Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.dcunited.com/post/2018/09/11/dc-united-academy-announce-dmv-pathway-2-pro-program?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter

Soooo, if you're not one of their designated "elite" 5 soccer clubs or you are not a partner club, you're just rec. Some of their partner clubs suck and are completely disorganized.

I hadn't focused on that bottom tier. It does say "rec & feeder teams," but the idea that Potomac or Bethesda are going to feel kids through PPA, or Alexandria is going to feed kids through Arlington, is pretty funny.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another marketing play or real change?

"Later today the Black-and-Red will officially unveil “DMV Pathway 2 Pro,” a partnership with five Washington metro area youth clubs designed to strengthen and streamline the developmental pyramid by which United aim to nurture the region’s top young talent..."

https://www.soccerwire.com/news/pro/mls/with-new-pathway-2-pro-dc-united-aim-to-raise-the-level-in-dmv/

It's to build up the pipeline for the DC United DA team - having more flexible relationships with potential feeder and other teams esp. while the kids are still younger - and a nice marketing and affinity relationship builder for them and the clubs involved.

It's just making it more closed. I saw the Travel Club DA video in the other thread and if we are limiting ourselves to those players, this whole thing closes the player pool even more and we are leaving out a huge swath of players that have better soccer iq and skill.

This initiative isn't going to make anything more closed. As others have pointed out, DCU and other DAs are still going to take the best players they can get their hands on, regardless of where they come from.

It's the 'come to'. There are some outstanding non-DA teams all over VA/MD. They should be looking at kids from there. It's our system that only looks at a very small percentage of kids in the area. The best is not in that video, yet now they are limiting the pool to what is coming over to them when much better is all over. It's backwards. It leads back to the whole US scouting thing with USSF and how it is unfunded and very few at all. Our system needs a MAJOR overhaul or we can just continue to be happy with losing.

Except that DCU will not be limiting the pool of players who are coming to them, no matter what that article says. What will happen is what has always happened: Players from every club who think they are good will try out with DCU, and if DCU thinks they are good, they will be offered spots or the opportunity to attend more practices with DCU. This initiative allows DCU to say with a somewhat straight face that they are not in fact "poaching" if some of the kids they take happen to come from the listed clubs, which all announced "affiliation" agreements over the last couple years. Some of those clubs (Loudoun, Arlington) probably regret those affiliation agreements now, because they have their own partial DAs and they don't want players to leave for DCU until U15 at the earliest. It's all just window dressing, with some possibility that a few kids who might not otherwise have ever thought about trying out at the DA level (like those at PPA) may realize there is a bigger world of soccer out there.

Doesn't VDA have a U17 and U19 Academy? In fact, aren't they strictly an Academy club and the only Academy affliated with this DC Program? So will it be assumed the top players move to DC Academy and VDA Academy keeps lesser players? I guess in reality, only one or two (or none) might be picked up by DC United in any given year, but it still seems strange.....Also, where does Bethesda fit in? Related, what is the competitive history between Bethesda and DC United? I get that DC is MLS but I got the impression that Bethesda actually has been pretty competitive -- has DC United Academy consistently been stronger/much more competitive?

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to start making changes at the top of the federation and work your way down. Simply adding more scouts handpicked by the current establishment won't solve the problem.

+100

Nothing is going to help.

If our soccer journalists stop writing fluff pieces re USSF/MLS/SUM and start holding the major actors accountable, it would be a good start. Without meaningful pressure on the establishment, you are right, nothing is going to help.

The major actors are certainly being held accountable. Are we World Cup champions yet?

