Welcome to the rest of the world. There are no arbitrary "training" requirements needed before signing a player anywhere else. I strongly doubt MLS even enforces these so called rules anymore. I'm hoping they learned their lesson from players like Mario Rodriguez or Paul Arriola.
http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/worldcupcentral/id/2544?cc=5901 While this article isn't directly about the US Development Academy, I think it does a pretty good job laying out the challenges that we face in becoming a nation capable of winning the world cup which is what the development academy is supposed to be helping us do. Clearly we are strong in some areas, but we are also very weak in other areas. I have always liked certain aspects of Gabriele Marcotti's writing. He can be biased sometimes, but he is one of the most knowledgeable soccer writers around and this is an example of him at his best. As far as are strengths are concerned according to Marcotti's criteria - we have a strong total population, gross domestic product and our climate is pretty strong as well. There are other areas where we are mixed with both strengths and weaknesses - opportunity cost, cross-pollination and infrastructure (this is according to his definitions). Then there are our weaknesses - pipeline and know how. No country in the world is perfect in any one of these areas but the strongest countries are particularly strong in pipeline and know how - our two biggest weaknesses (this is my evaluation, not Marcotti's). I see the development academy as a definite attempt to help with pipeline and that has led to some definite progress, although there is still a long way to go. As far as know how goes, I don't see the development academy as a tool that is going to help much in that regard. In fact, I think that know how is going to be our Achilles heel for years to come. Unless we prioritize educating parents and, more specifically, educating coaches on how to educate parents, we will get caught in a cycle of pleasing parents who may not care about soccer, but are paying the coach's salary and expect to win the game in front of them as a result. We all know what that leads to and it isn't top players. Pay to play is going to be around for a long time to come. That is just the economics of our situation. We need to educate the people who pay for youth soccer so that they at least have the opportunity to know what they are spending their money on and have options about how to support their children. I think we have failed in that regard and that is why know how is at the bottom of our list (at least in my opinion). I also don't think that this will change naturally. We we always lag behind in comparison to other countries as they get better as well unless we attempt to do something different in regard to the people that are paying for our youth soccer infrastructure. I like the development academy overall because it is helping with our pipeline and it does provide competition with high school soccer. Competition has been missing for far too long in our player development model and I am glad to see that some players now have choices as to where they play. Quite frankly, I would not like the academy nearly as much if they hadn't put themselves in direct competition with high school. What reason do people have to get better if there is no competition holding them accountable? I support any attempt to get out of a rut and high school soccer was in a rut. I have no problem with it as long as it is an option - not the only game in town - the same thing goes for the development academy who's early attempts at bullying players to play for them have backfired in several cases. I would like to see the academy take better advantage of our large population, but this is something that is still very young and they are very, very slow and conservative in their attempts to grow. I think part of the reason for this is lack of confidence in both our overall know how and their's. We need to get better at defining exactly what a good club looks and acts like and communicating that. In spite of all their club ratings, at the moment I get the impression that US Soccer are using the "porn" model when defining good clubs - they know one when they see it. McLean was a great example. It was a decent academy according to their ratings, but it was an academy that wasn't attempting to develop top players. They correctly got rid of it and replaced it with a much better academy in Bethesda/Olney (or Philadelphia Union) but they had to come up with convoluted excuse to get rid of McLean. I am glad they did it, but we need to get much, much better at defining the difference between a good club and a bad club. In conclusion, I am thrilled to see the academy helping with the "pipe line" category. I do not see it helping with the "know how" category, but I do see it being stagnated by our weakness in the "know how" category if we don't find a way to address this category from a different perspective.
