Arlington Red team vs Arlington DA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the question is should the 04 girls red team stay in USYSA competition or shift over to the DA, that's actually a tough question as I assume the team has set their sights on winning a National Championship.

I honestly don't know what I would do.

They definitely get exposure to college recruiters through the National League and the National Championships if they make it.

On the DA side, you are probably looking at a more manageable weekend schedule since you won't have CCL and Region1/State Cup/NCS games occupying every weekend. You still get two excellent showcase events where practically every college will have recruiting staff at. The draw back is that the DA National Championship is new.

But, but the whole reason the one parent wants to keep the Red team together at Red was to REDUCE travel. Are you suggesting that balancing CCL, Region1/NCS, High School and possible ODP is less travel and taxing than DA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the question is should the 04 girls red team stay in USYSA competition or shift over to the DA, that's actually a tough question as I assume the team has set their sights on winning a National Championship.

I honestly don't know what I would do.

They definitely get exposure to college recruiters through the National League and the National Championships if they make it.

On the DA side, you are probably looking at a more manageable weekend schedule since you won't have CCL and Region1/State Cup/NCS games occupying every weekend. You still get two excellent showcase events where practically every college will have recruiting staff at. The draw back is that the DA National Championship is new.

But, but the whole reason the one parent wants to keep the Red team together at Red was to REDUCE travel. Are you suggesting that balancing CCL, Region1/NCS, High School and possible ODP is less travel and taxing than DA?

Yes. Absolutely. Take a look at the DA schedules. You can find them going back years on the boys side.

You only have one schedule to plan around. No this is a state cup weekend and we may have to go to the beach or Richmond on Saturday.

[Anonymous]

So this thread is about the 04s. That's a good team. Have they not all already accepted DA spots? I guess being forced into DA at U15 may feel like better to finish what they started without DA and then avoid the dual age group next year ....... if Arlington even gets it.

Sounds messy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate to break it to the parent who thinks her DD's precious red team will stay together but even if Arlington didn't have DA, the coaching staff would be moving players up and dropping players down. That is how travel soccer works.

If you want to play with the same kids from U6 to U18, stick to the rec/SFL teams.

Thx coach!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Not so sure. Our team of top players all have said f*ck it to stuff as a unit and there really wasn't much they could do except cut their best 15 players in the age group...which they did not.

Some times it takes a village to stand up to the horseshit that has become US Youth soccer.

I applaud your fortitude, somewhere, somehow we have to do something to beat this sytem into something that works for the players and families funding it. What is the current status of this? I would imagine that Arlington has to be close to finalizing their DA rosters and about to turn the corner and build their CCL rosters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not so sure. Our team of top players all have said f*ck it to stuff as a unit and there really wasn't much they could do except cut their best 15 players in the age group...which they did not.

Some times it takes a village to stand up to the horseshit that has become US Youth soccer.

I applaud your fortitude, somewhere, somehow we have to do something to beat this sytem into something that works for the players and families funding it. What is the current status of this? I would imagine that Arlington has to be close to finalizing their DA rosters and about to turn the corner and build their CCL rosters.

+1 Add me to that list.
DA is more unnecessary travel and 4 practices is a gimmick.

[Anonymous]

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the question is should the 04 girls red team stay in USYSA competition or shift over to the DA, that's actually a tough question as I assume the team has set their sights on winning a National Championship.

I honestly don't know what I would do.

They definitely get exposure to college recruiters through the National League and the National Championships if they make it.

On the DA side, you are probably looking at a more manageable weekend schedule since you won't have CCL and Region1/State Cup/NCS games occupying every weekend. You still get two excellent showcase events where practically every college will have recruiting staff at. The draw back is that the DA National Championship is new.

But, but the whole reason the one parent wants to keep the Red team together at Red was to REDUCE travel. Are you suggesting that balancing CCL, Region1/NCS, High School and possible ODP is less travel and taxing than DA?

