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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Where did anyone say DCU is the best fit for every player in the DMV?

Comment actually said for personal reasons a family may want to go elsewhere

The point is, as long as you're in America until 18 years old, there is no significant difference in probability of making it to the highest international levels regardless of which MLS Club Academy you're in.

If you're not the elite and exceptional of the 1% in the academies, the MLS academy doesn't make a difference in the long run.

U15, U16, U17 MLS Next championships ain't diddly squat when the goal is Division 1 European league contract. [/quote]

Homegrown signings say otherwise.  The teams with the most kids going pro are teams with better funding.  Just because it's not Europe doesn't mean you settle for a lesser environment.  You might look down on MLS, but it's the highest league you can play here and I'd say every academy kid strives for a contract.[/quote]

DCU doesn't have Homegrown signings?

Please provide the metrics that show funding allotment per player and measurable levels of associated attributed professional success for all academies?

Only Homegrown signings end-up playing in MLS?

DCU kids aren't going to good colleges?[/quote]

If college is the goal, sure, DCU is sufficient... as is any other MLS Next or ECNL team.  The players in academies are dreaming of going pro, with college as plan b.  The outside academies listed here have almost double the amount of homegrown signings than DCU and they've been around for almost 30 years?  Use that as a benchmark for effectiveness in developing pro players.  Maybe, just maybe, the other academies have stronger development programs or better talent identification.

And no, I won't spend time digging up impossible metrics and measures.  You can plainly see it, those proofs have been listed out in 20 pages.[/quote]

As it was said in a previous post, football at this level is a margins game.  Can you go to college from any MLS, MLS next, ECNL program?  Yes you can.  But it is about maximizing your child's chances of getting better opportunities.  Better training means a better player which means better opportunities. It's the difference between a top tier D1 program and a low tier D1 program. The differences are pretty big in the overall talent in these two programs and the player trajectory at the youth level.

Agree with the homegrown data and using that as a benchmark.  DCU is one of the oldest, if not the oldest club in the league.  But yet it struggles to produce homegrown players at the same rate as it's younger MLS counterparts.  There is only one place to look to understand why DCU can't keep the pace up in the development of its own pros.  THE ACADEMY.

This has been said before, if you're trying to be a professional footballer, DCU is a VERY difficult place to achieve that because the academy is just not in the business of producing pros. Remember the MLS is a business first.    DCU doesn't believe the academy is a money maker and, they are top 10 in revenue generation in the league so they have a strong sense of how they want to make money (the academy isn't one of those ways). DCU at the academy level is in the business of 1. Satisfying the league by having an academy (remember it was reducing it's commitment to the academy by cutting its younger teams in 2015 despite being pay to play) 2. Spending the least amount of money as possible to keep the academy afloat and credible and 3.Beating the local clubs to maintain its competitive advantage in recruitment (which it is not consistently doing at all age groups and which necessitates win now teams).

And to the PP who said MLS academies aren't close to Europe and you have a very small chance of going to a top tier European club from the MLS, that is a fact.  But it is all we have in this country unfortunately.  So we have to work with what we have.  MLS academies are getting better, but many of them are improving at a rate that is just faster than DCU.[/quote]

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