Will US Soccer schedule "friendlies" between like age Elite GDA and G/WNT circuit teams?

GoWest said:
LOL! I'm glad I had to do a bit of shopping allowing time for @soccer4us to let me "off the hook!" I agree with 4us in that it is a recipe of things as mentioned. I do however, put a lot of emphasis on the coach. It seems in any sport, that's where the buck stops (or should anyways) ...the head coach. They do rely on others to help scout and recruit talent but I the HC has the final say and so, especially at the u17 level (where college conflict is NOT at play) I place the greater part of their disappointing showing on the shoulders of the coach. If memory serves, Frias, right? Was he "reallocated" to running the technical training or something like that? I may be off base here as to the most recent HC of the u17's.
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I've never seen a counties federation re-assign so many coaches for failing!! Almost all other serious countries do something called....we're firing you. Best of luck! I think You're right on Frias. I saw something he's running the u18 camp next week. Snow was the u17 coach at World Cup and now I believe some kind of main scout focusing on college/NWSL or something of that sort. I hear if you coached with Jill at UCLA, you're not allowed to fired from us soccer :)
 
soccer4us said:
I've never seen a counties federation re-assign so many coaches for failing!! Almost all other serious countries do something called....we're firing you. Best of luck! I think You're right on Frias. I saw something he's running the u18 camp next week. Snow was the u17 coach at World Cup and now I believe some kind of main scout focusing on college/NWSL or something of that sort. I hear if you coached with Jill at UCLA, you're not allowed to fired from us soccer :)
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Follow the April Heinrich and Jill Ellis coaching tree and you will follow the cronyism.
 
GoWest said:
I would like to see US Soccer set scrimmages / friendlies with "apples to apples" competition. Elite GDA teams only. I'm just curious as to what we would see. That was a butt whooping though....5-2!
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In the last two years my DD and I have been able to go to Stub Hub to watch a few matches that were set up during YNT training camps. It seems the typical formula is for the coaching staff to set up training sessions early in the week with scrimmages against a couple top So Cal club teams in the latter part of the week. We've seen matches with the U15 YNT camp playing against excellent So Cal club teams that were 2 years older.

Maybe GDA will result in higher caliber club teams (maybe not), but I have to say that none of the matches I watched were very close. Even with a two year age gap, the younger YNT pool team was better by a few goals and even more in terms of confidence on the ball. Two of the matches we saw were with National Championship caliber club teams. To be fair, I wasn't familiar with either of the older club teams, so I don't know if they fielded their strongest players or not, but I think the point stands regardless.

IMO - our top SoCal DA teams will be very good. However, even those teams will have 2 or 3 truly elite national-caliber players (possibly less). We can argue about whether these teams have more or less than 2 or 3 elite players, but the YNT training camps are targeting the top elite players across the nation. So, you are talking about having a younger YNT pool team with 11 elite players on the field playing against an older team club team that might have a couple elite players. In the couple match-ups I have seen, it doesn't seem to result in a fair match.
 
soccer4us said:
I've never seen a counties federation re-assign so many coaches for failing!! Almost all other serious countries do something called....we're firing you. Best of luck! I think You're right on Frias. I saw something he's running the u18 camp next week. Snow was the u17 coach at World Cup and now I believe some kind of main scout focusing on college/NWSL or something of that sort. I hear if you coached with Jill at UCLA, you're not allowed to fired from us soccer :)
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http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/201...s-national-team-staff-michelle-french-bj-snow
 
devupa2.0 said:
In the last two years my DD and I have been able to go to Stub Hub to watch a few matches that were set up during YNT training camps. It seems the typical formula is for the coaching staff to set up training sessions early in the week with scrimmages against a couple top So Cal club teams in the latter part of the week. We've seen matches with the U15 YNT camp playing against excellent So Cal club teams that were 2 years older.

Maybe GDA will result in higher caliber club teams (maybe not), but I have to say that none of the matches I watched were very close. Even with a two year age gap, the younger YNT pool team was better by a few goals and even more in terms of confidence on the ball. Two of the matches we saw were with National Championship caliber club teams. To be fair, I wasn't familiar with either of the older club teams, so I don't know if they fielded their strongest players or not, but I think the point stands regardless.

IMO - our top SoCal DA teams will be very good. However, even those teams will have 2 or 3 truly elite national-caliber players (possibly less). We can argue about whether these teams have more or less than 2 or 3 elite players, but the YNT training camps are targeting the top elite players across the nation. So, you are talking about having a younger YNT pool team with 11 elite players on the field playing against an older team club team that might have a couple elite players. In the couple match-ups I have seen, it doesn't seem to result in a fair match.
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I am happy that you posted my thoughts and not me :)
 
devupa2.0 said:
In the last two years my DD and I have been able to go to Stub Hub to watch a few matches that were set up during YNT training camps. It seems the typical formula is for the coaching staff to set up training sessions early in the week with scrimmages against a couple top So Cal club teams in the latter part of the week. We've seen matches with the U15 YNT camp playing against excellent So Cal club teams that were 2 years older.