Yes. Absolutely. Take a look at the DA schedules. You can find them going back years on the boys side.

You only have one schedule to plan around. No this is a state cup weekend and we may have to go to the beach or Richmond on Saturday.

Let's take a look at VDA's U15s, which should have roughly the same schedule this year as Arlington will next year. (Roughly. We'll exclude home games, which were played all over the western and southern exurbs.)

Sept. 2 - at West Chester, Pa.
Sept. 9 - at Tinton Falls, N.J.
Sept. 23 - at Somerset, N.J.
Sept. 30 - at Ellicott City, Md.
Oct. 21 - at Rye, N.Y.
Oct. 22 - at Orangeburg, N.Y. (combined weekend trip)
Dec. 6-9 - at Lakewood Ranch, Fla.
March 3 - at West Chester, Pa.
April 7-10 - at Browns Summit, N.C. (basically Greensboro)
April 14 - at Manheim, Pa. (home game the next day)
June 2 - at Somerset, N.J.

Here's Arlington U15 Red (https://youthsoccerrankings.us/team.html?teamId=2141407 plus league and tournament sites -- note first two State Cup rounds were at home. Also not counting Super Y, which is a separate program)

Aug. 27 - CCL (Centreville, Va.)
Sept. 3-4 - OBGC Capital Cup (Olney, Md.)
Sept. 10 - CCL (Frederick, Md.)
Oct. 1 - CCL (Maryland SoccerPlex, Boyds, Md.)
Oct. 7-8 - WAGS Tournament (Centreville, Va.)
Oct. 21 - State Cup (Fredericksburg, Va.)
Nov. 5 - State Cup (Fredericksburg)
Nov. 11-12 - Bethesda Premier Cup (Montgomery County)
Dec. 2 - CASL Girls Showcase (Raleigh, N.C.)
March 23-25 - Jefferson Cup Girls Showcase (Midlothian, Va.)
March 29 - ERL (Loudoun County)
March 31 - ERL (Stafford County)
April 22 - CCL (Midlothian, Va.)
April 29 - CCL (Virginia Beach)
May 11-13 - ERL (Batavia, N.Y.)
May 19 - ERL/CCL (Fredericksburg -- seriously, listed with both leagues)

So that's two weekend trips (Raleigh and Batavia), one long day/overnight trip (Vriginia Beach), three trips to Fredericksburg, and then the usual Stafford/Frederick stuff.

The DA team had three long weekend trips (Florida, New York, Greensboro), three games in New Jersey, and three games in Pennsylvania.

Bear in mind, this is an Arlington team that really loads up its schedule. The DA urges playing fewer games.

Bear in mind that you could have actually pulled up the Arlington 04 Red team and not the 03 team. https://youthsoccerrankings.us/team.html?teamId=2182305

The 2004 team is playing in the USYSA National League, which means that they had two national showcases - one in Rockymount NC and one on Las Vegas. They also played in the ERL, which meant competetion weekends at Evergreen (local) and Delaware (both of these competitions were 3 games over 2 days - a big no-no for DA). On top of this they did OBGC, Arlington and WAGS tournaments - all of which feature 4-5 games over 2-3 days. This totals 30 games

Additionally, they will be going to Frisco, TX for the USYSA National Championships this summer. Approximately 3-5 games
They are in State Cup right now (2-4 games total).
They will probably advance to regionals (3-5 games total) and fortunately held in Fredericksburg
They also have 14-15 games over the course of a CCL season from DC to

So for 2004 Arlington Red, they will play approximately 50 to 55 games this year, travel to NY, Vegas, Dallas, NC (twice), DE and all over Virginia and Maryland. (btw, driving to VA Beach is worse than driving to Westchester PA.

Your stats for the VDA club are a little misleading in that you don't indicate any of their away games in the DC area. The 2015 VDA girls played 16 games locally and 8 up north in PA, NY and NJ. They then went to a DA showcase in NC and the DA Winter Showcase in Florida.

