Starting a New club

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A) i) the top players and teams are not playing each other; ii) parents are uneducated on development so coaches have alot of pressure on wins even if they believe in development; iii) 2% of club focus on the technical fundamentals and off-ball movement needed to progressive to higher levels. The lack of technical ability at MLS Next and ECNL is a little shocking IMHO.

B) i) The market determines the price; ii) coaches should be paid their worth; iii) EDP Futures @ Soccerplex does it the best with all teams at one location every week and no posted scored. Yes, parents gossip and know the scores but so what. If you mention an unposted score to me at a cocktail party, I literally might backslap you. These shallow parents should not be the norm like they are here.

C) Yes - Mirror Achilles approach to early develop less the cursing and antics which keeps them boutique.

D) Yes. This is where education is involved. Parents will have to understand the results don't matter before U15 but that is where you will struggle. I am not sure it can work in the DMV as the parental base is simply wealthy parents who are driven by ego. Lookup the DCU string. It has gone silent since someone called them out on this. People here use soccer to get into Princeton vs the love of the game. Most don't understand D1 is like 4th-6th division in most European countries and not really "successful" in real football terms.

I hope you're different. I hope it works out!

Since we are all in America where a kid making D1 soccer is a marker of success, how can someone say its not a successful achievement because of whats happening in another country?

Real here is real here.

No, you have taken the application of other sports like baseball and basketball and equated them to soccer. We created football and basketball so we own the development process. We are seeing the flaws in our processes over the last 20 years with amateurism in basketball as the world has taken interest in the sport since the Dream Team. We have the same head start in women's soccer and the next 20-40 years will be interesting on whether our processes are truly better.

We don't own soccer and made D1 a pathway when it is an international off-ramp to an education and a better life for international academy washouts (men's side).

You can either accept this reality or keep complaining about internationals taking your spots because it is obvious our kids are not good enough. USL Championship teams will destroy D1 teams. USL is ranked around the 75th league in the world which is equivalent to around 4th - 6th divisions in Europe. Congrats, you get to play and learn extreme time management while you learn how to be an investment banker. Congrats, your grades would have gotten you into GW but you get to go to Columbia now because of soccer. Those are both great upgrades in life. Especially for the upwardly mobile with no real aspirations of playing pro. Naturally, there are some kids who can ball and will make the MLS and Europe through the extra development in college just like there are players in lower divisions in Europe that make it to the primetime. However, the faster US sets its standards of soccer higher than D1, the faster you will see us have international success.

We're either speaking of America achievement as a measurement OR International achievement

As the PP stated, D1 is a successful achievement for an American youth soccer player, in America.
They didn't say it was the top achievement.

Your argument is not based on what they said but rather based on what you want to argue.

I guess it really depends on investment. If a violist went to a specialized school with other violinists for four years and spent 4-5 hours daily at minimum playing the violin and could not break into the major pathways to play in a major professional international orchestra by the end of high school, I think we would consider that not a major achievement if that violinist just played for fun in college and prepared to be an investment banker. If you are student athlete who simply came up through rec and school teams, D1 soccer is an achievement. If you are a MLS academy player with $100k+ invested through club fees, tournament trips, private training, group training, etc before you entered the MLS academy, I respectfully disagree D1 is an achievement. You invested alot to manufacture that player and I would question my investment and those I invested with to end with that result. No emotion here, just a different perspective you may have not considered.

Are you on mind altering drugs?

How stupid of a delusional narcissist can you be to tell people what their goals and markers for successful achievement are to them?

Players in Europe go from U8 to U18 at academies and don't make it to professional soccer careers.
Since only about 1% make it, the other 99% have lived wasted useless lives according to you.

European academy players and their families invest NO money. The clubs pay the way. Big difference.

