|
Post by gaprospects on May 10, 2018 15:41:36 GMT -5
Debate, debate, debate. Screw with the i.d. & development system every year. Doesn't matter. This link right here is why U.S. Men's soccer stinks, period. Pay. Nobody is spending the big bucks. It is beginning to change and soccer is just now starting to attract quality U.S. male athletes but the stupid euro-transplant coaches are still either clueless or in denial that their beloved beautiful game does not already corner the market on the best of the best athletically here, and the now fifty-something-year-old Americans that run U.S. soccer at all levels were the wussies of the U.S. sports world when they played the game here in the 70's. The only way to neutralize their corrosive effects is to raise salaries across the board. Substantially. But, hey, it still pays more than the Championship Dart Circuit, so there's that. I recently watched arguably the best boys youth team in the nation (i believe the best anyway) in a certain age group and fully half of that team would be playing rec league in any other sport. The best team in the nation. Half rec league quality athletes. This is just a bit dramatic. I don't believe that better athletes play one sport or another as kids just because the 0.001% of people who make it professionally make more money. And I don't know how you're definitively judging the athletic ability of kids that are still growing. Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans was 6'2" as a high school junior, and look at him now. Lol. So many people talk about how the US would be better at soccer if the "best athletes" played the sport and not football, basketball, etc. And then those same people turn around and talk about how Iniesta wouldn't make his high school team because "all we care about in players are size and speed." You can't have it both ways
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on May 9, 2018 9:45:41 GMT -5
Seems the UFA-AU partnership has more benefits at the younger age groups. I think UFA has AU's ear when they say "look at this player, he's someone you might be interested in", but it's still AU's decision whether to pick him up or not. That's probably the extent of that partnership, which is still tremendously beneficial for the players in question.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on May 9, 2018 9:22:34 GMT -5
If we want to talk about whether CF or UFA will be able to get the "next 20" who aren't at AU, we should note that of the in-state kids that are joining AU at older ages, more of them are coming from clubs like KSA, GSA and Inter Atlanta than from either CF or UFA. So, the so-called "next 20" seems to not be at either club.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Apr 17, 2018 11:50:54 GMT -5
The AU player here got his first national team call-up when he was still playing with his old club in Montgomery. So while I can't speak to the back stories of the other guys in this squad, maybe the fact that there's no non-DA players in this team has as much to do with the improved regional scouting of MLS clubs as it does the lack of non-DA scouting by USSF.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Apr 10, 2018 9:15:41 GMT -5
I guess Weston is not within another MLS club’s nebulous recruiting area? Isn’t Miami in the pipeline to get a franchise? It is my understanding that MLS clubs can’t recruit out of another club’s area, so no club is “buying players” from all over the country. Probably a good and bad rule: keeps the homegrown thing alive but bad for a kid that might fit elsewhere. Miami is not in an area. As far as I know there is know known published map of the areas, at least since they added more teams. But there are Miami kids in academies in Orlando, Atlanta, Columbus, NY, Portland, etc. so just intuitively, they're probably not incorporated.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Apr 6, 2018 9:51:05 GMT -5
Don't really have an opinion on this either way, but I feel like we need to point out the absurdity of any argument that involves "Well Messi did it, therefore anyone can"
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Mar 29, 2018 11:14:47 GMT -5
