DC United Academy - aa strong academy or not

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With the exception of Philadelphia Union, most of the MLS academies operate just like DCU with families paying for school or homestay options. The suggestion that it is different elsewhere is misleading.

If this is your opinion, your kid is just not good enough.

It’s okay to not be. Most aren’t. However, your statement is misleading.

Here's a hit of irony based on reality

Red Bulls and Philly Union recruit top players from across the country.
Them winning games should be expected.

DCU uses local kids, and still have wins against them and other academies that have national recruitment systems

As a non soccer person, why are the RB and Union fans on here claiming them importing players is good for local players in their areas?

Here is where you are wrong. Union and Red bulls can recruit from all over the country because their programs are that good. DCU WANTS to recruit from all over the country but cannot because no one would ever transfer to DCU willingly.

Union and Red bulls never claim to be the best for local talent. They claim to be the best for giving players from the entire US a proper pathway to be a professional soccer player. At the younger ages of course they want to recruit local talent and they do from u9. DCU doesnt.

DCU can't recruit nationally because it has such a weak program and your post is acknowledgement that DCU is inferior to those other academies on its face. 👍

Then send your kid to Red Bulls or Philly Union and move on past the slight you got from DC

Your obsession is crazy

I already told you, I'm old and my kids are grown. Never been slighted by DCU. But I have been in the soccer game for many many years and what DCU is providing the DMV area kids is insulting and disrespectful. So much so that I feel obliged to arm parents with information so that they know EXACTLY what the realities of DCU are and what they are really signing up for.

No one told me about the system when I was young. I just had to make costly mistakes. I want to save people from making costly mistakes with their children. You only have one shot at this. You can't waste time with bullsh#t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

[Anonymous]

Sorry meant to say that it has been years since an academy product has been promoted to the first team and then played significant minutes. The last product to do that was Jackson Hopkins in 2021.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

💯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

💯

Stiven Jimenez, Chris Applewhite are just two examples (there are more) who are both pros now and deliberately left this area to play for better academies because they knew DCU was not going to be the best environment for their development. Both grew up here and played for local DMV clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

💯

Stiven Jimenez, Chris Applewhite are just two examples (there are more) who are both pros now and deliberately left this area to play for better academies because they knew DCU was not going to be the best environment for their development. Both grew up here and played for local DMV clubs.

Thank you for these. If possible, can you share more? It looks like they both played for Arlington. I am not trying to argue about DCU merits. I am simply looking for successful kids who came out of the DMV to see what they were doing at my son's age and network with the people who helped develop these kids. I was only aware of Parades and Yow who play my son's position. Akinmboni is a defender and completely different with his physical profile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

💯

Stiven Jimenez, Chris Applewhite are just two examples (there are more) who are both pros now and deliberately left this area to play for better academies because they knew DCU was not going to be the best environment for their development. Both grew up here and played for local DMV clubs.

Thank you for these. If possible, can you share more? It looks like they both played for Arlington. I am not trying to argue about DCU merits. I am simply looking for successful kids who came out of the DMV to see what they were doing at my son's age and network with the people who helped develop these kids. I was only aware of Parades and Yow who play my son's position. Akinmboni is a defender and completely different with his physical profile.

Here are a few names that I know of personally. And this is just off the top of my head. If I really did research I could find more.

These players are all from the DMV and either never stepped foot in DCU or were in DCU for a short period of time (even when they had younger ages and a longer pathway): All reached professional soccer either in the MLs or overseas. All could have chosen DCU for extended periods of time.but didn't.

Aaron Heard (Leverkusen)
Jack Sullivan (Colorado Rapids)
Gabe Segal (Houston Dynamo)
Jeremy Ebobisse (LAFC)
Gideon Zelalem (Arsenal and NYCFC)
Nicholas Gioacchini (Asteras Tripolis)
Byang Kayo (OH Leuven)
Joe Gyau (Dortmund, Hoffenheim, FC Cincy and several other clubs)

There are also several younger kids (u14-u17) in top European academies from the DMV that will make waves very soon as well.

If you're genuinely interested like your post says, here you are. Many of these players had coaches that are still around the DMV. If you're the PP masquerading as someone else thinking there are no other players to list, you feel about as dumb as your post right about now. 👍

[Anonymous]

One dub across three age groups this weekend. AGAIN. DCU is just not in the same class as other Academies. Chicago Fire didn't even bring their best kids to play DCU. Mostly younger kids in the one game DCU won. And for the people saying winning and losing doesn't matter, you're right. It really doesn't. But losing ad winning does matter when you aren't learning anything and that is what is happening at DCU. So much talent, so little investment in that talent.

The reality

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One dub across three age groups this weekend. AGAIN. DCU is just not in the same class as other Academies. Chicago Fire didn't even bring their best kids to play DCU. Mostly younger kids in the one game DCU won. And for the people saying winning and losing doesn't matter, you're right. It really doesn't. But losing ad winning does matter when you aren't learning anything and that is what is happening at DCU. So much talent, so little investment in that talent.