If you're just talking pure ROI on the money a family invests in soccer, a D1 roster spot is not great return on a six figure investment. A full scholarship to a D1 program is better ROI but the chances of Americans getting full rides at top tier D1 programs is very slim. Majority of those scholarships are going to players overseas who were on a pro pathway but got dropped or burned out.

Going to college is still a great pathway. No one disputes that. It's just so you need to spend six figures on crazy pay to play fees in order to achieve that result. In today's system, I would offer no.

I could buy the argument that you're making a six figure investment just to get your kid into a choice college. But call it what it is. It isn't about soccer. It is about gaming the college admissions process with soccer.

On dcum, seems many think every kid in Europe is in a professional club academy and grassroots that costs money doesn't exist lol

Parents in Europe sacrifice time, effort, work to get kids to academies and games till they are old enough to live in academy housing during the week, if the academy has housing, which majority of smaller ones don't

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A) i) the top players and teams are not playing each other; ii) parents are uneducated on development so coaches have alot of pressure on wins even if they believe in development; iii) 2% of club focus on the technical fundamentals and off-ball movement needed to progressive to higher levels. The lack of technical ability at MLS Next and ECNL is a little shocking IMHO.

B) i) The market determines the price; ii) coaches should be paid their worth; iii) EDP Futures @ Soccerplex does it the best with all teams at one location every week and no posted scored. Yes, parents gossip and know the scores but so what. If you mention an unposted score to me at a cocktail party, I literally might backslap you. These shallow parents should not be the norm like they are here.

C) Yes - Mirror Achilles approach to early develop less the cursing and antics which keeps them boutique.

D) Yes. This is where education is involved. Parents will have to understand the results don't matter before U15 but that is where you will struggle. I am not sure it can work in the DMV as the parental base is simply wealthy parents who are driven by ego. Lookup the DCU string. It has gone silent since someone called them out on this. People here use soccer to get into Princeton vs the love of the game. Most don't understand D1 is like 4th-6th division in most European countries and not really "successful" in real football terms.

I hope you're different. I hope it works out!

Since we are all in America where a kid making D1 soccer is a marker of success, how can someone say its not a successful achievement because of whats happening in another country?

Real here is real here.

No, you have taken the application of other sports like baseball and basketball and equated them to soccer. We created football and basketball so we own the development process. We are seeing the flaws in our processes over the last 20 years with amateurism in basketball as the world has taken interest in the sport since the Dream Team. We have the same head start in women's soccer and the next 20-40 years will be interesting on whether our processes are truly better.

We don't own soccer and made D1 a pathway when it is an international off-ramp to an education and a better life for international academy washouts (men's side).

You can either accept this reality or keep complaining about internationals taking your spots because it is obvious our kids are not good enough. USL Championship teams will destroy D1 teams. USL is ranked around the 75th league in the world which is equivalent to around 4th - 6th divisions in Europe. Congrats, you get to play and learn extreme time management while you learn how to be an investment banker. Congrats, your grades would have gotten you into GW but you get to go to Columbia now because of soccer. Those are both great upgrades in life. Especially for the upwardly mobile with no real aspirations of playing pro. Naturally, there are some kids who can ball and will make the MLS and Europe through the extra development in college just like there are players in lower divisions in Europe that make it to the primetime. However, the faster US sets its standards of soccer higher than D1, the faster you will see us have international success.

We're either speaking of America achievement as a measurement OR International achievement

As the PP stated, D1 is a successful achievement for an American youth soccer player, in America.
They didn't say it was the top achievement.

Your argument is not based on what they said but rather based on what you want to argue.

I guess it really depends on investment. If a violist went to a specialized school with other violinists for four years and spent 4-5 hours daily at minimum playing the violin and could not break into the major pathways to play in a major professional international orchestra by the end of high school, I think we would consider that not a major achievement if that violinist just played for fun in college and prepared to be an investment banker. If you are student athlete who simply came up through rec and school teams, D1 soccer is an achievement. If you are a MLS academy player with $100k+ invested through club fees, tournament trips, private training, group training, etc before you entered the MLS academy, I respectfully disagree D1 is an achievement. You invested alot to manufacture that player and I would question my investment and those I invested with to end with that result. No emotion here, just a different perspective you may have not considered.

