Where is the discussion was that disputed? minya he is still coaching youth soccer. What is a cal heat? https://sasc.org/index.php/alumni
minya he is still coaching youth soccer. What is a cal heat? https://sasc.org/index.php/alumni[/quote] http://www.facebook.com/pages/Landon-Donavan/263351818050?sk=info "Donovan was a member of Cal Heat — a club based in Rancho Cucamonga under coach Clint Greenwood".
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Landon-Donavan/263351818050?sk=info "Donovan was a member of Cal Heat — a club based in Rancho Cucamonga under coach Clint Greenwood". [/quote] I don't know all those specifics, but he played under SASC and Clint was DOC at time. And that was a very strong youth club during Clint's time there.
I don't know all those specifics, but he played under SASC and Clint was DOC at time. And that was a very strong youth club during Clint's time there.[/quote] I don't know either, but at SoCal teams move from club to club and clubs change names quite often anyway. More interesting that eventually Bradenton took the whole credit for the development of the first (and the only successful) class although principal work was done by coaches at clubs.
I have watched DC team play many times, and there were some things that you weren't seeing. DC didn't even play some important guys. The guys that they were playing, weren't working that hard in the offensive end (particularly Michael Seaton, their starting forward). Virginia Rush clearly have ability, but they don't know how to attack as a team. They let DC United off the hook. They basically gave them the weekend off. Some of the guys who scored for DC, are guys who almost never contribute. Virginia rush are now 0-7-1. Their last two games have been 7-1 and 8-0 losses. The Virginia Beach area deserves better from their Academy program than this. They will be playing Met Oval at the winter showcase, so maybe they can steal a win at that point.
By the way, the fast kid out wide was Nigel Robinson of Dumphries, VA. He has pretty good technique, but he needs to be stronger mentally. He can get thrown off of his game in tough matches. He has played in some reserve games this year, but I think that is more of a product of DC United's philosophy of always bringing five academy players to reserve matches than him burning up the academy league. The ability is there for him, he just needs clearer focus. You didn't see that against Virginia Rush because they let him do pretty much whatever he wanted to do. Against a team like Baltimore Bays or PA Classics, you typically would see more of a breakdown in his focus. That is where other guys with better ideas who did not play, like Abdi Yusef, become much more important to the team. Denis Najar, who typically has good ideas was not as influential this match as he needs good players to play off of and they weren't there for him this match. Micheal Seaton, the center forward, is the player on DC United that frustrates me. He was fairly dominant at times at the under 16 level, but hasn't transitioned well to the under 18 level. He doesn't seem to work that hard. This is only the second start of the season for him that I have seen and you would think that he would have really gone for it. I thought he hung out much of the game and Virginia Rush let him get away with it, yet get chances and walk away thinking he played well when he didn't. I don't feel sorry for the DC kids at all. They are being given opportunities to play. It is the Virginia Beach kids that deserve better. Those kids could play, if they had a coach that expected it of them.
I really like the DA games but something came to light yesterday well watching the Chicago Fire U17/18 play the Chicago Magic. The Magic won 2-0 and have shut out both MLS clubs in their group for the first half. First as a few of the kids were walking away from the game I overheard them say I have heard all that before about not playing for the big club if we do not play better " we are never going to play for the big club I have my ride to college I really do not need anything else"Interesting because I do not think the Fire have played one HG kid on the field for a game yet , I may be mistaken. Second these kid from the Fire have received all this press about being able to score goals but they have come across two really good clubs in Chicago and between the two of them have only scored 1 goal a piece. Some kid puts in a boat load of goals against teams that are able not to tie there own shoes and we are ready to put them on the National team. Finally after watching one of the most awful college soccer game Friday night SMU vs Memphis I really think we do not have anyone that really knows talent in America we have a bunch of players running around with no idea how the game should be played and where did they even learn how to play. Thoughts
And just like that both teams get their first loss against FC Dallas. U16s lost 6-0 and U18s lost 3-1.
At the moment, considering what our weak spots actually are, they might be an improvement. At least they might actually be less likely to do actual harm to a player's development. Might not help much, but we might get a few more Clint Mathis types that way.
Whoever does the scouting and player evaluation for FCD's youth teams should be hired immediately as some sort of USSF scout.