New York Red Bulls ready to launch USL PRO side in 2015: "We see it as a big, big advantage" NEW YORK - If all goes according to plan, the New York Red Bulls will soon follow the footsteps of the LA Galaxy and field a team in USL PRO. Red Bulls sporting director Andy Roxburgh said at the club’s media day on Tuesday that New York are currently well into the process of launching a third-division side, set to begin play next year. Roxburgh told reporters back in December that the Red Bulls had explored the possibility of launching a USL PRO club for 2014, but that they were not able to finalize the plans in time. That delay, however, has not discouraged the Red Bulls. "We'll definitely do [it] at the end of this year, because the league are now telling every club they need to do it, so it won't be a debate," Roxburgh told MLSsoccer.com. "The third-division team, the [USL PRO] team, I'm sure everybody will be doing it at the end of this year and we're certainly wanting to do that.
Affiliate program, a success story for D.C. United's Academy http://www.dcunited.com/news/2014/02/affiliate-program-a-success-story-for-dc-uniteds-academy The D.C. United Academy has several affiliate clubs that actively help identify, develop and monitor players in the Maryland, Virginia and D.C. area. These affiliate clubs assist D.C. United in developing high quality players that are ready to perform at premier college programs and potentially play for D.C. United’s first team. Six clubs are affiliate members with the D.C. United Academy including, Annandale Boys and Girls Soccer Club, Arlington Soccer Association, Beach FC, Maryland United, Northern Virginia Soccer Club and Stafford Soccer. “We are crossing into new and exciting territory with our Affiliate club members,” said D.C. United U-16 Head Coach and Head Scout Tom Torres, who is managing the Affiliate Program’s implementation. “Affiliate players are attending academy training and friendly matches are being played. D.C. United and affiliate coaches are also sharing ideas and collaborating to develop players. It’s a huge asset to D.C. United to work with the affiliate clubs.”
Just noting that Thomas Rongen has landed ... http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2014/mar/10/usa-soccer-coach-helps-tcsl-to-develop-youth-playe/ http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2014/mar/10/usa-soccer-coach-helps-tcsl-to-develop-youth-playe/
Also FCD has added a sixth affiliate club to their academy spider web: http://www.fcdallas.com/news/2014/03/fc-dallas-tyler-azzuri-affiliate-east-texas That's a team in Tyler.........which is East Texas. FC Dallas Youth affiliates: -FC Dallas West Texas -FC Dallas Emerald Coast -FC Dallas Tri -FC Dallas Monterrey -FC Dallas Tyler -FC Dallas El Paso http://www.ketknbc.com/news/fc-dallas-now-affiliated-with-east-texas
The Galaxy have a few of these affiliates now as well. I'm still confused what exactly is the relationship between them and what are the rules.
BTW.................this is interesting: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...es-course-plan-develop-academy-complex-real-s The City Council of Oceanside, Calif., has reversed course on plans to partner with Real Salt Lake on a $10 million-plus project to build a youth academy and stadium for a future USL PRO affiliate club on the site of a failing public golf course, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on Thursday. Bummer.........................
Probably nothing.... I believe it probably sounds better for the club to be affiliated to the MLS club for recruiting purposes, I don't think MLS club really helps in any way. Our club was associated with an MLS club and nothing was really ever giving to the club, except for the right to wear thier logo
This is a nutshell is where those that place such importance on the DA are failing to understand the real problem. The biggest problem by far is know how and the second biggest problem by far is opportunity cost. In contrast the so-called pipe line problem is minimal as is the DA impact on improving both the pipe line and know how. Here is how Marcotti describes the pipeline: Neven Subotic - found practicing at a park. Altidore - Found practicing at a park. Adu - in elementary school. Kids who are talented are quickly spotted and moved up the line to better teams. Locally parents and coaches starting from U5 are looking around for kids that could make their teams better. If a new kid moves to area and shows some potential, in no time at all people will be contacting his parents asking if they'd be interested to have him play on their team. My kid was recruited to play on one of the top 4 teams in the area at that time based on his play during elementary school recess. Most kids on his team were picked up based on their play in Hispanic recreational leagues. Once kids are in an organized program, better programs will go after the best kids in the programs below their. Lower level teams club teams will scour AYSO and Hispanic leagues for players while better teams will be scouring lower level club teams. The