Honestly I have no idea. Most of the top scorers in their age groups are in, plus kids regularly playing up. I’ve heard that it isn’t even club director recommendations so it’s a puzzling process
The roadblock here isn't players, or teams, it's consumer demand. There's simply not enough people that want to pay to watch soccer to having a ton more professional, well paid teams. I think the more likely route is affiliation. Should De Anza Force start a professional club, or should they just feed into the Quakes, Roots, etc. Yes, that's less pro spots, but like, at some point, the money for salaries needs to come from somewhere.
While I think you are right now, short term the growth of the game vs the growth of domestic talent will grow hand in hand. If Atlanta can attract 45K, Austin 25K, Nashville 30K etc in MLS why can't with better talent 10-17K be in 20 more markets like Detroit, Pittsburgh, OK City, Phoenix, Louisville, Indianapolis. We didn't know many of MLS teams would be successes until we made them real clubs, ..Again I think you are right and running an full academy is very expensive but just saying developing talented players can lead to crowds and significant transfer funds from DII teams too.
All of the clubs you mentioned bar PDA already have some sort of relationship with a pro club currently. Empire has been affiliated with Rochester NYFC/Rochester Rhinos of MLSNP; next season they're rebranding to be RNYFC Youth. Strikers have a pro first team currently in Cal United Strikers of NISA although they're supposedly up for sale. They have 4 u20-eligible guys on pro deals from their academy currently. De Anza seems to be friendly with Oakland Roots; Roots have used 5 De Anza players as amateurs through 3 years. Indiana Fire and Indy Eleven also have a friendly relationship; I counted 11 signed to amateur/academy deals with 1 pro deal in the space of 3.5 years. A combination of the Roots/Indy Eleven model and the Cal United/San Antonio FC model throughout the lower leagues would be ideal.
Yeah, I think the USL cities can do well, but I don't see a ton of depth in terms of clubs in cities. Having like four clubs in a small area is going to divide demand and kill things off. So, that's why I think having FC Delco or De Anza Force starting their own pro club might not be the optimal move right now.
Lucas Moisa ('08) is starting to improve a lot. This guy is crazy talented for a #8. Really fun player to watch play. I think he has a good chance to be what everyone hoped a few years ago that Pomykal would become with some extra flair.
RSL and Inter Miami is the final in the U-15 division. Huge matchup. With respect to what LAFC has accomplished this year and prior years with their '07 group, we probably got the two teams that at their best play at the highest level in the U-15 division. Doesn't often happen in these playoff formats. Should be a great final.
The 08 YNT is looking to be wildly loaded compared to other age groups. This age group looks to have minimal Covid impact and has numerous top talents in each position
DC United and Strikers FC are the final of the U-16 division. That DC team is really good, and I think would be the big favorites.
u14 cycle, even numbered cycles (u14/u16/u18/u20) belong to odd numbered age groups (2003/2005/2007/2009)
But I was talking about your reference to the '08 group being loaded. So they would be the next U-15 cycle, right?
Strikers are really good too. They post on Youtube alot of their games and they are very good, well coaches, good players. They beat a U15 National Team camp game. Should be a good game.
I think they have Marcus Lee (‘06) on that team. He’s played some with the first team, and hasn’t looked bad there. Should be a good final.
In any given year there’s a Southern California team that isn’t an MLS academy that’s absolutely loaded, this year’s edition is Strikers FC. Just what happens when you only have 2 MLS academies in a city with the talent to field 10 competitive MLS academies
Matthew Hoppe Christian Ramirez Bobby Wood Michael Orozco Steven Birnbaum Chad Marsahll Benny Feilhaber Jonathan Bornstein Chris Pontius
And yet ... the success stories out of Southern Cal are largely in the past. I get Hoppe and Araujo recently ... but when Philadelphia is beating out Southern Cal, there's a problem...