AFU boys ECNL teams

Same on the ecnl girls side especially poor 2005 and 2007

That might help but from what we heard last week the plan is to get rid of about 1/3 of the coaches and bring in new blood. Too many high level coaches that don’t produce results but want to be the highest paid.

As an outsider looking in, could this be the remnants of the legacy left by the untrustworthy, board packing, meeting crashing, vacuum cleaner(side note, I really detested that guy)? Did he pack the coaching staff with inept, yet loyal coaches? Didn't a former DOC from CF make the move to AFU to right the ship? Can someone confirm he's still there or is it as others have said, time to clean house and eliminate some non-performing coaches...🤔

This is very true. This used to be an issue for Girls UFA before DA (and even a bit after DA).

I think someone said they expected AFU to be the biggest loser of the conversion of UFA from DA to ECNL. Now all of the kids (boys and girls) who wanted to play high level soccer but still play high school that live north of the city can go to either UFA or AFU. Further talent drain from AFU by splitting it with UFA to the north and GSA to the southeast.

Not sure if Garth or Mirza came from CF but they’re still running the show. Or at least trying to. It’s election time and one of the disciples of that vacuum cleaner is trying to pack the board with his followers to fire Mirza, Garth, Vince and Tavani. Right now Mirza doenst have the full backing of the board to let go of long time legacy coaches.

@jumpjumpkeep311, you have a PM.

Wait a second you have an issue with Vince? I’d say he’s one of the best girls coaches in the state.

“ I think we all need to swallow our pride, let more go, and get back to sharing information. Or talking about Covid. Or Trump.”

Noooooooooo!🤣

Serious question when is the last time AFU was good/competitive at the highest levels on the girls and/or boys side? Certainly not in the last 4 or 5 years. Currently on the girls side they only have one team at .500 or better. And this is a real question I am not trying to degrade AFU and I also realize they aren't the only Atlanta ECNL "club" that is not doing well, as Concorde Premier is right there with them as a club based on the percentage of total points they have been able to earn. But I am curious if AFU as a club used to be a strong club and has fallen off or has never been at the top for a sustained amount of time.

What a great question, and prepare for a brief AFU history lesson. Many, many years ago there was a club called West Gwinnett Soccer Club, the name changed to Atlanta United Soccer Association - AUSA Freedom, under the executive director Coach Jay Miller. The club didn’t remain Freedom for long when the club had a small merger with a boy’s team from Concorde Fire that eventually won youth nationals. Hince, Atlanta Fire United. During this time AFU was under great leadership and it showed bc great coaches came to coach for Miller. All the coaches y’all talk about on here, Ryan Austin, Troy, and many more were at AFU. Coach Miller was dismissed as a result of a power grab. A rumor of a GSA merger that would leave out one of AFUs directors, the one that knew Jay and brought him into the club. (hint: this director was later ousted by the same person that helped him remove Coach Miller - the irony) Anyways, during the Jay Miller era, AFU WAS the place to be, as a player, coach, parent. Unfortunately... politics and greed prevailed. I am hopeful that under new leadership, with the BOD that’s in place that the necessary changes can be made to get AFU back on track. Because for a time, AFU had the best fields and staff in the metro area, it was a great time to be a player at AFU.

No, I'm just suggesting that if they want to keep or attract talent they're going to have to court the parents ($$$).  CF and NTH have perception going for them (as does UFA on the boys side).  GSA recruits with incentives.

Gwinnett is the 2nd most populous county in Georgia I think so location shouldn't hurt the club much. They need to recruit heavily from the Norcross and Sugar Hill/Johns Creek areas though. The younger UFA ECNL teams aren't very strong either, so either there is a dearth of talent in the area or Tophat are currently hoarding a lot of it.

The former HCU teams are playing in SCCL-Premier at different levels. None of them have supplanted the Duluth 2nd teams for SCCL-Club spots, but who knows, that may change for the U19's next year.

All this said, I think that at most age groups the club is stronger than Roswell or really anyone below CF/NTH/GSA/SSA/UFA if you compared first teams to first teams and 2nd teams to 2nd teams. So I think it's all relative.

I think that in addition to scholarship incentives, AFU needs to do something aggressive for their 2nd teams. They need to build the club brand better by attracting more talent. For instance UFA Forsyth has NPL which has more of a college-focus and exposure than most SCCL teams. They really need their 2nd teams (or HCU) in ECRL or NPL or some better league to be more competitive overall.

Out of curiosity, why is recruitment the answer as opposed to development? I realize development will take longer, but wouldn't the long term answer be to have coaches that can actually develop players?

I know AFU has lost players to other clubs. However, they simply have not had anyone to step up and fill the gap because they haven't done a good enough job of developing players. There is a focus on the top team (they don't do pool play in the Academy) and everyone else gets left behind. If you are a "bubble player" you need to leave because you don't get developed enough and also don't get a chance. Also, the club doesn't do a very good job showing loyalty to their own players, so in turn the players don't show loyalty back to the club.

IMO recruiting has its place, especially in the short term, but development should be the longer term goal.