problem isn't finding players but instead the problem is finding gifted athletes that have had the game ingrained in them at a young age. Bonetti's quote above is a great summary of my position on the DA and its comparatively minor importance as compared development at the youngest ages which is primarily driven by parents. US soccer made a strategic mistake years ago by focusing much of its resources at the high school ages when instead the returns and progress would have been much greater if these resources were intelligently focus on improving programs and educating parents at U8 to U12 level. I don't recall Bonetti taking this position in bold. In fact I missed it the first time reading it. I fundamentally disagree with US soccer's attempt prevent kids from playing at the highest level for 9 months if they want to play high school for 3 months. US soccer is not trying to compete with High school programs but instead they are trying use their monopoly power over the US national team programs and DA level of play to coerce them into not playing for their high school. Whether people realize it or not this carries a significant opportunity cost. While many of the cognoscenti seem to believe that kids foregoing high school play is the greatest thing since sliced bread, the view of the average parent is very different. Most actually believe it is a terrible thing and some of those parents with athletic freaks for kids will end up placing their young children in sports programs other than soccer as a result. Other athletic freaks - the kids that can do well in any high school sport - will decide themselves not to focus on soccer in High School because of it. And many other kids that would potentially benefit from playing against higher caliber competition and better coaching found in DA will choose to forgo them. One doesn't have to look much further than many non-DA kids garnering awards in college soccer to realize latter is absolutely the case. The reality is that there are a lot of lousy high school programs. Even a reasonably run club program should be able to convince many kids to play in club programs during the high school season rather than their schools poorly run programs. That is competing. The problem is that the DA really doesn't offer enough to convince kids from good High School programs to play in DA during the high school season. So rather than improve their programs so they could compete and win these players, the leaders of US soccer youth programs have moved to coercion. I fail to understand why anyone thinks this is a good thing - especially when the benefits in terms of players development are not clear cut in many instances. Soccer in this country faces enough opportunity costs from higher education and other sports. It doesn't need to shoot itself in the foot to create more.
Called branding exercise that is ass backwards. The MLS club should be paying the affiliates to bring them talent not viceversa. Only then will u see more meaningful relationship and accountability
Each club approaches this in different ways. As we know, FCD brings the best prospects from these affiliates to Frisco to play for their U16 and U18 academy teams. That includes some of their best prospects over the last couple of years. Wilfred Williams comes immediately to mind. The kid that moved to Bradenton, Alejandro Zendejas, had come originally from the El Paso affiliate. And there is a real relationship between the clubs in regards to coaches and coaching development. For FCD (and I'm sure for other clubs) the relationship is more than just the jerseys that the affiliates are wearing..............................
The conclusion you're drawing is arguably the opposite of the one that's justified. Subotic had lived in this country for years without getting significant notice, and at the time he was discovered, he wasn't even on a club team. If he hadn't been eye-catchingly tall, and more to the point, if the park where he was practicing hadn't been across the street from our U17 residency program, he might well never have attracted notice. And that's one hell of a talented player.
All stories like that tell me (and there are many of them) is that there are really good prospects out there for the USSF DA/MLS/etc. teams to find. And that's why its important that clubs like FCD and the Galaxy continue to expand their affiliate webs. What these affiliations provide is increased player identification and scouting networks. And the relationships will continue to expand in order to be more than that. Gotta start somewhere. We talk about those particular clubs because we have more fans of those clubs that post on these forums, but other MLS teams are also in on the act. For instance the Rapids now have affiliates in Las Vegas, North Carolina, and New Mexico as part of their "alliance" program. The more of these communities we can get into..............the better. Even if the relationship is just a casual one to start with. We can't be everywhere, though. There will always be complaints about how "Community X" isn't being scouted and served.
