?? - If the MLS wasn't deeply involved with the USSF, the please explain why there are Canadian teams in the US Development academy program. Did you not know that Sunil Gulati works for Kraft?
I'll be happy to give you a chance but I’m not sure how much of an argument there would be. His argument is that it does not make sense for MLS expend a lot of its limited resources to build a minor league program because the quality of coaching available isn’t there to support it. In addition to the lack of coaches there is also a lack of players and a lack of resources. I’m sure he feels that High School and college are not best places to develop elite level players I’m in agreement as well. I think his arguments are obviously overstated – especially the impact of coaching in the more mature players. I also think he understates the value of actually playing in competitive games. My issue of with high school soccer is simply that the overwhelming vast majority of the kids being asked to forgo their High School experience are not professional prospects. Due to the relatively poor coaching and limited practice in their formative years they are too far behind technically and tactically and do not have the exceptional athletic ability to possibly overcome these limitations. While Sidefooter possibly may not see the cultural benefits to the kids of competing in High School sports, I doubt he would disagree on the very limited number of true professional prospects of the Development Academy player pool. Additionally I probably see more potential harm to the sport by trying to disassociate higher-level amateur soccer from HS sports. Given that he seems to express an in-depth knowledge of Eastern European coaching, he’s likely not as familiar with how deeply High School sports are integrated into the American culture. In terms of college, its not clear that he would feel that training regularly in the MLS environment and playing 10 reserve games half-filled with academy aged players would be better than playing 30 or so competitive games in one of the top college programs and supplementing that with additional training in MLS environments over the summer and supplementing the PDL games. Since he gives AZ credit for Atlidore’s success but doesn’t mention the regression in his play during the period Altidore was training in Europe but not playing, this might be where we have our biggest disagreements.
Choice B. The problem is that you are not going to get a lot of good players to take choice B over better college programs - especially for what MLS is willing to pay them all but can't possibly miss prospects. MLS is not going to be willing to pay much more because the US players in MLS will be wondering why they are getting paid less than younger kids who have never done anything (and if the program is expanded to more marginal players, often never will).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs.../10/29/nasl-approves-virginia-expansion-club/ I said it earlier, I think that this ownership group, venue, general location is all shaky, but it looks like it is going to happen. I value this league for the reasons brought up in this thread and I really hope that they are being more careful than I think they are being in accepting new franchises into the league. I think that this could be a powerful league, averaging five to ten thousand per match while giving young players a place to establish themselves as professionals - IF it is run properly. Time will tell.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/soccer-insider/wp/2012/11/05/nasl-coming-to-northern-virginia/ The new NASL team in Loudoun, Virginia in 2014 is official and they plan to field an academy team. "Mark Simpson, a former United goalkeeper and assistant coach, is Farren’s director of soccer operations. Simpson plans to create an academy system and will oversee the search for a head coach. " “While we welcome the NASL club to the area and wish them success, we don’t expect a minor league team playing in Loudoun County to bring about a negative impact to our business,” United spokesman Doug Hicks said. ”In particular, we have great working relationships with [youth organizations like] Loudoun Soccer Club and Ashburn Soccer Club and expect that to continue to develop in the years ahead.” As for the makeup of the roster, Simpson said he has already had preliminary conversations with MLS clubs, most notably United, to take some of their young players on loan. The team would also aim to sign locals to complement a squad with college and international signings as well as players from MLS or third-tier USL. “We realize who we are,” Simpson said. “We’re not going to pretend to be anybody we are not. We hope to be a complement to D.C. United and other MLS clubs. We want to be able to take their best development players, keep developing them and play them in real games and in real atmospheres.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/soccer-insider/wp/2012/11/05/nasl-coming-to-northern-virginia/ *The NASL is close to finalizing the entry of another expansion team in 2014, believed to be Indianapolis, and is eyeing the West Coast for future locations. Sacramento, San Diego and Phoenix are in the mix, Downs said. *With Downs planning to step down in the coming months, the league has narrowed its search for a new commissioner to three. No names were revealed.
New clubs in the minor leagues are never a sure bet. It's promising that this guy isn't spouting delusional, pie-the-sky nonsense that we've heard from short-lived USL owners in the past. It would really be handy for D.C. to have an NASL club just down the road. Easy to keep an eye on loanees that way.
