DC United Academy ID session this weekend

[Anonymous]

No. Went to the 2nd "ID Session," where my son dominated again, and never heard from them again.

The weather sucked and I got a speeding ticket from a traffic camera on 295, so all in all a pretty dismal day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Went to the 2nd "ID Session," where my son dominated again, and never heard from them again.

The weather sucked and I got a speeding ticket from a traffic camera on 295, so all in all a pretty dismal day.

That's not ok, why not put some closure to the process. Either you get an offer or you don't at some point.

Hate DC and those cameras too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll back up the statement that the ID sessions are bogus. My son went to one, got invited back to another with the fee waived, and was "scouted," whatever that means...

But the bottom line is that most of the players who show up have no business being there. If your son is good at taking the ball and dribbling it (which might be just what DCU is looking for at the U12/U13 age group), then he'll stand out. If his game is more based on things like positioning, movement, and ability to move the ball quickly, it won't matter.

That being said...Skip your futsal game! Go see for yourself. Drive up to RFK on a Sunday, and then imagine that drive on a weeknight...

So what happened after getting scouted? Did you get an offer after a few tryouts?

I have heard of kids who have 'practiced' with the DA for a whole season never to get any actual game time. Unless you are Messi's son, you'll probably be aiming for a part time spot, where you continue to play with your existing club and 'guest play' for DC United a few times during the season.

Basically this is an ID session--get your face in front of the coaches as many times as possible before the real tryouts in the Spring (where they already know 80% of the kids they want to take and are looking to fill in the gaps with a few new faces).

Don't take it too seriously at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The tryouts are in DC. Is this a bait and switch? Not going to waste my time if the practices will actually be in Loudoun if my kid makes the team.

Their practices are in DC for now as they've always been but they are moving to Loudoun once that practice facility gets finished this summer.

Not really a bait and switch. The move to Loudoun has been pretty well publicized. The DC United 1st team, Loudoun United, DCU Academy, and Wash Spirit will all share the facility. They even got the county board to throw in another 10 mil recently to make sure it gets finished.

https://soccerstadiumdigest.com/2019/12/loudoun-county-to-pay-extra-10m-toward-d-c-united-complex/

https://www.loudountimes.com/news/loudoun-united-d-c-united-and-washington-spirit-announce-new/article_4241d9de-05af-11ea-bc64-1b5d744fe9e0.html

Well then, thanks but no thanks.

Ultimately this move will doom their program. Dc United will be little more than a local travel club.

Though it is surely a tough blow for the club, I am sure their DA will survive without your son. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I just looked at their ID session page , it does has words saying:

"...identify players to track through our scouting network. ".

Just like some people said, it is not a tryout.

[Anonymous]

I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

That won't be meaningful until such a farm team can have good coaching and development and until scouts here know how to select talent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

Detriment to the kid: The vast majority of kids will end up cut and they will have destroyed their chances for a college scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

Love the enthusiasm, but you should educate yourself on how the rest of the world does things. We don't have to start from scratch. There's already a system of rules in place that incentivizes player development. It's why prospective future professional players (i.e., the elite) in the rest of the world don't have to pay. Youth players are free to move to whatever club they want, but if they do grow up to play professionally, every club that trained them from U12 on up gets compensated by the club that signs them first, and there can be further bonus payments if there are transfer fees later on. Developing a superstar can be like winning the lottery for a youth club. It's literally worth millions.

Of note, last year MLS announced that it would begin following this system, but only in one direction. It will insist on training compensation and solidarity payments when one of its academy players gets signed abroad, but it will not make such payments to domestic non-MLS clubs whose players later move to an MLS team. Not surprisingly, US Soccer is OK with this, and had said it will not back non-MLS clubs seeking TC/S payments.

Some background reading: https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/a-guide-to-training-compensation-and-solidarity-payments-in-football

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

I am sorry to report: many countries (e.g. China) has such system and they are even worse than USA in soccer.

And we all know: major sports in US (e.g basketball) do not have such system, should we say USA's domination in basketball is due to pay-to-play?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

Love the enthusiasm, but you should educate yourself on how the rest of the world does things. We don't have to start from scratch. There's already a system of rules in place that incentivizes player development. It's why prospective future professional players (i.e., the elite) in the rest of the world don't have to pay. Youth players are free to move to whatever club they want, but if they do grow up to play professionally, every club that trained them from U12 on up gets compensated by the club that signs them first, and there can be further bonus payments if there are transfer fees later on. Developing a superstar can be like winning the lottery for a youth club. It's literally worth millions.

Of note, last year MLS announced that it would begin following this system, but only in one direction. It will insist on training compensation and solidarity payments when one of its academy players gets signed abroad, but it will not make such payments to domestic non-MLS clubs whose players later move to an MLS team. Not surprisingly, US Soccer is OK with this, and had said it will not back non-MLS clubs seeking TC/S payments.

Some background reading: https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/a-guide-to-training-compensation-and-solidarity-payments-in-football

And more background. Many players feel this is an unfair system they are being coerced into participating in for fear of losing their spots.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/major-league-soccer/story/3880427/mls-players-union-solidarity-payments-unfair

[Anonymous]

I think this is also the rub for non-MLS academies. There is no incentive to be a funnel to the MLS, and if they only have partial age groups, then that just makes it worse.

Although this is about boys, the US will need to start thinking about how to build a better professional base for women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

Love the enthusiasm, but you should educate yourself on how the rest of the world does things. We don't have to start from scratch. There's already a system of rules in place that incentivizes player development. It's why prospective future professional players (i.e., the elite) in the rest of the world don't have to pay. Youth players are free to move to whatever club they want, but if they do grow up to play professionally, every club that trained them from U12 on up gets compensated by the club that signs them first, and there can be further bonus payments if there are transfer fees later on. Developing a superstar can be like winning the lottery for a youth club. It's literally worth millions.

Of note, last year MLS announced that it would begin following this system, but only in one direction. It will insist on training compensation and solidarity payments when one of its academy players gets signed abroad, but it will not make such payments to domestic non-MLS clubs whose players later move to an MLS team. Not surprisingly, US Soccer is OK with this, and had said it will not back non-MLS clubs seeking TC/S payments.

Some background reading: https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/a-guide-to-training-compensation-and-solidarity-payments-in-football

And more background. Many players feel this is an unfair system they are being coerced into participating in for fear of losing their spots.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/major-league-soccer/story/3880427/mls-players-union-solidarity-payments-unfair

Those are the talking points from the MLS Players Union. The Union: 1) gets no piece of the pie when a player is transferred overseas and 2) would rather not have MLS clubs become seller clubs with lower salaries and focus on development. For the union, the current MLS model of having high dollar aging stars and USMNT players staying stateside means higher MLS payrolls which in turn puts more money in the Union coffers. So, they aren’t coming at this from the standpoint of what is best for US players or US Soccer as a whole, but rather what is best for the Union.

[Anonymous]

At DC United ID session for 07,08 group right now. About 25 kids showed up. U17 dcu academy coach is leading a training session.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At DC United ID session for 07,08 group right now. About 25 kids showed up. U17 dcu academy coach is leading a training session.

That's pretty low, but expected given that there is no U13 (next year's 08s) and the move to Loudon is on the cards. I think previous ID sessions were probably double that number.