As someone who knows just a small bit of the music world, I would say that it would be a rare feat for someone that young to break into a major orchestra at that age and those folks are typically studying further at some of the finest musical conservatories. If you look around, you don't see too many 18 yo principal violinists. You are looking at prodigy level folks -Yo-Yo Ma type musicians.

And exactly how many D1 soccer players - male or female - are simply coming up through rec and school teams? Probably close to zero. I think that statement is pretty shortsighted. I read further after this post and do agree somewhat with the soccer culture issue, the accessibility issue, and the difference between the college sports model v. European academy model.

I honestly don't know if the US will ever catchup on the men's side. Sports like basketball, football and even hockey are producing more top end talent with the best leagues for those respective sports in the world here in the USA. NBA, NFL, NHL are considered top tier worldwide. MLS here in the USA isn't even in the top 5, IDK?

IMO, what will be interesting is to see where things go on the women's side. With Title 9, college soccer in the USA became the pathway for our US women and gave us such a leg up. Now, that is changing with European clubs investing in their woman's side (but there are still bumps in the road there too - see issues in La Liga F). The USA clearly does not have the academy side for the women and is still using college as a training ground. Just not enough top level teams in NWSL, USL Super League, whatever else for all the players, but for college. Will see what happens. To be transparent, I had a U17 DD that has committed to play college soccer at a Big10 program.

Good Luck with things - I think it's an admirable thing to think about, but not easy to accomplish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A) i) the top players and teams are not playing each other; ii) parents are uneducated on development so coaches have alot of pressure on wins even if they believe in development; iii) 2% of club focus on the technical fundamentals and off-ball movement needed to progressive to higher levels. The lack of technical ability at MLS Next and ECNL is a little shocking IMHO.

B) i) The market determines the price; ii) coaches should be paid their worth; iii) EDP Futures @ Soccerplex does it the best with all teams at one location every week and no posted scored. Yes, parents gossip and know the scores but so what. If you mention an unposted score to me at a cocktail party, I literally might backslap you. These shallow parents should not be the norm like they are here.

C) Yes - Mirror Achilles approach to early develop less the cursing and antics which keeps them boutique.

D) Yes. This is where education is involved. Parents will have to understand the results don't matter before U15 but that is where you will struggle. I am not sure it can work in the DMV as the parental base is simply wealthy parents who are driven by ego. Lookup the DCU string. It has gone silent since someone called them out on this. People here use soccer to get into Princeton vs the love of the game. Most don't understand D1 is like 4th-6th division in most European countries and not really "successful" in real football terms.

I hope you're different. I hope it works out!

Since we are all in America where a kid making D1 soccer is a marker of success, how can someone say its not a successful achievement because of whats happening in another country?

Real here is real here.

No, you have taken the application of other sports like baseball and basketball and equated them to soccer. We created football and basketball so we own the development process. We are seeing the flaws in our processes over the last 20 years with amateurism in basketball as the world has taken interest in the sport since the Dream Team. We have the same head start in women's soccer and the next 20-40 years will be interesting on whether our processes are truly better.

We don't own soccer and made D1 a pathway when it is an international off-ramp to an education and a better life for international academy washouts (men's side).

You can either accept this reality or keep complaining about internationals taking your spots because it is obvious our kids are not good enough. USL Championship teams will destroy D1 teams. USL is ranked around the 75th league in the world which is equivalent to around 4th - 6th divisions in Europe. Congrats, you get to play and learn extreme time management while you learn how to be an investment banker. Congrats, your grades would have gotten you into GW but you get to go to Columbia now because of soccer. Those are both great upgrades in life. Especially for the upwardly mobile with no real aspirations of playing pro. Naturally, there are some kids who can ball and will make the MLS and Europe through the extra development in college just like there are players in lower divisions in Europe that make it to the primetime. However, the faster US sets its standards of soccer higher than D1, the faster you will see us have international success.