This is what I was thinking. A franchise in Indianapolis would be nice for the Fire and the Crew as well. More successful NASL sides could mean more opportunities for young players as teams look to fill up their rosters.
My thoughts exactly...the biggest thing NASL (and more tiers of soccer) do is open up more slots. And more slots means more chances. That alone will help.
Seeing as the only other place to get regular playing time if you aren't MLS ready is the NCAA, I don't really see how the NASL partnership would be a bad thing.
I know each loan deal is different in terms of who is paying the salary but would be a smart way for teams to get young talented players on cheaper terms if MLS teams are covering some if not all of the salary.
Wouldn't it be ironic if the NASL's reincarnation turned out to be as a really smart developmental league for players to move on to higher levels of play given that NASL's first life was as too ambitious for their own good signers of world class stars that they could in no way afford? Honestly, I think that it would be fantastic! Good for everyone involved.
If NASL 2.0 does forge ahead with their 'partnership' with MLS it really is a benefit to both. MLS has teams in close proximity allowing pre-1st team competitive games with some control over their development while extending their brand into outlying areas of their metropolitan emphasis. It allows NASL to still have older players but also talented up and coming talent to the mothership attracting more fans to track and see not only established 2nd division talent but new youngsters.
Usl, not nasl RT @SportingKCGFT: @RobbHeineman any interest in developing a loan setup with an #naslor #uslpro side to give experience for players to develop I wonder if those could be a case by case basis for MLS clubs, some might work with the NASL and some with the USL, perhaps depending on how close an NASL/USL club is to the MLS team. Or it could be all of MLS working with the USL.
Proximity is important but structure, consistency and talent concentration is more important. We should have all these MLS loanees playing against one another at the appropriate level of competition, not a hodge podge of some players here and some over there. That's a major problem with our system, we have too many leagues and teams claiming that they need to be the one to develop. It would be a shame for us to have top level 18-20 yr olds with some in NCAA, some in USL, some in NASL, some in academy, some in Reserve system. They should be all be playing against each other.
I like this idea. We need more clubs were players can train and play in more professional environments. 15 years or so down the road if we had a quasi-farm system provided we have comparable coaching that system would be better than a lot of European countries. Especially if those clubs were required to have at least two levels of academies and MLS clubs averaged similar numbers of youth players as European clubs (175). We could have similar access to club based development as Europe. Obviously that doesn't mean we'll produce the same quality of players. England has around 10,000 kids in club-based academies and Germany 5,000. So given Germany are much better than England it's not just about numbers but that's more of a reflection of how England resources are laughably mismanaged, also Germany have a larger pool so there's more competition for those 5,000 spots.
One interesting side note is three USL teams have an affiliated academy: Charleston, Richmond, and Orlando. Richmond is actually a free academy too, not sure about the other two. It almost makes too much sense for DC to affiliate with Richmond from an academy stand point and to loan players. Have they said they want to develop players for their 1st teams? Although it could be hard to persuade a kid to turn down a college scholarship for a USL pay check..
I agree it will be hard(er)....that said, not all kids want to go to college. Those are the kids they might have a chance at. Also, I personally think some of these academy programs can actually be pretty good marketing as well. And may be a reason you start seeing the lower level teams move that direction.
Richmond Kickers have improved their academy DRAMATICALLY in one year, but they still are not producing what we would call top prospects and, even if they were, they would want those prospects for their own professional club, right? I know that the Battery have a plan in place to integrate their top academy players into their USL team and I believe that the Kickers do as well. As far as loan deals are concerned, DC United loaned out Ethan White to the Richmond Kickers several times this year so, even though he didn't get much time with DC United's first team, he did get a number of USL games this year with the Kickers. One thing that is different with MLS than with other leagues is that, because of the smaller rosters, Ethan couldn't be loaned out for more than one or two games at a time because DC was never sure of when they would need for Ethan to be available to play for them. Conor Shanosky was loaned out for an entire year to Ft. Lauderdale because Ben made a decision that Conor was simply not ready to contribute to DC United. The loan worked out fantastically for Conor because he was able to establish himself as a solid NASL level pro and he got a lot of games but he was only given that opportunity because Ben Olsen decided that he just wasn't going to be using Conor at all, despite the roster size. It will be interesting to see what happens with Shanosky this upcoming season. He is approaching a point that Luna/Leyva experienced at FC Dallas. I am glad that he at least got this loan opportunity before he hits his moment of truth.