*cracks knuckles* here we go Clubs with superior academies. Please not this is strictly academies. You can have a club with a good academy but a first team who chooses not to play the academy players (LA Galaxy) 1. FC Dallas: I don't need to explain myself here. They're the current development king. But they won't hold this title for long 2. Philadelphia Union: Philly currently scouts better than any other club by far. They have numerous top 3-5 players in every single age group nationwide from their 05's and younger. Their youngest teams abuse other very good MLS academies. They're going surpass Dallas soon but need more high level HG's to impact the first team 3. Seattle Sounders: My biggest gripe with Seattle is that they only offer u15 and u17 age groups at the MLS Next level because they could be in that true top development tier with that extra investment. But Seattle has a great residency/scouting program and have a ton of super high end talent in their academy. Their academy teams are also extremely talented and for all of their prospects they move them directly into USL. Danny Leyva should be the first big time success of their new academy era followed by Reed Baker-Whiting who is another fantastic prospect 4. LAFC: LAFC has gone in and created a fantastic academy. Their scouting network is what I hope the Crew can replicate in Ohio. LAFC also has gone and pretty much taken all of the huge talent in the area from the Galaxy except for a couple kids. Their academy is stupid packed full of quality prospects. The only question with them is will their academy players be given a chance or will like Galaxy will they get a HG offer but be benched for a big name European/south American 5. NYCFC: NYCFC academy like LAFC is just absurdly deep with talent. If NYCFC worked harder on scouting the Long Island area they would also be in the true top tier of clubs but for some reason they are just not tapping into that market which produced Joe Scally and has a ton of high end talent. 6. NYRB: Red Bulls still do an excellent job all around as an academy. They've had some bumps in the road lately with staff turnover but their scouting/residency and integration of their second team is phenomenal and part of the reason why they always end up having a player with elite talent in their first team. 7. DC United: The only thing DC was not doing well was that for a long time they were the only pay 4 play academy but that is no longer the case. DC scouts well, they have a ton of talent, and they move their talent into the first team well. They finally are running like an academy in a talent hotbed and producing like it 8. LA Galaxy: Galaxy despite always having struggles with moving players into the first team from the academy still have a very good academy. What's significant for them is their recruitment strategy and that they run their own in house school similar to Philly to get these players under their watch all day and train them multiple times a day and it works very well to product a lot of players. If the Galaxy didn't have the sibling of an academy coach come in and sign the players and take them to Europe (which got that coach fired btw) then they would have much more first team contribution from their academy. But they are falling because LAFC is taking all of the talent 9. SKC: SKC doesn't have the population that other clubs do but still produce and play their homegrowns at a very high rate. They racked up thousands of HG minutes last season and Gianluca Busio barely was half of those. They played numerous academy products in their first team and won games with them. SKC also has their next HG wave primed and ready to go who are arguably better than their current HG crop. The reason for this is because they do extensive scouting around the country and spend a ton of money on residency's for their players. 10. Colorado: Colorado in terms of their academy talent could be argued are behind Columbus but they are ahead in two aspects: scouting and first team integration. Colorado don't have a big player pool so they've gone out of their way to import players. Columbus is doing this now but Colorado started this a little bit earlier plain and simple because they had no other choice. Colorado's HG success rate also is significantly higher than any other club in the league's as they have very few academy products not make an impact in the first team 11. Atlanta United/Houston Dynamo/Chicago Fire//San Jose: What do these clubs do better than Columbus at in regards to their academy? Absolutely nothing, but they all were blessed with having significantly larger metro areas and better local clubs who allow them to get better kids in their academies. They're just better because they get more talent from their local markets. Columbus has absolutely no control over this, it is simply a matter of not being a big enough city
I saw a while ago some rumblings about how LAFC quickly overtook Gals academy in luring in players. I think they got aggressive and are obviously the shiny new thing in Cali and we all know they like shiny new things out there.
They tried to lure Pulisic - HARD. But his dad had all the connections they needed to get him to Europe and smartly avoid MLS.