Fair point - I don't know his situation, changes in physical maturity or whether he was on the radar anywhere at that time. But the reality is that he was spotted. In contrast all the Sueno competitions focusing on all the overlooked Hispanic talent have found exactly what - Flores? I'm not claiming there are not cracks in the identification system and I'm certainly not claiming that level effort I see people go through to identify talent in the Southern California area today is the same is at was 15 years ago in areas of the country where there is far less interest in the sport. Instead I'm stating that these cracks are minor compared to the huge gaps in effectively teaching elite athletes the game at young ages and maintaining there interest in the sport. Do you disagree?
Sure, but when our all-time best players get spotted in extremely flukish ways, it's hard to dismiss the possibility that plenty of other national-team level talents are being missed. Funes Mori debuted for Benfica this season. He was arguably the best 1991 player in the country, and 2008 Sueno MLS was his big break. I think you're accurately describing an array of issues in one statement, and that talent ID (across a range of ages) is a significant part of that. Clearly, the longer kids go without access to top coaching and competition, the more their possibilities diminish.
I agree with this, and my opinion on it has changed over time. I used to think that anecdotes about immigrant diamonds-in-the-rough were pretty much guaranteed to be exaggerated. As a result of guys like Subotic, Najar, Movsisyan, etc. coming out of the woodwork, I now think that they're probably exaggerated 99.9% of the time - but that the remaining 0.1% could have a big impact on the national team. For this thread, the relevant question is whether efforts to entrench the DA structure increase or undermine the potential for hidden talents to come to light. In some cases it may have helped (Najar comes to mind), but my guess is that the overall effect is slightly negative.
Another relevant question is how to leverage the DA to better serve the pro soccer community. If we look at why the De Anza Force have plenty of high-end talent passing through and most non-MLS DA's have none, a lot of it comes down to two things: (1) coaching and (2) outreach. Re: (1), we need to push our youth coaching forward. That's glaring. Re: (2), don't get me wrong, a lot of the Force kids are drawn from affluent areas, but all the same, the youngsters they've got playing in MLS are a janitor's kid (Joya) and a kid whose local school district has 93% of its kids on free or reduced lunch (Dean). How many DA's have zero kids with backgrounds like Joya and Dean? Lately, the hype is about the U14 DA, but if coaching and outreach are what give us the bang for the buck, it seems unlikely to advance us at all. How many DA's have actually gone out and hired new U14 coaches, or even required their current coaches to get additional licenses?
The immigrant diamonds in the rough point to a problem of development not to one of identification. It is not coincidence that most of these outstanding players are kids born outside the US. Gifted athletes that had soccer ingrained at a young age. Some were found quickly while others took little while longer (and there could be a lot of factors ranging from differences timing of puberty to gaining the trust of their parents to play for a non-immigrant club that is not near their house) but the reality is they were found by there mid teens. Look at the NBA - surely people are scouting for basketball talent in the US, but the reality is that NBA all-star level players like Scotty Pippen, Dennis Rodman and David Robinson were all completely overlooked until they were at least 20 due to late maturation. Clearly not all areas of the country are like SoCal. But since he was a local kid, I happen to know Movsisyan's story. Despite the fact he ended up at a community college it was hardly like he was an unknown talent. Instead he ended up their due to circumstances of being a foreign that recently moved to the US. Only a small number of players get selected to the combine yet he was one of them. Whether it is MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA or MLS some talented kids will fall through the cracks. No system is perfect. But when New England has and Academy full of kids and the one special player is from Uruguay and DC United has an Academy full of kids and the one special player is from Honduras, California has a boat load of players and the player with possibly with the highest transfer value came from Armenia I think it pretty clear from the pattern where as a country we are failing and very little of this has to do with the so-called pipeline.
Virtually every boys premier level team from in SoCal from U12 on up has kids like this. Often one of the biggest challenges with these kids is getting rides for them rides to practices and games.
You've missed a very important reason why De Anza Force attract top talent. The USSF pushes players their way.
Yeah, I'm not necessarily saying it's a bad thing. It is tough for teams that develop players to a national team level, and then once they get there, they are urged to join De Anza though.