This post triggered some thoughts during the aftermath hand wringing of the USMNT not qualifying for the World Cup. If the average age for a USMNT player is 27, he was born in 1990 and went through U15-18 in 2005-08. DA did not start until 2007. At that time it had 15/16 and 17/18. So, the EARLIEST players coming out of the new system were 1992. I would argue, it takes a few years for any new league to get up and running. So, a fairer measure would be say the 1995 or 96 birth years received the training/development DA intended on implementing. These kids would just be turning 21 and the pipe line is obvously younger. And so, I would argue that the results of the DA experiment will be known now over the next 8-10 years. The hand wringing for the 2017 USMNT failure requires reflections of what the federation was doing from 1997-2007. I'd love to hear some thoughts on this theory. Thanks. This is what I've been saying for some time, people blaming the USMNT's qualifying failure on the DA are either not giving the system long enough to prove itself, or they have a pre-determined anti-USSF agenda (there's a lot of those people). Now, there is a real void of national team-quality players from birth years 1994-1996, when the DA was young and not operating as smoothly as it is now. But 1997-2000 is a very deep player pool, with a lot of DA-trained players breaking through or having already broken through in either MLS or abroad (especially an uptick in European-based players). Look at Pulisic (98), McKennie (98), Adams (99), Weah (00), Sargent (00). And that's only the ones who are breaking through on the senior national team stage as teens, there are lots of others at those ages who will come good with more seasoning. What will be a true test of the DA will be 2022-2026. In 2022, the 2004 age group, which was the first one to take advantage of the DA expansion down to the U12 age group, will be turning 18 and will have certain players breaking through professionally and maybe even the national team stage. These players will be the longest-tenured DA kids ever and theoretically should be the most well-trained. If those kids can be as good or better than the teens we have breaking through now, we'll be in good shape player-wise for a long time.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Mar 27, 2018 9:12:30 GMT -5
Lengthening the college season and limiting substitutions would increase the productivity and quality of college soccer by a ton. So many people look at the small number of professional players that emerge from the college game and cast it as a lack of quality players. That's simply not true.
Getting significant change out of a corrupt organization like the NCAA, especially in a sport that doesn't do anything for the athletic departments' bank accounts, will be extremely difficult, and the short-term solution is probably more professional opportunities for young players until we can get serious reform in college soccer.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Mar 23, 2018 20:14:58 GMT -5
I bet that Iniesta at age 12 would never make GA ODP because he’s not a flashy go get it fast striker kind of a player. I’ll give you a perfect example here in GA. Jose Sanchez current U15 Atlanta United did not make ODP last year U14 2016/2017 (both tryouts didn’t make it) because he wasn’t as flashy as the other players (Mostly Strikers Made it) that did. Oh, his twin brother (Stricker) made ODP but didn’t play because his brother didn’t make it. I'm sorry, but this argument always bothers me. It's completely ridiculous. Iniesta is one of the most talented players in the history of the sport. The US (and 95% of the other countries on the planet) has never produced a player even close to his level of talent. And you're trying to tell me that if there was a 12 year old with that level of talent at an ODP tryout nobody would notice?
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Mar 21, 2018 18:20:00 GMT -5
I highly doubt MLS and USSF are collaborating on signing younger players, since some of the players that are getting signed this young are either not eligible to play for the US (Jesus Ferriera - Dallas) or actively choosing not to (Efrain Alvarez - Galaxy).
Personally, I think this trend is a byproduct of USSF killing off the Bradenton residency program. In the past, it was difficult for an MLS club to commit to signing a player who was never in academy training. Now that all the kids who would otherwise be in Bradenton are with their respective clubs every day, the clubs are getting a chance to accelerate the development of these kids by signing them to pro deals.
Obviously, part of it is the protection from losing them for free (ATL weren't the only MLS club to lose a kid to Germany since the U17 World Cup)
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Mar 19, 2018 13:34:06 GMT -5
The first (and perhaps only) person I saw to place blame on Carleton for that giveaway was, well, Carleton himself.
FWIW, Tata was asked about it post-game and he had this to say:
“Nobody can say that Carleton was guilty or responsible for that goal because he is losing the ball in the opposing 18, it’s not like he is losing the ball at midfield. That is not the reason they scored on us. They scored because we were marking poorly and the ball still had to go 90 meters from where he lost the ball.”
So, spot on Futsal Gawdess.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Mar 16, 2018 16:19:47 GMT -5
You have both of those rules right. The first rule comes directly from FIFA, the second comes from MLS.