The point is, that if we are talking about the 2004 Arlington Red team, if they stay in the competitions they are in, every weekend is going to be a scramble for games in multiple different competitions. DA offers 1 game each weekend with only a couple of double header weekends and two showcase events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the question is should the 04 girls red team stay in USYSA competition or shift over to the DA, that's actually a tough question as I assume the team has set their sights on winning a National Championship.

I honestly don't know what I would do.

They definitely get exposure to college recruiters through the National League and the National Championships if they make it.

On the DA side, you are probably looking at a more manageable weekend schedule since you won't have CCL and Region1/State Cup/NCS games occupying every weekend. You still get two excellent showcase events where practically every college will have recruiting staff at. The draw back is that the DA National Championship is new.

But, but the whole reason the one parent wants to keep the Red team together at Red was to REDUCE travel. Are you suggesting that balancing CCL, Region1/NCS, High School and possible ODP is less travel and taxing than DA?

Yes. Absolutely. Take a look at the DA schedules. You can find them going back years on the boys side.

You only have one schedule to plan around. No this is a state cup weekend and we may have to go to the beach or Richmond on Saturday.

Let's take a look at VDA's U15s, which should have roughly the same schedule this year as Arlington will next year. (Roughly. We'll exclude home games, which were played all over the western and southern exurbs.)

Sept. 2 - at West Chester, Pa.
Sept. 9 - at Tinton Falls, N.J.
Sept. 23 - at Somerset, N.J.
Sept. 30 - at Ellicott City, Md.
Oct. 21 - at Rye, N.Y.
Oct. 22 - at Orangeburg, N.Y. (combined weekend trip)
Dec. 6-9 - at Lakewood Ranch, Fla.
March 3 - at West Chester, Pa.
April 7-10 - at Browns Summit, N.C. (basically Greensboro)
April 14 - at Manheim, Pa. (home game the next day)
June 2 - at Somerset, N.J.

Here's Arlington U15 Red (https://youthsoccerrankings.us/team.html?teamId=2141407 plus league and tournament sites -- note first two State Cup rounds were at home. Also not counting Super Y, which is a separate program)

Aug. 27 - CCL (Centreville, Va.)
Sept. 3-4 - OBGC Capital Cup (Olney, Md.)
Sept. 10 - CCL (Frederick, Md.)
Oct. 1 - CCL (Maryland SoccerPlex, Boyds, Md.)
Oct. 7-8 - WAGS Tournament (Centreville, Va.)
Oct. 21 - State Cup (Fredericksburg, Va.)
Nov. 5 - State Cup (Fredericksburg)
Nov. 11-12 - Bethesda Premier Cup (Montgomery County)
Dec. 2 - CASL Girls Showcase (Raleigh, N.C.)
March 23-25 - Jefferson Cup Girls Showcase (Midlothian, Va.)
March 29 - ERL (Loudoun County)
March 31 - ERL (Stafford County)
April 22 - CCL (Midlothian, Va.)
April 29 - CCL (Virginia Beach)
May 11-13 - ERL (Batavia, N.Y.)
May 19 - ERL/CCL (Fredericksburg -- seriously, listed with both leagues)

So that's two weekend trips (Raleigh and Batavia), one long day/overnight trip (Vriginia Beach), three trips to Fredericksburg, and then the usual Stafford/Frederick stuff.

The DA team had three long weekend trips (Florida, New York, Greensboro), three games in New Jersey, and three games in Pennsylvania.

Bear in mind, this is an Arlington team that really loads up its schedule. The DA urges playing fewer games.