Maybe GDA will result in higher caliber club teams (maybe not), but I have to say that none of the matches I watched were very close. Even with a two year age gap, the younger YNT pool team was better by a few goals and even more in terms of confidence on the ball. Two of the matches we saw were with National Championship caliber club teams. To be fair, I wasn't familiar with either of the older club teams, so I don't know if they fielded their strongest players or not, but I think the point stands regardless.

IMO - our top SoCal DA teams will be very good. However, even those teams will have 2 or 3 truly elite national-caliber players (possibly less). We can argue about whether these teams have more or less than 2 or 3 elite players, but the YNT training camps are targeting the top elite players across the nation. So, you are talking about having a younger YNT pool team with 11 elite players on the field playing against an older team club team that might have a couple elite players. In the couple match-ups I have seen, it doesn't seem to result in a fair match.
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I agree. I think it's the reason the older national teams play younger boys teams to get the real competition.
 
devupa2.0 said:
In the last two years my DD and I have been able to go to Stub Hub to watch a few matches that were set up during YNT training camps. It seems the typical formula is for the coaching staff to set up training sessions early in the week with scrimmages against a couple top So Cal club teams in the latter part of the week. We've seen matches with the U15 YNT camp playing against excellent So Cal club teams that were 2 years older.

Maybe GDA will result in higher caliber club teams (maybe not), but I have to say that none of the matches I watched were very close. Even with a two year age gap, the younger YNT pool team was better by a few goals and even more in terms of confidence on the ball. Two of the matches we saw were with National Championship caliber club teams. To be fair, I wasn't familiar with either of the older club teams, so I don't know if they fielded their strongest players or not, but I think the point stands regardless.

IMO - our top SoCal DA teams will be very good. However, even those teams will have 2 or 3 truly elite national-caliber players (possibly less). We can argue about whether these teams have more or less than 2 or 3 elite players, but the YNT training camps are targeting the top elite players across the nation. So, you are talking about having a younger YNT pool team with 11 elite players on the field playing against an older team club team that might have a couple elite players. In the couple match-ups I have seen, it doesn't seem to result in a fair match.
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I see your point. Your experience is insightful. I do however think that the GDA in approach may (hopefully) be a different animal so to speak. I really think theu16, u17 and u18 elite GDA teams should be used to test this and set a bench mark. I believe it would serve a couple of purposes; determine just "where" the bar is or must be raised to, and also, help US Soccer better define just "who the better players are" in each age group. Certainly, keep scrimmaging olders but really make it a point to hone in on key matchups with like age groups in the GDA.
 
GoWest said:
I see your point. Your experience is insightful. I do however think that the GDA in approach may (hopefully) be a different animal so to speak. I really think theu16, u17 and u18 elite GDA teams should be used to test this and set a bench mark. I believe it would serve a couple of purposes; determine just "where" the bar is or must be raised to, and also, help US Soccer better define just "who the better players are" in each age group. Certainly, keep scrimmaging olders but really make it a point to hone in on key matchups with like age groups in the GDA.
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There is too much of a talent gap. Only the top college teams have talent that is equal to or greater than a youth national team and even then that talent rarely goes 24 deep. GDA won't solve that.
 
Appreciate your thoughts. You may be right but I would still like to see a game between Slammers u18/u19 GDA and WNT u18. I think it would be a battle IMO.
 
GoWest said:
Appreciate your thoughts. You may be right but I would still like to see a game between Slammers u18/u19 GDA and WNT u18. I think it would be a battle IMO.
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I think that it would be a blow out. I don't even think that it would be a good game against the U17 WNT IMHO. It's hard to see the weaknesses of a strong team until you see them play a stronger team. Then the player with the hard first touch gets their pocket picked or the player that is a beat too slow gets mobbed. It's hard to imagine it until you have seen it trust me.
 
MakeAPlay said:
I think that it would be a blow out. I don't even think that it would be a good game against the U17 WNT IMHO. It's hard to see the weaknesses of a strong team until you see them play a stronger team. Then the player with the hard first touch gets their pocket picked or the player that is a beat too slow gets mobbed. It's hard to imagine it until you have seen it trust me.
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I agree, I wouldn't be a close game.
 
soccer4us said:
I agree. I think it's the reason the older national teams play younger boys teams to get the real competition.
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True. @GoWest , the US WNT isn't about testing the younger women's teams or the DA for that matter. The US WNT wants/needs to play against opponents that are physically quicker and bigger if they want to get better. U15 boys satisfy this for the National Team and present a good training opponent because they are not as smart as they are still learning. By the time an elite boys team hits 16+ their speed and size so far exceeds the elite woman that smarts becomes inconsequential.

The same is true for the younger WNTs, which are made up of the best players across the nation in that age group. Sure, some girls slip through the cracks, but not many and as others have said ... a deep u19 WNT against a girls DA with 4-6 quality players isn't going to make a good game.
 
MakeAPlay said:
I think that it would be a blow out. I don't even think that it would be a good game against the U17 WNT IMHO. It's hard to see the weaknesses of a strong team until you see them play a stronger team. Then the player with the hard first touch gets their pocket picked or the player that is a beat too slow gets mobbed. It's hard to imagine it until you have seen it trust me.
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What's hard to imagine is how poorly the US performance has been at the u17/20 age group; something is amiss here, just doesn't add up.
 
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