Review and suggestions for USSF DAP 1+ years on

[Stan Collins]

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/component/option,com_mojo/Itemid,304/g,1/p,78/

Rob Ziegler at TDS, who has been following high-end youth soccer as long as anyone I know of, offers a fiew tweaks to the program get the "Academy to Pros" pipeline flowing.

They involve tweaks to MLS rosters, and a change in the way Pro-affiliated clubs relate to non-Pro-affiliated ones, sort of regionalizing the development scheme.

[ATLGunner]

Someone needs to forward this to Gazidis. This is absolutely needed. With the downturn in the economy, expansion, and the desire to improve, youth has to be THE focus. 4 slots also expands the roster, and forces teams to work hard on their youth team.

Things need to be revamped now and it needs to be aggressive. We can't afford to wait ten years to start to see production of talented youth players. It's an opportunity, and the profit outweighs the risk easily.

[Stan Collins]

I do suspect that the league doesn't really want 4 youth spots all the time. But whatever the number, a set-aside seems a good idea.

[scoachd1]

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/component/option,com_mojo/Itemid,304/g,1/p,78/

Rob Ziegler at TDS, who has been following high-end youth soccer as long as anyone I know of, offers a fiew tweaks to the program get the "Academy to Pros" pipeline flowing.

They involve tweaks to MLS rosters, and a change in the way Pro-affiliated clubs relate to non-Pro-affiliated ones, sort of regionalizing the development scheme.

While I think it is a little more realistic in terms of a US player development model, there still seems to be a little bit too much of trying to force a Euro based model into an American environment where soccer is not the big money sport and the education system is very different. Another big problem with the proposal is the belief that playing with MLS reserves is much better than playing a couple of years of college soccer. With the exception of a few prodigies, I don't think that is the case.

It would be a huge waste of money to guess which 16 or 17 year will really make it. For those who would like to argue otherwise because that is the way it is done in the rest of the world, I suggest reading Moneyball. If you get a prodigy like Altidore or Adu, sign him at 17. But if you look at Bradenton, you'll see a heck of a lot more flops than hits. On the other hand if you see a 18 year that can step up and play big against players 2-4 year older in a top league like the ACC then it is pretty unlikely they will bomb. Furthermore older kids will turn over development slots and move to first team slots at a much quicker rate, thus bringing more young talent into the league at a faster rate.

A HS Senior (or younger) could play with an MLS PDL team or U20 all summer. They could practice with the first team or the reserves so no difference in practice for a 1/3 of a year. Then instead of riding the pine and playing an occasional reserve game they could play fall with college. While doing so they can learn to live on their own and learn to fight into the first team line-up with meaningful games. During the winter and early spring they could have off-season recovery period where they work on conditioning. Then they could spend all summer practicing with the first team and keeping sharp playing with PDL or other club sponsored youth amateur team. If they are ready to step they can sign anytime they want during this period. If not ready, which most will not be, they can repeat until they are ready. You get more good players at far less cost. Furthermore you keep more players in the clubs academy working hard toward the dream of becoming pros since multiple spots are likely to open up rather than being tied up for years on a couple of "chosen" ones who everyone knows really aren't that good.

As an added bonus, you some college soccer fans who will watch MLS games just to see how the ex-players from their school are doing. The washouts like the Bill Willoughbys or Memos of the world won't attract any new fans. But some of the thousands of Santa Barbara fans just might tune into an MLS game to see how their own Eric Avila is doing.

[GersMan]

This is very little change from what we have now, and I can't believe very many players would actually be training on a regular basis with an MLS side while attending college. They would have to live right there for one thing, which rules most college programs out, and then how close could a "MLS PDL" team be with the actual pro team and the NCAA still allow the players to play for them?

You have to accept SOME rate of failure. If only "can't miss" prospects like Jozy or Freddy go pro, we pass on the chance to move forward. Remember, these young pros in my idea do get the opportunity of college if they want it - just not college soccer.

I did not mention it before but this would also HAVE to include a real upgrading of the Reserves schedule and setup - no question.

[Stan Collins]

Also, the economics are more like the record industry than the movie industry--if 1 of every 20 is a smash, and a couple are solid, you've paid for everyone else.