Hey I have a question about the Acaademy league division standings. Last year they would have it divided into division points and games and then overall points and points per game average. When I look at the division standings which I believe the top two teams in the western divisions and top 3 in the eastern qualify for the playoffs it appears all they are using this year is the points per game number? Is that correct? Are they using the overall points per game number to decide who wins a division or will it be who gets the most points in their division against division opponents? This becomes important because some teams might do well in division games and the coaches put more of an emphasis on winning those games then the games against conference opponents? Also they all will be playing against different competition at the showcasae which would not be fair to your points per game number? Does anyone know why they are listing the academy standings by points per game?
All Divisions this year only play against each other, except at the showcases. There is no longer the need to track their record outside of their division as many of their games were out of division games. I think that this is a good thing as it cuts down on travel. Clubs are just playing their division opponents home and away plus the showcases and any exhibition games they schedule.
I am talking about Division not just conference . Let me give you an example. Let say my sons team Timbers wins all there division games which I believe is 14 so they get 42 points. Last year they would win the division based on that. Let's say they lose all there crossover games agains western conference opponents And lose all three showcase games and so they have like a 1.3 per game number which puts them I'm third in their division. Do they take first or third ? And what a about the fact that everyone in their division will play different teams at the showcase ? Does my question make sense ? My guess is that maybe they won't count the showcase games in the standings.
The top two or three teams from each division (Three from Northeast, Atlantic, Southeast, Frontier, and Mid-American and two from Northwest and Southwest) will automatically advance to the 2013 Playoffs based on overall points per game. The next 13 teams with the overall most points per game not based on division will qualify for the 2013 Playoffs Not sure is they will count the showcase games they did last year for the Wild Card as of today your sons team would no be in the playoff. But along season
Ok That is what I thought and that is a pretty big change and could lead to some interesting results. I kind of do not like it as the old system encouraged more a resluts oriented apporach in division and maybe a little more flexibility on rotations in the non division games. Now basically every game counts the same .
I suppose it depends on what you mean by top. The top 3 or 4 development academy programs or something broader. I've been to practices of quite a few local youth academies and and talked with others about programs around the country. No way we are at the level of top academies around the world. I also talked to a couple of parents who had kids train with teams outside of the country and they have said there is no comparison. FCD has a great program for this country. But there is a reason the grandson of the Head Coach doesn't train there. My own kid traveled also was able to play against some top teams both in his early teens and late teens. From his perspective, very few of his teammates were at the level of his opponents. I'd also say that the academy level is the first time many of the kids in this country get close to adequate training. As a result the almost all of our players quickly fall behind and struggle to catch up to their peers around the world.
I absolutely agree that the right passport would open doors for more and more kids. But there are not "a ton" of them. Things are improving but we are still to deficient at the younger ages.
There is merit to this argument. But another friend of mine would argue that you won't get any real accountability until you have some sort of transfer market. I would instead point to programs like swimming, skating and gymnastics. These programs have the same problems that soccer programs do in this country but they are much better developed at the very young ages. It is not resources that are lacking, but instead solid well run youth programs.
This is precisely the problem in much of the country. In contrast, the 7 or 8 year old kids who are on a professional track already understand the game and can play it with skill. What needs to be done is create programs where novice coaches are supervised by people that know what they are doing. We are still a long way from this. When I go to academy practices of some of the best teams in this country I still see too many kids that lack fundamental abilities. If a kid has the proper skill and athleticism it doesn't matter where whether they go to college or sign a contract somewhere. If they are good people will sign them. But if they don't get the proper skill when they are young, all the academies are going to be able to do is polish cow droppings.
We are all in agreement that we need improvement at every age group. That is not in dispute. My point was that the biggest hole right now is still where do these top 18 year olds go once they are done with the academy? That is now the biggest hole in the system in my eyes. And yes the term a ton might mean to big of a number to some but I am referring to maybe the top 100 players being good enough to play on academy teams in Europe if they could get a Euro passport. Since it is almost impossible to do then these top talents are left with the college path to the MLS. I just don't think that is enough training for these top players as compared to what their European counterparts are getting. Some people reading this might think that if a USA kid is really good he can get seen by a Euro club and go make it over there. That is very far from the reality of what can happen right now.
Article on the new U13/14 DA setup: http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club...ils-to-u14-da-age-group_aid27986?desktop=true I haven't had a chance to look at the presentation, but I hope that the USSDA makes some wise decisions regarding new clubs.