Could you provide any specific examples of major actors being held accountable?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soccer-insider/wp/2016/12/08/sunil-gulati-needs-to-set-the-stage-for-a-successor-at-the-helm-of-u-s-soccer/

https://rantingsoccerdad.com/2018/07/26/repealing-the-birth-year-mandate-and-other-obvious-moves/

http://www.espn.com/soccer/club/united-states/660/blog/post/3624826/us-mens-national-team-is-still-searching-for-a-full-time-coach-whats-taking-so-long

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/10/six-months-into-his-reign-is-carlos-cordeiro-close-to-us-soccer-fortunes

https://sports.yahoo.com/fixing-u-s-soccer-requires-repair-youth-level-heres-go-225848802.html

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/dec/15/uswnt-soccer-games-victory-tour

https://sports.yahoo.com/u-s-soccer-still-doesnt-get-051541958.html

https://rantingsoccerdad.com/2018/08/29/u-s-soccer-coaching-education-one-foot-forward-one-foot-firmly-stuck-in-the-mud/

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/jun/01/us-soccer-diversity-problem-world-football

http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-usa-soccer-baxter-20171014-story.html

https://www.si.com/soccer/2017/10/11/usa-world-cup-qualifying-failure-us-soccer-gulati-arena

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/10/usmnt-us-soccer-failure-make-2018-world-cup-reaction-trinidad-concacaf-pulisic-arena-usa

These articles are very soft critiques that do not go to the root of the problem. A couple of them make valid points, but either do not go deep enough or critique minor things like age group mandate changes. Some of these articles try to shift the primary blame to Klinsmann, who only coached two out of 10 games (against Mexico and Costa Rica). Jermaine Jones is not a journalist but he was far more pointed in his critiques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zYLi0jPwFc

Do these articles ask why USSF would not invest its $140 million surplus into youth soccer, coaching education, young talented players or to give the women's team equal pay? Do they argue that Cordeiro, Gulati's right hand man, should not be the president of the USSF federation since he was the key figure in the failed regime? Do they argue that Sarachan, Arena's assistant, should not coach the national team even on an interim basis? Do they shed any light on the cosy relationship between USSF/MLS/SUM? Do they discuss why MLS rejected $4 billion TV rights offer, which was conditioned on instituting promotion/relegation? This is a $4 billion stream of revenue from a TV contract, which by far exceed the entire value of MLS! Imagine what level of players the league could attract with this kind of investment. Do these articles discuss irregularities in USSF financial statements? Do they call for a change in the flawed and skewed USSF election system following the latest elections? So let's not pretend that media is holding the establishment really accountable.

The fault for Klinsmann goes back to Gulati, who pushed to hire him and then to extend his contract even though the cultural revolution he promised was impossible and he simply wasn't worth the money he was being paid.

Jones has an ax to grind -- and some occasional good points.

We're going to have to see where the surplus goes. A lot of it is recent (Copa Centenario). If you want to see more about how we got here, check my notes ...

https://rantingsoccerdad.com/2017/12/31/what-i-learned-reading-tons-of-ussf-minutes-and-transcripts-part-1-1998-2009/

https://rantingsoccerdad.com/2018/01/05/what-i-learned-reading-tons-of-ussf-minutes-and-transcripts-part-2-2010-2017/

I think they *will* spend more money on coaching education. Whether they spend it wisely, I can't guess. But I'll watch.

The "equal pay" issue is tricky because we haven't seen the new CBA. The fact that Hope Solo keeps stressing the specific word "equal" (along with my interviews with the lawyer she brought to the union who was later dismissed) makes me wonder if she really wanted the new CBA to be *identical* to the men's CBA -- which might be good for Solo but would be bad for other players because it would do away with their salaries in favor of a bonuses-only structure.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/21/uswnt-60-minutes-equal-pay-us-soccer-dispute

Cordeiro is most definitely not Gulati's right-hand man. They were close at first, but Gulati was not happy when Cordeiro announced his bid for president. Since taking office, Cordeiro has basically done only two things -- traveling the world to land the World Cup, and leading the way to reshape the Board operates (in other words, delegating).

I don't think anyone's too happy about Sarachan. I don't sense a lot of opinion one way or the other about whether he's the right man in the interim, but I think people are annoyed (indeed, it's in the links above) that the interim has extended so long. Beyond that, you'll find divergent opinions on all potential coaches. We're not getting Juan Carlos Osorio, which is either a missed opportunity or a dodged bullet.

The USSF/MLS/SUM relationship is detailed in my new "notes" pieces above. Worth noting -- the SUM agreement was unanimously approved by the Board each time, with everyone with a tie to MLS out of the room. Cordeiro has taken steps to further separate media matters from the main Board. We'll see what happens when the deal is next up.

