DC United Academy - aa strong academy or not
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Anonymous
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https://www.transfermarkt.com/philadelphia-union/jugendarbeit/verein/25467
Phillys former academy players...just look at the market value alone. |
Anonymous
These are all Philly Academy players who were developed there for 5 years or more before going professional? Very few are at Division 1 clubs in Europe. That's the standard. |
Anonymous
Is it? Also, I hope you realize this is a terrible argument to make now that players literally can't be at DC United for 5 years before deciding between college or pro. If you have a development process at all, you don't start at U15. With no younger age groups the "academy" is just basically an aggregation of local talent so they can hope to gain control of players' rights. I'm surprised the league allows it. |
Anonymous
If a player isn't at your academy for at least 5 years, you had a part to do with their development, you didn't develop them. Whether it's DCU or not. Don't be fully claiming them. Kids are at academies in Europe and South America from U8 and U9/U10 for the most part. If you're claiming High Level soccer professional success, we all now MLS isn't it. |
Anonymous
U think starting at u13 or u14 at another MLS academy makes it not a aggregation of talent already developed at grassroots clubs from U6? FC Delco sending kids to Philly for U14 and U15 and U16 is what? |
Anonymous
Of course academies add players but it's not ALL they do. Both of the closest other MLS Academies start much younger than U15, Red Bull at U10, Philly at U12 (with an additional "juniors" program down to U9). And thank you for pointing out another area of deficiency for DCU Academy vs. its two closest peers: relationships with local clubs. Both of them have real relationships with other clubs. Philly has a partnership with Delco and I believe NYRB with Ironbound and maybe others. DC's relationship with the clubs is, in some cases, adversarial, and they don't have any real partnerships. |
Anonymous
Stop lies and misleading. DC Academy has feeder relationships with multiple grassroots clubs in the DMV That all said, this is a waste of time and energy discussion because majority of All the MLS Club Academy players after U18 take the same Non Pro routes to college or something else. Less than 0.5% will ever see Top Tier professional soccer Hell, not even English and European academies are sending 2% to top tier professional clubs |
Anonymous
This seems to be true from what I have read also. In addition, I think its interesting to note, that in the FA, arguable the organization with the most experience in the world with recruiting young players, they have flat out said, there is no crystal ball when it comes to recruiting young kids. -No one can predict a young soccer player's future success based on where they are in their youth stages. |
Anonymous
But what you can do in an academy is put systems and structures in place to increase the chances of success. DCU hasn't done that. Most of the academies in the world have a low success rate of producing pros. But ALOT of them just produce better footballers because they are actually trying to produce pros and because the process is so difficult for the players very few make it. Like has been said here before, the success rate of producing pro players is low across the board at ALL academies in the WORLD. Yes, DCU is no different in this regard. But following your logic DCU is in no different position than La Masia, Real Madrid or Sporting Lisbon academies for example, since they are also not producing pros at rapid rates. We all know this is an absurd argument because those academies are sophisticated, have money, put a ton into player development processes and have a better track record. This is the same difference between DCU and it's peers, just on the east coast. More sophisticated, better track record, more investment and more emphasis on player development and the process of player development at Philly Union and Red Bulls, absolutely nothing at DCU. Not even their own field to practice on. It's like saying the US has won as many world cups as Portugal, Netherlands and Belgium so we are doing just as good as them from a player perspective in the world.cup.. This is just a ridiculous argument. It's obvious who has a better chance of producing a pro footballer. As stated, In a game where the chances of success are very low, you can't be in an academy where they are decreasing your chances because they actually don't.care.about the players or them.becoming pros and have no infrastructure or vision behind how they will produce pros. Which is DCU. And if you really want to keep it real about where all the kids end up, players in top European academies that don't make it are coming here and taking all of the college scholarships at big time programs because they are better players because they are in better systems for longer learning the game. Many of the kids going to college from DCU don't have full rides for college soccer. They are using soccer as a resume booster to just get in. Like a previous poster said, you can do this at pretty much any MLS next or ECNL club. DCU isn't special in this way and you can go to a better high school as well outside of DCU. DCU isn't special in any way other than it carries the MLS logo. What this boils down to is that there are just some.acadmies that are better than others and DCU is at the bottom.of the barrel. If college soccer is the ambition then, since you've conceded that the pathway at DCU is more geared toward hat, why would a player need to go to DCU? It doesn't have close to the track record of putting kids in college like some of the local clubs do AND it is an inferior program both academically and on the soccer side. If college soccer is the ambition, there are clearly better pathways than DCU. If pro soccer is the ambition, there are clearly better pathways than DCU. The reality is, DCU is a complete waste of time if you want to be an elite footballer and even more of a waste of time of you're trying to become a pro. For college DCU is just a resume booster and a platform for possibly more exposure. Nothing more. For the time you need to invest into DCU, the ROI is not there for the players or the families. |
Anonymous
But more than DCU. That's the standard. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
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Confirms what was reported here weeks ago. In addition to dropping the U14s and now charging the families 10k a year for a mediocre school option, DCU continues to be the laughingstock of MLS academies and this won't change anytime soon. It's really pathetic. |
Anonymous
B-b-but they send kids to college! Academic scholarships! |
Anonymous
Hilarious. 🤣🤣🤣😠|