Bear in mind that you could have actually pulled up the Arlington 04 Red team and not the 03 team. https://youthsoccerrankings.us/team.html?teamId=2182305

The 2004 team is playing in the USYSA National League, which means that they had two national showcases - one in Rockymount NC and one on Las Vegas. They also played in the ERL, which meant competetion weekends at Evergreen (local) and Delaware (both of these competitions were 3 games over 2 days - a big no-no for DA). On top of this they did OBGC, Arlington and WAGS tournaments - all of which feature 4-5 games over 2-3 days. This totals 30 games

Additionally, they will be going to Frisco, TX for the USYSA National Championships this summer. Approximately 3-5 games
They are in State Cup right now (2-4 games total).
They will probably advance to regionals (3-5 games total) and fortunately held in Fredericksburg
They also have 14-15 games over the course of a CCL season from DC to

So for 2004 Arlington Red, they will play approximately 50 to 55 games this year, travel to NY, Vegas, Dallas, NC (twice), DE and all over Virginia and Maryland. (btw, driving to VA Beach is worse than driving to Westchester PA.

Your stats for the VDA club are a little misleading in that you don't indicate any of their away games in the DC area. The 2015 VDA girls played 16 games locally and 8 up north in PA, NY and NJ. They then went to a DA showcase in NC and the DA Winter Showcase in Florida.

The point is, that if we are talking about the 2004 Arlington Red team, if they stay in the competitions they are in, every weekend is going to be a scramble for games in multiple different competitions. DA offers 1 game each weekend with only a couple of double header weekends and two showcase events.

Lol. No wonder they think DA is crap. DA doesnt play enough games!

[Anonymous]

How many on 04s ended up staying with the CCL (red?) Team instead of accepting girls DA? You gals have it harder then the clubs that switched over from ECNL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not so sure. Our team of top players all have said f*ck it to stuff as a unit and there really wasn't much they could do except cut their best 15 players in the age group...which they did not.

Some times it takes a village to stand up to the horseshit that has become US Youth soccer.

I applaud your fortitude, somewhere, somehow we have to do something to beat this sytem into something that works for the players and families funding it. What is the current status of this? I would imagine that Arlington has to be close to finalizing their DA rosters and about to turn the corner and build their CCL rosters.

+1 Add me to that list.
DA is more unnecessary travel and 4 practices is a gimmick.

It is almost as if you completely skipped over the 04 schedule for Red this past year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not so sure. Our team of top players all have said f*ck it to stuff as a unit and there really wasn't much they could do except cut their best 15 players in the age group...which they did not.

Some times it takes a village to stand up to the horseshit that has become US Youth soccer.

I applaud your fortitude, somewhere, somehow we have to do something to beat this sytem into something that works for the players and families funding it. What is the current status of this? I would imagine that Arlington has to be close to finalizing their DA rosters and about to turn the corner and build their CCL rosters.

+1 Add me to that list.
DA is more unnecessary travel and 4 practices is a gimmick.

It is almost as if you completely skipped over the 04 schedule for Red this past year.

And next year they get to play HS too if they play for Red. Woohoo!

50+ club games and a compact HS season!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington DA is pre-HS. It doesn’t matter yet. She can quit DA if she wants to play HS down the road.

Frankly, I think DA is a gimmick and don’t like 4 practices per week and large rosters.

But I assume the majority of her current red team will do it and if she wants to stick with them she does it unless you all band together and say f@ck it.

Once DA and ECNL begin kids get separated. Trying to keep the team together just does not work past U12 as this is a transition year. Your "band together" comment sounds like many parents who's kids made friends though Rec and also wanted to keep them together when they look into going into travel.

You will need to determine what it is important to your daughter. DA or ECNL are college showcase leagues primarily. If your daughter wishes to play in college then you should look into which league can provide a proven pathway as well as the best fit for your daughter. IF she is primarily interested in the social aspects then it is likely that neither league is a good fit and perhaps regardless of the team makeup playing on Red might be the best choice.

But DO NOT try and convince parents to choose one or the other just to keep the team together. To do so would do a tremendous disservice to all involved. All of your daughter's teammates at this point, just like when leaving Rec, must choose what is in their best interests based on their long term goals not short term comfort or compatibility.