The $4 billion value is actually less than Forbes' valuations of the league, and in any case, it was vaporware. Even if Silva was sincere in his bid, his company's in deep -- https://www.sportbusiness.com/sport-news/rights-holders-suffer-missed-payments-mp-silva-state-paralysis

The election bylaws aren't particularly skewed, though I think MLS shouldn't control as much of the Pro Council as it does. NWSL should have more. If NISA actually launches, it should get some. The other parts are sensible. By law, athlete representation must be 20%. The youth votes are equitably split. You could argue the adult associations, representing far fewer players than the youth associations and not in the business of developing the next generation, should have less representation. (That would've cut significantly into Eric Wynalda's vote total.)

Finally, financial irregularities. I've pored over every 990 and Audited Financial Statement, but I'll freely admit I'm no expert on finding anything amiss. Nothing jumped out at me. I'm surely not the only one who has examined them.

If you have evidence of something, I'd suggest turning it over to a strong investigative unit. If you don't trust ESPN, try the Boston Globe's Spotlight team or ProPublica.

But I've been asking people to do this forever. And to my knowledge, no one has.

So in short ...

Yes, there are plenty of efforts to hold USSF accountable. There could be more. But you can't simply disregard them because they haven't found the malfeasance you *think* must be happening.

I can tell you U.S. Soccer is arrogant. The birth-year mandate, beyond the damage it caused to youth soccer, just shows how little attention they're paying to anyone outside their own bureaucracy. Soccer America's Mike Woitalla interviewed several people recently and got (A) a lot of bureaucratic talk and (B) some tone-deaf talk on diversity that Herculez Gomez blasted, investigated and then discussed on the Max and Herc podcast. (Highly recommended. And note that it's on ESPN, so maybe you can trust them to question USSF after all.)

There are always more questions to ask. Always good discussions to have. But what you've described here is pretty much regurgitated and rehashed talk that simply doesn't hold up to scrutiiny -- or, in some cases, requires predictions rather than investigations.

...

So ... VDA is in this new partnership?

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ VDA was already in one of the announced DCU partners, same with all the other clubs listed.

I just don't get what's new about this - other than the USL thing.

But VDA currently has older-age teams, which makes this curious.

I may do some asking around.

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to start making changes at the top of the federation and work your way down. Simply adding more scouts handpicked by the current establishment won't solve the problem.

+100

Nothing is going to help.

If our soccer journalists stop writing fluff pieces re USSF/MLS/SUM and start holding the major actors accountable, it would be a good start. Without meaningful pressure on the establishment, you are right, nothing is going to help.

The major actors are certainly being held accountable. Are we World Cup champions yet?

Could you provide any specific examples of major actors being held accountable?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soccer-insider/wp/2016/12/08/sunil-gulati-needs-to-set-the-stage-for-a-successor-at-the-helm-of-u-s-soccer/

https://rantingsoccerdad.com/2018/07/26/repealing-the-birth-year-mandate-and-other-obvious-moves/

http://www.espn.com/soccer/club/united-states/660/blog/post/3624826/us-mens-national-team-is-still-searching-for-a-full-time-coach-whats-taking-so-long

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/10/six-months-into-his-reign-is-carlos-cordeiro-close-to-us-soccer-fortunes

https://sports.yahoo.com/fixing-u-s-soccer-requires-repair-youth-level-heres-go-225848802.html

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/dec/15/uswnt-soccer-games-victory-tour

https://sports.yahoo.com/u-s-soccer-still-doesnt-get-051541958.html

https://rantingsoccerdad.com/2018/08/29/u-s-soccer-coaching-education-one-foot-forward-one-foot-firmly-stuck-in-the-mud/

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/jun/01/us-soccer-diversity-problem-world-football

http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-usa-soccer-baxter-20171014-story.html

https://www.si.com/soccer/2017/10/11/usa-world-cup-qualifying-failure-us-soccer-gulati-arena

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/10/usmnt-us-soccer-failure-make-2018-world-cup-reaction-trinidad-concacaf-pulisic-arena-usa

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to start making changes at the top of the federation and work your way down. Simply adding more scouts handpicked by the current establishment won't solve the problem.

