Post-DA future - Boys
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Anonymous
I don't disagree with you regarding the travel aspect and the common sense notion that you don't have to travel far to find good competition, but keep in mind that formerly DA players/families are used to long distance travel for league games (New York, New Jersey, PA) so a trip to North or South Carolina won't be much different and probably slightly less expensive. However, Arlington is likely lose its top players in the older age groups unless they end up in a league that offers a strong college recruiting platform similar to what DA did. DA platform was a huge recruiting draw for these clubs, so losing it will definitely hurt their ability to attract and retain their top players. After the USSF used coronavirus as an excuse to grant MLS' longstanding wish to replace the DA with MLS-based youth league, these clubs were placed in a very difficult spot. They have to mitigate the damage and find a new league for their top teams. I see two options. One option (Richmond, VDA) is to join ECNL, which has a good college recruiting platform and strong competition, but currently has travel commitments that are similar to DA. Another option (probably Arlington) is to join EDP, which has good competition but smaller recruiting platform, and try to market "less travel" and "less expense" angle. |
Anonymous
| Arlington and Bethesda are joining the new MLS league. |
Anonymous
Woah that's huge news! Would you mind sharing the link, or email maybe? |
Anonymous
Arlington did not even have a full DA. How many Arlington boys got placed into college soccer last year? This year? And if you are suggesting ECNL would change all that, some facts would be useful -- how many more have BRYC, Loudoun and McLean inked for college soccer vs. their placements before ECNL? |
Anonymous
Arlington has one player signed for college next year, tying them with NVSC, PWSI, VSA, and SYA. The really good Arlington talent would funnel to DCU, which can still be the case if DCU continues in an MLS league. |
Anonymous
Was discussed on this thread a few pages back. Not confirmed yet. Reports from trusted sources that Bethesda and Baltimore are likely to (but not confirmed yet) to join the MLS league. Nothing that I have heard about Arlington. People are extrapolating from the fact that Arlington hasn't joined ECNL, unlike VDA and Richmond. This is as far as as what I have heard. Now for the guessing. My best guess would be that Bethesda and Baltimore former DA teams join the MLS league for U15 and U17 (the age groups what the new league will start with), and EDP for U14, 16 and 18-19 (something like the mid-Atlantic Development League they had last year for U16 DA teams with a bunch of non-MLS DA teams plus SAC etc.). These two teams were also in the Tier 1 of the newly-tiered DA this year, so makes sense if they go the MLS league route. That said, if the new league is too uncertain, they could very well just go for EDP all the way through. Just to be clear, noone has told me this, or anything about Arlington. |
Anonymous
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MLS league is only U15 and U17
There is discussion about clubs having both boys ECNL and boys MLS league teams. Doesn’t sound like Arlington going to get either. Maybe an influential Arlington DA parent could do some lobbying? |
Anonymous
| BSC announced coaching slate for girls teams. It includes several coaches (including DA) from boys side. There has been a shake up over past year on girls side with new leadership that appears to be effective with a more consistent approach. From what I hear, with exception of maybe a coach style, parents are happier. . Just wondering what this means. Is it a mitigation measure given DA announcements and/or a strategy to have girls and boys side more integrated / consistent in coaching philosophy |
Anonymous
*ex-DA |
Anonymous
1. Alexandria has good teams and good coaching. That is an excellent club. 2. Despite that, Gotsoccer rankings are a joke. They're based on a mathematical model which doesn't work for the way youth soccer teams actually play. There are two fundamental problems. Firstly the model requires teams to play each other in a homogenous fashion in order for the ranking system to compare between teams correctly. So for example if MLS and DA teams just play each other, and everyone else plays in a completely separate group then the rankings cannot be used to compare between the groups. the same caveat would apply to West coast vs East coast - or any other pooling of teams where teams largely play within separate pools. Secondly the specific model gotsoccer uses rewards teams for just playing more tournaments. So a team that plays ten tournaments and wins three will be ranked much higher than a team that plays two tournaments and wins both. On top of that DA teams typically don't play in ranked events. So - the Arlington 05 boys DA team is actually ranked 5140th with zero points. - the red travel team (actually Arlington's second team) is ranked 96th (3rd in VA) with 10301 points and a 6-2-3 record (54.5% win rate) including winning the state cup. - by comparison Doradus is ranked 57 (1st in VA) with 12991 points and a 14-4-13 record (45.2% win rate). 