We're either speaking of America achievement as a measurement OR International achievement

As the PP stated, D1 is a successful achievement for an American youth soccer player, in America.
They didn't say it was the top achievement.

Your argument is not based on what they said but rather based on what you want to argue.

I guess it really depends on investment. If a violist went to a specialized school with other violinists for four years and spent 4-5 hours daily at minimum playing the violin and could not break into the major pathways to play in a major professional international orchestra by the end of high school, I think we would consider that not a major achievement if that violinist just played for fun in college and prepared to be an investment banker. If you are student athlete who simply came up through rec and school teams, D1 soccer is an achievement. If you are a MLS academy player with $100k+ invested through club fees, tournament trips, private training, group training, etc before you entered the MLS academy, I respectfully disagree D1 is an achievement. You invested alot to manufacture that player and I would question my investment and those I invested with to end with that result. No emotion here, just a different perspective you may have not considered.

As someone who knows just a small bit of the music world, I would say that it would be a rare feat for someone that young to break into a major orchestra at that age and those folks are typically studying further at some of the finest musical conservatories. If you look around, you don't see too many 18 yo principal violinists. You are looking at prodigy level folks -Yo-Yo Ma type musicians.

And exactly how many D1 soccer players - male or female - are simply coming up through rec and school teams? Probably close to zero. I think that statement is pretty shortsighted. I read further after this post and do agree somewhat with the soccer culture issue, the accessibility issue, and the difference between the college sports model v. European academy model.

I honestly don't know if the US will ever catchup on the men's side. Sports like basketball, football and even hockey are producing more top end talent with the best leagues for those respective sports in the world here in the USA. NBA, NFL, NHL are considered top tier worldwide. MLS here in the USA isn't even in the top 5, IDK?

IMO, what will be interesting is to see where things go on the women's side. With Title 9, college soccer in the USA became the pathway for our US women and gave us such a leg up. Now, that is changing with European clubs investing in their woman's side (but there are still bumps in the road there too - see issues in La Liga F). The USA clearly does not have the academy side for the women and is still using college as a training ground. Just not enough top level teams in NWSL, USL Super League, whatever else for all the players, but for college. Will see what happens. To be transparent, I had a U17 DD that has committed to play college soccer at a Big10 program.

Good Luck with things - I think it's an admirable thing to think about, but not easy to accomplish.

As someone not in the music world, I tried my best. I knew not everyone makes it to Juilliard but I also know not everyone has to hit that peak that early.

Here is the point I am making. We, the USA, have the raw numbers playing youth soccer. Our geography is not in our favor. That has to be fixed regionally. In the DMV alone, we are so fractured when it should be our advantage that we have 10 counties surrounding DC that are major soccer playing counties. We should not have to travel to NJ/PA/WV/NC until U14/U15 if we actually played each other.

Some of the best coaches feel hamstrung by clubs who want to win in order to cater to hi-strung parents. Our parents need to be put in check regarding how development actually happens. Words like “boot it” and “send it” need to be removed from the lexicon.

We have to admit that what we are doing is not working and simply start adopting the policies of countries who have productive systems and keep refining until we produce professionals at the same clip as NJ, FL, TX, and then other countries.

Anybody who is trying to do something different I support wholeheartedly because Kevin Parades should not be the only high-profile DMV player in Europe. We have too many kids playing with too much talent and we are just failing them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A) i) the top players and teams are not playing each other; ii) parents are uneducated on development so coaches have alot of pressure on wins even if they believe in development; iii) 2% of club focus on the technical fundamentals and off-ball movement needed to progressive to higher levels. The lack of technical ability at MLS Next and ECNL is a little shocking IMHO.