When looking at this list it's easy but think "wow the crew really needs to step it up" but it isn't as simple as that. Columbus are actively improving their academy at a very fast rate. They are bringing in excellent new academy coaches, they are revamping their local and national scouting strategy, they are finally launching a second team to keep prospects under their umbrella longer, and they have a new facility coming which will help a lot with local and national recruitment. So the Crew have some clubs ahead of them but I can say with certainty that they're going to surpass some of these clubs. But instead of just focusing on what other clubs do better lets look at what Columbus does well: Columbus doesn't sign & stash players. Columbus tried this with Ben Swanson and failed and changed their strategy. So with the kids they're producing they're constantly monitoring them and bringing them into the club when they're actually ready for first team minutes. This is in my opinion the correct way to do things both for the player and for the club's financial books. Now they have a talented group of 03's but none are particularly ready and won't be rushed into the first team. Columbus has a good crop of talented academy players. While other clubs may have more Columbus still has their fair share! There is more than enough talent to sustain a consistent volume of incoming first team players from the academy. The good thing about this is that this will only get better! So when you have a good group of current academy players, a rapidly improvement coaching staff & training environment, and a quickly improving scouting network this means that the Crew are in a great position to build a fantastic academy that can compete with the best of them and bring kids into a very competitive first team and actually fight for minutes at a young age
Are you serious? They fired Brian because his brother decided to sign all of the Galaxy academy players under his 343 company (which Brian himself actively associated with at the time and still continues to) and then took all of these players away from the Galaxy academy. You can't coach for a professional club and then tell all your players to then leave the club while still profiting off the players yourself and actually expect the club to still employ you. If you have a direct conflict of interest with any company then that company is going to kick you to the curb. This is why we still don't see Brian at a new MLS club and won't ever see one hire him until he decided to disassociate himself away from 343 who is not only a coaching education company but a player representation agency which Brian currently profits from Also the contracts the kids that left Galaxy sign had nothing to do with Brian getting fired. Academy contracts in Germany pay very little wages (1-2k per month) until the player reaches the first team and becomes a consistent contributor in the first team. So every american player that goes over to Germany makes the same super low wages that Uly, Mendez, and Kobe are making. The only way to earn more money as an academy player is to have established yourself on the global scene before moving to Germany. The only way to do this is being tranferred from MLS or signing after having a big performance in an International event (like a youth World Cup). This applies to every European country except the Netherlands who's non EU rules require them to pay players a minimum or $250k when they turn 18 and $500k when they turn 20 which is why we see so few players go to dutch clubs because almost all of them outside of Ajax & PSV can't afford to import non European talent. Other countries in Europe also have non EU restrictions which is why almost all of our prospects who go to Europe choose to go to Germany who have no non EU restrictions
Other clubs launched residencies and the only major selling point RSL had became less unique...that and RSL lost a huge wave of kids to Europe
My cousin played in same DA as Pulisic & consistently said NYRB was by far the toughest team they played on east coast. Always said it felt like men playing against boys. The old try to hold them under double digits kind of competition. DC United wasn't that tough when they were younger, then improved. If memory serves me, there was another Non MLS DA down there that had some talent. DC would try to lure some PA Classics kids as would Philly. When NYFC came aboard they too were pretty good. But NYRB was always way way better - at least at his year. With the revamp of DA, clubs like PA classics are going to have an even tougher time keeping talent.
At this point the non professional academies like PA Classics are just becoming pipelines to the professional academies which is how it should be! This is how every other country operates and produces players. Your local clubs discover kids and refer them to the professional clubs once they're ready to continue their development and sign professional There are a couple very good Philly clubs. In that region there are tons of really good NYC/NJ area clubs and in DC Bethesda SC is constantly producing national team level talent. But Philly and NYCFC are quickly surpassing red bulls
I love that we haven't discussed NE or Chicago. Chicago started off decent but seems to have lost its way. I hope they never find it. And I hope FCKY never figures it out either. Will be interesting to see how Miami does, they should be solid pretty quick if they do it right.
As stated they got way ahead of the game when they did the AZ residency program at the old resort. But then they moved to Salt Lake and others started doing something similar. Barca has taken over the AZ location and last I saw has done a decent job developing talent. I don't have any names handy but I recall seeing several on some YNT camp rosters.
Revs are in the same boat as Crew right now. Only difference is Crew teens will get more of a chance with Gregg than they would under Bruce. I hate to break it to you, but FC Cinci's academy is going to grow at the exact same rate that the Crew will because they're doing all of the exact same things at the exact same time. Bad for crew, great for young talent in Ohio! But this also means the Crew will have to work even harder to stay competitive which they are aware of and increasing investments to stay ahead. Chicago are getting better but are a constant one step forward, two steps back. Their talent in their 05's and younger are not what it should be for an area of that size
My son played on ECNL team and when we played Chicago teams (he was an 01) - I believe it was Sockers they were bragging about how their players left or were shunning Fire. Don't you go giving FCKY any cred!
