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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My 13 year old son 2007 has the opportunity to play in a U15 team on the new league.  Most of the kids on the team will be 2006s.  Is this a good idea?  bad idea?  I’m thinking he probably won’t get tons of playing time.  Is practicing with the older kids beneficial for him?  Trying to see if this is a good idea.  Or should he stay on current team (not in mls)?[/quote]
I've had two sons go through the DA system; one is now at an MLS academy. From experience, I'd say the over-under is: are the in the top half of players on their (older) team? If so, that means they should be starter-quality, and it probably makes sense to play up. If not, they should probably play on-age and play a lot more.

This is especially important at the age you mentioned--U14 playing up to U15. This is the year when the gaps in size/speed/strength really open up. We had a player successfully play up U13-&gt;U14 and do really well; but then the next year (U14-&gt;U15) it was so obvious they were behind physically. If that's the case, they need to be one of the very best technical players to be able to hang.

Also, note that if the club has both age groups in the new MLS league, they can move your son up or down pretty easily (though it can be deflating to get &quot;moved down&quot;). So any decision can be provisional. Talk to the coach about all of this. If they want your son (which they must), they will talk candidly about all this.

Just my two cents.[/quote]

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