Ok, coach. We will all commit to traveling out of state every other weekend. Thanks for the tip.

Not so sure. Our team of top players all have said f*ck it to stuff as a unit and there really wasn't much they could do except cut their best 15 players in the age group...which they did not.

Some times it takes a village to stand up to the horseshit that has become US Youth soccer.

You are my new hero.

Look, I speak with former women's national team players all the time. They played because it was FUN. They played other sports. They played with friends.

Sure, the rest of the world has advanced in technical skills. So is the best solution to put everyone on airplanes every other week? How much technical skill do you develop at 35,000 feet, anyway?

I've also spoken with DA people, and I get what they're trying to do. Lots of training. Centralized planning. OK.

But I have not spoken with anyone who thinks you HAVE to go along with the DA approach to fulfill your potential as a soccer player and a human being. We have, and will continue to have, multiple pathways.

Put another way -- if Mallory Pugh can be one of the best players on the national team a couple of years after playing high school soccer, how are you going to tell 15 families they have to give up everything else to go to the DA?

PP. Agreed. I played with some of those women. I'm telling you--our parents would have said 'NO WAY' to every weekend out of state travel. They certainly took us to many away tournaments and plane trips to Regionals/Nationals, etc. But-I can just picture the dads from my team if somebody told them we were going to regular season games 4-5 hours away. I can tell you where they would have told them to stuff it.

There was one league. Pro/rel. All the best teams in the DMV were in this ONE league. We also were sponsored by Patrick (remember them?) so we didn't even have to pay for cleats, uniforms or bags. Our travel coaches were former pro players that weren't even paid back then.

I just cannot understand how they are getting away with this crazy shit today. Why are parents spending $8-10k for soccer a year? And, then, afraid to open their mouths because they worry about their kid being black-balled. This mentality is so wrong.

There were a lot more people back then that did things out of love for the game. It's big business now. People are throwing $ directly into the trash can. This travel up and down the Coast is not making better players. It's just not and it's foolish to think it has value.

Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Michelle Akers, Julie Foudy, etc. People cannot say that their quality was not as good-- if not better-- than a lot of the women today. They certainly weren't doing this crap.

When is this revolution going to happen? We just basically voted in more of the same. It's a disgrace. If my kids didn't love the game--I certainly wouldn't be steering them into it because I absolutely hate what has become of the sport. Instead of making the sport more inclusive, we are going in the opposite direction.

But--US youth soccer has a captive audience. Parents are buying into this stuff without questioning it.

When will the revolution happen? I am still waiting. Do we need the women to fail to qualify for the World Cup also and our Men two more times?

Agreed! "Let the revolution begin.

[Anonymous]

The revolution already began and it has removed about 20 of the useless games and travel that Arlington Red currently would have to play but by all means bitch about how DA has you “going out of town” for games when Red has a far more chaotic schedule.

[Anonymous]

If the question is the 2004 Arlington red team, then comparing u15s to u15s is immaterial. The question is how does their current schedule (50+) games compare to what they would face in the DA, which is 30 games, 6 of which are showcase games. So at most, you have 12 regular season away games, half of which will still be in the greater DC area.

You don't have the three or four tournaments with 2 games a day and you don't have whole weekends tied up with a state or regional game on Saturday and a CCL game on Sunday. You have one game except on the odd weekend when you might double up due to a longer drive.

Don't get me wrong, having a chance to go to USYSA nationals is an amazing opportunity for any player and it reflects an amazing amount of dedication and sacrifice on behalf of the players and their families. I just think that those who say DA is heavy on travel and 4 days of training a week is too much, don't really understand the total time commitments and the grind that is ECNL and USYSA elite travel soccer.

[Anonymous]

Only Arlington parents would be selling their DA on how easy the schedule is and the non-grind of 4x practices.

ECNL does sound far too demanding.

Glad your 04s got DA to ease things up for this elite team.