B) i) The market determines the price; ii) coaches should be paid their worth; iii) EDP Futures @ Soccerplex does it the best with all teams at one location every week and no posted scored. Yes, parents gossip and know the scores but so what. If you mention an unposted score to me at a cocktail party, I literally might backslap you. These shallow parents should not be the norm like they are here.

C) Yes - Mirror Achilles approach to early develop less the cursing and antics which keeps them boutique.

D) Yes. This is where education is involved. Parents will have to understand the results don't matter before U15 but that is where you will struggle. I am not sure it can work in the DMV as the parental base is simply wealthy parents who are driven by ego. Lookup the DCU string. It has gone silent since someone called them out on this. People here use soccer to get into Princeton vs the love of the game. Most don't understand D1 is like 4th-6th division in most European countries and not really "successful" in real football terms.

I hope you're different. I hope it works out!

Since we are all in America where a kid making D1 soccer is a marker of success, how can someone say its not a successful achievement because of whats happening in another country?

Real here is real here.

No, you have taken the application of other sports like baseball and basketball and equated them to soccer. We created football and basketball so we own the development process. We are seeing the flaws in our processes over the last 20 years with amateurism in basketball as the world has taken interest in the sport since the Dream Team. We have the same head start in women's soccer and the next 20-40 years will be interesting on whether our processes are truly better.

We don't own soccer and made D1 a pathway when it is an international off-ramp to an education and a better life for international academy washouts (men's side).

You can either accept this reality or keep complaining about internationals taking your spots because it is obvious our kids are not good enough. USL Championship teams will destroy D1 teams. USL is ranked around the 75th league in the world which is equivalent to around 4th - 6th divisions in Europe. Congrats, you get to play and learn extreme time management while you learn how to be an investment banker. Congrats, your grades would have gotten you into GW but you get to go to Columbia now because of soccer. Those are both great upgrades in life. Especially for the upwardly mobile with no real aspirations of playing pro. Naturally, there are some kids who can ball and will make the MLS and Europe through the extra development in college just like there are players in lower divisions in Europe that make it to the primetime. However, the faster US sets its standards of soccer higher than D1, the faster you will see us have international success.

We're either speaking of America achievement as a measurement OR International achievement

As the PP stated, D1 is a successful achievement for an American youth soccer player, in America.
They didn't say it was the top achievement.

Your argument is not based on what they said but rather based on what you want to argue.

I guess it really depends on investment. If a violist went to a specialized school with other violinists for four years and spent 4-5 hours daily at minimum playing the violin and could not break into the major pathways to play in a major professional international orchestra by the end of high school, I think we would consider that not a major achievement if that violinist just played for fun in college and prepared to be an investment banker. If you are student athlete who simply came up through rec and school teams, D1 soccer is an achievement. If you are a MLS academy player with $100k+ invested through club fees, tournament trips, private training, group training, etc before you entered the MLS academy, I respectfully disagree D1 is an achievement. You invested alot to manufacture that player and I would question my investment and those I invested with to end with that result. No emotion here, just a different perspective you may have not considered.

As someone who knows just a small bit of the music world, I would say that it would be a rare feat for someone that young to break into a major orchestra at that age and those folks are typically studying further at some of the finest musical conservatories. If you look around, you don't see too many 18 yo principal violinists. You are looking at prodigy level folks -Yo-Yo Ma type musicians.

And exactly how many D1 soccer players - male or female - are simply coming up through rec and school teams? Probably close to zero. I think that statement is pretty shortsighted. I read further after this post and do agree somewhat with the soccer culture issue, the accessibility issue, and the difference between the college sports model v. European academy model.

I honestly don't know if the US will ever catchup on the men's side. Sports like basketball, football and even hockey are producing more top end talent with the best leagues for those respective sports in the world here in the USA. NBA, NFL, NHL are considered top tier worldwide. MLS here in the USA isn't even in the top 5, IDK?