The homegrown territory rule, in my opinion, is the worst rule in the entire MLS structure, precisely for the reasons you describe. It's inherently anti-competitive and only hurts the potential professional chances of young players. Meanwhile, kids from "unincorporated" territory can go play anywhere in the country. It makes absolutely no sense that a young player should have his potential professional opportunities limited just because he happens to live in one state as opposed to another.
MLS clubs are finding ways around this, though. AU recently signed a 16-year old from Southern California to a pro contract in their reserve team, which is essentially exploiting a loophole in this territory rule. They would not have been able to simply add him to their academy since he was in the Galaxy/LAFC territory, but they can sign him professionally and then stick him in their U17's, which is exactly what they did. That being said, it's a massive leap for a young player to move across the country AND throw away any chance at NCAA eligibility at that age, when it's still so up in the air if he'll ever make it at the professional level. Understandably, a lot of people are hesitant to do something like that.
Saying that "kids don't know if any [international] team might be interested because they don't bother scouting/recruiting early because it would be delayed until the age of 18 anyway" is false, however. Foreign teams are here scouting kids of all ages all the time. It's no coincidence that so many European teams are entering "partnerships" with American academies. A lot of it is a cash grab, but it's also a foot in the door at a rapidly growing and improving pool of young players. And because of the silly training compensation rules we have here, these clubs know they can get these kids for free, which entices them even more.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Mar 16, 2018 10:34:12 GMT -5
It's one minute and seven seconds. That's it. If you're reading anything at all into this, you're doing too much.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Mar 1, 2018 11:23:13 GMT -5
The main reason why FIFA wouldn't want to have a World Cup in the US is we already have an excess of potential venues to use. That seems counter-intuitive, but FIFA usually wants to have new stadiums built for the World Cup, so they can sign contracts with construction companies that include large under the table kickbacks for themselves. Each of the last few World Cups, including the next two, have had new stadiums built in the years leading up to it. Even for Germany in 2006 (Allianz Arena in Munich was brand new, multiple stadiums underwent massive renovations).
FIFA's savvy though, so they know they can hide behind the Trump excuse and media around the world will run with it without really looking into the issue much. Something tells me that if FIFA's okay with having their WC 2022 stadia built by slave labor, they're not going to be too bothered by our President's antics.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Feb 28, 2018 11:05:23 GMT -5
It seems that AU are doing a good job of rotating in 02's that are performing well for the 02 team into the 01's. There's already 4-5 02's regularly playing for them. The 01's played seven 02's last weekend, and that was with 3 of the regular ones away with national teams.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Feb 23, 2018 11:28:04 GMT -5
I don't see where these clubs get off leaving out certain other clubs from this exclusive group. Yes, they can probably guarantee competitive matches at every age group just playing against each other. But they don't have the top team in many age groups.
Speaking of non-DA/ECNL specifically, the best '01 team in the state is KSA (that team is probably better than the ECNL teams at that age as well). The best '02 team is Smyrna. The best '03 team is Dalton. Etc. etc.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Feb 20, 2018 12:18:31 GMT -5
Ha!! Thanks!! to clarify, all the club has to do is make an offer to keep his rights? The kids/player don't have to sign the offer/contract for the club to maintain their rights? No, they don't have to sign. It's how LA Galaxy held the rights to Paul Arriola despite him going to Tijuana as a teen. When DC tried to sign him, they had to send a bunch of allocation money to LA to do it.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Feb 20, 2018 9:02:11 GMT -5
Sounds like what others mentioned before on another thread and from dirty south soccer that Zyen went on his own. Wonder if Atl offered him a homegrown contract and he turned it down? Either way, smart move heading to Europe. I guess those DA contracts the kids sign only have value in the states, I wonder if Atlanta United had to release his rights? If Atlanta offered him a contract, even as a last-minute formality, they will get to keep his rights should he return to MLS at some point. He could still come back with any team, but that team would have to trade with Atl to get the rights to him. If there was no offer, he could come back and join any team he wanted. Unless, of course, he becomes a senior national team player, then he'll probably get added to the allocation order and teams will have to trade with whoever is first in that order for the right to sign him. I get so tired of this mess sometimes.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Feb 15, 2018 12:26:45 GMT -5
Just saying that the top players, the national team pool players at the older ages are so busy with their national team duties/commitments and now signing homegrown contracts, that they are playing in very few DA academy games for the older 2 age groups. Absolutely creates more exposure etc. Just bring it up because substitution rules etc, where as the vast majority of the kids will be playing in college when they are done with academy vs playing pro but the rules are catered towards the top 1% of future national team players. This has kind of always been the case because of the residency program. If that still existed, Serrano would no doubt be there and wouldn't be playing DA anyway. I'd argue that now, with the residency program dead, the top 1% of players are playing for their clubs' academies more than ever. I guess my question is how are the rules "catered toward the top 1% of future national team players?" Is it simply because they play more minutes or is it deeper than that in your opinion?
