I feel for horrible for 03 players especially the girls who will not move with their team to ECNL.

April 15, 2020
To: All US Soccer Federation Members, Clubs and Staff
From: Dr. Pete Zopfi – USYS Chair
Skip Gilbert – USYS CEO

Re: US Youth Soccer Leads Development of New Elite Soccer Platform

Given today’s U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) and Major League Soccer (MLS) announcements, US Youth
Soccer affirms that it has been actively working with leadership, member clubs and outside partner
organizations to enhance our existing programming to meet the needs of our partners. Through our elite
youth soccer competitions and Olympic Development Program, we have elevated the playing environment
for club teams and players. We are more confident than ever that we have the leadership, vision, staff and
soccer eco-system to collaborate with all US Soccer members as well as any future MLS competitive
platform.
For those USSF DA Clubs who are now disenfranchised, we are excited to invite you to join the
conversation. Please contact us to learn more about how you can play a role in developing a new unified
and comprehensive structure that develops world-class players through an elite competitive pathway.
For any USSF staff impacted by today’s announcements, we invite you to talk with us to learn more about
US Youth Soccer and our organization. Many of you may know us from the past, but we encourage you to
get to know us for the future.
US Youth Soccer has the leadership, organization, financial strength and flexibility to collaborate, design
and execute national programming that will set the standard for elite youth play and allow young athletes
to reach their full potential. Because of our extensive relationships with leading thinkers and partners we
have actively developed plans to integrate with others to meet the needs of developing players through
high quality coaching, professionalized environments, enhanced player identification, and competitions
created specifically to address the development of players with professional aspirations.
“US Youth Soccer is the largest youth organization in the world and keeping the best players in the same
environment keeps our National team healthy”, said Dr. Robert Contiguglia, former President of the US
Soccer Federation (1998-2006) and past President of US Youth Soccer.
We are excited to engage with the entire US soccer community given the extensive changes in the
American youth soccer landscape. We hope you join us and help drive forward the game we all love. We
are a family committed to helping every player reach their full potential. We Are Youth Soccer!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m really sad for boys who won’t get a chance to go through the DA at the older years. It was a fantastic program with great training for less cost than a typical travel soccer program. The fact that there was pressure from US Soccer to maintain a high level of soccer and keep costs low for DA players set it apart from ECNL or any other national league. I loved that there were only two showcases a year, or a bit more if you played in the DA playoffs or GA Cup. It was so easy to get scouted for college as well. I also fear that fewer boys will end up playing overseas now. So many kids went from the DA to Germany the last few years. It has been really inspiring.

Our last remaining youth soccer player is not serious enough to be a DA player, so this doesn’t really affect us. I’m deeply grateful that our older son was able to play all his HS years in DA.

If your kid is a decent player, it's not hard to find a team going to Europe to play. Look around for Dutch soccer training camps, HP Elite creates teams to go over seas, Arlington had kids that went to Spain last year and were supposed to go this year, Alexandria went to Denmark I think last year, and there is many more opportunities. Just have to ask around.

I’m not talking about that kind of trip, though they can be fun. I’m talking about the kids (many very low income) who were scouted for the youth national teams or by German coaches at DA games/showcases/Da playoffs (free to all partipating players/teams that advanced to round 2 or beyond) and are now on academy or professional contracts in Europe as a result of that exposure. You can get there via other routes, but few are so easy or affordable.

Anonymous wrote:Screenshot of the announcement here:

https://imgur.com/a/UWtE9uo

Don't we already have 3 other "chat" forums on this same topic? Come on people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m really sad for boys who won’t get a chance to go through the DA at the older years. It was a fantastic program with great training for less cost than a typical travel soccer program. The fact that there was pressure from US Soccer to maintain a high level of soccer and keep costs low for DA players set it apart from ECNL or any other national league. I loved that there were only two showcases a year, or a bit more if you played in the DA playoffs or GA Cup. It was so easy to get scouted for college as well. I also fear that fewer boys will end up playing overseas now. So many kids went from the DA to Germany the last few years. It has been really inspiring.

Our last remaining youth soccer player is not serious enough to be a DA player, so this doesn’t really affect us. I’m deeply grateful that our older son was able to play all his HS years in DA.

If your kid is a decent player, it's not hard to find a team going to Europe to play. Look around for Dutch soccer training camps, HP Elite creates teams to go over seas, Arlington had kids that went to Spain last year and were supposed to go this year, Alexandria went to Denmark I think last year, and there is many more opportunities. Just have to ask around.

+1

FWIW it is very easy to play in international tournaments if you have the resources. There are teams that are going over that often need guest players and most tournaments have a "wanderers" team where individual players can join a mixed team of other solo players to compete.

I actually recommend international tournaments to families as it can be a real wake-up call for some as to the level they are playing here vs. overseas.

So your thinking is that there’s no way to be seen now because the DA is over?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m really sad for boys who won’t get a chance to go through the DA at the older years. It was a fantastic program with great training for less cost than a typical travel soccer program. The fact that there was pressure from US Soccer to maintain a high level of soccer and keep costs low for DA players set it apart from ECNL or any other national league. I loved that there were only two showcases a year, or a bit more if you played in the DA playoffs or GA Cup. It was so easy to get scouted for college as well. I also fear that fewer boys will end up playing overseas now. So many kids went from the DA to Germany the last few years. It has been really inspiring.

