Best MLS-Next program in the area (other than DC United)

[Anonymous]

The training environments at just about all of our local clubs is not good, MLS Academy included. Some of that is on the clubs, some is on the TDs, and some of that is on the customer base (demanding the wrong things, etc.)…so pick one, don’t stay married to it, move around and look for outside training opportunities, when possible, to train and play in different environments, with different types of players, with higher level players (eg girls players training with boys, teenagers training with adults) and coaches who have experience training and coaching at levels beyond youth soccer.

[Anonymous]

I think the training at all of those clubs is good enough if the goal of the player was to play in college.

D1 of course requires more rigor and to that extent, the player and their parents are responsive for their own touches and addl training.

If the goal is to go pro, I would think all the clubs and DCU are not sufficient. And if that is the goal, I imagine the player is trying to emulate the kind of training a player gets overseas, which I’m assuming is more comprehensive and includes more touches outside of team practices, strength, agility and conditioning, and regular opportunities to be challenged (eg playing up).

I guess I think parents should not put all their eggs in one basket (ie, the club). But I do think parents of serious players already know this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Out of Alexandria, Achilles, Baltimore Armour, Bethesda, and SYC at the MLS-Next level:

1) Which club has the strongest teams on average?
2) Which clubs have the better infrastructure (practice fields, playing fields, coaches)?
3) Which one is best at developing players and giving talented players the opportunity to go to college or even pro?

If your son had the opportunity to play in any of these clubs, which one would you choose?

1) Who cares? Seriously. Winning-losing has nothing to do with the development of your kid.
2) Bethesda, Alexandria. Arlington (if you want ECNL) has access to nice pitches as well.
3) One issue that hasn't been discussed is the 'poaching' of players by some of the bigger clubs. Sometimes clubs at a tournament or something will put a thought in a parent's mind that they need to switch. Sometimes it's not always the club reaching out, but families who grew and developed in one program jumping ship the last 2-3 years to get a bump on entrance due to real or perceived differences in one club's ability to push kids forward.

I think as others have mentioned the number one question is "what is your goal" for your kid? I know several players who are going for D1, pro, or even youth national team and the commitment required of these teenagers includes nearly full-time training, dropping out of normal high school and switching to tutors, along with significant travel every season. Not saying that is the only path, but there are some who are going "all in" to push to the highest level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Each game played however, the coach screams at the players, and not on an occasional basis, but just a constant barrage. Is that not true?

I don't even care about that. I just care that the kids are not taught to play the ball on the ground, move off the ball, work as a team to create space and attack the goal, retain possession when opportunities aren't there, and make smart risk/reward decisions in the final third. In this area the best clubs for teaching this are Arlington (academy age and above) and Alexandria - but even at those clubs not every coach is as good as another. Bethesda and Baltimore have some good coaches too. SYC does not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each game played however, the coach screams at the players, and not on an occasional basis, but just a constant barrage. Is that not true?

I don't even care about that. I just care that the kids are not taught to play the ball on the ground, move off the ball, work as a team to create space and attack the goal, retain possession when opportunities aren't there, and make smart risk/reward decisions in the final third. In this area the best clubs for teaching this are Arlington (academy age and above) and Alexandria - but even at those clubs not every coach is as good as another. Bethesda and Baltimore have some good coaches too. SYC does not.

A coach continuously yelling at their players from the side is not good coaching in part bc it doesn’t teach the kids good decision making. Their instincts are overridden regularly by the coach so they don’t develop any soccer IQ and they’re scared to make mistakes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each game played however, the coach screams at the players, and not on an occasional basis, but just a constant barrage. Is that not true?

I don't even care about that. I just care that the kids are not taught to play the ball on the ground, move off the ball, work as a team to create space and attack the goal, retain possession when opportunities aren't there, and make smart risk/reward decisions in the final third. In this area the best clubs for teaching this are Arlington (academy age and above) and Alexandria - but even at those clubs not every coach is as good as another. Bethesda and Baltimore have some good coaches too. SYC does not.

A coach continuously yelling at their players from the side is not good coaching in part bc it doesn’t teach the kids good decision making. Their instincts are overridden regularly by the coach so they don’t develop any soccer IQ and they’re scared to make mistakes.

Alexandria, right? That was our experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each game played however, the coach screams at the players, and not on an occasional basis, but just a constant barrage. Is that not true?

I don't even care about that. I just care that the kids are not taught to play the ball on the ground, move off the ball, work as a team to create space and attack the goal, retain possession when opportunities aren't there, and make smart risk/reward decisions in the final third. In this area the best clubs for teaching this are Arlington (academy age and above) and Alexandria - but even at those clubs not every coach is as good as another. Bethesda and Baltimore have some good coaches too. SYC does not.

