MSI or Bethesda Academy

[Anonymous]

Can anyone compare Bethesda Dev Academy teams to the MSI academy teams? Equally strong? This is for U10. Thinking about switching leagues but not sure how the levels compare. Would an MSI academy player be a competent Bethesda DA player and vice versa? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone compare Bethesda Dev Academy teams to the MSI academy teams? Equally strong? This is for U10. Thinking about switching leagues but not sure how the levels compare. Would an MSI academy player be a competent Bethesda DA player and vice versa? Thanks.

There's no such thing as a DA player at U10. DA starts at U13.

At any age though, Bethesda's best players > MSI's best players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone compare Bethesda Dev Academy teams to the MSI academy teams? Equally strong? This is for U10. Thinking about switching leagues but not sure how the levels compare. Would an MSI academy player be a competent Bethesda DA player and vice versa? Thanks.

There's no such thing as a DA player at U10. DA starts at U13.

At any age though, Bethesda's best players > MSI's best players.

I guess at Bethesda they call it pre-Academy... MSI seems to call it Premier. Those are the two groups I’m trying to compare.

[Anonymous]

Bethesda pre-DA 1 and 2 are highly coveted. But I think the strength of 2 is hit or miss.
MSI Premier or Academy could be great or not depending on the coach.
I think it would come down to coaching philosophy and personality match. Can your child attend a practice at both teams?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone compare Bethesda Dev Academy teams to the MSI academy teams? Equally strong? This is for U10. Thinking about switching leagues but not sure how the levels compare. Would an MSI academy player be a competent Bethesda DA player and vice versa? Thanks.

There's no such thing as a DA player at U10. DA starts at U13.

At any age though, Bethesda's best players > MSI's best players.

I guess at Bethesda they call it pre-Academy... MSI seems to call it Premier. Those are the two groups I’m trying to compare.

Don’t get confused. MSI Premier is for 2000/2001 and older kids while MSI Academy is for 2002 and younger kids.

Before you can really decide, do you know what team your DC is qualified for (ie get offers)? It’s much easier to decide if one club offers a spot on their top team vs their bottom team. If your DC got an offer to be on BSC’ top team, that’s where I would join.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone compare Bethesda Dev Academy teams to the MSI academy teams? Equally strong? This is for U10. Thinking about switching leagues but not sure how the levels compare. Would an MSI academy player be a competent Bethesda DA player and vice versa? Thanks.

There's no such thing as a DA player at U10. DA starts at U13.

At any age though, Bethesda's best players > MSI's best players.

I don't know if I would make such a general statement. I would agree that more serious players are not going to MSI. I would also argue that the best players are not at Bethesda.

Bethesda is for the social elite. They name drop to try to impress but any serious person in youth soccer knows that the best youth boys are at DCUnited and the best youth girls are at FCV/McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone compare Bethesda Dev Academy teams to the MSI academy teams? Equally strong? This is for U10. Thinking about switching leagues but not sure how the levels compare. Would an MSI academy player be a competent Bethesda DA player and vice versa? Thanks.

There's no such thing as a DA player at U10. DA starts at U13.

At any age though, Bethesda's best players > MSI's best players.

I don't know if I would make such a general statement. I would agree that more serious players are not going to MSI. I would also argue that the best players are not at Bethesda.

Bethesda is for the social elite. They name drop to try to impress but any serious person in youth soccer knows that the best youth boys are at DCUnited and the best youth girls are at FCV/McLean.

So it’s ok if you make general statements about where the best players are?

[Anonymous]

Not general. It is common knowledge that top teams players are not at Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone compare Bethesda Dev Academy teams to the MSI academy teams? Equally strong? This is for U10. Thinking about switching leagues but not sure how the levels compare. Would an MSI academy player be a competent Bethesda DA player and vice versa? Thanks.

There's no such thing as a DA player at U10. DA starts at U13.

At any age though, Bethesda's best players > MSI's best players.

I don't know if I would make such a general statement. I would agree that more serious players are not going to MSI. I would also argue that the best players are not at Bethesda.

Bethesda is for the social elite. They name drop to try to impress but any serious person in youth soccer knows that the best youth boys are at DCUnited and the best youth girls are at FCV/McLean.

So it’s ok if you make general statements about where the best players are?

Old Guard commentary

[Anonymous]

In general, top ranked teams are able to recruit and have more good players (ie less average or bad players). This doesn’t mean top ranked teams have great players on their roster. Also, if the team is able to have many players with early birthdays (January or February) of the age year, then the team will typically have big & fast players.

[Anonymous]

80% of a team's players (or higher) come from a catchment area that is closest to the club. Sure there are exceptional one-offs of kids driving an hour or more to play for a team, but by and large in this area kids play for their (relatively) local side.

[Anonymous]

The average Bethesda pre-academy team (either 1 or 2) is going to be much better than the average MSI academy team.
Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone compare Bethesda Dev Academy teams to the MSI academy teams? Equally strong? This is for U10. Thinking about switching leagues but not sure how the levels compare. Would an MSI academy player be a competent Bethesda DA player and vice versa? Thanks.

There's no such thing as a DA player at U10. DA starts at U13.

At any age though, Bethesda's best players > MSI's best players.

I don't know if I would make such a general statement. I would agree that more serious players are not going to MSI. I would also argue that the best players are not at Bethesda.

Bethesda is for the social elite. They name drop to try to impress but any serious person in youth soccer knows that the best youth boys are at DCUnited and the best youth girls are at FCV/McLean.

DC United is eliminating DA U12& U13 so...best younger youth players won’t be found there! Agree that serious players don’t usually go to MSI though

[Anonymous]

Don't have a child at either Bethesda or MSI Academy but have played their teams this past year and this is just not true. It really depends on the gender/age group and specific team.

In DC's age group, the MSI academy team was almost evenly matched or slightly better than Bethesda pre-academy 1 and a lot better than pre-academy 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average Bethesda pre-academy team (either 1 or 2) is going to be much better than the average MSI academy team.
Period.

I would agree to that. Parents are not going to let their DC be on a team/club that costs and travel more unless their DC is a serious/committed player.