubs into two tiers

[SBFDad]

Fair enough. In lieu of a full time residency, what about what a number of the other clubs do? For example, FCD trains at 7:30am, club brings them to school (public school), and then picks them up and brings them back to the stadium for film, treatment, etc. the kids get to have a normal childhood with school and still get a full slate of football.

Local kids can live at home, and out of town kids live with host families. I like that mode better than living at the facility full time. I just think it develops more rounded kids.

This is a good approach. Galaxy academy does something similar with their older groups with an on-site high school. Train in the morning, then off to school. Local kids go home in the afternoon/evening, out-of-area kids to their host families.

RSLs program has their athletes going to a charter school they set up that accepts non-athletes and both genders. Several different ways to blend the soccer world and the real world at MLS academies who look to be leading the way...RSL, Galaxy, and Dallas. I am sure there are others doing good things are well.

 

[JPS]

So is Tier 2 considered a less competitive club? If so, why Pats over Strikers?

Pats are a much bigger organization (about 200 teams) vs. Strikers (around 20 teams). Also Pats play in the competitive, stronger LA Division teams / MLS teams vs. Strikers playing against much weaker San Diego clubs such as Arsenal, Nomads, OC Surf, etc....
Another advantage is the Pats more experienced and larger coaching staff over a very small Strikers coaching staff.

 

[JPS]

So is Tier 2 considered a less competitive club? If so, why Pats over Strikers?

Also Pats are a fully funded Academy

 

[Dargle]

Also Pats are a fully funded Academy

My guess is that USSDA figures it doesn't really matter because the coaches and players will all migrate over to whichever clubs are named the T1 DAs. The only reason for any non-MLS DAs in T1 is to provide some geographic linkage to reduce travel costs. They expect the best players will end up moving to the MLS DAs anyway.

 

[justneededaname]

Also Pats are a fully funded Academy

I am guessing the split is fully-funded vs not. FCGS is fully-funded. Pats is fully-funded. Surf is heading that way (at least I know that at U15 it is something like 70% of the players are funded). I have heard for several years from coaches at both Strikers and Albion that the DA really wants clubs to be fully-funded from U15 and up. Maybe this is a step towards encouraging that. In San Diego it is definitely going to help Surf and hurt Albion (and LAGSD at the younger ages).

I can't imagine what this is going to do to Crossfire. The costs of all of travel is going to be insane.

 

[Dargle]

I am guessing the split is fully-funded vs not. FCGS is fully-funded. Pats is fully-funded. Surf is heading that way (at least I know that at U15 it is something like 70% of the players are funded). I have heard for several years from coaches at both Strikers and Albion that the DA really wants clubs to be fully-funded from U15 and up. Maybe this is a step towards encouraging that. In San Diego it is definitely going to help Surf and hurt Albion (and LAGSD at the younger ages).

I can't imagine what this is going to do to Crossfire. The costs of all of travel is going to be insane.

Fully funded would be a rational way to distinguish among DA club tiers (since the top players gravitate to either the MLS clubs or the ones that give them full scholarships), but that wouldn't explain why Crossfire is in Tier 2, since it fully funds everything, including travel

https://www.soccernation.com/how-do-they-do-it-crossfire-premier-fully-funds-their-top-da-teams/

In Tier 2, with league games in Southern California and AZ, that's going to be might difficult to continue.

 

[jpeter]

Politics at play with the convoluted attempt to create tiers to appease the MLS clubs which have discuss leaving if things didn't change...

The non MLS clubs had to be "all in" with boys & girls teams to get consideration for tier 1 it seems. Crossfire girls for example left DA for ECNL so even through the boys won their division and made QF in the playoffs there were basically demoted on a club bases and not a team one.

The biggest flaw is placing teams in tiers based on a club name basically, instead of something quantitive or earned, they basically caved in and went with self placement without a clear criteria on how a team can move tiers if at all which is a shame.

While say Pats over Strikers in tier 1 is a very curious choice since they seems to cover the same area, practice & play at some of the same locations: CM & Irvine. Both clubs subside the club fees but to say full funding like Galaxy would be a strech. Travel costs for non da scholarshiped players can add up.

The biggest gripe is this was dropped on clubs & DOC's last minute without anything scheduling input or saying in anything. Starts in 3 weeks

 

[megnation]

Politics at play with the convoluted attempt to create tiers to appease the MLS clubs which have discuss leaving if things didn't change...
While say Pats over Strikers in tier 1 is a very curious choice since they seems to cover the same area, practice & play at some of the same locations: CM & Irvine. Both clubs subside the club fees but to say full funding like Galaxy would be a strech. Travel costs for non da scholarshiped players can add up.

