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[quote=Anonymous]My son is a player with Benfica SC here in the DC area.

A couple of points,  first off, ALL "pay to play" soccer clubs are money grabs. They are businesses who make money from club fees and not reciprocity payments or sponsorships the way it works in most countries.

Second, there is obviously very little direct link from Benfica SC here and the home club's academy in Lisbon. The coaches do spend time there every year for coaches training, learning drills etc which they bring back and utilize here.

The club is still fairly new, so many players are coming into travel or at EDP level for the first time. However the coaches do a great job focusing on development of those players, often stopping practice to reinforce something or help a kid who is having trouble with a particular skill.

That can reduce the intensity of the training because not every kid is at that high level. But as a parent, I'm glad to see the attention to all kids not just the team's stars.

We didn't join the club because we thought my son would have a direct path to Europe. We joined because we liked the training, focus on skill, possession, position and team play that many American clubs lacked.

I took my son to trial with some of the biggest and "best" clubs in the region. One in particular spent the entire tryout in 1v1 and 3v3 and from what I could tell it was just about which kid was most aggressive defensively and scores the most individual goals.

Benfica was different and tested different skills, including maturity and willingness to take instruction.

However I personally believe that travel soccer isn't very valuable for kids under u15. Many take longer to mature physically and puberty only complicates that more.

I would recommend more parents focus their youth players in futsal to really focus their training on skill and speed with the ball, movement and quick decision-making. At least until u15 level, futsal would be a better investment than travel soccer. [/quote]

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