Dynamo Academy heads to Europe

[Dre00]

My knowledge of various youth setups around the league is pretty limited, but I was taken aback by this announcement. (http://houston.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20081208&content_id=208077&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&team=t200) Has another MLS club embarked on a tour of this level before? If so, how did they fare? The article doesn't give all the details away, but...

In a 10-day span in August, the Dynamo will face Rangers, Celtic, Newcastle United, Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Barcelona. Serious competition that Dynamo Director of Youth Development James Clarkson said was influenced by the track record of the Dynamo organization.

My initial instinct is that there has to be some sort of catch. I'm not sure why, but I can't imagine that the best Dynamo U-16s will play against Barcelona's best U-16s.

[ElRoss425]

Dre, I'm living in Portugal and have a few "team" tv channels: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Benfica, etc and from what I've seen these club's youth teams they aren't necessarily the powers that their first teams are. These teams lose to other unknown youth teams all the time.

BTW, good to see you've made your way over here from the Texags boards.

- ElRoss425(Dubag)

[Dre00]

Fancy meeting you here. I've been on BS for a while but generally stick to the Dynamo boards although I'll pop in now and again in MLS N&A to see what's going on.

I know it's not a direct corollary between the strength of the first team and the youth team but that's still interesting to hear that some of the powers might not even be relatively strong compared to lesser youth teams. If nothing else, it gives me another football reason to go to England in August. Watch some Prem games, then watch the Dynamo youth team. :D

[boomersooner027]

The difference between the Houston youth team and most MLS youth teams is that Houston's is more of an all-star team with kids on other youth clubs around the area. That's why they're not allowed to participate in the USSF Development Academy.

Given the success of the US at U-20 and U-17 levels, I could see the top youth clubs in America more than holding their own with the top youth teams of clubs around the world. Given that Dallas Texans won the Dallas Cup super group a couple of years ago(that had the youth team of Man United who brough Rossi and Frazier Campbell and the youth team of Real Madrid) I could see an all-star team made up of the best players from Houston doing alright.

[CeltTexan]

I don't know how many other MLS clubs take their U-18 sqaud and enter them into the local Men's Amatuer Champions League competiton but that is exactly what was done here in Houston in 2007.
Then our brand new U-18 group, who are indeed an All-Star team of the best 16, 17 and 18 year olds in the area, the new Dynamo Academy team goes out and beats every other area men's champion to win the Houston Champions Cup.
I am looking forward to this trip next summer. The list of opposition is outstanding. Everything a club from the Americas would want from a trip to play in Europe.

[Stan Collins]

I don't know how many other MLS clubs take their U-18 sqaud and enter them into the local Men's Amatuer Champions League competiton but that is exactly what was done here in Houston in 2007. TFC does something fairly similar (playing in the CSL, a high level amateur league that includes much older players), because the USSF DAP is not available to them. Houston is the only one that does it by choice.

But it appears they are changing their policy. The Houston boards say they are forcing their kids to choose between the Dynamo and their clubs (which makes sense since you have to put in a certain number of days with the senior team to qualify as home grown for MLS purposes anyway). This is probably a prelude to entering the DAP and a program that will look a little more like other MLS teams.

Which doesn't necessarily preclude foreign tours.