VDA parent here. I do have a dog in the race/fight/whatever. VDA 05 has 8-10 clubs represented. Black magic indeed. Not coaching. Black magic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:05’s have 5 kids from VSA. 4 from PWSI. 06’s have 9 from PWSI and 3 from VSA.

The combination of PWSI and VSA sure is “brand new”. SMH. It’s as though Loudoun and FCV got together and decided to send the best of their existing A teams to a single DA squad. Oh wait that happened. So did the PWC/VDA version. How does this compare to the brand new Spirit VA org? That’s right, it doesn’t. It was an interesting “angle” though.

The majority of McLean 05 team was rebranded as Spirit 05. Sooo...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:05’s have 5 kids from VSA. 4 from PWSI. 06’s have 9 from PWSI and 3 from VSA.

The combination of PWSI and VSA sure is “brand new”. SMH. It’s as though Loudoun and FCV got together and decided to send the best of their existing A teams to a single DA squad. Oh wait that happened. So did the PWC/VDA version. How does this compare to the brand new Spirit VA org? That’s right, it doesn’t. It was an interesting “angle” though.

Well, I guess 3 other clubs were represented by 3 other girls. How they were able to get these kids to gel is nothing short of black magic.

The difference is that VDA is actually good and attracts players without parents making threads on forums bashing McLean and other clubs to pull players to their ID sessions.

PWSI had the DA then pulled in VSA to try and build a super program. They’re actually doing it. This isn’t a crazy idea because it was an existing successful club.

I think we should get back to bashing all the clubs WSVA kids didn’t make. Check the title of this thread. What do I care? I don’t have a dog in this fight anyways...

Anonymous wrote:05’s have 5 kids from VSA. 4 from PWSI. 06’s have 9 from PWSI and 3 from VSA.

The combination of PWSI and VSA sure is “brand new”. SMH. It’s as though Loudoun and FCV got together and decided to send the best of their existing A teams to a single DA squad. Oh wait that happened. So did the PWC/VDA version. How does this compare to the brand new Spirit VA org? That’s right, it doesn’t. It was an interesting “angle” though.

05’s have 5 kids from VSA. 4 from PWSI. 06’s have 9 from PWSI and 3 from VSA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is striving for a new DA team. Granted, that Arlington team was a solid team pre-DA.

I don't believe that McLean is better than FCV or VDA. McLean has improved over last year VDA gas had strong performances but did recently finish at the bottom of its bracket in the VDA Showcase which included Baltimore Celtic, WSMD and WSVA. Baltimore Celtic one the bracket having beat WSVA and tied WSMD.

If you are serious about considering all area schools, I would place Pipeline, MRM Rush and Bethesda ahead of all of the 2005 VA clubs. The Baltimore Celtics are at least even with McLean, VDA and FCV.

Lost 2 games in a preseason showcase. 2nd in ecnl division currently, Discovery cup champs, NCFC finalists. Brand new team just like Spirit.

Who are you talking about? VDA? brand new team? How many are from VSA? 75%. That’s not a brand new team, just a new name.

If you think it is 75% VSA you don’t know what you are talking about and need to slowly back away from a conversation you obviously know nothing about. VDA 05 is composed of girls from over 5 teams and this is their first year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is striving for a new DA team. Granted, that Arlington team was a solid team pre-DA.

I don't believe that McLean is better than FCV or VDA. McLean has improved over last year VDA gas had strong performances but did recently finish at the bottom of its bracket in the VDA Showcase which included Baltimore Celtic, WSMD and WSVA. Baltimore Celtic one the bracket having beat WSVA and tied WSMD.

If you are serious about considering all area schools, I would place Pipeline, MRM Rush and Bethesda ahead of all of the 2005 VA clubs. The Baltimore Celtics are at least even with McLean, VDA and FCV.

Lost 2 games in a preseason showcase. 2nd in ecnl division currently, Discovery cup champs, NCFC finalists. Brand new team just like Spirit.