A coach continuously yelling at their players from the side is not good coaching in part bc it doesn’t teach the kids good decision making. Their instincts are overridden regularly by the coach so they don’t develop any soccer IQ and they’re scared to make mistakes.

Alexandria, right? That was our experience.

I was not referring to any particular club but FWIW, I think every club has a coach like that. I mean that’s why when picking clubs, parents always say it’s all about the coach.

I would recommend guest playing for clubs your kids are considering to get the full experience of how the coach coaches at games. The feedback a coach can give to a player based on their performance at actual games is invaluable. But that feedback can only make an impact if given in a constructive way. For my kids, that feedback was given at half time or when subbed out and always in private, not in front of their teammates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each game played however, the coach screams at the players, and not on an occasional basis, but just a constant barrage. Is that not true?

I don't even care about that. I just care that the kids are not taught to play the ball on the ground, move off the ball, work as a team to create space and attack the goal, retain possession when opportunities aren't there, and make smart risk/reward decisions in the final third. In this area the best clubs for teaching this are Arlington (academy age and above) and Alexandria - but even at those clubs not every coach is as good as another. Bethesda and Baltimore have some good coaches too. SYC does not.

A coach continuously yelling at their players from the side is not good coaching in part bc it doesn’t teach the kids good decision making. Their instincts are overridden regularly by the coach so they don’t develop any soccer IQ and they’re scared to make mistakes.

Alexandria, right? That was our experience.

No, SYC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each game played however, the coach screams at the players, and not on an occasional basis, but just a constant barrage. Is that not true?

I don't even care about that. I just care that the kids are not taught to play the ball on the ground, move off the ball, work as a team to create space and attack the goal, retain possession when opportunities aren't there, and make smart risk/reward decisions in the final third. In this area the best clubs for teaching this are Arlington (academy age and above) and Alexandria - but even at those clubs not every coach is as good as another. Bethesda and Baltimore have some good coaches too. SYC does not.

A coach continuously yelling at their players from the side is not good coaching in part bc it doesn’t teach the kids good decision making. Their instincts are overridden regularly by the coach so they don’t develop any soccer IQ and they’re scared to make mistakes.

Perhaps that is true. Certainly an overly critical coach can damage a player's confidence. However the issue is bigger than this and the problem I am talking about occurs in (and needs fixing in) the training sessions, not during the games themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alexandria

Really? I don't know much about the other clubs, but I don't often see updates about Alexandria kids playing in college. If they do its to some really small school that I've never heard of.

Same as SYC, you hear very little of kids playing in college. Honestly, many don't make the grades or have the money for College.

For College path, I would suggest ECNL many of those kids do make it in College. Both girls and boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alexandria

Really? I don't know much about the other clubs, but I don't often see updates about Alexandria kids playing in college. If they do its to some really small school that I've never heard of.

Same as SYC, you hear very little of kids playing in college. Honestly, many don't make the grades or have the money for College.

For College path, I would suggest ECNL many of those kids do make it in College. Both girls and boys.

Girls, yes. Boys, not so much. A handful from most teams go on to play D2/D3, with maybe 1-2 going D1.

[Anonymous]

Alexandria MLSNext parent here - Last year was a huge disappointment (I believe ASA was spending more effort getting the new GA teams set up), but this year it seems they have refocused on the boys top program. I would mostly say that it depends on the coach, so keep an eye on who is coaching you age group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alexandria

Really? I don't know much about the other clubs, but I don't often see updates about Alexandria kids playing in college. If they do its to some really small school that I've never heard of.

Same as SYC, you hear very little of kids playing in college. Honestly, many don't make the grades or have the money for College.

For College path, I would suggest ECNL many of those kids do make it in College. Both girls and boys.

Really? SYC’s mlsnext Instagram is filled with college commits and kids playing on National teams w/ dual citizenship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alexandria MLSNext parent here - Last year was a huge disappointment (I believe ASA was spending more effort getting the new GA teams set up), but this year it seems they have refocused on the boys top program. I would mostly say that it depends on the coach, so keep an eye on who is coaching you age group.

A parent w/ kid on red and it was a total failure last year. Very few games, coach sometimes not able to make games because stretched too thin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alexandria

Really? I don't know much about the other clubs, but I don't often see updates about Alexandria kids playing in college. If they do its to some really small school that I've never heard of.

Same as SYC, you hear very little of kids playing in college. Honestly, many don't make the grades or have the money for College.

For College path, I would suggest ECNL many of those kids do make it in College. Both girls and boys.

Really? SYC’s mlsnext Instagram is filled with college commits and kids playing on National teams w/ dual citizenship.

Look at the volume of kids and quality of schools they are committing to vs. that of Bethesda, which is sending dozens of kids to the ACC and Ivy League. No comparison. Part of it is you don't play college soccer without the grades. This isn't football or basketball where 2.0 is good enough.