DC United Academy - aa strong academy or not
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Anonymous
Real high level soccer people know that DCU is not a credible academy with any long term ambition and no intention of developing pro players. Real.high level soccer people know that talent and potential alone is definitely not enough for becoming a pro player. You have to have environments that nurture and develop your talent and potential. Real high level soccer people observing DCUs teams this weekend know that the academy is failing the kids. Real.high level soccer people know wins and lossess aren't important. But they also know that if you're winning and/or losing and learning anything then you're just losing all around. Which is what is happening at DCU. |
Anonymous
C’mon. That is hyperbole. Philly couldn’t have shut out the entire academy?!?! |
Anonymous
Not hyperbole...FACTS. DCU did not score one goal across all it's teams. |
Anonymous
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U19
DC 1-3 Alexandria U17 DC 1-4 Alexandria Can someone with dmv knowledge explain this? |
Anonymous
My kid is still U13 so we have time but I don't see any reason to give up my freedom and rights to join DCU. |
Anonymous
Oh my. You.posted it on two threads, Alexandria dad. You're very proud. Kudos to you. |
Anonymous
Is there anybody who explain the discrepancy in talent? Is it simply more soccer IQ, better athletes or something else? If Philly's 1st touch was superior and they were passing and dribbling around DCU, that is soccer IQ. If they were simply stronger and faster, that is better athletes. Curious to know what is the discrepancy 2 hours away. |
Anonymous
Unless you have an answer, you should allow him to flex. |
Anonymous
Then let him flex, and not pretend like he's asking a question. I'm not a DC United parent and don't care, but the false question is annoying. Just say how your sons team won or whatever. |
Anonymous
It was unfortunate to see the local academy resort to long balls as the main strategy. Yeah a few moments of decent passing string sequence and quick combination play but that was scarce. Both Alexandria squads aimed for possession based attacks switching the point of attack frequently before overloading each of the outside channels they decided to penetrate through. U19s match was odd because they got the lead and got excessively comfortable and right before halftime Alexandria slapped three times in the 42’ 45’ and 48’. First two Alexandria goals were off DC poor defending leaving guys open, maybe lacked the ability to execute the offside trap. The third goal was a top bin outside the box hitting the inside of the post type of goal. Solid hype. U17s match also had DC get the lead but eventually Lost it to a better coached and more cohesive team. |
Anonymous
Thank you! Very helpful for someone who knows the game beyond just keeping the score. |
Anonymous
Agree with everything that a PP said about the quality of the game(s). DCU showed no real strategy other than kick and run football, which is all that they do across the older teams because they don't know how to coach the kids properly and they don't have a plan for the kids and their development. But to continue to answer you question, there is a macro problem DCU and that comes down to two key areas (there are more but these are the main two): the recruitment of players and the quality of their coaching staff and player development methodology. Let me break this down: Recruitment of players: DCU leans HEAVILY toward the recruitment of early bloomers into the academy at the younger ages because these are the kids that they think stand out from the local teams they scout and the pool of regional talent. Does it mean that all kids they recruit are big and fast, no. But the majority of the kids are and many of them lack the footballing IQ when they come to DCU to understand how to play the game at a higher level. Because of this and also because DCU only has a few years to work with them (because the system starts WAY late), they try to get immediate results and resort to direct football (kick and run) to do this. This strategy definitely works in the younger ages u14-u15. But as the kids get older and the physical advantages start to wear off, the DCU player pool starts to fade because they can no longer run past or physically bully the opponents. To win at these older ages, they have to play football and possess the ball, something that DCU's teams at the older ages struggle to do because they haven't been taught how to do this the years when they are in the academy because the focus is primarily on running hard and kicking the ball long to faster players. Technical players or smaller players also suffer in this environment because they are never on the ball because it is always in the air. And this is also why the teams start to fade later on, the technical players they do have aren't progressing that much because they can't get the touches they need to fine tune their skills because again, the ball is always in the air or bouncing around like pin ball. DCU, despite anything they might tell you, does not play possession football. They just don't. Maybe at u14 they try a bit more to possess the ball, but as they get older, they