[scoachd1]

This is very little change from what we have now, and I can't believe very many players would actually be training on a regular basis with an MLS side while attending college. They would have to live right there for one thing, which rules most college programs out, and then how close could a "MLS PDL" team be with the actual pro team and the NCAA still allow the players to play for them?

You have to accept SOME rate of failure. If only "can't miss" prospects like Jozy or Freddy go pro, we pass on the chance to move forward. Remember, these young pros in my idea do get the opportunity of college if they want it - just not college soccer.

I did not mention it before but this would also HAVE to include a real upgrading of the Reserves schedule and setup - no question.

To a large extent you are correct in that it is not that different than we have now, but in realistic ways that matter it is very different. My suggestions could actually be implemented and would increase both the urgency of the clubs and the players in the program to improve. Your suggestions are more of wish list to make things look as Euro like as possible but overestimates the benefits of the changes and completely underestimates the costs. The reason I feel as I do is that there is nowhere near a similar level of money and infrastructure to support that type of structure.

For example you want to take a bunch of kids out of college and other established leagues without even realizing the place you want to send them is deficient and will take spending much more money and structural changes to become adequate. It is a perfect example of trying to look like Euros but without having the infrastructure to support it or a plan in place to deal with the deficiency.

One thing I agree is that the cost of the program has to be very low to make it ability based rather than checkbook based as it is now. However the belief that $50K per team is going to do it is questionable to say the least. In order to get quality full-time professional coaches, trainers, facilities and travel requires an order of magnitude more money than you suggest is needed to create free high quality programs. As it is, even if the Federation could somehow convince the MLS to kick in $5M, most of that money might be needed just to keep the current program running. For the last two years funding has come from the US soccer foundation. From what I understand the use of Foundation money for this purpose has been an issue. When you combine that with the drop in the financial markets, there is a really good chance there is not the money in the foundation to give to the USSF development academy program even if they wanted to.

In this part of the country, the high end costs have generally been $2K-$3K per player per year plus travel. I’ve heard LAFC is not cost for training (but not necessarily travel) and Odyssey, I believe is a little over $1K including travel. This is why if you look at the Premier standings and players it is pretty obvious that a large number players that belong in the program that are not in it. I might even go so far as to say that only a minority of the local kids that should be in the program from an ability level will be in the program this year. So rather than create a program where so many quality kids get ignored, I continue to suggest the better idea leverage MLS into mini-Bradentons so instead of one place for real development you get 14 or so. I’d also stop wasting money with regional and nation camps for kids under 15 as all these are really good for is identifying early maturing kids with some skill.

Probably the worst idea is to redirect all the Generation Adidas to the limited amount of kids that would have the parents allow them to gamble their future at 16 or 17 years of age (the probability a kid will follow through and the choices of schools significantly reduce over time) for the opportunity to make a relatively small amount in MLS. The real money is in Europe. So unless a kid has the paperwork to get there, his opportunity to make real money in soccer today is very limited. This is such a bad idea on so many levels that I doubt I could list all of them. First of all it presupposes that you can identify the best players at this age, which I think has been fairly well proven that we are a long way of doing so. Then it assumes that we can convince the best players to do so when history seems to prove otherwise. Finally it assumes that these two huge deficiencies are going to be made up by the imagined vastly improved development when even our most gifted prodigies have struggled. Don’t get me wrong. If the Galaxy thinks Tristen Bowen has the potential to be a great player, then by all means they should be able to sign him with their Gen adidas money. But if they wanted to use their Gen Adidas money to sign college bound Cal-South products (they might have had in their program if it existed) like Maurice Edu, Marvell Wynne, Yura Movsisyan or Sacha Kljestan, I think it is pretty foolish to suggest they shouldn’t be able to do so and thus force these players to sign overseas instead.

To answer questions – there is no need to attend college near an MLS club. PDL is a summer program as is the U20 league. Chicago, Colorado, Richmond, Atlanta are all professional organizations that have teams in the league. Galaxy, Red Bull, DC United are among the many professional teams in the U20 league. Meanwhile the MLS professional youth get 10 reserve games during the season and a long off-season.