Twitter (X) rumors

Often predicted and anticipated but never actualized

Maybe this is the year

lajolla39 can give us the inside scoop. and definitely nothing to worry about. GAL is strong as ever.

What does GA have to do with MLS Next?  I thought that those were 2 separately operated leagues.  I know they formed a strategic relationship (whatever that means) back in 2020 but how would one influence who plays in the other.  Completely different goals between the leagues.

They are all pay to play leagues trying to sell gullible people on a dream. Consumers are just too naive and ignorant to know better so they go along blindly. Should be one league for boys and one for girls. All play on state level with promotion and relegation. You move on to sectional and regional and then national playoffs. This will never exist because the cash cow that is pay to play won’t allow it to exist.

MLS and the greedy owners are the issue. They control youth soccer. I bet I could gather a group of non MLS academy/MLS next players and beat most academy teams as well as compete with the YNT that is comprised of beloved MLS academy players. It would look bad for their brand if the supposed best don’t come from their system.

I am at a point where I think it all ought to be scratched and start over. We have pro leagues for men and women in the US now that are sustainable. It is time to go to pro academies in each state linked to whatever is the closest pro team (USL, NWSL, MLS). These academies start at U15 for both boys and girls (may not be the same club for both for example maybe it is Chattanooga for boys and Knoxville for girls, just making it up). Then the rest of the clubs are just set up like it used to be with pro/rel and make it with state, region, national. Big states like Florida, Texas, California have divisions North, South within them to keep travel down a bit but still keep it competitive. US soccer holds each state to a certain minimum level of competence. No crappy fields for the more serious levels etc.

Maybe we decide that bigger states need more than one pro level academy over time, but start at a reasonable and sustainable level that is split funding between the USSF and the pro teams maybe. I dunno. Do a financial analysis before you start and see what looks right but make it free for the players, including tutors in case pro doesn’t work out and they go the college route. Keep options open.

I am so tired of the infighting about leagues and clubs and who is better and what is best for this player and that and the politics and crap. Let’s think about the players. Let’s make it fun. Let’s worry less about making money off of these kids’ dreams and focus more and making sure they are having fun, staying healthy, playing a fun game and being coached the right way. It is hard enough to be a kid and a coach today without the mess that is this stress about leagues and stuff. Will there be enough games in this league? How much travel out of state? Will the league move more clubs into or out of our region? What showcases will we be in? Will there be much exposure there? Blah blah blah!

Fun (and affordable ) left the chat a long time ago, unfortunately.

The number of leagues is stupid. But at least with boys there's multiple different options. With girls you get to choose from expensive door #1 or expensive door #2.

The only thing that bothers me is parents that get gratification from a league and love telling everyone about it. But their kid is playing on a team that always losses.

When DA existed, wasn't US soccer still considering and  taking players onto the national team who didn't come from DA clubs?
That's my point.  US soccer still chose to not be forceful.  It failed for that reason (reaction to COVID didn't help)

DA should have never expanded to Girls, Girls DA added no value other than creating a turf war.
Boys DA had the right idea -- Alliance would have been the future, but the problem was they awarded so many clubs u12-u14 teams, and wouldn't give them the older teams. To me this was sustainable much longer anyway, unless those clubs put another Georgia United like alliance together.

remember this -- DA started out as fully funded. it was very hard to get accepted, and AFU (might be wrong about afu) and AFC and been dropped.

then it forced players hands and said, if we are paying for you, you can't play high school.
Then maybe a season before AU came around they went from fully funded to a being subsidized. I don't remember the total number, but it was like $1500 for the entire season -- everything including travel for the player was included in this price -- great deal etc. This model goes away essentially when GA united folded because AU rolled into town - AU fully funded, everyone else agreed on a price $2K, price didn't include unis or travel fees

Then around the same time, mls clubs are sick of losing to non-mls clubs (other reasons as well, but i like to be dramatic), so they push for a tiered division for the top 2 age groups (might have just been the top age group, hard to remember) -- the higher tier was MLS clubs and NCFC and that was basically it. UFA had just won the southeast division and they still got excluded etc. Total BS.

