Anonymous wrote:At DC United ID session for 07,08 group right now. About 25 kids showed up. U17 dcu academy coach is leading a training session.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

Love the enthusiasm, but you should educate yourself on how the rest of the world does things. We don't have to start from scratch. There's already a system of rules in place that incentivizes player development. It's why prospective future professional players (i.e., the elite) in the rest of the world don't have to pay. Youth players are free to move to whatever club they want, but if they do grow up to play professionally, every club that trained them from U12 on up gets compensated by the club that signs them first, and there can be further bonus payments if there are transfer fees later on. Developing a superstar can be like winning the lottery for a youth club. It's literally worth millions.

Of note, last year MLS announced that it would begin following this system, but only in one direction. It will insist on training compensation and solidarity payments when one of its academy players gets signed abroad, but it will not make such payments to domestic non-MLS clubs whose players later move to an MLS team. Not surprisingly, US Soccer is OK with this, and had said it will not back non-MLS clubs seeking TC/S payments.

Some background reading: https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/a-guide-to-training-compensation-and-solidarity-payments-in-football

And more background. Many players feel this is an unfair system they are being coerced into participating in for fear of losing their spots.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/major-league-soccer/story/3880427/mls-players-union-solidarity-payments-unfair

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

Love the enthusiasm, but you should educate yourself on how the rest of the world does things. We don't have to start from scratch. There's already a system of rules in place that incentivizes player development. It's why prospective future professional players (i.e., the elite) in the rest of the world don't have to pay. Youth players are free to move to whatever club they want, but if they do grow up to play professionally, every club that trained them from U12 on up gets compensated by the club that signs them first, and there can be further bonus payments if there are transfer fees later on. Developing a superstar can be like winning the lottery for a youth club. It's literally worth millions.

Of note, last year MLS announced that it would begin following this system, but only in one direction. It will insist on training compensation and solidarity payments when one of its academy players gets signed abroad, but it will not make such payments to domestic non-MLS clubs whose players later move to an MLS team. Not surprisingly, US Soccer is OK with this, and had said it will not back non-MLS clubs seeking TC/S payments.

Some background reading: https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/item/a-guide-to-training-compensation-and-solidarity-payments-in-football

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking that American Soccer won't start to compete with Europe until the Soccer Clubs start putting 13 year old kids (Pick the correct starting age) under contract. i.e. Join us and we'll give you a 5+ year contract. You get to play on this travel team for free, but we control your rights and can trade you to MLS or England, or to whomever we want. .... and there has to be an understanding that if you become less worthy, they can cut you at their discretion.

Benefit to kid: Free soccer/uniforms

Benefit to club: An ongoing farm team that can be sold for financial gains or used to become a power house.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The tryouts are in DC. Is this a bait and switch? Not going to waste my time if the practices will actually be in Loudoun if my kid makes the team.

Their practices are in DC for now as they've always been but they are moving to Loudoun once that practice facility gets finished this summer.

Not really a bait and switch. The move to Loudoun has been pretty well publicized. The DC United 1st team, Loudoun United, DCU Academy, and Wash Spirit will all share the facility. They even got the county board to throw in another 10 mil recently to make sure it gets finished.

https://soccerstadiumdigest.com/2019/12/loudoun-county-to-pay-extra-10m-toward-d-c-united-complex/

https://www.loudountimes.com/news/loudoun-united-d-c-united-and-washington-spirit-announce-new/article_4241d9de-05af-11ea-bc64-1b5d744fe9e0.html

Well then, thanks but no thanks.

Ultimately this move will doom their program. Dc United will be little more than a local travel club.

Though it is surely a tough blow for the club, I am sure their DA will survive without your son. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll back up the statement that the ID sessions are bogus. My son went to one, got invited back to another with the fee waived, and was "scouted," whatever that means...

But the bottom line is that most of the players who show up have no business being there. If your son is good at taking the ball and dribbling it (which might be just what DCU is looking for at the U12/U13 age group), then he'll stand out. If his game is more based on things like positioning, movement, and ability to move the ball quickly, it won't matter.

That being said...Skip your futsal game! Go see for yourself. Drive up to RFK on a Sunday, and then imagine that drive on a weeknight...

So what happened after getting scouted? Did you get an offer after a few tryouts?

Anonymous wrote:No. Went to the 2nd "ID Session," where my son dominated again, and never heard from them again.

The weather sucked and I got a speeding ticket from a traffic camera on 295, so all in all a pretty dismal day.