http://www.examiner.com/soccer-in-n...ernational-loan-program-for-academy-players-1 After adding three more academy players to their first signing this Spring FCD has been bandying about their own residential academy. Are any other clubs seriously discussing this and is this a good idea for middle and high school age kids? Also looks like they are setting up international loan deals with clubs on several continents which seems a no brainer. All in all MLS is advancing rapidly in the youth front.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + if Dallas does create one like that, do they draw kids from about 100 mi radius?
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + I think to some degree but I think they lose it when they join MLS since they are obliged to meet MLS academy protocol. There was a row about it back in March I think.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + Guess it depends. Is MLS still sticking to their 'home turf' rules, and if so, how far is that? I seem to recall the league saying at the time it would be adjusted for market size, and Dallas is a fairly large city.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + England is 50 miles per club but this is Dallas, TX and not Liverpool or Birmingham. One would think a live-in academy (can the thread title be corrected?) would be of more use to those kids in the far outlying areas that can't commute to the FCD training center on a daily basis.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + I thought residential was the same thing. Now maybe correct the poor spelling of academy....
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + Agreed. I feel like one of the points to a residential academy would be to accommodate those kids in the first place. But, overall, this would be GREAT for the Dallas area, and the league. Let's hope this comes to fruition.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + The article mentioned talking to a local school district superintendent. Probably Frisco since that is where team and stadium are. That is a good district but the whole residential aspect along with needing mornings off is a completely new thing for them. Wonder what that superintendent is thinking about the whole concept.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + That made me want to give Garber a with a rusty spoon when I heard about that. Why in the world would you DISCOURAGE youth development. I know people get touchy about this not being Europe, and not being a Euro-snob, but soccer is big business in Europe. So any training or development system they have in place is because it works better than anything else out there! Ugh rant over.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + They aren't discouraging youth development. Let's get that cleared up real fast... They want an academy system that falls under their protocol. Probably not the same or as efficient as what Vancouver has currently, but saying that MLS discourages youth development is absolutely wrong. Look at FCD, the Crew, RSL, RBNY, etc. Eventually (from what I've heard recently) an academy league similar to the former reserve league might be in the works, but I could also be wrong. In the meantime, if FC Dallas is starting their own residency program, then Vancouver can continue theirs but with a few changes here and there.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + i'm hoping that for vancouvers entrance, the rules for the academy system move closer to allowing what van has in place now. the discovery process dallas is in seems to indicate that is a possibility.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + And the two Texas-born World Cup players aren't from Dallas and Houston, they're from Longview and Nacogdoches. Think is, it's probably easier to get to Houston from Nacogdoches than it is to get to Dallas, so there's still going to be some sort of turf issue to come along somewhere. I'm sure they can definitely draw the line wider than 50mi (and indeed, I figure since they're taking Market size into account, they are probably doing that). But for what it's worth, you could live in a place like De Soto, be inside of 50mi, and still be quite grateful not to have to make that commute every day.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + doubly so if your family doesn't have a ton of money and both parents are busting their asses to keep the roof over the heads and food on the table. in a family with both parents working full time, ANY commute might disqualify the kid from participation depending on when those rides are needed.
Earlier this year the Rapids added two Las Vegas club systems to their Rapids adidas Alliance clubs: So I'm not sure how Las Vegas falls into the Rapids territory, but it does.
It'd be better if they grabbed up kids in their own radius' instead of some free for all in other states, imo. Those kids will grow up training in those cities and eventually come to represent their city/state when/if they turn pro.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + Dallas sucks and can have all of NE Texas while we take care of the rest properly? I'm not sure how it is drawn, but we have an academy down near the border, plus the central one in Houston. Granted it's closer to us than Dallas, but still quite some distance.
This type of "affiliation" is probably THE way to cover the entire country with the utmost efficiency. Texas will be carved up between the two MLS clubs. KC will probably gets Oklahoma and Nebraska. Crew and Fire can cover the Midwest. California is almost a free-for-all, et cetera. You'd think that the Rapids, or any other MLS with an out of state affiliate, would be able to send their team instructors to an "LV" for 3-4 days at a time maybe once or twice a month in order to supervise the local activities. This isn't a perfect plan but at least you can cover most of the bottom 48 this way. The New York team/s will have to do the arduous task of helping coach kids in Florida ... unless the vacationing Euro stars like Zlatan I., Michael B. and Diego F. want to pitch in a day or two.
I don't really understand why FCD needs to change what they're doing. They currently grab a ton of talented kids from the Dallas area, 4 of whom are already signed with the first team. (and a fifth.....17 year old Jonathan Top, is already training with the first team). DFW is either the #1 or #2 youth soccer metro area in the country. [By the way, Vancouver's fancy residency program has developed f*ck-all in terms of players. "Residency" is just a fancy word for a dorm. If the kids can live locally in Dallas and come to training, there's no difference. None. In fact, kids tend to want "normal lives." That's one of the reasons we hear from the group of kids that don't want to go to Bradenton. And it's a bigger group than people realize.] These "affiliation" academies are still murky to me. How can MLS allow a kid at a Las Vegas club to be considered a "homegrown" Rapids player? That's nonsense. MLS needs to figure it out. At some point this is just going to be a free-for-all.
Teams have exclusive rights to the players within their own territory. The affiliations are so that players in other markets can get the same sort of exposure and training that players in MLS markets get. RSL, for instance, has affiliates in Florida and Arizona. Now no other MLS team can set up an affiliate program in those areas unless RSL withdraws from them. This allows players in those areas to receive similar training to those players in Utah and they can work their way up to the RSL first team if they are good enough. This is from RSL's site: "The RSL-Utah team will combine with players from the RSL-Arizona and RSL-Florida Youth Development Programs to once again field a side under the Real Salt Lake banner for the annual MLS U-17 SUM Cup". For a team like RSL that doesn't have the same talent level to pull from as a team like FCD does, it is important to find those areas that may have talent but don't have a competing MLS team.
Well, I don't know what these territorial maps look like but it sounds like MLS management does. (I wouldn't mind it being disclosed to the public at large, obviously). PS. Agree on the dorms but that was my point earlier - get the long-distance kids into the dorm, allow the willing locals to participate from their home base.
Boy FCD is doing some very wonderful things on and off the field and their venture into RA is an icing on the cake. One little thing that needs improvement is, more bodies in the stadium at game time.
you can't point to one residency program and decide residency makes no difference. the kids will get more hours of training, and be immersed in a pro environment, with items like nutrition able to be addressed. if you want to look at the effects of residency of a single area, look at the products it produced before residency, then after it had time to gear up production. how many of the canadian youth national team players come from the residency program? how many did prior to residency being established? it's not a bust if it doesn't produce a messi. if it tangibly improves the quality of training and player, even if it's only incremental, it's a valuable system to look at. well, if they brought the kids from their scoutable territories into a dallas fort worth residency program and produce the talent there, it would kind of clear that up right?
But you don't have to have "Residency" to have any of that. FCD already has everything you just described in their youth programs. The 4 players FCD just signed as homegrown players had been training with the first team for several years, with all that implies. Apparently they have a 5th......17 year old Jonathan Top that's also just started to train with them. When you see every US youth team roster, there are FCD kids. What's important isn't "residency," it's the quality of the coaching, facilities, etc.