Reply to Which NOVA U9 team plays most like Barcelona U9?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Well, for one, they're taking the best kids and practicing all the time against the best kids.  We spread things out and have a few good kids across many teams in this area.  Games are one thing, but practicing against the best every day/week is what brings the overall talent level up, not practicing against a couple very good.  See any of the threads/arguments against talent dilution in the DC area.  The problem with expansion isn't more clubs playing each other (which is nice) - it's that it dilutes the talent pool where good goes against good for a 90 minute training session 3-4 times/week.  That has a much bigger impact on player development than a single 90 minute game that your top players get 60-75 minutes, sometimes against less skilled opposition. [/quote]

Good point.  However, when you look at the Mid-Atlantic Region (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia and West Virginia) we have roughly the same population as Spain (and far more people than Portugal or Netherlands).  So, why aren't we "taking the best kids and practicing against the best kids" in the same way they are?  It's not that complicated.  An area like DC-Metro is going to have enough "best kids" to probably field several teams; same with Northern NJ and other densely populated areas; more sparsely populated areas might only have a couple of "best kid" teams.  But if Spain can do it, we should be able to do it, at least regionally, which should be comparable.

The problem as I see it with all of our "elite" leagues is that no one is in charge -- no one makes a rational system where the "best" kids will play in this league, but then we'll have these second and third level leagues to give all kids a chance to play (and even to move up, if they develop).  So we end up with "elite" leagues where you're expected to travel to another state, [b]but the competition that you'll play in that other state is usually no better than competition that you can find 30 minutes away[/b].  Because nobody seems willing or able to agree to work together to make U.S. soccer better.  Where is MLS in all of this?  Why aren't they developing young kids from an early age the way EU clubs are doing?  Or at least why aren't they trying to use their influence/power to mediate these sorts of issues among U.S. youth soccer?

[quote] Basketball for one does this well with their AAU model.  This model is actually much more similar to the euro system if you equate the sponsoring shoe companies (basketball) to the sponsoring club (euro soccer).  Those elite teams form early, talent plays early against other talent, and the best teams are typically sponsored by a Nike/Adidas and costs are much more minimal.  But ultimately, those kids are practicing against other elite kids day in/day out.   The travel is relatively insane for these top clubs at a young age, but much of those costs are covered at the higher levels of AAU.[/quote]

That's interesting.  I didn't even really know about AAU (not a big basketball fan) ... I just assumed that the main track for basketball players was high school --> NCAA college --> NBA.  [/quote]

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