Our last remaining youth soccer player is not serious enough to be a DA player, so this doesn’t really affect us. I’m deeply grateful that our older son was able to play all his HS years in DA.

If your kid is a decent player, it's not hard to find a team going to Europe to play. Look around for Dutch soccer training camps, HP Elite creates teams to go over seas, Arlington had kids that went to Spain last year and were supposed to go this year, Alexandria went to Denmark I think last year, and there is many more opportunities. Just have to ask around.

+1

FWIW it is very easy to play in international tournaments if you have the resources. There are teams that are going over that often need guest players and most tournaments have a "wanderers" team where individual players can join a mixed team of other solo players to compete.

I actually recommend international tournaments to families as it can be a real wake-up call for some as to the level they are playing here vs. overseas.

^ our club not mentioned had several tournaments in Spain scheduled last month and in July.

But, come on, nobody is flying Internationally anytime soon.

Anonymous wrote:I’m really sad for boys who won’t get a chance to go through the DA at the older years. It was a fantastic program with great training for less cost than a typical travel soccer program. The fact that there was pressure from US Soccer to maintain a high level of soccer and keep costs low for DA players set it apart from ECNL or any other national league. I loved that there were only two showcases a year, or a bit more if you played in the DA playoffs or GA Cup. It was so easy to get scouted for college as well. I also fear that fewer boys will end up playing overseas now. So many kids went from the DA to Germany the last few years. It has been really inspiring.

Our last remaining youth soccer player is not serious enough to be a DA player, so this doesn’t really affect us. I’m deeply grateful that our older son was able to play all his HS years in DA.

If your kid is a decent player, it's not hard to find a team going to Europe to play. Look around for Dutch soccer training camps, HP Elite creates teams to go over seas, Arlington had kids that went to Spain last year and were supposed to go this year, Alexandria went to Denmark I think last year, and there is many more opportunities. Just have to ask around.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO No NO I refuse to accept this
My kid is a DA player and is better than your kid. Now your telling me my kid has to play some low level league like ECNL or such?

My lawyer will have something to say about this as someone will pay for doing this to my kid

Poor attempt at trolling. Try harder.

Actually that made me laugh

Anonymous wrote:Done! Man US Soccer is a sh#t show.

US Soccer's new motto: "It is what it is"

Anonymous wrote:I’m really sad for boys who won’t get a chance to go through the DA at the older years. It was a fantastic program with great training for less cost than a typical travel soccer program. The fact that there was pressure from US Soccer to maintain a high level of soccer and keep costs low for DA players set it apart from ECNL or any other national league. I loved that there were only two showcases a year, or a bit more if you played in the DA playoffs or GA Cup. It was so easy to get scouted for college as well. I also fear that fewer boys will end up playing overseas now. So many kids went from the DA to Germany the last few years. It has been really inspiring.

Our last remaining youth soccer player is not serious enough to be a DA player, so this doesn’t really affect us. I’m deeply grateful that our older son was able to play all his HS years in DA.

Sadly- there most likely is no college soccer for another year or more and many Universities are beginning to ditch their soccer programs due to cost.

So it’s all a sh@tshow- but especially for the kids in the middle of HS right now.

Anonymous wrote:NO No NO I refuse to accept this
My kid is a DA player and is better than your kid. Now your telling me my kid has to play some low level league like ECNL or such?

My lawyer will have something to say about this as someone will pay for doing this to my kid

Poor attempt at trolling. Try harder.

NO No NO I refuse to accept this
My kid is a DA player and is better than your kid. Now your telling me my kid has to play some low level league like ECNL or such?

My lawyer will have something to say about this as someone will pay for doing this to my kid

I’m really sad for boys who won’t get a chance to go through the DA at the older years. It was a fantastic program with great training for less cost than a typical travel soccer program. The fact that there was pressure from US Soccer to maintain a high level of soccer and keep costs low for DA players set it apart from ECNL or any other national league. I loved that there were only two showcases a year, or a bit more if you played in the DA playoffs or GA Cup. It was so easy to get scouted for college as well. I also fear that fewer boys will end up playing overseas now. So many kids went from the DA to Germany the last few years. It has been really inspiring.

Our last remaining youth soccer player is not serious enough to be a DA player, so this doesn’t really affect us. I’m deeply grateful that our older son was able to play all his HS years in DA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^I’ve always maintained it’s not a development club. They are a top down organization. They always looked to draw talent/player/$ at the older ages but do t use that $ to invest in development of the younger players which often get cast aside in the later years for recruited players. At the youngest ages they capitalize on the enormous size of their player pool that dwarfs others in the area. But- those players are expendable. 90% of the player pool in an age group they see merely as a revenue stream. There is not a cohesive training development plan it’s at the whim of whatever coach you get assigned to that year. Often not able to coach because of conflicts with other teams.

The training part of this is simply not true. The DA training was by far the best training my DD has ever had.

God, read. This was about the non-DA training. You know? The bulk of the Club. People are saying they screwed everyone else over for da.