What I heard was they dropped the u19 age group because they had very few quality 01/02s. Told Las to find another club. Leaving the 03s on u17. Playing the 04s in a local league/arranging friendlies with mls clubs.
That is appalling. They should receive none of the next expansion fees. Docking them points won’t make any difference since there’s no relegation. To drop their U-19 team shows such a lack of ambition in developing players. Why should they have a team in MLS if they don’t even want to put rudimentary funds into their academy? There’s also no way that their remaining players will be well off in this set up.
........ Scrap the franchise. Not even kidding. Tell me any tangible benefit that team has. Cool for Las, though. Compare that sorry franchise to the 4 teams in LA and NY and their respective academies. Just appalling. I would never join in on a business venture with their owners regardless of what they're in.
Its one thing when a team like Portland doesn't go "all in" on youth development and home grown signings. While it bothers us, we do understand that the quality of their homegrown territory is nothing like that of other markets. We understand that newer clubs like Nasheville are going to have issues here. They can recruit from non-homegrown territories................but have to compete against the FCD, SKC, LAG, NYRB, Philly types of clubs for these players. A daunting task. Its another thing for a team in frickin' Chicago to not take it seriously. Historically, Illinois has been pretty fertile group for USMNT/USYNTs and MLS. In fact, some of the best players in USMNT history hail from this state (Steve Cherundolo and Brian McBride stand out). It's just totally maddening. Houston is disappointing, but that city doesn't actually have a history of producing soccer players. (Surprisingly so). Chicago and Illinois do. While I think every club can have a different approach to how they use their academies and homegrown players......................every MLS club should be REQUIRED to have one. And there should be a minimum amount of investment required per year. I believe they have this in leagues like the Bundesliga. This isn't rocket science. Its common sense.
USL has announced that they are planning on launching a USL Academy League in 2020/21 that will exist separate from the USDA. Any team from the Championship to League 2 can join. It will not have age groups, just one team with youth players of all ages. It will be up to individual teams to decide if they a) want to be pay-to-play, b) partnering with youth clubs, and c) whether to create a separate budget for their teams or just share senior facilities and staff. They anticipate there will be enough teams for two conferences in the initial season. https://theathletic.com/1110002/201...demy-league-in-2020-season/?source=dailyemail
China bound! 🇨🇳Our U-15s will participate in the MCC tournament to take on European and Asian competition! #VamosSJ pic.twitter.com/0XmDGPvMvL— Quakes Academy (@QuakesAcademy) July 26, 2019 Our boys are thriving in China. 🇨🇳 Big 5-0 win vs. Chongqing SWM.#VamosSJ | @SutterHealth pic.twitter.com/M7x9Yhdn4w— Quakes Academy (@QuakesAcademy) July 29, 2019 The boys are at it again. 🔥2-0 win over Shanghai SIPG F.C.#VamosSJ | @SutterHealth pic.twitter.com/Zpw0oAAmRO— Quakes Academy (@QuakesAcademy) July 30, 2019 QUARTERFINALS BOUND!The boys go undefeated in group play with a 4-2 win over Zenit! 🇷🇺#VamosSJ pic.twitter.com/zuiSED2cuz— Quakes Academy (@QuakesAcademy) July 30, 2019 QUAKES WIN!A 1-0 win over Dalian Istar takes us to the Semifinals!#VamosSJ | @SutterHealth pic.twitter.com/xlImkaQnlf— Quakes Academy (@QuakesAcademy) July 31, 2019 https://twitter.com/QuakesAcademy/status/1156614013402226688?s=09 https://twitter.com/QuakesAcademy/status/1156779426635341825?s=09
On the positive, it sounds like it’s just a one year deal, and they are expanding services to the younger age groups. 04s on up missing one full day of a school a week to be at the academy(in addition to their normal evening practices). Crazy that they would tell Las to go but my guess is he has refused to sign so it doesn’t really matter to them.
On a positive note #2: Its actually great that Las finds another club, because it sure looks like Chicago's not the place for him. The problem is that as far as I know, he's from Chicago's homegrown territory. So he can't go to another MLS academy. He turns 18 next April, so he still has a way to go. Maybe he can train at one of the best USL clubs in the midwest such as Indy or Louisville until that time........................ Lame, lame, lame.
It’s obviously incredibly embarrassing for Chicago to do this, but it doesn’t matter for Las specifically. Didn’t his social media used to end every post with #roadtoeurope? If you blatantly have no interest in signing with the club, you can’t get mad if the club drops you. That aside, it’s mind blowing that a club in CHICAGO feels they don’t have enough talent to make a U19 team worthwhile.
Thanks for reminding me. I wonder if @TheFalseNine would mind renaming this thread "2019-20 Development Academy: The Road to Europe," in Las' honor.
Andrew Hauptmann and Nelson Rodriguez are a plague upon MLS. My only hope for the Fire is that Mansueto buys out Hauptmann and cleans house once they are out of Bridgeview.
It’s one thing if a team is bad at developing players or goes through the motions with investing into their academy. Not every team is going to be great. It’s a competitive market. It’s definitely a problem and should be something that MLS works to weed out with better incentivizing player development, but that problem is completely different from deciding they are going to get rid of their top academy team. Chicago also doesn’t have a USL team and very few U-17 age eligible players are ever good enough to skip U-19 level and go straight to USL. This is the first step of them ending their academy. I also think it’s overblown when people talk about the talent in an area. Houston should be recruiting throughout all of Texas and all of the south. They don’t recruit well enough. Chris Garcia should not be going from El Paso to Salt Lake. Portland is in the state next to Seattle. The state of Washington doesn’t produce an amount of talent that Oregon doesn’t to amount for the difference in talent between those two academies. Chicago has historically produced some good talent and that academy has some good players (Las, Casas, A. Reynolds, J. Reynolds, Slonina, Ikeda), but the reason why they aren’t better is because of a lack of depth. They don’t recruit well. Players that should be in their academy are playing for Sockers, FC United and some of the MLS academies in the Midwest. How good is the talent in Missouri/Kansas? SKC recruits very well (Lindsey, Busio, Duke).
I don’t think it only being a one year deal makes it acceptable. It’s a cost-saving move. They don’t think they have any first team prospects in those years, so they get rid of the team. That must happen for multiple MLS academies in multiple age groups. Which ones have gotten rid of that age group? Chicago is such a backwards organization. If you think you lack talent in those age groups, what about recruiting better talent? They should be scooping up players such as Stojanovic, Alejandre, Hagan, Dowd, who all play for Illinois academies and are in the ‘01 or ‘02 age groups. It’s also bad for the better U-17’s and it gives the few decent U-19’s no chance to develop. These players are still developing. How could they be sure there’s not a first team player in those age groups? They don’t know because youth development is unpredictable.
Horrible what Chicago is doing with the academy. I Checked the players of what could have been the U18 / 19 team of next season and only has 5 players born 2001 and 2002. Really bad. What will happen to those 5 players? we will see...
Totally agree. It’s no wonder so much of the top Chicago talent isn’t with Fire. Alejandre, Hagan, Raines, Bielic, etc are all YNT players opting to play elsewhere.
I heard that there were actually a good number of older 01s who were thinking about staying with the academy for one more year, but they were told early on that there will be no U19 team for them to play in. So they could have fielded a team perhaps but did not want to. Personally I was surprised that they are allowed to do this (dropping one age group) in the DA.
I read the full article, and there's still something I don't understand. Are these teams going to stop operating all the different age groups (U-13, U-14, U-15, U-17, U-19) or is this new league only an additional league for these players to play in? I don't think its a good idea if a club like Sacramento Republic, who has academy that is better than a lot of MLS academies, is downsizing their roster to only 3-4 players per age group to have only one academy team that houses the players from 4-5 different age groups. As I said relating to Chicago, you don't know which players are going to develop. You shouldn't be limiting the players you are putting through a development system with a professional pathway. You might not yield any additional professionals, but it gives more a chance than playing tier 2 club soccer (non-DA or new USL league affiliated) and high school soccer.
Rumor has it Las has a pretty good connection at Fulham and maybe he lands there next year. It may be a blessing in disguise for him to get out of the MLS set up and overseas.
Looks like '04 W Kevin Jimenez is moving from LAFC to RSL. He's been with the US U15s this cycle although did not make the final CONCACAF squad. Also eligible for Mexico and Peru.— ChuckMe92 Soccer (@ChuckMe92Soccer) August 1, 2019
For those of you interested, The San Jose Earthquakes U-15s will play in the final of the Mediterranean Champion China Tournament at 7pm Pacific Time here against FC Zenit (Russia): https://www.haoq.tv/Home/Live/haoLive/id/114454.html They beat Zenit earlier in group play 4-2. They won their semifinal match yesterday in PKs over Hoffenheim (Germany). Former U-16 coach Shaun Tsakiris has a son on the team, Nicolas. He plays attacking mid.
The academy schedules for the regular season has been posted. I heard the Florida showcase is being replaced with the DA cup. Idk how that will look. I'm assuming the finals/consolation will be in Florida in December.