Who are you talking about? VDA? brand new team? How many are from VSA? 75%. That’s not a brand new team, just a new name.

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is striving for a new DA team. Granted, that Arlington team was a solid team pre-DA.

I don't believe that McLean is better than FCV or VDA. McLean has improved over last year VDA gas had strong performances but did recently finish at the bottom of its bracket in the VDA Showcase which included Baltimore Celtic, WSMD and WSVA. Baltimore Celtic one the bracket having beat WSVA and tied WSMD.

If you are serious about considering all area schools, I would place Pipeline, MRM Rush and Bethesda ahead of all of the 2005 VA clubs. The Baltimore Celtics are at least even with McLean, VDA and FCV.

Lost 2 games in a preseason showcase. 2nd in ecnl division currently, Discovery cup champs, NCFC finalists. Brand new team just like Spirit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we all agree that Mclean is no longer the hub for soccer like in 2007. Those days are over WSVA will probably recruit more talent in the future.

No. We can agree that somebody started this thread to create that perception.

Agreed.

Anonymous wrote:Can we all agree that Mclean is no longer the hub for soccer like in 2007. Those days are over WSVA will probably recruit more talent in the future.

No. We can agree that somebody started this thread to create that perception.

Arlington is striving for a new DA team. Granted, that Arlington team was a solid team pre-DA.

I don't believe that McLean is better than FCV or VDA. McLean has improved over last year VDA gas had strong performances but did recently finish at the bottom of its bracket in the VDA Showcase which included Baltimore Celtic, WSMD and WSVA. Baltimore Celtic one the bracket having beat WSVA and tied WSMD.

If you are serious about considering all area schools, I would place Pipeline, MRM Rush and Bethesda ahead of all of the 2005 VA clubs. The Baltimore Celtics are at least even with McLean, VDA and FCV.

I don't even know what age group is being discussed at this point.

- In defense of all teams which are not Spirit. They are good. They (many of them anyway) win games. They have a track record to rely on to attract new players.

- In defense of Spirit. It's new. It had no pipeline (and yes, VDA started around the same time, but with the PWSI/VSA pipeline which was good.) It will take a few years. There's nothing wrong with that and it makes no sense to me why everyone on this Board is so bitter. I know many Spirit parents and they aren't claiming to be better than other area clubs. They highlight some good things about the club and some problems. Probably no different everywhere else. The grass is always greener -- except it really is brown everywhere.

Yes, there are some players on Spirit who aren't DA level. Yes, there are also some players at other area clubs who are probably not as good as people who could replace them. And every area club "steals"/"recruits" from other area clubs -- don't point fingers at McLean or FCV or anyone else for doing it. People get tired of where they are for a variety of reasons and decide to make changes. That's not going to stop and pointing fingers at McLean for recruiting is just as silly as blaming FCV for "taking" all of Loudoun's talent for so many years -- talent chose to go (and Loudoun didn't have a viable alternative at the time. They do now, and probably will improve despite all the bashing.)

Finally, this is not the World Cup. These are 11-17 year old girls. No game decided by one goal should be considered a win or a loss if developing good players who have future soccer aspirations is the goal. One goal differential games are a wash. So all these rankings saying "VDA beat XYZ 1-0" and "McLean beat VDA 1-0" mean nothing. The result will likely be different the next time they play. ONE player can change everything in a particular game, and people just looking at scores don't have any idea what was going on with that particular one player that day.

Time for a new thread.

Anonymous wrote:Can we all agree that Mclean is no longer the hub for soccer like in 2007. Those days are over WSVA will probably recruit more talent in the future.

Yes things are not like they used to be. And next year things will be different again. Spirit has a ways to go to surpass any of the elite clubs in the area.

Can we all agree that Mclean is no longer the hub for soccer like in 2007. Those days are over WSVA will probably recruit more talent in the future.