covid hits -- federation freaks about funding, because they added girls as well, became unsustainable in their eyes etc, they pull the plug.
Non mls clubs lose trust in mls clubs, their goal was always MLS only academy league etc.... Too risky to jump to their league, where they would make rules that benefited them etc.

boys DA was far from perfect, but even after subsidized model went away and it switched back to pay to play model -- US soccer was very good at giving aid $$. The aid didn't just cover registration fees, it also covered travel fees. now with boys ecnl this is gone, maybe club gives some $$ for registration, but rarely would include or cover travel fees etc.


Not sure on the boys side who else would be added from this area? I actually heard a rumor about lanier and was shocked!!!

With Girls you have the same problem of a closed league but the only motivators are to make money for the club owners, give parents what they want, give colleges what they want. Developing players come in last. 

At least with MLS/MLSn there's a motivation to develop and identify talent for professional teams.

This article pretty much sums up what happened to DA. US Soccer DA funding was expensive, around 12-million per year, and at a time when the federation was under a lot of financial pressure from Covid and several lawsuits, including a large pending settlement with our own US Women’s National Team. Geographically it was a challenge to implement and the methodology created robotic players. ********

U.S. Soccer announced the permanent closure of its development academy Wednesday, citing financial difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. U.S. Soccer had previously anticipated spending $12 million on the DA in 2021, but between recent lost revenue and an anticipated settlement with the USWNT over its lawsuit, the federation wanted to cut costs.

The boys’ DA was founded in 2007 to create a consistent standard for top youth clubs in the United States that could then feed into the national team programs. The girls’ DA was founded in 2017 with the same mission. Several top American players came out of the DA, but the program may have garnered more complaints than praise over its lifetime. It placed tight restrictions on players’ lives, controlled training methods, limited competition against teams in other leagues, and required heavy travel. Among the DA’s most controversial rules was its insistence that players had to participate in the program exclusively, and could not play high school soccer.

More than 100 clubs and 20,000 players will now have to make difficult decisions about their futures — where they will play, or how they will remain solvent — when American youth soccer resumes play.


U.S. Soccer’s decision does not appear to be entirely driven by the pandemic, but merely accelerated by it. Before the announcement, boys and girls teams had been leaving the DA for an independent rival league, ECNL, that has looser requirements. And immediately following the announcement, MLS announced that it is starting its own development program, suggesting that the league has known about U.S. Soccer’s plans for some time.

NWSL hasn’t announced similar measures, but top women’s coaches have been calling for the DA’s radical reform or dissolution.


In a letter to U.S. Soccer membership, new CEO Will Wilson outlined how the federation anticipates supporting the youth game when it restarts.

At U.S. Soccer, we will also be looking at other ways to positively impact youth development moving forward, including an increased emphasis on coaching education, a more comprehensive scouting effort, and working with clubs to maintain and expand the philosophy and standards established through the Development Academies.
The story of why the DA wasn’t working will take much more than one day to piece together, and it should come out over the next few months. But the CliffsNotes version is this: The DA was annoying more people than it was helping, and that’s not worth spending $12 million during good times.

In the short-term, U.S. Soccer’s decision will be difficult for players and clubs. While some clubs will find new leagues quickly and keep players in competitions and training environments that work for them, others will need more time, and some could ultimately close shop. Thousands of players now don’t know where they’ll be once they’re allowed to play soccer again, and could miss a season at a critical time in their development.


But in the long-term, the end of the DA could be a huge positive for youth soccer in America. Having big league that was run out of an ivory tower in Chicago didn’t serve players well, and now American soccer’s various stakeholders have an opportunity to create a variety of development pathways that fit the needs of different players and regions around the country.

It was time for the DA to go for a lot of reasons, but most of them stem from three big overarching problems.

