Reply to AC Milan Virginia

Forum Index » Soccer

Reply to "AC Milan Virginia"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I seriously miss Barca.

We were with them when they opened and it was the best environment the first few years.  Very unlike 'travel' clubs.  The staff were all UEFA trained.  The kids trained at the same time at Evergreen, academy style so there was a lot of mixing of training groups.  There were 3-4 coaches watching the groups every night, taking notes.  The staff was full-time.  Parents did not have involvement with coaches.  There was one central manager/admin.  No parent managers. Parents weren't allowed on the field, or behind the fence--had to stay up in the stands.  They had weekly inter-scrimmage league every weekend (unless regular season was happening).

It's funny--now so many of those boys U17-U19 are on the top MLSNext and ECNL teams; a few at MLS academies.  The training/development was really good.  But, with our 'win instantly' travel world--it didn't fit in the landscape. Many of their teams were really making significant process right before the fold.

It started to fall apart by year 4 when more people started to come and wanted to impose 'American travel' type logistics, politics, etc. Then, Covid wiped them out.

I had two kids there from 2016-2020 and it was the most relaxed and positive atmosphere.  Fond memories.[/quote]

Also had kids at Barca at the beginning and for several years. It started well and was especially good for the younger ages. After a couple of years it changed and the benefits diminished. As it got bigger, adding more teams, more players, more coaches, the quality of the coaching went down. They caved to the local demand to play in more leagues, tournaments, with emphasis on winning. The original vision and our expierience the first years was that it was all about long term development, but the parents and even the kids grew tired of the internal matches.

For many reasons, I just don't think the European model translates well to the US soccer market. And it probably never will. Just like the NFL academies that exist in Europe are not going to build a pipeline of NFL players. But it's good brand marketing and helps to grow their audience. [/quote]

PP here. Totally agree.  Same experience--and think the same thing.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics