Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:you heard it here first, 2011 half players on cut list 2010 handful new doc on the move. kids will be giving choices stay as practice squad or out the door. start shopping around boys

You are wild. They are going to cut half of their undefeated team? See how that doesn't make sense? Maybe try talking to the coach, who finds this all hilarious by the way.

What is actually hilarious is the assumption that any coach at DCU is in the know about anything happening on the management or strategic side of the academy or the club. Especially with a new director coming in and assessing the efficacy of everything and everyone. The coaching side of DCU is literally a revolving door of employees with very little continuity year after year and the new director has no allegiances to anyone on the current coaching staff. I wouldn't rely on the coaches to know anything about a strategic decision made by DCU. That is for sure. They don't even know if they will have a job next season.

The reality of any high level academy system is that kids get cut quite frequently for new and better talent. At these ages in Europe it is not unusual or unheard of for an academy to completely reload a squad (meaning 10÷ players) regardless of winning or losing. It is about finding the potential professionals and putting them in the system. The team could be very successful now in terms of Ws and Ls, like DCUs 2011s, but management may not be seeing the pro potential in the pool after assessing them for a period of time. Professional academies want to win for sure but good ones don't really care if a u14 squad is undefeated. What they care about is do they have the best talent they can get that has potential to make them money. And that means if they have made a calculation that a group of players have a very low ceiling in terms of pro potential, they get cut. It is that simple and the players might be actually pretty good today, but signs are showing that they have limited upside potential for the future.That could be due to size, power, speed, agility, toughness, mental fortitude, technical ability, physical potential, any number of things. Good today doesn't equal good potential 4 years down the road. Very different talent assessments and calculations. If any team was reloading it would.be.because they have too many limited upside players and there are players with higher ceilings out there that can come in now or next season.

No idea whether this claim about the 2011 team reloading is true. Seems unlikely to be honest but with DCU you never know. But if it is true, I wouldn't be surprised given the circumstances at DCU with a new director coming in and wanting different things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matt-hartman-on-the-new-homegrown-rules/id1611865497?i=1000577479814

Randomly came across this podcast from 2022. Start at the 6 min mark, he briefly touches on DCU. Youth sports analyst. Pretty much says what was said in previous posts.

TLDR: DCUA sucks at scouting. Talent rich area and outside academies come and scoop up players.

I disagree. They don't suck at scouting. The DMV has a rare set up of some very competitive soccer communities. A lot of the players want to continue to play in high school and many have scholarships linked to it. It's not lack of scouting- it comes down to personal choices that parents and players are making. For some the move to academy is an easy answer. Others have a lot of other things to factor in. The talented Baltimore pool has to decide if the amount of travel works for their families. Same with the VA families that are from Richmond. It's a big commitment and not everyone is in the position to just accept and have to make decisions that work best for them.

These are fair points. All of things, coupled with the fact that DCU isn't a must go offer where it tilts the scale in their favor when people are making decisions makes a lot of good talent make different decisions. That is right.

No place in America is a must go for soccer.

But some you would sacrifice for. DCU isn't worth the sacrifice. That is what a lot of families are pretty much saying who make the choice not to go when there are calculations being made as to whether it is worth it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:you heard it here first, 2011 half players on cut list 2010 handful new doc on the move. kids will be giving choices stay as practice squad or out the door. start shopping around boys

You are wild. They are going to cut half of their undefeated team? See how that doesn't make sense? Maybe try talking to the coach, who finds this all hilarious by the way.

Anonymous wrote:you heard it here first, 2011 half players on cut list 2010 handful new doc on the move. kids will be giving choices stay as practice squad or out the door. start shopping around boys

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matt-hartman-on-the-new-homegrown-rules/id1611865497?i=1000577479814

Randomly came across this podcast from 2022. Start at the 6 min mark, he briefly touches on DCU. Youth sports analyst. Pretty much says what was said in previous posts.

TLDR: DCUA sucks at scouting. Talent rich area and outside academies come and scoop up players.

I disagree. They don't suck at scouting. The DMV has a rare set up of some very competitive soccer communities. A lot of the players want to continue to play in high school and many have scholarships linked to it. It's not lack of scouting- it comes down to personal choices that parents and players are making. For some the move to academy is an easy answer. Others have a lot of other things to factor in. The talented Baltimore pool has to decide if the amount of travel works for their families. Same with the VA families that are from Richmond. It's a big commitment and not everyone is in the position to just accept and have to make decisions that work best for them.

These are fair points. All of things, coupled with the fact that DCU isn't a must go offer where it tilts the scale in their favor when people are making decisions makes a lot of good talent make different decisions. That is right.