America is just too damn big
If you spend one day on Youth Soccer Twitter, you’ll run into some galaxy brain geniuses asking why U.S. Soccer doesn’t emulate the youth setup of one of Europe’s most successful footballing nations. The answer is pretty simple: All of those countries are smaller than Texas.


And yet, U.S. Soccer tried to run a national league in which teenagers spent more time on buses and airplanes than they did on playing fields. Getting the best players in the country to play against each other makes sense on a surface level, but the logistics of making those matches happen require a massive waste of time and money.

Development isn’t just technical, it’s also emotional
Getting the best players into the best environments, with the best coaches and best training programs, helps them improve the tangible parts of their games. Unfortunately, the DA also turned a lot of players into soccer robots who didn’t care about the matches and weren’t as competitive as their predecessors.

USMNT legend, pro coach and DA parent Eric Wynalda explained why the DA’s ban on high school soccer created a bigger problem than the one it was trying to solve:


Coach and former player Skye Eddy Bruce made a similar point about why a shift to regional leagues should be better for player development going forward.

Youth players today lack the understanding of what it means to be on a team and battle, to celebrate a win — or survive the pain of defeat together. We have actually fed and created this mentality in our children through our league structures where winning just doesn’t matter as much and we are more concerned with “showcasing” players instead of showing them the value of battling to win together.

The ability and desire to win matters.

With regionalized competition comes stronger rivalries and with stronger competition comes increased development.

DA was preparing players for the technical and tactical realities of pro soccer, but not for the high level of competition.

One size doesn’t fit all
In an ideal system, all players will have access to the same opportunities if they want them. But the realities of the American soccer — how young the professional scene is, how large the country is, and how many parents absolutely cannot be convinced that there is more to think about than just a college scholarship — mean that there have to be several different youth development pathways.

The different needs of players need to be considered. Some 14-year-olds are ready to go off to Soccer Army and commit to two-a-days for the rest of their lives, and some aren’t. Some kids are dying to play high school soccer and some don’t care. Some have difficult family situations, or other hobbies they’re extremely passionate about, or live an hour away from the nearest soccer field. All of these kids should have an opportunity to play soccer at a high level and be evaluated by youth national team coaches if they’re talented enough.

There is room for MLS, NWSL, USL, U.S. Soccer, ECNL and other American youth soccer organizations to execute their own visions for player development. The lack of one master league will not make finding the best players impossibles. U.S. Soccer and the big pro clubs can still host or compete against smaller clubs and find top talent. And an improved state Olympic Development Program that meets once a month could help, too.

I don’t have the solution to what ails American youth soccer, and neither does anyone else. U.S. Soccer need to admit the same thing to themselves. That the only way a system which produces great professional players and works for all people involved in the game can be achieved. What is best for New York City is not best for western Texas. What is best for a kid who’s been obsessed with becoming a great soccer player since they were in kindergarten is not what’s best for a multi-sport athlete who discovers the game at 14.

MLS can, and should, set its own standards for what an MLS academy should look like. So should NWSL, ECNL and everyone else. U.S. Soccer’s role in youth development shouldn’t be to set rigid standards, but to facilitate collaboration while establishing a wide scouting network, so that top talents who aren’t playing in hermetic environments can be noticed and given different opportunities.

The idea behind the DA was logical: create a better training standard for top players and get America’s best players to compete against each other. But there wasn’t enough consideration given to the problems it might create. American youth soccer has an opportunity to learn from the DA’s mistakes and improve dramatically in its absence.

Not a rumor anymore:
theecnl.com/news/2024/2/13/ecnl-girls-announces-new-club-additions-for-2024-25-season.aspx?fbclid=IwAR01jFYKY6PUy_yZTZGU2x9m5fw_AMkPxOOe-xJlpzI_G1FArKHj9E5Q0NU_aem_AW_3Wzcgm0oXuA4DOXVy8IINANpm8f9wI1eiQT-3YeI63tz0D_MqJn0sMDUcYVaEifg

Those are big additions to ECNL