The reality

The dcua u14 futures pool won, so that makes it 2 of 4 age groups. Guess that would make dcua equally as shitty at winning and/or developing talent as Chicago fire?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One dub across three age groups this weekend. AGAIN. DCU is just not in the same class as other Academies. Chicago Fire didn't even bring their best kids to play DCU. Mostly younger kids in the one game DCU won. And for the people saying winning and losing doesn't matter, you're right. It really doesn't. But losing ad winning does matter when you aren't learning anything and that is what is happening at DCU. So much talent, so little investment in that talent.

The reality

The dcua u14 futures pool won, so that makes it 2 of 4 age groups. Guess that would make dcua equally as shitty at winning and/or developing talent as Chicago fire?

Yes. That whole Midwest area is starved of talented kids. That's why you see academy teams like Colombus Crew or Cincinnati FC bring in so many homestay kids. Chicago, like DCU, hasn't implemented that yet. DCU has their pick of this area and still tieing up with Chicago is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

💯

Stiven Jimenez, Chris Applewhite are just two examples (there are more) who are both pros now and deliberately left this area to play for better academies because they knew DCU was not going to be the best environment for their development. Both grew up here and played for local DMV clubs.

Thank you for these. If possible, can you share more? It looks like they both played for Arlington. I am not trying to argue about DCU merits. I am simply looking for successful kids who came out of the DMV to see what they were doing at my son's age and network with the people who helped develop these kids. I was only aware of Parades and Yow who play my son's position. Akinmboni is a defender and completely different with his physical profile.

Here are a few names that I know of personally. And this is just off the top of my head. If I really did research I could find more.

These players are all from the DMV and either never stepped foot in DCU or were in DCU for a short period of time (even when they had younger ages and a longer pathway): All reached professional soccer either in the MLs or overseas. All could have chosen DCU for extended periods of time.but didn't.

Aaron Heard (Leverkusen)
Jack Sullivan (Colorado Rapids)
Gabe Segal (Houston Dynamo)
Jeremy Ebobisse (LAFC)
Gideon Zelalem (Arsenal and NYCFC)
Nicholas Gioacchini (Asteras Tripolis)
Byang Kayo (OH Leuven)
Joe Gyau (Dortmund, Hoffenheim, FC Cincy and several other clubs)

There are also several younger kids (u14-u17) in top European academies from the DMV that will make waves very soon as well.

If you're genuinely interested like your post says, here you are. Many of these players had coaches that are still around the DMV. If you're the PP masquerading as someone else thinking there are no other players to list, you feel about as dumb as your post right about now. 👍

Thank you for these! I suppose it was so close to my post I simply thought no one replied. From the first two you posted, the common link was Arlington from my research. I don’t like one of the coaches from Arlington that my son played against in our age group but I do like the next two age group coaches so we will see how they shuffle the deck this upcoming year. I really like some of the older coaches but we will be gone overseas by U15/U16.

I have not been posting or responding because I am no longer arguing about the efficacy of the academy, especially after I saw the Philly Union U13’s play in person. If someone wants to believe that DCU is even a “neutral” operation, I guess there are also adults who believe in the tooth 🧚 and 🧑‍🎄. My only response at this point is “do you.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One dub across three age groups this weekend. AGAIN. DCU is just not in the same class as other Academies. Chicago Fire didn't even bring their best kids to play DCU. Mostly younger kids in the one game DCU won. And for the people saying winning and losing doesn't matter, you're right. It really doesn't. But losing ad winning does matter when you aren't learning anything and that is what is happening at DCU. So much talent, so little investment in that talent.

The reality

The dcua u14 futures pool won, so that makes it 2 of 4 age groups. Guess that would make dcua equally as shitty at winning and/or developing talent as Chicago fire?

DCUA "futures pool" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One dub across three age groups this weekend. AGAIN. DCU is just not in the same class as other Academies. Chicago Fire didn't even bring their best kids to play DCU. Mostly younger kids in the one game DCU won. And for the people saying winning and losing doesn't matter, you're right. It really doesn't. But losing ad winning does matter when you aren't learning anything and that is what is happening at DCU. So much talent, so little investment in that talent.

The reality

The dcua u14 futures pool won, so that makes it 2 of 4 age groups. Guess that would make dcua equally as shitty at winning and/or developing talent as Chicago fire?

No. It wouldnt mean that. It would mean that DCU won two games this weekend against a much better academy because they are only trying to win the games...Chicago Fire like most other academies are trying to develop players. DCU isn't. Big difference. Similar results doesn't mean that the acsdemies are similarly situated. We've already established this.

[Anonymous]

Chicago Fire just sent their kids to London to play Chelsea and Brentford. What is DCU doing?? DCU doesn't send the kids to anything that requires their own money. This ALONE makes DCU a less desirable academy.