No place in America is a must go for soccer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:you heard it here first, 2011 half players on cut list 2010 handful new doc on the move. kids will be giving choices stay as practice squad or out the door. start shopping around boys

I would love to hear where you got this from… The 2011 have won every game but 1 which was a tie. Why would they cut half of the team? Maybe they bring in kids to help make the team stronger. Some of you in here have no idea what you are talking about and just talk to talk. If your kid wasn’t good enough to play at the academy don’t ruin it for others.

If my kid was U14 at any professional academy and the focus was only on W vs L instead of making the individual players better on and off the field, I'd be pretty disappointed

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matt-hartman-on-the-new-homegrown-rules/id1611865497?i=1000577479814

Randomly came across this podcast from 2022. Start at the 6 min mark, he briefly touches on DCU. Youth sports analyst. Pretty much says what was said in previous posts.

TLDR: DCUA sucks at scouting. Talent rich area and outside academies come and scoop up players.

I disagree. They don't suck at scouting. The DMV has a rare set up of some very competitive soccer communities. A lot of the players want to continue to play in high school and many have scholarships linked to it. It's not lack of scouting- it comes down to personal choices that parents and players are making. For some the move to academy is an easy answer. Others have a lot of other things to factor in. The talented Baltimore pool has to decide if the amount of travel works for their families. Same with the VA families that are from Richmond. It's a big commitment and not everyone is in the position to just accept and have to make decisions that work best for them.

These are fair points. All of things, coupled with the fact that DCU isn't a must go offer where it tilts the scale in their favor when people are making decisions makes a lot of good talent make different decisions. That is right.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matt-hartman-on-the-new-homegrown-rules/id1611865497?i=1000577479814

Randomly came across this podcast from 2022. Start at the 6 min mark, he briefly touches on DCU. Youth sports analyst. Pretty much says what was said in previous posts.

TLDR: DCUA sucks at scouting. Talent rich area and outside academies come and scoop up players.

I disagree. They don't suck at scouting. The DMV has a rare set up of some very competitive soccer communities. A lot of the players want to continue to play in high school and many have scholarships linked to it. It's not lack of scouting- it comes down to personal choices that parents and players are making. For some the move to academy is an easy answer. Others have a lot of other things to factor in. The talented Baltimore pool has to decide if the amount of travel works for their families. Same with the VA families that are from Richmond. It's a big commitment and not everyone is in the position to just accept and have to make decisions that work best for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:you heard it here first, 2011 half players on cut list 2010 handful new doc on the move. kids will be giving choices stay as practice squad or out the door. start shopping around boys

I would love to hear where you got this from… The 2011 have won every game but 1 which was a tie. Why would they cut half of the team? Maybe they bring in kids to help make the team stronger. Some of you in here have no idea what you are talking about and just talk to talk. If your kid wasn’t good enough to play at the academy don’t ruin it for others.

Anonymous wrote:you heard it here first, 2011 half players on cut list 2010 handful new doc on the move. kids will be giving choices stay as practice squad or out the door. start shopping around boys

Anonymous wrote:you heard it here first, 2011 half players on cut list 2010 handful new doc on the move. kids will be giving choices stay as practice squad or out the door. start shopping around boys

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matt-hartman-on-the-new-homegrown-rules/id1611865497?i=1000577479814

Randomly came across this podcast from 2022. Start at the 6 min mark, he briefly touches on DCU. Youth sports analyst. Pretty much says what was said in previous posts.

TLDR: DCUA sucks at scouting. Talent rich area and outside academies come and scoop up players.

I disagree. They don't suck at scouting. The DMV has a rare set up of some very competitive soccer communities. A lot of the players want to continue to play in high school and many have scholarships linked to it. It's not lack of scouting- it comes down to personal choices that parents and players are making. For some the move to academy is an easy answer. Others have a lot of other things to factor in. The talented Baltimore pool has to decide if the amount of travel works for their families. Same with the VA families that are from Richmond. It's a big commitment and not everyone is in the position to just accept and have to make decisions that work best for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did anybody else get fired at the academy, or are we waiting until Friday for the big reveal?

was it announced somewhere that there will be an announcement on Friday?

I don't think so. He has already been announced internally. Externally not yet.

He has a huge job ahead of him. But at least he has some experience running an academy at this level and USL level and also scouting talent. Previous director just didn't have the experience and that was obvious. He did what he could and was capable of.

What he doesn't have experience in is DMV soccer politics which is a beast in and of itself, the problems at DCU which are deep, and running an academy with very little resources available to him.

Hope he can change things around.