IMO, what will be interesting is to see where things go on the women's side. With Title 9, college soccer in the USA became the pathway for our US women and gave us such a leg up. Now, that is changing with European clubs investing in their woman's side (but there are still bumps in the road there too - see issues in La Liga F). The USA clearly does not have the academy side for the women and is still using college as a training ground. Just not enough top level teams in NWSL, USL Super League, whatever else for all the players, but for college. Will see what happens. To be transparent, I had a U17 DD that has committed to play college soccer at a Big10 program.

Good Luck with things - I think it's an admirable thing to think about, but not easy to accomplish.

As someone not in the music world, I tried my best. I knew not everyone makes it to Juilliard but I also know not everyone has to hit that peak that early.

Here is the point I am making. We, the USA, have the raw numbers playing youth soccer. Our geography is not in our favor. That has to be fixed regionally. In the DMV alone, we are so fractured when it should be our advantage that we have 10 counties surrounding DC that are major soccer playing counties. We should not have to travel to NJ/PA/WV/NC until U14/U15 if we actually played each other.

Some of the best coaches feel hamstrung by clubs who want to win in order to cater to hi-strung parents. Our parents need to be put in check regarding how development actually happens. Words like “boot it” and “send it” need to be removed from the lexicon.

We have to admit that what we are doing is not working and simply start adopting the policies of countries who have productive systems and keep refining until we produce professionals at the same clip as NJ, FL, TX, and then other countries.

Anybody who is trying to do something different I support wholeheartedly because Kevin Parades should not be the only high-profile DMV player in Europe. We have too many kids playing with too much talent and we are just failing them.

I get where you were trying to go with the music reference. Not a big deal. I 100% agree with the bolded comment. There are so many programs within the DMV and again if you travel to along 64 from Charlottesville to Richmond to VA Beach, there shouldn't be a really need to have an out of town trip when kids are younger and still play high level competition. Part of the issue is there are too many alphabet soup leagues fighting for top players which drives the driving all over the place. Along with that, as kids get older it doesn't help that MD and VA aren't in the same season for HS Soccer. So, it makes playing each other very difficult, thus teams close to the DMV get lumped in with PA/NJ versus closer VA teams.

I guess too, what is the end goal of all of this? Is it really to produce top end professional talent - I am still skeptical if I ever see soccer taking a seat at the same table as NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, etc. The likelihood of playing at a professional level is extremely low - quick AI search showed that football, basketball it was like 1% to 2% of all college players. I think that's why the college system is preferred in the US - if you don't make it professionally, at least maybe you have a degree. Maybe that part of the reason so many Euro-Academy washouts are showing on NCAA rosters - degree is worth something.

One final thing - yeah. Enough of the send it and boot it. There's a time and place to play the long ball - it's not every pass out of the back! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another small club is not needed. The ballers will go to the big name clubs and you'll be left with middling players and you'll get nowhere.

And if you listen to the parents here, and don't use volunteer parents for anything, you'll have an incredibly expensive club for middling players (as we already have)

While I think that competition IS needed, especially in Maryland, you are correct that the most talented players will go elsewhere. Even if they start out at this proposed club, established clubs will go after those players hard. I know coaches in Maryland who started a new club a long time ago just like what is being proposed here, started building momentum, and then Bethesda and Potomac wooed the top players away and the club eventually folded. It is a real leap of faith to stick with a new club and most families understandably have a hard time making that leap. If you want a fighting chance, start by having your own facilities. That will set you apart in Montgomery County (the Bethesda indoor facility is awful and Potomac doesn't have facilities but does have great field relationships), and is needed anyway to compete in Howard County or Virginia in a very saturated market.