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Feb 15, 2018 11:30:43 GMT -5
Curious as to why you would say the entire DA system is catered to the system's best players. If anything, I'd say it creates much more exposure for players who are not the best on their team. No shade, genuinely curious to hear your opinion.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Feb 6, 2018 13:47:11 GMT -5
That pretty much covers it. The only other thing is that professional players can play academy games if they are young enough. So the USL team could sign a kid to a pro deal and move him back and forth freely, and it wouldn't count against the academy player limit of 5 per game. Of the 5 homegrowns on the first team, the only one I suspect will be playing youth events in 2018 is Bello. He'll probably spend 2018 split between USL, YNT camps/tournaments, and high level academy events like Dallas Cup and playoffs.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Feb 6, 2018 11:52:33 GMT -5
Interesting details. One of the other things with the AU U15's is that one of the losses they've taken this spring was a game they won on the field but forfeited later. Just looking at game reports, it looks like they accidentally started a player who was suspended for yellow card accumulation and realized it too late.
Both the 17's and 19's at AU look good, but with the USL team beginning preseason next week, it will be interesting to see which players move up. I imagine some academy players will be heavily involved with that team, meaning other guys (probably from younger squads) will move up to take their place. Obviously, the level of talent they have is enough to where that shouldn't be an issue when it comes to results.
One other thing with regards to the older teams will be players lost to high school. I know all 3 clubs have been affected by that. Still, should be an intriguing Spring, hopefully as many local teams as possible can earn a playoff spot come June.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Feb 2, 2018 11:26:12 GMT -5
There's no doubt in my mind that if Geoff Cameron hadn't put forth the worst performance of his national team career at home against Costa Rica (along with the rest of the side that night), the US would have qualified.
I don't understand where this Jurgen apology tour is coming from. He drove the national team program into the ground and left Bruce to rescue it from the flames. As for Cameron, he's just as much a part of this failure as anyone else. He doesn't get a pass just because he wasn't out there in Trinidad, things were going the wrong direction long before that.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Jan 29, 2018 20:46:23 GMT -5
Watched the game, and I thought it was actually pretty evenly matched. NASA scored first early, but then after that it was a lot of back & forth. Size advantage of course goes to NASA, a year does make a difference. Futsal Gawdess, you are correct AU's back line is strong, rarely breaks down, and works extremely well together. I really think this group of boys could be a great team together moving forward, but honestly, who knows...all too often a team that has chemistry doesn't get a chance to stay together for one reason or another, I guess time will tell. But I was impressed with the way they held their own (and then some) against these U14s. Next weekend they scrimmage LSA's U14s. Oh & AU's 14s won 2-1 against the ODP team. Soccergoals, I wholeheartedly agree with you. I have watched quite a few of the games for the AU U13s and their real strength is in the back. Maybe I notice them more because I played that position. I'm always looking for the backline to get more love haha. If AU can get some bigger and faster midfielders I think this could be a potential national championship caliber team. However, as is always the case like you said, for one reason or another the team may not stay together. Futsal Gawdess, like you said the first game of the spring season against SSA will tell a lot about this team. How young this team is shouldn't be lost here. It will be at least 3 years until the core of this team is competing for a national championship, and a lot can and will change in that period of time. AU seems to want to start recruiting players from out of state around the U15 age (it really doesn't make sense for a kid to move before they're at least that old), so by the time these kids are U16, U17, etc. I imagine the team will look very different to what it is now.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Jan 29, 2018 20:37:58 GMT -5