I would say that in the 18/19 division Strikers have failed to get to the playoffs the last two seasons while Pats have had 1st and 3rd place finishes in their division. Could have played a factor

 

[OCsoccerdad7777]

Where does Galaxy SD stand in this? They are MLS but do they carry the same weight? Does the LA Galaxy treat them close to equally?

If they ever get granted U17/U18 status on boys, would they be put in tier 1 since it isn't a performance based criteria?

 

[megnation]

Where does Galaxy SD stand in this? They are MLS but do they carry the same weight? Does the LA Galaxy treat them close to equally?

If they ever get granted U17/U18 status on boys, would they be put in tier 1 since it isn't a performance based criteria?

Is Galaxy SD fully funded like LA Galaxy? Didn't think they were

 

[jpeter]

Where does Galaxy SD stand in this? They are MLS but do they carry the same weight? Does the LA Galaxy treat them close to equally?

If they ever get granted U17/U18 status on boys, would they be put in tier 1 since it isn't a performance based criteria?

LAGSD is in the last division of tier 2 in the DA cup and I doubt they will have ever see tier 1 as a affiliate or get u18/19. Same with the surf affiliates.

Instead of regulating teams no matter their performance, DA has decided to keep these full members clubs in year after year but this time in a lower tier. The big question is are there ways to move up/down based on performance from year to year or are these "casted" in stone going forward?

 

[jpeter]

Is Galaxy SD fully funded like LA Galaxy? Didn't think they were

Only about half of top tier clubs are funded to certain degrees. Even some of the MLS clubs charge like DC united. Even in the West-red bracket it's about half/half with club like Golden State, Surf, Sacramento, force not covering travel for example.

 

[timbuck]

LAGSD is in the last division of tier 2 in the DA cup and I doubt they will have ever see tier 1 as a affiliate or get u18/19. Same with the surf affiliates.

Instead of regulating teams no matter their performance, DA has decided to keep these full members clubs in year after year but this time in a lower tier. The big question is are there ways to move up/down based on performance from year to year or are these "casted" in stone going forward?

I’m guessing the way to “move up” is going to be on a player by player basis. And they’ll have to move teams.

 

[OCsoccerdad7777]

Is Galaxy SD fully funded like LA Galaxy? Didn't think they were

Think you're right, just checked their site. Wow thought they were fully funded by LA Galaxy but seems like they just use the name like an OC Surf.

Hopefully they will bring teams up based on success. If/when TFA ever gets to that age, doesn't make sense for them to be T2 assuming they keep pace.

 

[Dargle]

I’m guessing the way to “move up” is going to be on a player by player basis. And they’ll have to move teams.

That's exactly what DA is intended to do. Find the best players by the end of U19, not the best teams or the best clubs. That's why the number of DA teams decline as the age groups rise. Players on DA teams in clubs that don't have the next age group are expected to either drop out or move to other DA clubs and displace less able players on that team. It's all part of the winnowing out process. Clubs are theoretically supposed to be just vehicles for passing the kids along. After all, there's no process for getting a club promoted into DA based on team success either.

 

[timbuck]

And no training compensation for “promoting” a kid to a higher level.

 

[Dargle]

And no training compensation for “promoting” a kid to a higher level.

Not yet anyway.

 

[BigSoccer]

So now it gets a little confusing. If you are rhe developmental team for a T2 team are you a developmental developmental player?

 

[watfly]

It would be great if US Soccer would allow non-tier 1 players to play high school...unfortunately its leadership is too arrogant to do so.

 

[jpeter]

It would be great if US Soccer would allow non-tier 1 players to play high school...unfortunately its leadership is too arrogant to do so.

That's the rub with DA, the real value of the program has to be with the training since players spend much more time training 4x a week vs actual playing then just about anything else.

For the olders there are 6-7 cup games, 16-18 regular season games, 3 or 6 showcase plus playoffs so around 30-33 odd games over 10 months. Most da teams don't play many if any tournments especially with the combined age groups so overall the training ratio to games play is very high compared to anything else considering the high roster counts and sub rules finding enough playing time can be a challenge.

 

[LAOC]

Think you're right, just checked their site. Wow thought they were fully funded by LA Galaxy but seems like they just use the name like an OC Surf.

Hopefully they will bring teams up based on success. If/when TFA ever gets to that age, doesn't make sense for them to be T2 assuming they keep pace.

Also assuming this trickles down to the younger age DA teams it will begin to make even less sense.