get desperate to win the games and don't have the patience or skill/acumen as a club to have possession based teams. A prime example of this is the DCU u16s (2010) age group. A great group of kids with talent in the age group. This team hasn't beaten a MLS opponent ALL SEASON (4 straight Ls). They have one win against Achilles and that game was competitive (4-2). It really isn't about the wins and losses, but more about the fact that if the kids were coached well, winning would be a cake walk with the talent they have. This exposes the second macro problem at DCU and that is coaching and development methodology. Coaching and Development Methodology: Because DCU's academy is on a basic, shoestring budget, they cannot recruit the top coaches to train and teach the kids. That doesn't mean that the coaches they do have aren't trying their best. They are. But it is obvious when they go up against better teams and better coaches that DCU is just outclassed in every aspect of the game. DCU is getting coaches, for the most part, that are willing to take the lower pay that DCU offers and that, in turn, means younger, less experienced coaches that didn't play at a high level themselves and definitely didn't coach at a high level and if they did they have minimal receipts for players they have produced. So, when the kids reach DCU, they are being trained day to day by people that don't really have the experience or knowledge to take them to another level. If you couple this with the fact that there is no real development methodology at DCU (i.e. there is no strategy for how the academy will develop the players) then you have an even bigger problem. Coaches with little experience, but then an academy that isn't even teaching the coaches how to be better coaches and also giving them little or no guidance on how they should be approaching the players in terms of their development. Yes, they set up the cones and they have trainings...So what. They need to be educating the kids and tracking their progress on their education which they aren't doing because there is no accountability to that. DCU just runs an academy. It isn't serious about this said academy developing the players. You can clearly see which academies are legitimately serious about developing players: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/how-philadelphia-union-set-standard-for-youth-development-mls-sullivan-aaronson https://www.newyorkredbulls.com/news/new-york-red-bulls-break-ground-on-state-of-the-art-training-complex-in-morris-township-nj https://kslsports.com/mls/real-salt-lake/real-salt-lake-academy-aspires-for-north-america-supremacy-in-youth-soccer-development/450826 So, how does all that translate to the field? Exactly what you saw this weekend across two sets of games against two different opponents. Against Philly Union, DCU was clearly outclassed in all the age groups. Philly recruits athletes and big and fast kids too (as do the other MLS academies). The BIG difference is that they (and the other MLS academies) are actually TEACHING THEM HOW TO PLAY THE GAME. DCU is not doing this and just relying on size and speed to win. When you go up against a team that is bigger, faster, AND can play, you have no chance. And DCU had no chance. Against Alexandria, it is actually a slightly different story and even more damning for DCU. Here you have teams where DCU has taken their best players over the years. And as a result, DCU has more athletes than Alexandria. But playing football always beats running hard and fast with no strategy. Alexandria possessed the ball more than DCU and broke them down methodically like a quality coached side should do. DCU ran hard, but they never had the ball. When you don't have the ball, you can't score. It is that simple. DCU was outcoached in these games and it was obvious. Alexandria won with smarter, more technically sound players that understand what they are doing on the field and have a solid footballing mind. DCU lost with players that they thought were better athletes early on but they missed the critical factor in developing the footballers - the MIND. DCU will never be a top class academy until the leadership changes and they start focusing on making the academy part of their business model. Right now, the business model is selling game day tickets and merch. The academy is the cost of doing business. The sophisticated academies across the MLS use the academies as a CENTRAL part of the their strategy to make money. DCU doesn't believe the academy will make them money and refuse to invest in it because of this. Why it will continue to be subpar and fail the kids that it trains. |
Anonymous
You shouldn't. Try to find a better way to develop him while at the same time avoiding DCU holding on to his rights to move to another MLS club. |
Anonymous
See long post above... |
Anonymous
You need a solid team environment to develop individuals. You can't have a bunch of bums around a top player or a set of top players and expect those top players to get that much better. Iron sharpens iron. Can you learn from an environment like this? For sure. But it is about how MUCH can you learn in a better environment. Why players move from smaller clubs to bigger ones...Better training environments to get better. |