Would disagree with much of this. U15s just played 3 top clubs in the country and were tight in each game. Played Beach FC to a 3-4 and lost on an own goal. Played Tophat to a 1-2 on an 80th minute goal. Lost to Lonestar 0-2 when rotating the squad. All this you can interpret from looking at the match reports from the DA website. And they do all this while the top two 05s don't even play on the team. The U16s are scoring a lot of goals with those two 05s and others but giving them up because their top 3 defenders are playing up with the 17s. Who also gave up zero goals in their Winter Cup. Without their top four 03 players which two are YNT. The 19s are the top team because they designed the program that way. They could easily pull a Solar U17s and play all their top kids down so they can win titles but they don't. The takeaway here is that you can't gauge the quality of the program just based on the match results. Fact is they're hanging on with one hand tied behind their back at 3 ages.
You are correct in that no MB fan club exists. He can be his own worst enemy in terms of ego (Not unusual. I've never heard a single coach claim to be less than good to great). He makes no effort to charm parents. He yells too much. But, like I said, he was a magician in terms of taking community club kids of only average-to-above-average talent, and with average at best dedication, and getting them to play a quality brand of soccer. Now that he is working with talented, dedicated boys at Fire Academy, his results have been excellent. Beating nearly everybody. I think he split two games with AG's Sockers team in 2018-19, and played them tough in a one-goal game this fall. So I'm not his agent; just giving credit where credit is due.
Here, here. These guys know not only how to run a soccer business - they know how to run one that is widely viewed as tops in the country. Far from perfect no doubt. But their record more than speaks for itself. And for me it’s how they achieve it that is so incredibly impressive (ie: have very strict rules, no guest players ever, etc etc etc).
Re: Naperville- reality is if you win they will come. Yes, Palatine will always be the mothership, but Naperville could be much stronger and that would only help to strengthen Palatine per Volks point (best go to Palatine). get the u-littles kicking butt and people will flock and hope by joining it gives them the inside track to Palatine at the DA ages (it won’t). One of the things that works against Sockers most (I’m thoroughly convinced of this) is that parents of “elite” kids (stress quotes) believe in the more is more approach. Every camp, every trainer, every possible league, guest playing, etc etc, etc. To which Sockers is very clear about this approach. They’re not having it even if you’re the next Messi. Go somewhere else and good luck to you is what they’ll tell you. I don’t see these types of parents changing anytime soon (usually u15-ish they’ll figure it out if it’s not too late) and they’ll believe more is more and the teams with the best records are a de facto sign that they’re in the best club. This costs Sockers an awful lot of amazing players that would otherwise go to sockers. but they keep winning. Keep developing kids at a rate that is impressive. That see kids on 3rd/4th teams actually make it to the first team. Yes it’s rare but not that rare. Bottom line its a very impressive organization with a very impressive track record.
Thread moving fast! Amazing how people judge a coach based on some tourney games they won. 2 years personal experience with AG. Once he sets roster, forget about your kid getting a chance to move based on performance. Blessed with large player pools. Can organize and ru.n a practice but then spends most sessions chatting with other coaches. Thought maybe he was discussing evaluations but nothing ever materializes Was hoping he would be part of recent coaching departures. I consider my sons 2 years with him wasted time. I'm amazed to hear families leaving any program mid season... WTH can aford that!!!?
They have no idea on how to run a girls club. Numbers prove this across the board. We were here in 2010 and it was a completely different show. Go back and look how many teams they had on the girls side - 3 at most age levels u11 and up with the third be very good - much like the boys side of the house today. Those numbers were just Palatine alone. Now between Naperville and Palatine they have 2 - some cases 1. All but the u11 team are B teams - the majority will be forced to move down this Spring because of losing records. Again - Crystal Lake no longer has any girls teams at all. FCU, Eclipse and other clubs have their second and third teams in MRL. Sockers would not dare to show up with a second team at a DA age - they would get killed. Their first teams U13 and down - less the u11 team, would not get out of conference qualifiers. LM leaves because of all the "business" related crap. Some clown is running the show remotely from Orlando. DR's wife fired from Sockers by his own dad... Exactly in what universe does it look like this is getting better? Have any of you ever had a conversation with any former coaches? I mean if your close enough you can even speak with current coaches - Hell one of the Sockers DA coaches even said in this thread that the PA teams lacked any talent.
Same crap I've seen from him and others - not only at Sockers. I could barely afford it but like the one parents who's kid left Sockers mid-season, they lived an hour away. You have to mitigate the loses - time on the road, gas, training and so on. My kid said she was bored at training sessions this fall. Their kid disliked BC. So once your kid is done or wants something more/different, you start looking at all those things and figure out - well, do I want to drive 2 hours for crappy training 3-4 days a week?
Agree re: LM leaving. Big red flag for me. My sense (and I heard this long ago about both Schwaben and Sockers-from one person steeped in IL soccer) that girls programs were an after thought to the boys. All I can say is I know a few with girls in the program who feel legitimate strides are being made. Re: gas/travel time etc. 100%. Big time/$ commitment. That’s a really good point
The girls were an after thought - but they developed well in the NISL which explained how well they improved. Our last season BC stated to us that the girls would be run like the boys and everyone was happy to hear that. Thing is that on the boys side you don't have to give a sideways **** about what players or parents think because there are 3-4 other decent players right behind your kid to take their spot. So in that case customer service and development from an individual perspective was and is not necessarily needed - remember they are developing a style of play. They don't have the numbers to do that on the girls side and frankly I think the real issue is that they never had to focus on service and communicating well because they've always been a destination club for boys. The moment they took the girls out of NISL (2014/2015) they started to decline and they simply have not figured a way out. So they recruit.
