UnitedMania Podcast: Episode 160 - The Rhythm Method

A great way to spend the time flying back from St. Louis today. I do think Mike is (as usual) over the top on the "Olsen hates Academy players" line. The fact is that outside of Hamid (big outside) and Najar, none of the Academy players have demonstrated an ability to make the starting 11. Shanosky is now playing in USL in Louisville -- so obviously every other MLS and NASL coach has Olsen syndrome as well. Seaton and Martin are projects at best. Robinson I don't think will pan out -- if he reaches Ethan White levels of mediocrity, I'll be surprised. As one of the guys said, these guys are playing against kids when they move from the Academy. Until the Academies get up and running, the usual route for US players will be through college. (Also remember that just because you are an Academy player, that you are not elite. Marcelo Saragosa and Kaka were teammates in an Academy.)

 

I don't know the youth soccer scene very well -- to say the least. So I'm posing this as an open question.

Are we in this situation?

1. At some point, there was a decline in the DCU academy pipeline. For whatever reason, the guys we had just weren't up to the Najar and Hamid levels. None of them panned out.

2. When this happened, DCU and Olsen began to acquire a bad reputation among youth prospects. Don't go to DCU because you'll never make the first team, and even if you do, you'll never play. DCU's academy is basically seen as a dead-end. (This reputation has been reported by people who are familiar with the youth soccer scene.)

3. Because of that reputation, DCU no longer actually acquires the best of the best youth soccer players from the region. They're opting for college or other teams or who knows. Wherever they're going, it's not DCU.

4. So DCU's academy players aren't really as elite as they should be, and of course none of them pan out.

5. Consequently, DCU's bad reputation grows even worse, and becomes a self-perpetuating, vicious circle.

Is it possible this is what's happening?

 

I don't know Olsen's "reputation" in youth soccer circles. I think one way to view this is to compare DCU's "success" with Academy prospects with other MLS teams. Obviously there have been a few bright stars, but I don't believe any team has had significantly greater success with its Academy. The problem is that despite the fancy name, Academy players simply are American high school students. Until the "Academies" become residence programs affiliated with some secondary school, the Academy experience will be, at best, an elite high school level of competition by players you coach part-time. When you realize that NCAA Division 1 programs largely are drawn from recruits among "elite" high school players and, in turn, very few college players make the starting 11 on MLS teams, I think it's unfair to say Olsen doesn't like Academy players. They probably just aren't good enough, just like many of the 4 year college starters taken in the MLS draft.

 

Most MLS Academies are fighting the very ingrained culture of "select-teams" in youth soccer. And its probably worse here than in most other places. These academies are basically 2-3 times a week after school for a 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Oddly enough, this is the model for Dutch academies, with an emphasis on skills/tactics and then small-sided (small-goal) games on Saturdays. (And Dutch youth soccer is leery of too much more "academy" soccer, because they don't want their best kids to get burnt out by the time they're 16-17. ) Even if MLS academies are like this during those 2-3 practices a week, then the kids go to their select-team coaches who are interested only in winning, not teaching, and playing styles of games that emphasize not making mistakes, not taking chances and stifling creativity.

This is why a summer academy program (that might be semi-residential) that will last for weeks is such an important next step.

The "success" of DC United's Academy was two kids who were never in the select-team youth soccer, or at least not until jr high.

Unfortunately, "select-team" youth soccer is quite deeply ingrained, and most parents are probably pushing their kids towards college scholarships, because even they don't pan out for the pros, their kids still have a college degree. This shift (and its a vitally necessary shift) is going to take years, like a decade or more.

 

Perhaps these guys do suck and that's all there is to it, but I do wonder because from what I've seen, Seaton and Martin pass the eye test. Robinson, I don't know enough about, and as for Shanosky, he played pretty well in Richmond and the games he played for DC. The fact he's in Louisville might have as much to do with opportunities he didn't get with DC as much as him not being good enough. Players are often lucky enough to get one crack at MLS, having a door shut on you can't be easy to recover from if you lack can't miss talent.

My real point though is that Olsen is not even giving them a chance as far as I can tell. He'd rather have guys like Conor Doyle and Jared Jeffrey on the roster and getting minutes instead of Seaton and Martin, who surely have a greater upside than Doyle and Jeffrey ever will by anyone's standards. He also gives a long leash to draft picks like Pontius, DeLeon, Korb, Kemp, Birnbaum, apparently Aguilar too, who has more chances and minutes than Seaton has gotten in three years.

I have no idea whether or not Seaton and Martin will pan out in MLS and they are obviously not can't miss talents or they' be here now, but it seems silly to simply ignore the possibility that they might develop into decent contributors over time. Other teams in the league have teenagers who hang out on the edges of their rosters getting minutes here and there, gaining experience etc. And I don't mean the can't miss guys like Shipp, Zardes and Trapp, etc. I mean the guys like Chris Ritter in Chicago, Maxim Tissot, Jordan Allen, Bradford Jamieson, Conor Lade, Ben Swanson, Zach Pfeffer, etc. Those guys might become solid MLS contributors like Astone Morgan, Kevin Ellis, Scott Caldwell, Jose Villareal, Diego Fagundez, Tyler Deric, Victor Ulloa, Moises Hernadez, Dillon Serna, etc. down the road.

I also worry that long term it will hurt DC in the sense that they will always have to pay more for journeymen like Coria (28 years old) and Farfan (26) as opposed to having cheaper HG players who might develop to the level of talent of those guys down the road, but cost a lot less. That and maybe developing a reputation like Knave mentions where players avoid DC because they know they won't get a chance, if indeed they haven't already got that reputation.

HG is great way to lower your roster costs and finding a nugget that contributes in the future even if not as a star player is something that shouldn't be ignored so you can play Jeffrey and Doyle for a couple years until they wash out.

 

IIRC, Martin has been injured virtually all year, so he's not getting minutes anywhere. Had he been healthy, Jeffrey probably would have been gone -- as he probably will be if DCU adds anyone significant during the summer. Additionally, if your argument rests on using Conor Lade as an example of "depth" HG talent -- oh well.