[Anonymous]

The way to dont this is to find a rec team with decent talent and lots of passion and convert them to your first travel league. Get the families on board, keep the kids together, then work on recruiting and expanding to multiple teams and ages each season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A) i) the top players and teams are not playing each other; ii) parents are uneducated on development so coaches have alot of pressure on wins even if they believe in development; iii) 2% of club focus on the technical fundamentals and off-ball movement needed to progressive to higher levels. The lack of technical ability at MLS Next and ECNL is a little shocking IMHO.

B) i) The market determines the price; ii) coaches should be paid their worth; iii) EDP Futures @ Soccerplex does it the best with all teams at one location every week and no posted scored. Yes, parents gossip and know the scores but so what. If you mention an unposted score to me at a cocktail party, I literally might backslap you. These shallow parents should not be the norm like they are here.

C) Yes - Mirror Achilles approach to early develop less the cursing and antics which keeps them boutique.

D) Yes. This is where education is involved. Parents will have to understand the results don't matter before U15 but that is where you will struggle. I am not sure it can work in the DMV as the parental base is simply wealthy parents who are driven by ego. Lookup the DCU string. It has gone silent since someone called them out on this. People here use soccer to get into Princeton vs the love of the game. Most don't understand D1 is like 4th-6th division in most European countries and not really "successful" in real football terms.

I hope you're different. I hope it works out!

Since we are all in America where a kid making D1 soccer is a marker of success, how can someone say its not a successful achievement because of whats happening in another country?

Real here is real here.

No, you have taken the application of other sports like baseball and basketball and equated them to soccer. We created football and basketball so we own the development process. We are seeing the flaws in our processes over the last 20 years with amateurism in basketball as the world has taken interest in the sport since the Dream Team. We have the same head start in women's soccer and the next 20-40 years will be interesting on whether our processes are truly better.

We don't own soccer and made D1 a pathway when it is an international off-ramp to an education and a better life for international academy washouts (men's side).

You can either accept this reality or keep complaining about internationals taking your spots because it is obvious our kids are not good enough. USL Championship teams will destroy D1 teams. USL is ranked around the 75th league in the world which is equivalent to around 4th - 6th divisions in Europe. Congrats, you get to play and learn extreme time management while you learn how to be an investment banker. Congrats, your grades would have gotten you into GW but you get to go to Columbia now because of soccer. Those are both great upgrades in life. Especially for the upwardly mobile with no real aspirations of playing pro. Naturally, there are some kids who can ball and will make the MLS and Europe through the extra development in college just like there are players in lower divisions in Europe that make it to the primetime. However, the faster US sets its standards of soccer higher than D1, the faster you will see us have international success.

We're either speaking of America achievement as a measurement OR International achievement

As the PP stated, D1 is a successful achievement for an American youth soccer player, in America.
They didn't say it was the top achievement.

Your argument is not based on what they said but rather based on what you want to argue.

I guess it really depends on investment. If a violist went to a specialized school with other violinists for four years and spent 4-5 hours daily at minimum playing the violin and could not break into the major pathways to play in a major professional international orchestra by the end of high school, I think we would consider that not a major achievement if that violinist just played for fun in college and prepared to be an investment banker. If you are student athlete who simply came up through rec and school teams, D1 soccer is an achievement. If you are a MLS academy player with $100k+ invested through club fees, tournament trips, private training, group training, etc before you entered the MLS academy, I respectfully disagree D1 is an achievement. You invested alot to manufacture that player and I would question my investment and those I invested with to end with that result. No emotion here, just a different perspective you may have not considered.

Are you on mind altering drugs?

How stupid of a delusional narcissist can you be to tell people what their goals and markers for successful achievement are to them?

Players in Europe go from U8 to U18 at academies and don't make it to professional soccer careers.
Since only about 1% make it, the other 99% have lived wasted useless lives according to you.

European academy players and their families invest NO money. The clubs pay the way. Big difference.

If you're just talking pure ROI on the money a family invests in soccer, a D1 roster spot is not great return on a six figure investment. A full scholarship to a D1 program is better ROI but the chances of Americans getting full rides at top tier D1 programs is very slim. Majority of those scholarships are going to players overseas who were on a pro pathway but got dropped or burned out.