I think customer service and youth (name your sport) sports clubs are an oxymoron in general. It’s degrees of how not good a certain club is.... probably a very good point re: girls “still haven’t figured it out so they recruit”. That said you have to have had figured something out if you can bring in top recruits - especially USYNT caliber recruits. if NISL was working for them, wonder why they dropped it.....
Completely agree! It's so unfortunate that travel sports think that it's good enough they took your kid - now sit down and shut up. There is a difference between a reasonable parent and an un-realistic parents that's not too difficult to figure out. I think the problem across the board is that ALL parents are just shut out. I mean how many times have you been at Olympic during Sockers trainings and seen the plastic yellow signs that say no spectators/parents? Those only went up during our last year. I am sure when all this travel everything started, it was with good intentions across the board. And more often then not, it was the bad parents who ruined everything. I don't see service being dependant on club status. It should be mandatory for every club that has a desire to communicate openly and set expectations for parents and players. I think it does not happen because (1) Bad parents ruined it and (2) Soccer coaches are not business people otherwise they'd likely not be full time soccer coaches. Here's an example which I mentioned before. Campton kid 2 years ago signs up for Campton - makes the down payment and then decided to go elswhere. Exec Dir gives the down payment back - virtually never heard of. That's good customer service. Now that player has come back - no harm, no foul. I *think* a lot of boys teams likely complained about having to play vs girls. That being said, they could still play an interleague game with boys once a week.
If their place in the table was their top priority I'm sure you'd see the teams designed differently, as I also stated. Moving the top kids up has made it harder for their teams but also created opportunity for players to step up. Wish more clubs would take that approach...better development process for all.
Only in the US do coaches and clubs even have to THINK about customer service because of the economics of soccer in our country. Do you think Bayern Munich is worried about customer service in their youth setup? It's laughable. Speaking from my own personal experiences: if I could've spent more time just coaching and managing my teams and less time dealing with parents the players would've had a better experience. More time planning sessions instead of responding to emails, trying new things and taking risks without the fear of parents emailing questions as to why, building a better coach/player relationship by communicating thru them instead of mom and dad, letting them own their development and learning real life lessons instead of parents trying to be their agents...
I’m with you 100%. I think it’s beyond atrocious what coaches endure with many parents (the psychos and even the “normals”). I feel for them because I’ve seen first hand emails/texts etc. it’s mind blowing and ultimately very sad because it’s not good for the parent, coach and kid. I cringe at notes I sent years ago that were based solely in a fear and anxiety of is my kid good enough + FOMA. They were nice, kind notes but completely superfluous to anything real or meaningful in context of the coaches time or anything that would actually help my kid. It was my insecurity wrapped in the written word. that said, the best I’ve noticed take an approach of engagement. The best defense is a good offense if you will. The ones that want to stay as far away from parents (I don’t blame them at all) seem to create more problems than they solve. The ones who engage seem to manage the situations far better and I would bet cut off many problems at the proverbial pass.
I ran a small club for 2 years and tossed it all away because of some parents. Constant bashing on facebook and complaining behind my back. I too zero salary and ran the entire thing and coached. I get that side of the house for sure. Yeah - I often wonder about some of the messages I have sent. Over the last 5 years I have just stuck with letting coaches know I am looking for my kid to be happy. Funny thing is I ran 2 emails through LM for SB and BC because I did not want to sound bad. She was sort of surprised by what I had too say in both occassions and offered to send it to DR but I said no - just wanted her opinion and she gladly gave it on both. I've done that since we left Sockers. I have a close friend who I sit with who also coached and played for years - totally different conversation then what you would have with most parents.
I watched both Barca games over the weekend. There were a few u15 Eclipse girls on the ICC Midwest team that lost to Barca 2-1. My daughter was at a practice where the u15 showed up to practice and she was very talented. PDA is a national power as is LAFC. Both teams barely touched the ball and relied on the size and speed to high press Barca. Barca's ability to break lines was amazing and they are so skilled and excellent movement off the ball. This is how the game is supposed to be played. Their best player looks like a girl you never recruit on face value. Brilliant player, high IQ In fact many of them you would pass over for the bigger faster girl. Wait, is this what they do at Illinois ODP also??? LOL
Because like most people in the US many coaches only look at outcomes. Wins. Goals. Saves. So from a young age the player with the best athletic profile is championed because at U9 that player achieves those outcomes over less developed players. Like we've already discussed in this thread, if we only cared less about standings and wins we could design programs that actually developed players at critical ages like U13 and below. Instead so many just load up teams at U13 and win things so we can consider them the best. It boils down to culture: ours is about winning, Barca is about learning. And ODP lol. The good old days. Was fun when it used to be the best players in the state. Best club recruiting tool around too. Those old Chicago Magic boys teams that tore up the late 90s early 00s were all nicked right out of ODP. Probly the most loaded team they ever had was 87/88...Lichaj still playing in England. Kirk, Schuler, Pari all played MLS. All picked up my Magic straight out of ODP. Like Chicago Magic, ODP is now irrelevant. Times they are a changin'...
The contrast in style in this game is amazing. PDA getting it handed to them by a bunch of smart little twerps. Garcia’s athleticism was inspiring but not enough to crack the nut. It will also never happen here where NCAA soccer is the end game.
The Slammers game looked like the exact replica of the final. I was actually amazed at Barca's on field organization at this age. I can see why u12- u13 teams can beat Barca early. The physical skills are lacking for the most part. By u15 you see some of the gaps and it's mostly from a skill, IQ and technical perspective. The US WNT has two cycles left of dominance and it's over. Highly recommended watching for your DD.