I honestly don't have many thoughts on improving it. So much of its success will be tied to scouting/recruiting players from outside OH. That's a tough task to be frank. But they also need to help local clubs develop players. Andover clubs need to be rewarded in some way for doing the developing. Crew does zero development any more. Might also try to bring in some foreign youth players. Coincidentally my post above referencing Chicago teams. My son played against the IU keeper that played last night. Likely one of those that shunned Fire Academy.
Generally when looking to improve an academy there’s four general aspects of improvement that you can look at: player housing/education, coaching, recruiting, level of play Player housing and education is always a tough one because this expense is extreme. Ideally I’d like to see Crew (and other academies) model what Philly do with YSC where they control the players housing and education and have them in their system for the majority of the day. However, you’d need a training facility and school/teaching staff to be on board with this and that’s not easy to pull off In regards to coaching I actually think we’re doing fine here. Most of the coaching staff has been improved over the last 2-3 years and we’ve added coaches from very successful academies from around the country Scouting and recruiting is what @catfish9 addressed and this in my mind is the most feasible thing that can be improved. The Columbus market can only produce a certain amount of players but what about if you scout Cleveland, Detroit, toledo, Fort Wayne, Pittsburgh, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, and south bend? That instantly expands the pool of players. If you look at the clubs our players come from you can see this happening already but now it’s time to pick up on that momentum and build foundational relationships with major clubs/academies across the Midwest so they can trust us to not necessarily poach players but provide talent with a true opportunity to the professional level. In this area I’d like to see more satellite clubs pop up again like what we used to have with Challenger Crew Jr’s, Michigan Wolves, Grand Rapids Crew Jr’s, and more. Satellite clubs and affiliates are an extremely valuable partnership and can expand the net of identification For level of play I would like to see a u13 team added as well as a u23 team. I do know the u23 team is slated to start next season. The u23’s will allow our players to continue their development curve and will allow players who are excelling in the DA to push to a higher level to prepare for the first team. This has been something that I thought the MLS should’ve been doing for a while now and is finally happening. For players not as interested in the college route this can be very beneficial but obviously we know that Crew has been very successful with letting players go to college for a year or two but the u23 team should replace this pathway. For the u13’s I think this should be a primarily local team but just to get kids training in the right environment at an earlier age. Overall I think the Crew academy in most of these pillars are heading in the right direction. Now it’s just about trust from the organization and continuing to add more hungry talent to the squads
I think an area that can be concentrated and improved upon is coaching clinics for coaches outside the Crew organization. Help me coach my kids better so they can one day be able to join the Academy. I'm not talking about hitting the local area club powerhouses...I'm talking about rec/community leagues, middle schools, lower level league/clubs. Build some relationships in the community along the way and it's also a way to convert some of your target demographic to fans...but focus on the soccer first please.
Interesting stumbling across this. Looks like he is actually playing for CUP so Crew could battle FCKY for this kid. OR he could go to Mexico or someone else. I'm guessingnhe'll have many choices. https://fb.watch/6tPs64kdB3/
Crew launch new Youth Partnerships Program. @TheCrewYouth’s Partnerships Program establishes #Crew96’s affiliate and network program to provide resources and support to the Columbus youth soccer community. >> https://t.co/2OSvNHctIV pic.twitter.com/Kv9iOOJeW5— The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) July 1, 2021
Our affiliate program has been a big sore spot for me personally. This is one way we can get a larger funnel of players. See Sporting KC
Calling all aspiring Scouts & Coaches 🚨Year II of the Crew Academy Scouting Program ⚽️✅Scout youth soccer matches✅Watch Academy training & matches✅Learn, have fun, build community#Crew96Apply at link below:https://t.co/CMRFsb5Azu— Crew Academy (@CrewAcademy96) August 31, 2021 For anyone interested, the Crew academy scouting team is looking to expand and grow. You can apply via the link in the tweet!
Any feedback on the new rosters that got released? Seems to me more players from out of state than in the past but that might just be because its fresh in my mind.
Probably belongs in the crew II thread but since this is near the top New beginnings.. Excited to be starting the next chapter with the @ColumbusCrew as Manager of Crew 2 Team Operations! 🖤💛5 years ago I packed up my car and drove south to a city unknown. Very grateful for the friends, colleagues, and mentors made in Atlanta and along the way! pic.twitter.com/dnHxQAXrQ8— Nathaniel Horton (@NathanielHorton) August 31, 2021