Anonymous wrote:Is it that the pool as a whole is weak? Or is it that the pool that is being pushed onto US Soccer by these local scouts weak?

In an area that has this large of a population, I find it hard to believe that the pool itself is weak. Money and politics is the cause of a weak national team. It's a pay to play sport, and its pay to play to get seen even, there is no level playing field. The amount of players internationally that have came from nothing FAR outweighs the amount here in the US.

The only rags to riches stories left here are from baseball (typically international scouts fining them) or football (which is slowly going away because even football is going to become a club style sport)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the thread. Only Two players from the area have made any youth national team in the last five years. No players on any youth national team in the last five years from a non MLS academy. Philly had three players on u17 national team alone this year More players on other age groups. Years ago Bethesda had 5 or 6 players from one team make the regional camp from the 2006 age group at u15. One or two made the actual national team. That was when the player pool was diluted even more and DCU was pay to play like everyone else. Now, DCU has consolidated the player pool and is producing LESS players that are national team level talent. The selections speak for themselves. Two main reasons for this...DCU is controlling the player pool and is not good at developing talent. Local clubs have lost so much talent to DCU and elsewhere and they have made the choice to prioritize winning above all else to keep parents happy and the development has stopped or best case, slowed Why talented players leave this region and go elsewhere to get better training. You also have greedy private trainers who run kids through cones and don't teach a damn thing. Take all of that and it is very difficult to become a top national level player from our area in its current state

Glad you got that off your chest.

What's the point you're making?

How many players on the US Men's National Team were fully developed from youth level at clubs in the US?

How many of the 28 MLS Club academies are represented in the current U20's?

Point is our player pool in the DMV is weak on a national scale. Despite so many people thinking otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the thread. Only Two players from the area have made any youth national team in the last five years. No players on any youth national team in the last five years from a non MLS academy. Philly had three players on u17 national team alone this year More players on other age groups. Years ago Bethesda had 5 or 6 players from one team make the regional camp from the 2006 age group at u15. One or two made the actual national team. That was when the player pool was diluted even more and DCU was pay to play like everyone else. Now, DCU has consolidated the player pool and is producing LESS players that are national team level talent. The selections speak for themselves. Two main reasons for this...DCU is controlling the player pool and is not good at developing talent. Local clubs have lost so much talent to DCU and elsewhere and they have made the choice to prioritize winning above all else to keep parents happy and the development has stopped or best case, slowed Why talented players leave this region and go elsewhere to get better training. You also have greedy private trainers who run kids through cones and don't teach a damn thing. Take all of that and it is very difficult to become a top national level player from our area in its current state

2 players is not true. There are far more.

Anonymous wrote:Is it that the pool as a whole is weak? Or is it that the pool that is being pushed onto US Soccer by these local scouts weak?

In an area that has this large of a population, I find it hard to believe that the pool itself is weak. Money and politics is the cause of a weak national team. It's a pay to play sport, and its pay to play to get seen even, there is no level playing field. The amount of players internationally that have came from nothing FAR outweighs the amount here in the US.

The only rags to riches stories left here are from baseball (typically international scouts fining them) or football (which is slowly going away because even football is going to become a club style sport)

Anonymous wrote:Read the thread. Only Two players from the area have made any youth national team in the last five years. No players on any youth national team in the last five years from a non MLS academy. Philly had three players on u17 national team alone this year More players on other age groups. Years ago Bethesda had 5 or 6 players from one team make the regional camp from the 2006 age group at u15. One or two made the actual national team. That was when the player pool was diluted even more and DCU was pay to play like everyone else. Now, DCU has consolidated the player pool and is producing LESS players that are national team level talent. The selections speak for themselves. Two main reasons for this...DCU is controlling the player pool and is not good at developing talent. Local clubs have lost so much talent to DCU and elsewhere and they have made the choice to prioritize winning above all else to keep parents happy and the development has stopped or best case, slowed Why talented players leave this region and go elsewhere to get better training. You also have greedy private trainers who run kids through cones and don't teach a damn thing. Take all of that and it is very difficult to become a top national level player from our area in its current state

