Reply to DC United's New Youth Plan

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Another marketing play or real change?

"Later today the Black-and-Red will officially unveil “DMV Pathway 2 Pro,” a partnership with five Washington metro area youth clubs designed to strengthen and streamline the developmental pyramid by which United aim to nurture the region’s top young talent..."

https://www.soccerwire.com/news/pro/mls/with-new-pathway-2-pro-dc-united-aim-to-raise-the-level-in-dmv/[/quote]

It's to build up the pipeline for the DC United DA team - having more flexible relationships with potential feeder and other teams esp. while the kids are still younger - and a nice marketing and affinity relationship builder for them and the clubs involved.  [/quote]

It's just making it more closed.  I saw the Travel Club DA video in the other thread and if we are limiting ourselves to those players, this whole thing closes the player pool even more and we are leaving out a huge swath of players that have better soccer iq and skill.[/quote]

This initiative isn't going to make anything more closed.  As others have pointed out, DCU and other DAs are still going to take the best players they can get their hands on, regardless of where they come from.  [/quote]

It's the 'come to'.  There are some outstanding non-DA teams all over VA/MD.  They should be looking at kids from there.  It's our system that only looks at a very small percentage of kids in the area.  The best is not in that video, [b]yet now they are limiting the pool to what is coming over to them when much better is all over.  [/b]It's backwards.  It leads back to the whole US scouting thing with USSF and how it is unfunded and very few at all.  Our system needs a MAJOR overhaul or we can just continue to be happy with losing.[/quote]

Except that DCU will not be limiting the pool of players who are coming to them, no matter what that article says.  What will happen is what has always happened:  Players from every club who think they are good will try out with DCU, and if DCU thinks they are good, they will be offered spots or the opportunity to attend more practices with DCU.  This initiative allows DCU to say with a somewhat straight face that they are not in fact "poaching" if some of the kids they take happen to come from the listed clubs, which all announced "affiliation" agreements over the last couple years.  Some of those clubs  (Loudoun, Arlington) probably regret those affiliation agreements now, [b]because they have their own partial DAs and they don't want players to leave for DCU until U15 at the earliest.[/b]  It's all just window dressing, with some possibility that a few kids who might not otherwise have ever thought about trying out at the DA level (like those at PPA) may realize there is a bigger world of soccer out there.  [/quote]

Doesn't VDA have a U17 and U19 Academy?  In fact, aren't they strictly an Academy club and the only Academy affliated with this DC Program?  So will it be assumed the top players move to DC Academy and VDA Academy keeps lesser players?  I guess in reality, only one or two (or none) might be picked up by DC United in any given year, but it still seems strange.....Also, where does Bethesda fit in?  Related, what is the competitive history between Bethesda and DC United?  I get that DC is MLS but I got the impression that Bethesda actually has been pretty competitive -- has DC United Academy consistently been stronger/much more competitive?  [/quote]

This is NOT an effort to consolidate the DA talent across the region to be more competitive for national/regional competitions - except maybe between the DCU and Arlington DA (which I think was the only DA feeder on the DCU list).  This happens in some other metro regions but not all.  (For instance, Atlanta, where they bring the best players together for these types of competitions).  It is one of the DA track options of a few in this region/metro.[/quote]

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