Yes, only 8 teams will qualify out of the nation from group stage. |
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The real question is: Why did USSF implement this?
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All teams in the red flight are guaranteed advancement to that second stage – the 32-team Winter Cup. Seven groups of four teams and two groups of three teams will compete in the blue flight. The winners of each four-team blue flight group will advance to the Winter Cup, while the two three-team group winners will play a knockout playoff game for the final Winter Cup berth. The eight group winners from Winter Cup will advance to the Spring Cup from April 29 – May 4. There, they will contest a knockout-style bracket for the DA Cup championship. All other teams will play in brackets to determine the final DA Cup rankings. |
I don't know for sure, but heard it was to match up top clubs at the showcases. Maybe the cup part was for bragging rights. Don't know. I like the idea. Doesn't change really from previous years except matches up teams based on performance at showcases and eventually gets to 1 team. |
The 8 teams advance to the Spring showcase. How many of FCV's teams will be among the 8 in the Spring showcase? Two, Two is the number of teams FCV will put in the Spring showcase. Of those two advanced teams, ZERO is the number that will win the DA Cup. |
But showcases counted towards standings and were already tiered. |
Yes, 8 teams advance from the Winter showcase, not group stage as stated. I think 2 for sure will qualify out of winter showcase, maybe a 3rd. As for the Spring, that's why they play the games. I hope a DMV area team can take home a Cup championship. It would be good for our area I think. |
| For all of this emphasis on development, US soccer sure has a lot of competitions |
Maybe, but some of he match-ups were not very good IMO. I think this will create match ups based on how a team plays. Similar, but different. And yes, they counted toward overall record and ranking, but that matters mostly in conference IMO and the conference records were not close with DMV area teams. |
They already paired teams competitively in the showcases. This is just to give clubs more competitive matches in season and a way to roll that into incentive in the showcase. It may have an effect on determining a tier of pyramid clubs where talent might be concentrated. This may help out in diluted areas but without an honest promotion/relegation into this tier it will do more harm to the overall league by intentionally weakening 2/3's of its member clubs. This divide will only worsen over time and make league conference matches worthless outside of the DA Cup matches. Having the talent concentrated in 25 or so clubs seems like a good idea until those are the only clubs worth playing anymore. |
And this is a point that is also worth noting. Such a system makes more sense at U17-U18/19 but less so for U15 and U16. |
I'm curious, why does better competition OR competition cup like they are doing make more sense at U17-U18/19 than at the U15 & U16 age groups? Do you think that U15 & U16 don't have the competitive drive of the older girls? Do you think it would hurt development? Not poking, asking serious questions. |
| Not poking LOL |
Since DA starts at U14 it stands to reason that the full competitive phase should start when the full sub rules and 90 minute games are used. U15 and U16 years should be used more for development than the drive to win at all cost. U16 is still a transition year to the full 90 minute game. U15 is a transition year to the no return sub rule. By U17 girls are mostly full grown a |
I've seen development pathways from some clubs that have U15 at the end of the 'development' years and U16 and up as competition. But USSF defines U15 and up as 'Advanced'. So I can see why they started at U15. I'm still not seeing a drawback to a cup type of format for clubs for U15 or U16 age groups. No negatives IMO. But thanks for the info. |