+100

Nothing is going to help.

If our soccer journalists stop writing fluff pieces re USSF/MLS/SUM and start holding the major actors accountable, it would be a good start. Without meaningful pressure on the establishment, you are right, nothing is going to help.

The major actors are certainly being held accountable. Are we World Cup champions yet?

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to start making changes at the top of the federation and work your way down. Simply adding more scouts handpicked by the current establishment won't solve the problem.

+100

Nothing is going to help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another marketing play or real change?

"Later today the Black-and-Red will officially unveil “DMV Pathway 2 Pro,” a partnership with five Washington metro area youth clubs designed to strengthen and streamline the developmental pyramid by which United aim to nurture the region’s top young talent..."

https://www.soccerwire.com/news/pro/mls/with-new-pathway-2-pro-dc-united-aim-to-raise-the-level-in-dmv/

It's to build up the pipeline for the DC United DA team - having more flexible relationships with potential feeder and other teams esp. while the kids are still younger - and a nice marketing and affinity relationship builder for them and the clubs involved.

It's just making it more closed. I saw the Travel Club DA video in the other thread and if we are limiting ourselves to those players, this whole thing closes the player pool even more and we are leaving out a huge swath of players that have better soccer iq and skill.

This initiative isn't going to make anything more closed. As others have pointed out, DCU and other DAs are still going to take the best players they can get their hands on, regardless of where they come from.

It's the 'come to'. There are some outstanding non-DA teams all over VA/MD. They should be looking at kids from there. It's our system that only looks at a very small percentage of kids in the area. The best is not in that video, yet now they are limiting the pool to what is coming over to them when much better is all over. It's backwards. It leads back to the whole US scouting thing with USSF and how it is unfunded and very few at all. Our system needs a MAJOR overhaul or we can just continue to be happy with losing.

Except that DCU will not be limiting the pool of players who are coming to them, no matter what that article says. What will happen is what has always happened: Players from every club who think they are good will try out with DCU, and if DCU thinks they are good, they will be offered spots or the opportunity to attend more practices with DCU. This initiative allows DCU to say with a somewhat straight face that they are not in fact "poaching" if some of the kids they take happen to come from the listed clubs, which all announced "affiliation" agreements over the last couple years. Some of those clubs (Loudoun, Arlington) probably regret those affiliation agreements now, because they have their own partial DAs and they don't want players to leave for DCU until U15 at the earliest. It's all just window dressing, with some possibility that a few kids who might not otherwise have ever thought about trying out at the DA level (like those at PPA) may realize there is a bigger world of soccer out there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another marketing play or real change?

"Later today the Black-and-Red will officially unveil “DMV Pathway 2 Pro,” a partnership with five Washington metro area youth clubs designed to strengthen and streamline the developmental pyramid by which United aim to nurture the region’s top young talent..."

https://www.soccerwire.com/news/pro/mls/with-new-pathway-2-pro-dc-united-aim-to-raise-the-level-in-dmv/

It's to build up the pipeline for the DC United DA team - having more flexible relationships with potential feeder and other teams esp. while the kids are still younger - and a nice marketing and affinity relationship builder for them and the clubs involved.

It's just making it more closed. I saw the Travel Club DA video in the other thread and if we are limiting ourselves to those players, this whole thing closes the player pool even more and we are leaving out a huge swath of players that have better soccer iq and skill.

This initiative isn't going to make anything more closed. As others have pointed out, DCU and other DAs are still going to take the best players they can get their hands on, regardless of where they come from.

It's the 'come to'. There are some outstanding non-DA teams all over VA/MD. They should be looking at kids from there. It's our system that only looks at a very small percentage of kids in the area. The best is not in that video, yet now they are limiting the pool to what is coming over to them when much better is all over. It's backwards. It leads back to the whole US scouting thing with USSF and how it is unfunded and very few at all. Our system needs a MAJOR overhaul or we can just continue to be happy with losing.

Anonymous wrote:You have to start making changes at the top of the federation and work your way down. Simply adding more scouts handpicked by the current establishment won't solve the problem.