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the thread. Only Two players from the area have made any youth national team in the last five years. No players on any youth national team in the last five years from a non MLS academy. Philly had three players on u17 national team alone this year More players on other age groups. Years ago Bethesda had 5 or 6 players from one team make the regional camp from the 2006 age group at u15. One or two made the actual national team. That was when the player pool was diluted even more and DCU was pay to play like everyone else. Now, DCU has consolidated the player pool and is producing LESS players that are national team level talent. The selections speak for themselves. Two main reasons for this...DCU is controlling the player pool and is not good at developing talent. Local clubs have lost so much talent to DCU and elsewhere and they have made the choice to prioritize winning above all else to keep parents happy and the development has stopped or best case, slowed Why talented players leave this region and go elsewhere to get better training. You also have greedy private trainers who run kids through cones and don't teach a damn thing. Take all of that and it is very difficult to become a top national level player from our area in its current state

Glad you got that off your chest.

What's the point you're making?

How many players on the US Men's National Team were fully developed from youth level at clubs in the US?

How many of the 28 MLS Club academies are represented in the current U20's?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can look at this, that or whatever else, name some YNT players that didn't come from families with $$$$$$

Money is part of the game. If you have a kid that has talent but your family can't afford to fly them out to here, there or wherever, forget about it.

This definitely has some truth to it. Not accurate in all cases but does play a huge role. It's an elitist sport in the US. Why our teams in the US are mostly soft. The kids come from wealthy backgrounds and many don't know what it's like to grind and struggle. Compare that to the rest of the world where football is not an elitist sport and there is more access to more socio economic backgrounds and you can see why the gap between us and the rest of the world is pretty big. Money can't buy you the desire and will to do anything to get the ball.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read the thread. Only Two players from the area have made any youth national team in the last five years. No players on any youth national team in the last five years from a non MLS academy. Philly had three players on u17 national team alone this year More players on other age groups. Years ago Bethesda had 5 or 6 players from one team make the regional camp from the 2006 age group at u15. One or two made the actual national team. That was when the player pool was diluted even more and DCU was pay to play like everyone else. Now, DCU has consolidated the player pool and is producing LESS players that are national team level talent. The selections speak for themselves. Two main reasons for this...DCU is controlling the player pool and is not good at developing talent. Local clubs have lost so much talent to DCU and elsewhere and they have made the choice to prioritize winning above all else to keep parents happy and the development has stopped or best case, slowed Why talented players leave this region and go elsewhere to get better training. You also have greedy private trainers who run kids through cones and don't teach a damn thing. Take all of that and it is very difficult to become a top national level player from our area in its current state

Glad you got that off your chest.

What's the point you're making?

How many players on the US Men's National Team were fully developed from youth level at clubs in the US?

How many of the 28 MLS Club academies are represented in the current U20's?

Anonymous wrote:You can look at this, that or whatever else, name some YNT players that didn't come from families with $$$$$$

Money is part of the game. If you have a kid that has talent but your family can't afford to fly them out to here, there or wherever, forget about it.

Anonymous wrote:Read the thread. Only Two players from the area have made any youth national team in the last five years. No players on any youth national team in the last five years from a non MLS academy. Philly had three players on u17 national team alone this year More players on other age groups. Years ago Bethesda had 5 or 6 players from one team make the regional camp from the 2006 age group at u15. One or two made the actual national team. That was when the player pool was diluted even more and DCU was pay to play like everyone else. Now, DCU has consolidated the player pool and is producing LESS players that are national team level talent. The selections speak for themselves. Two main reasons for this...DCU is controlling the player pool and is not good at developing talent. Local clubs have lost so much talent to DCU and elsewhere and they have made the choice to prioritize winning above all else to keep parents happy and the development has stopped or best case, slowed Why talented players leave this region and go elsewhere to get better training. You also have greedy private trainers who run kids through cones and don't teach a damn thing. Take all of that and it is very difficult to become a top national level player from our area in its current state

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All comes down are connections and development of local kids.

connection from local academy