Going to college is still a great pathway. No one disputes that. It's just so you need to spend six figures on crazy pay to play fees in order to achieve that result. In today's system, I would offer no.

I could buy the argument that you're making a six figure investment just to get your kid into a choice college. But call it what it is. It isn't about soccer. It is about gaming the college admissions process with soccer.

On dcum, seems many think every kid in Europe is in a professional club academy and grassroots that costs money doesn't exist lol

Parents in Europe sacrifice time, effort, work to get kids to academies and games till they are old enough to live in academy housing during the week, if the academy has housing, which majority of smaller ones don't

Not every kid is in a professional academy in Europe. Don't think anything was offered that said otherwise. BUT if you play for your local team in Europe the cost to play is MINIMAL. Meaning access is open to pretty much every socio economic strata. If football cost as much money as it does here in Europe or South America, they would have the same problem we do with access (to only the wealthy) and the system getting gamed by rich, entitled and elitist families and having soft and spoiled kids with no grit flooding the system (which is what we have in the US).

Of course families in Europe spend time and effort supporting their kids. The point is that most of that support isn't financial. It doesn't matter what level they are in. The sport is accessible to everyone in European countries and there is just more soccer infrastructure and culture to play. Very few kids in Europe are getting into academy boarding houses. That is a five figure investment per player per year. But again if you're in top level football in a European country, you're not really spending a lot of money on football. If you're not on top level, you're playing locally for the most part and the costs are even less.

in the US, it doesn't matter when you start playing organized football or at what level you are playing your family is starting at a four figure expenditure per year. And if you're in the lowest cost program you literally have no chance of advancement because you won't have the exposure or the competition to make you sharper as a player.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know some will chuckle at this post, others will ridicule it and many others will receive it with skepticism.

Please write a post describing:

A) what do DO NOT like about the current ecosystem (please, go beyond the pay-to-play system - that’s obviously the main problem in this country but fields need to be rented, officials too, permits and insurances, galore etc)

B) what to DO like about the current ecosystem you’d like this new organization to adopt

C) will you accept a holistic curriculum that does NOT care about scores/results until AFTER U14/U15?

D) if your DD/DS is not in HS, would you consider a club that puts emphasis EXCLUSIVELY on genuine technical and tactical development over physicality or will you keep beating the US athlete-minded focus?


Side note: this new organization will start extremely small as you can imagine but nobody will be turned away due to politics or DMV drama or whatever it is locals eat/drink here that make them this way.

This project is in the infant stages from and admin perspective but there is a financial backing to get the 501(c)3 operative by this upcoming spring.

Best of luck but didn’t Barca Academy try this in Leesburg a couple years back and they ended up folding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know some will chuckle at this post, others will ridicule it and many others will receive it with skepticism.

Please write a post describing:

A) what do DO NOT like about the current ecosystem (please, go beyond the pay-to-play system - that’s obviously the main problem in this country but fields need to be rented, officials too, permits and insurances, galore etc)

B) what to DO like about the current ecosystem you’d like this new organization to adopt

C) will you accept a holistic curriculum that does NOT care about scores/results until AFTER U14/U15?

D) if your DD/DS is not in HS, would you consider a club that puts emphasis EXCLUSIVELY on genuine technical and tactical development over physicality or will you keep beating the US athlete-minded focus?


Side note: this new organization will start extremely small as you can imagine but nobody will be turned away due to politics or DMV drama or whatever it is locals eat/drink here that make them this way.

This project is in the infant stages from and admin perspective but there is a financial backing to get the 501(c)3 operative by this upcoming spring.

Best of luck but didn’t Barca Academy try this in Leesburg a couple years back and they ended up folding.

Barca folded because the German guy who cheated on his pregnant wife kicked them out as he was purchasing evergreen Sportsplex.