Every MLSNext teams have bio banded kids in almost all age groups. |
08 player biobanding down in 09 team, I am not sure how much he can grow, or maybe he is just short. And this is the last season for him. He is not good enough to play in the 08 team and obviously does not want to go to the B team. |
He probably has a spot on a club’s A team no? |
My son's ASA team has zero. I believe the same is true for the age groups immediately above and below. |
| It's not going to happen. Been discussed for years but still nothing. |
I also highly doubt Achilles uses biobanded players much. They have tiny teams and probably could benefit from some biobanding. Wonder why they don’t. |
Because the coach appreciates both players and their parents' efforts to play on an MLSN team, bringing an older player down to play on an MLSN team is a disgrace to the younger players. |
| Playing down is unfair to the original players on the team. Currently, the P2P MLSN teams are playing down against the younger MLS Academy teams, and they have won most of the time. So, a one-year difference can statistically make an average MLS player as an Academy-level player. |
Achilles uses biobanded kids and all the other kids know because they all know each or about each other in the dmv Small market |
The physicality is the main reason for the wins, not the soccer quality |
Last year they had a couple that actually played. This year, I’m not so sure. DS team does not. |
Clubs would lose a main revenue source: small players are paying extra for upper team slots - and have been since on ramp to D1 at U13 for MLS Next and certainly ECNL. It’s a feature, not a bug. (Hence why you quickly see big players in the bio banding cohort at corrupt teams in US. It’s not to win lower league games it’s to get ‘big and dumb’ sharp faster). Pulisic - 5’9” - had 2 parent pros who quickly bypassed US system for German training at U16. It’s the dirty little secret of US travel soccer… |
Who is paying extra for upper team slots? What if a team is all average to small sized? Are they all paying extra to make a team? I don’t understand… |
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Bottom line is this...you rarely see truly top players getting bio banded. Either here or in Europe. Smaller players who are really gifted can find solutions against older and bigger players. Just look at Messi. He was the smallest player on the pitch for almost his entire career. You don't need to be a monster size wise to be good at soccer. You just don't. But you need some other x factor to succeed. That could be quickness, speed, power, vision, speed of thought, but it has to be something else. Because if you're small AND you have no x factor, you literally have no chance. Just like big and fast kids with no techbical.ability have no chance
. The problem in the US is that there is such an emphasis on winning and not actually playing good soccer to win (ie trying to possess the ball) that size is at a premium because you don't need to teach size. You have to teach a small player how to beat bigger players. That takes real knowledge and real development. We don't have the coaches or the knowledge in this country to do that on a mass scale. Biobanding gives our system an easy out. Hey just put those smaller kids an age down and call it we are doing the same thing Europe does..but the big difference is that Europe is actually using biobanding to develop kids. European clubs make calculations as to what a players physical potential will be and they try to maximize that potential. Because a lot of small kids without potential get kicked out of the system in Europe...FAST. in the US, biobanding is just a way to make parents happy and keep more kids and money in the ecosystem. if you're getting bio banded in the US system it is a big red flag for your future as a top player. It has very little to do with your actual development. Given the emphasis on size and speed in the US, the system is already telling the player that it doesn't believe in their potential. Biobanding is just a way for us soccer to allow pay to play clubs to appease as many parents as possible and keep the peace with respect to the fees they are able to retain. And greedy clubs use biobanding the wrong way as we can clearly see from other posts here. Biobanding, as it is implemented in the US is bad for players. |
Since your first sentence is a misinformed lie, no need to read the rest Many top current and former players in Europe benefited from biobanding because they believe in the science of relative age effect |