What ever happened to Team Chicago? I know in 2020 that they were making attempts to pick up coaches and players from Campton and CSA. But now I hear nothing about them?
Team Chicago Boys play in Elite Academy for their top teams, which is essentially MLS-Next's 3rd tier as I understand it. They have had some success at that level. Girls are USYS E64-RL / MWC. 2nd teams are all or mostly local leagues to my knowledge. They started a player-centric model under current leadership I think 3 years ago, but having been on the inside I would say that its implementation is spotty. My sense is that they might have too much confidence in their internal model and are having issues identifying and attracting talent, so they are going to stay as a 3rd tier club for the foreseeable future. They have some good soccer people there, but hard to see much upside from here. One of my kids is out, the other more likely than not to follow. There are several nearby options with higher badges if one feels that one's kids are not being treated fairly. Soccer rankings app has them at #16 in state as a club for girls and 21 for boys, but it's a pretty big dropoff from some of the clubs just above them.
It would be cool if SR let you sort the date by clicking on multiple states so that we could have regional data and if they would let you sort by league, ECNL, GA, MLS -- seems like that would be easy enough
I asked them a few days ago if they had released any updated data comparing various leagues, the ones out there are a little dated. They mentioned that one of their big upcoming projects is putting much of that data right into the app and letting people see live charts. The various expansions on the MLS N side and ECNL side with a pile of different leagues seem to have more overlaps, and this should help answer some of those questions. Keep in mind that there a variety of challenges. They can't just do a keyword search on team name, as while it would work for MLS HD, MLS AD, and maybe ECNL, it gets much harder when you start thinking of RL team names, typical names for NPL teams (which often don't have NPL in the name), and other complications. And teams are often not affiliated with just one league - they can be attached to more than 1 at the same time, and can also change leagues by season. I don't see how adding multiple states together into a view could be made usable, unless the database is just moved completely open and people can essentially write custom queries (which is almost never going to happen on an app, let alone one that is intended to be usable with just a few clicks).
" And teams are often not affiliated with just one league - they can be attached to more than 1 at the same time, and can also change leagues by season." I would imagine that to put the Data together, you would have to go league by league. That should be easy enough since ECNL and GA lists all the team schedules and standings. Smaller state leagues would probably be more difficult since they aren't standardized.
Even the major leagues tweak and adjust how they display standings quite often (which can break integrations), and once you move from that handful, it must get interesting interpreting that data for dozens / hundreds of other leagues. It's not something that any human is checking every day/week to see if there are any changes - it's a webcrawler that is continuing to scan and interpret the posted data and get it into a format that is usable for SR's needs. That means hundreds and hundreds of places to find game data, and less (but perhaps not much less), to find standings/scheduling data by league. Before it gets launched as a feature, I imagine it has to be doing a pretty good job interpreting what's out there, without needing frequent (daily/weekly) tweaks by their developers.
If I was in charge of SR I'd wait and roll out an entire new package with all the changes they want to make to help it better and figure out the league differences (ENCL, GA, MLSNEXT teams play harder teams than RL, Aspire, MLSNEXT2, etc) ... but why make changes now when every team gets blown up and the whole system and age group changes in fall. roll it all out at once when the new teams all start playing.
Came across this a few minutes ago on Reddit. No affiliation with Flow, thought it could be relevant to this thread.
Anyone know how tryouts turned out for HS girls at the GA/ECNL clubs in the area? Is there a lot of movement with the birth year change taking place?
I just think it depends on the team. I know some clubs made their girls move down to their age group and some have not. This is at the HS level, next years Juniors and Seniors.
Spring schedule is super backloaded for one of kids. Including a period of 6 games in 9 days. Sat/Sun tournament (min 3 games) and then 2 rest, game, 1 rest, game, 1 rest, game.
Spring Weather really stinks here. Yesterday, game had a temperature of Feels Like 20 degrees. Wind was howling, wouldn't mind more weekday games in the spring but know that would be a scheduling nightmare.
It's incredible. We had games in STL in 90-degree weather this weekend, and the temperature dropped by 60 degrees by the time we got home.
I was down there at the Lake Forest middle school. Saturday was beautiful, Sunday..... ugggghhh oh boy, it was brutal.
Does anyone know of any youth futsal clubs/camps/programs in the city? My 9-year old played in the ID futsal league out in Schaumburg and absolutely loved it. Searching online it looks like the futsal clubs are all in the burbs and that's too far a drive for us. Any leads would be appreciated.
Look at some of the Mexican leagues. They are indoor on turf, but play with walls. In my opinion it's a better game than the futsal games in Schaumburg. Those Schaumburg games are played on courts that are too small and the ball is out of bounds way to much. The Mexican leagues keep that moving, and it's essentially the same structure. Fast pace, tight space, more 1v1s.
How are ODP selections made here? Are they completely independent of the club? Or do ODP coaches speak with clubs directly when deciding/before deciding to pick players?
Based on my experience, they are not linked at all. Highly doubtful ODP asks a club coach their opinion on a player.
Don't overthink how the sausage is made. Like anything else, usually the best two or three kids are selected if they are obviously heads and tails above the rest. Then if the ODP coaches have connections to certain clubs those kids get picked with a greater frequency. Then after u13 when ODP becomes not as relevant loyalty gets rewarded to repeat customers and they are offered the selections to regional and national teams. Overall, it's a good winter program for the girls that have done it in my experience but it's not perfect.
How long ago was this? I don't know that the girls receive the same caliber of coaching or care these days.
2016 or 2017. At away tourneys we had 2 coaches and he was one of them. I always liked Batata - still do. Art was very good with the girls as well when he had them - which was rare. Albert 2015-2017 was excellent and Terry A. who was out of Crystal Lake Sockers was really good but refused to tow the company line.
For some people, ODP is important because it offers a pathway that perhaps their current club can't provide. ODP is partnered up with US soccer, and I have seen individuals given US ID talent ID invites because of their association with ODP. If you are not part of ECNL, MLS next, etc, ODP can help get your name out there. Also, being selected for ODP national is an amazing opportunity.
So what are your thoughts on a female player (12 years old) who performs incredible during try outs - I'd rate at a ENCL mid - range level, but then just goes passive both physically and mentally on the field once game play kicks in?