The showcase in December is on the schedule as of now. Not sure yet about the Nike Friendlies. That’s probably more-related to when the YNT’s start back up.
Up and coming coaches aren’t talked about that much. Who are some of the up and coming coaches at the academy level that deserve recognition?
Our own Erin Ridley is the first of many.Being one of the few female head coaches in soccer, women like Erin are paving the way for future generations. We’re proud to host our Women’s Soccer Celebration tomorrow, where we’ll honor those who have elevated the beautiful game. pic.twitter.com/qneqkrR4w0— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) August 12, 2021
LA Galaxy’s academy director left the club. Their academy hasn’t done a good job the past few years of recruiting and developing top talents in Southern California. Te Kloese might also be gone soon, which would help us retain Mexican-Americans in the LAG system. https://theathletic.com/2769182/202...gra-contracts-mls/?source=user_shared_article
For rbny Going want to add Davi Alexandre an 07 cb who will be training with 17’s this year. Jack Mize a striker who has looked good when playing up an 08 who I believe will be playing u-15 this year. Also Jeremiah white seems to have played winger as well as more defensive positions
From what I heard it was some Covid and operation stuff with so many players playing rb2 from the 17’s and a lot of that staff also being used for u-23 and rb2 just bad timing. Plus the showcase was after they made cuts for the next season
@TheFalseNine, can you please pin this thread at the top of the thread list and unpin the 20-21 thread?
Sounds like Real New Jersey will be joining MLS Next this season. Their ECNL 04s have dominated the National Championships for years and feature several interesting players. https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.c...lk-away-but-mls-next-cant-ignored/5478490001/
They have some notable people on staff; notably Brendan and Paxten Aaronson's dad, Mike Petke, and the brother of Jeremy Rafanello. In addition to the Aaronson brothers, they also had Tomas Romero before he went to the Union.
At one time the L.A. Galaxy was considered to be in the top tier of MLS academies. They're still decent but with the growth of LAFC's academy, the progress of other MLS academies, and changes in the LAG staff over the last few years they've been overshadowed and have lost some direction. Considering all the advantages that metro L.A. has in terms of soccer culture, population base, weather, etc. I believe that it is an underachieving area relative to what it could be. Of course good players still come from here but it could be so much better.
Structurally, everything that Galaxy are doing with their school and academy overall is excellent. They’re the only club that matches what Philly and RSL do. But the scouting and recruitment from Galaxy is sub par. Mike Muñoz and Brian Kleiban put in work on that end and most of the notable prospects that the Galaxy academy produced, whether signed or fled to Europe, were because of those two. But before those two were there and after those two left the talent level and production immediately took a dive. Whether you like Brian or not, we can’t deny the effect he had on the Galaxy’s prospect pipeline
While I agree, those guys also recruited a very specific type of player. Nearly their whole team was the same type of player at every position with the main differences being differences between positions (CB’s were bigger or #10’s more creative). They deserve credit for recruiting the technical players in Southern California well, but they should’ve been recruiting the best players, regardless of style of play. FC Dallas has a pretty similar type of player pool available in their area, and we see that FCD has been able to recruit all types of players, and don’t over-emphasize technique in the way LAG did.
I agree. Contrast their scouting with a club like the Union. There's a certain arrogance to the LAG. When the DA started in 2007 the Galaxy did not endear themselves to a lot of local clubs. "We're the Galaxy, GFY." Well, a lot has happened since then, but they still think they can just wait for local kids to show up. For one, LAFC has happened, and it strikes me that with an experienced guy like Todd Saldana leading the way LAFC has a better handle on how to find players. But if Philly can bring in kids from San Diego and Wisconsin why can't the L.A. clubs expand their horizons?
Honestly, I don’t blame the LA clubs for not looking outside of So Cal. They have the largest player pool in the country by a big margin. Both LAFC and Galaxy should have loaded teams from top to bottom with talent. LAFC has the talent but in LA and so cal there’s always more.
i wonder if that attitude doesnt get in the way of their having more success. the galaxy has done well, but it is hard to believe they shouldnt have done quite a bit better operating in that area. they have had almost 30 years at this point!
