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[quote=Anonymous][quote]
I see a lot of misinformation from parents obviously outside MLS Next on here, and I don't know if it is intentional or not, but it is misinformation.[/quote]

I think what you are actually seeing is information from DCU parents, which you may not have realized.

[quote]First, multiple MLS academies have all age groups.  Philadelphia Union and Red Bulls are playing U13s from Alexandria, SYC, Achilles, etc.[/quote]

This is misinformation if you like.  Yes PU and NYRB have younger teams, but they do not have U16 or U19 teams for example.

[quote]Second, the U15 MLS Academy teams are playing non-MLS Academy teams.  So they are not playing only other MLS Academies.[/quote]
No - but they are playing a schedule which is much more weighted to playing games against other MLS academies and fewer against MLS Next teams than was the case in the old DA.  For example DCU have already played Charlotte, Atlanta, Orlando, NYRB and Nashville, and will play NYCFC, PU, Toronto, and NE Revolution before the end of November.

[quote]Third, nobody said MLS Academies are better than all other clubs.[/quote]
Yes actually they did.

[quote]
There are certainly some MLS Next clubs in certain age groups that will be competitive  You see that in this area.  [/quote]

There are both MLS Next and ECNL clubs which can play competitively against DCU at every age group in this, and other areas.

However I also think there is some confusion between the competitiveness of a team and the talent level of the kids on that team.  In general (perhaps always) the MLS academies have more talented kids on their rosters than other clubs in their area.  However, although there is a strong correlation between the talent of the players and the competitiveness of the team, there are other factors too so that doesn't always mean that their teams perform better - especially in an area such as ours where there is a large population and a lot of interest in soccer as a sport, and therefore the talent pool runs deep.

[quote]But club-wide, the talent gap will tend to be significant.[/quote]
Within a geographic area this is true.  But some MLS academies in other areas struggle to get the talent from their local population pool which is why more of them are starting to operate residency programs.  In some cases the talent level on some of these clubs is not dissimilar to better local MLS next/ECNL teams and kids who don't get a call from DCU are able to get offers from them.[/quote]

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