This is the same ownership group that was planning on creating a lower-division men's team in Stonecrest starting in 2018. Not only is the Stonecrest facility not close to being finished, the ownership group involved appears to be completely unstable.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Jan 24, 2018 18:43:06 GMT -5
Do you know if the international teams that are invited foot their own bills or sponsors take care of them? Don't know off the top of my head, but usually with the GA Cup or Dallas Cup Super Group (what AU is playing in), the international teams are big professional clubs. Arsenal, Man U, Real Madrid, River Plate, LigaMX clubs, Brazilian Clubs, etc. They can certainly afford to foot their own bills
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Jan 24, 2018 12:13:08 GMT -5
Generation adidas Cup is only open to MLS teams and whatever other international academies get invited, so it's always a high level of competition.
As it turns out, AU is actually playing Dallas Cup this year as well, probably with their U19's
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Jan 23, 2018 16:04:56 GMT -5
Schedules are probably not out yet, however for those that get the heads up, let's use this thread for people to post the highly rated/competitive upcoming games and tournaments this spring season. Feel free to make predictions or give pre or post analysis. I'll kick off with DALLAS CUP. It draws a lot of MLS clubs, International clubs etc. Not sure if it is open to other clubs or why they don't participate but from what I have seen it is really good competition. AU is the only club that comes out of GA for that tournament. AU teams will fair ok in all the age groups as usual but I don't see AU winning any of the age groups. www.dallascup.com/Do you have any source on AU playing Dallas Cup this year? They didn't last year and there's no team division info on their website
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Dec 15, 2017 22:56:45 GMT -5
I don't think people understand, in general, how great you have to be and how much you have to devote your entire life and livelihood towards becoming a professional athlete to actually make it to the pros. Even in things most people wouldn't consider to be athletic like auto racing or golf.
|
|
|
Post by gaprospects on Dec 15, 2017 18:09:25 GMT -5
Deadspin's coverage of anything soccer is usually awful and purposely inflammatory, as is most of what comes out of what's left of Gawker Media.
In cases of Pulisic and Sargent, both players who did not play DA for MLS clubs, it's hard to really quantify how they would have done getting playing time in MLS. McKennie came from FC Dallas, though, and realistically, it's difficult to see how a 19-year old McKennie on a homegrown contract would have displaced designated player Carlos Gruezo or US international Kellyn Acosta in their midfield.
I think a lot of the reason that MLS struggles to play its young talents is because the homegrown player rule intentionally suppresses the wages of the players that sign those contracts. McKennie would have probably been making 60-75k a year in Dallas. Gruezo makes 730k a year, Acosta makes 280k. It's difficult for any coach to bench a highly-paid player that the club has a lot invested in for someone making much less, and that's something you see around the world, not just in MLS. What makes MLS different, though, is the massive disparity between player salaries.
Furthermore, that wage supression drives super-talents like McKennie to Europe because, well, they're gonna get paid more there. McKennie signed a deal until 2022 with Schalke in September, after he'd only made a few first team appearances. That was all it took for them to commit to him long-term and probably give him a nice raise. If he were here, he could get a much larger second contract after his initial homegrown deal, but the team would have to significantly restructure their roster to fit his new number under the cap.
I think there's ways for MLS to get around these things and get young players on the field more, but these problems run pretty deep within the league's structure and will take some time to fix properly.
|
|