I can understand not wanting to invest in recruiting North Carolina -- the money is better served locally. But there's been a decent number of kids out of San Diego and even Orange County that seem to be ignored, and if they were pumping out 10+ kids a year, that might make sense. But the relative dribble of talent while a city just an hour or so to the south is recruited by rivals is weird. There's definite complacency on their part.
How much money do you have to invest to scout other areas? You can read a thread like this for free and know the best players in a specific area. If they talked to the coaches in a specific MLS Next division, they’d know the best players in that area. If they wanted to find players who aren’t playing in MLS Next, they could ask a scout for one of those MLS Next teams who the best players are. Then they can have their decision-makers watch about 10 games of these players. You pick up on the small details after that amount of watching a player closely. How expensive could it be to scout the whole country? You don’t need to be showing up to every youth game in every small city. If hypothetically there are 400 kids in an age group that have the potential to be MLS players somewhere within their range of outcomes, you probably know that 300 of them play within your own league. How hard is it to scout your own league? Then you need to find the other 100 players. These players aren’t completely hidden. Someone knows who they are within the soccer-sphere. You probably don’t need to dig any deeper than talking to clubs within your own league about some of the kids within their area that don’t play MLS Next. If you have a methodical approach to this, you can recruit the whole country without spending that much money. That’s what clubs like Philly, RSL, and SKC do.
Not to defend or not defend a club but here's some context: LAFC regularly sends game tickets to other local clubs. Also, when a player is invited to a trial, an email is sent to the club with a list of all their players with whom LAFC is inviting and a brief thank you. Everything was done above the board. That was not the case with LAG. Players just disappeared... unless they took the initiative to inform the coach/club. Also, LAG and LAFC are both benefiting from local clubs who are perennial good developers of talent. Why go out of the area and why provide a homestay when talent is being developed locally? LAFC and LAG rosters are littered with kids out of TFA, Boca OC, Irvine Strikers or goalkeepers who train with IGA, EGD or Big Cat. Or... just send a scout to Surf Cup and Man City on Sunday to see who is still playing from out of the area. I think some of the 07s who left SoCal, did so for a variety of reasons and made the right choice for them... Diego Roccio aside... Union got a top talent that would have started at LAG or LAFC. Both SoCal teams dropped the ball on letting that kid leave... lol.
Just my opinion but it would seem hard to convince a top end talent to move across the country for a home stay in LA. There is also plenty of talent in Southern California, Central California, Las Vegas and Arizona that they should not really need to recruit from elsewhere. Philly with YSC has the best set up to recruit country wide.
I think it depends on what you mean. Can you pay some people part time to send reports in from regional showcases or MLS Next matches in other parts of the country? I'm sure that's not too bad ... if there's a network of freelance scouts. But in addition to paying them, you'll need to spend time coordinating, have someone willing to travel and do the work to cross-check and have someone spend the time to actually recruit, which takes time. Finally, at minimum, you'd need to invest in managing a place for the kids to live -- there's insurance, background checks, funding, etc., even if you go the "cheap" route and get host families. Much less the dorm+school route which can be incredibly expensive. It's not to say any of this is impossible, but it's not dropping a few bucks here or there. If you are already turning away talented local kids, what's the point? For sure, the very elite players are always worth recruiting -- SKC getting Busio just made them a pretty penny, and no matter how stacked LA is, getting a Busio would always be a good idea. But as more and more academies start to try and recruit, and MLS adds more and more teams, the open territories and the amount of competition goes up. If I were LA, I'd recruit semi-locally -- LA, SD, Phoenix, Nevada, Central Coast and the Valley but I probably wouldn't bother trying to compete in places further away until I got better with local recruiting and evaluation.
philly seems like it has the best combo with a large, mature youth soccer infrastructure and a residential academy. honestly it seems like somewhere like portland needs to build a ysc like structure and recruit more nationally but we all know that wont happen
I like Philly's model the best. They are doing so many positive things. For example, working with young African-Americans and immigrants in the Philly area at no cost. the-swag.org