3. In general, MLS teams are significantly better than DA teams, and in general the DA teams (in the DMV area anyway) are better than the non-DA teams. In most (but not all) cases the gap is significant. That doesn't mean that DA teams don't sometimes beat MLS teams, or that a non-DA team can't sometimes win a game against a DA team of course. And the best non-MLS DAs generally have some age group teams which are truly competitive with MLS teams, and the best non-DA clubs have some teams which are truly competitive with DA clubs. Moving on from that, I think the OP here is absolutely correct when he suggests that "The coaching often is stretched thin and unless your kid is put on a track with the top 15 kids in a 100 kid age group, you just might be better off elsewhere." Only two things matter for your kid: 1. The quality of the coach for his team. Maybe playing in a program with really good management (which is different from just "big club", although there is a correlation) helps every coach on the program get better and maybe the biggest clubs are able to attract better coaches - but there are still bad coaches at the best clubs and great coaches at smaller clubs. 2. The level of players on your kid's team and the teams they compete against. This needs to be sufficient to ensure your kid can develop properly. That's it. So sure - if your kid is really talented and will make the first team at a big club, and you can put up with the drive time - then its likely worth picking a good one. But if your kid is going to be on the second team, let alone the third, fourth, or fifth team - then a smaller club is likely just as good, and may well be better. |
Anonymous
You may be right. I used to make the drive from Chantilly and Howison was about an hour (the quickest route in rush hour was through Clifton). Haymarket was only 30 minutes. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Think youth soccer rankings suffer from similar sorts of problems. 1. The teams just don't play enough games for the algorithm to work properly. It would literally take several years to climb from 200 to 10 in those rankings. But in practice teams change in performance far quicker than that. They get/lose new players and/or a new coach every year. Based on a model with similar flaws, Man United might still be ranked as the world's best soccer team  .
2. As with got soccer, clubs swim in separate pools which rarely or never play games between pools. This is a problem for all ranking systems which basically makes it impossible to provide any kind of meaningful comparison between the different pools. With your kid I would suggest you try and find a coach who values skill over size. It's not a bad thing for a small kid to learn how to play against bigger/faster/stronger players. Then, when the growth catches up, they have more tools in their toolbox. But you need to have a coach who is willing to play kids in that situation and knows how to coach them to be successful. |
Anonymous
Think youth soccer rankings suffer from similar sorts of problems. 1. The teams just don't play enough games for the algorithm to work properly. It would literally take several years to climb from 200 to 10 in those rankings. But in practice teams change in performance far quicker than that. They get/lose new players and/or a new coach every year. Based on a model with similar flaws, Man United might still be ranked as the world's best soccer team .
2. As with got soccer, clubs swim in separate pools which rarely or never play games between pools. This is a problem for all ranking systems which basically makes it impossible to provide any kind of meaningful comparison between the different pools. With your kid I would suggest you try and find a coach who values skill over size. It's not a bad thing for a small kid to learn how to play against bigger/faster/stronger players. Then, when the growth catches up, they have more tools in their toolbox. But you need to have a coach who is willing to play kids in that situation and knows how to coach them to be successful. Thought I would give an example of youth soccer rankings based on the Arlington 06 boys DA team. Last year they weren't especially good, in my view largely because of the coaching which was truly poor (that coach is no longer with the club). In the fall 2019 season, with a really good coach, they went 9-2-2 and finished with the best record in the DA of the local clubs. Here are the records alphabetically: Club Record Youthsoccer rank Arlington 9-2-2 224 Baltimore 7-2-6 290 Bethesda 4-2-9 94 DC United 7-6-5 147 PA Classics 3-6-7 641 Richmond 4-3-8 283 VDA 4-6-6 438 If I had to rank these clubs based on watching them play this year, I would have put them into four tiers Tier 1: Arlington and DC United Tier 2: Baltimore Tier 3: VDA, Richmond Tier 4: Bethesda, PA Classics But the youth soccer rankings don't reflect this at all. Bethesda - arguably the worst team in the group - has the highest ranking. Arlington - arguably the best - has a middling ranking. |
Anonymous
Thought I would give an example of youth soccer rankings based on the Arlington 06 boys DA team. Last year they weren't especially good, in my view largely because of the coaching which was truly poor (that coach is no longer with the club). In the fall 2019 season, with a really good coach, they went 9-2-2 and finished with the best record in the DA of the local clubs. Here are the records alphabetically: Club Record Youthsoccer rank Arlington 9-2-2 224 Baltimore 7-2-6 290 Bethesda 4-2-9 94 DC United 7-6-5 147 PA Classics 3-6-7 641 Richmond 4-3-8 283 VDA 4-6-6 438 If I had to rank these clubs based on watching them play this year, I would have put them into four tiers Tier 1: Arlington and DC United Tier 2: Baltimore Tier 3: VDA, Richmond Tier 4: Bethesda, PA Classics But the youth soccer rankings don't reflect this at all. Bethesda - arguably the worst team in the group - has the highest ranking. Arlington - arguably the best - has a middling ranking. Was there much player changeover at Arlington (and other clubs)? |