Anonymous wrote:The ECNL only allowed two teams in NOVA 4 years ago. They have now doubled that to four. In fact, there are more ECNLs than the DAs in NOVA. That's the bigger problem.

LOL, ECNL went from 2 to 4, and DA went from 0 to 3. Which one is a bigger problem? The context of this thread is MU, and they are the only newcomer. Last one in, first one out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 06 team does not have any true forwards. Because of this good defenders are playing up as forwards. If they could add 1-2 forwards and a midfielder would make them much more competitive and win some games.

The 06 team doesn’t have enough true 06 FT players. I don’t think they are at a point where they can even place the players they have in their best positions. From what I’ve seen, they seem to try to place their strongest players in the back, which completely sacrifices the attack and ends up working against the team, outside of getting those players more high pressure touches on the ball. They might do better to put stronger players more forward in the lineup.

The team can play pretty good defense. The game I saw had the defense under constant pressure and opponents shooting on goal. It's impressive the scores were not bigger blow outs.

Again, who are you as a poster? Not actually as a person, but as a category? Is your kid on the team? Are you an outsider? Are you a PT? Are you on an opposing team?

Not only does the 06 team have a huge number of 07 and 08 players. They even have an 09 player. That is crazy. GFR has a good 08 team. Hopefully they will pull ALL of the 08 players to age next year so they can be competitive and not have all of the better players playing on the 06 and 07 teams

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 06 team does not have any true forwards. Because of this good defenders are playing up as forwards. If they could add 1-2 forwards and a midfielder would make them much more competitive and win some games.

The 06 team doesn’t have enough true 06 FT players. I don’t think they are at a point where they can even place the players they have in their best positions. From what I’ve seen, they seem to try to place their strongest players in the back, which completely sacrifices the attack and ends up working against the team, outside of getting those players more high pressure touches on the ball. They might do better to put stronger players more forward in the lineup.

The team can play pretty good defense. The game I saw had the defense under constant pressure and opponents shooting on goal. It's impressive the scores were not bigger blow outs.

Again, who are you as a poster? Not actually as a person, but as a category? Is your kid on the team? Are you an outsider? Are you a PT? Are you on an opposing team?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 06 team does not have any true forwards. Because of this good defenders are playing up as forwards. If they could add 1-2 forwards and a midfielder would make them much more competitive and win some games.

The 06 team doesn’t have enough true 06 FT players. I don’t think they are at a point where they can even place the players they have in their best positions. From what I’ve seen, they seem to try to place their strongest players in the back, which completely sacrifices the attack and ends up working against the team, outside of getting those players more high pressure touches on the ball. They might do better to put stronger players more forward in the lineup.

The team can play pretty good defense. The game I saw had the defense under constant pressure and opponents shooting on goal. It's impressive the scores were not bigger blow outs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who are the primary posters regarding the 06’s. Are you current 06 parents or outsiders?

06 parents are not happy. This is it.

And outsiders are watching, or laugh at this mess.

I applaud the courage from the club management for not fielding the 06 team with many many recreation players. it will be difficult to get ride of them n the future.

meant to say
recreation players --> recreational players

Anonymous wrote:Who are the primary posters regarding the 06’s. Are you current 06 parents or outsiders?

06 parents are not happy. This is it.

And outsiders are watching, or laugh at this mess.

I applaud the courage from the club management for not fielding the 06 team with many many recreation players. it will be difficult to get ride of them n the future.

Who are the primary posters regarding the 06’s. Are you current 06 parents or outsiders?

Anonymous wrote:The 06 team does not have any true forwards. Because of this good defenders are playing up as forwards. If they could add 1-2 forwards and a midfielder would make them much more competitive and win some games.

The 06 team doesn’t have enough true 06 FT players. I don’t think they are at a point where they can even place the players they have in their best positions. From what I’ve seen, they seem to try to place their strongest players in the back, which completely sacrifices the attack and ends up working against the team, outside of getting those players more high pressure touches on the ball. They might do better to put stronger players more forward in the lineup.

They will be fine. The MU U19s are showing (like last year) that colleges are recruiting all kids that play at the DA level.

Anonymous wrote:The 06 team does not have any true forwards. Because of this good defenders are playing up as forwards. If they could add 1-2 forwards and a midfielder would make them much more competitive and win some games.

The 06s will be fine once they are able to add on enough qualified 06s to be able to keep up. Yes, a good forward would help a couple of age groups, and those are hard to come by. And playing forward may develop the defenders. After all, a defender who can score (especially outside backs) is highly recruitable. They just need to fill out their roster with age appropriate players. I think MU is working on that, and that's a young team. It has time to build.

The 06 team does not have any true forwards. Because of this good defenders are playing up as forwards. If they could add 1-2 forwards and a midfielder would make them much more competitive and win some games.

The ECNL only allowed two teams in NOVA 4 years ago. They have now doubled that to four. In fact, there are more ECNLs than the DAs in NOVA. That's the bigger problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year's "06" group also featured several 07 and 08 players. By this time last year they had 51 goals against and 3 for. Both years are uncompetitive.

There were double the 2006s on the team last year vs this year. Agree that the result is about the same between the two, but would argue that it’s much harder to do with half the at age full time players. Impartial readers can make their own judgments.

So isn't the question this year then the same as last year? Where are they going to find qualified, talented 2006 players? Are there DA level players out there who aren't already at Arlington/FCV/McLean/Loudoun/VDA/BRYC/Bethesda? Is anyone at one of those clubs going to come to MU rather than just staying put or going to another one of those clubs? Much is made of the Spirit mess, but George and Spencer were there last year too -- maybe the admin was different, but the coaching is the same.... Are people going to move for coaching that seems to still not identify players who can score goals or teach whatever players they do have how to score them? What is missing?

This post is Uber focused on one team out of several (who aren’t in the same position), but how easy do you think it is to score goals when you are only fielding half of a team at age in the DA? As for this team, they need to find the players, whether they can or not remains to be seen.

The focus is on MU because they are the newest club in the bunch, and they’ve become emblematic of the fact that since the DA started and ECNL expanded there are too many ostensibly elite teams around here. There just aren’t enough players to go around at any age. And all the midatlantic teams in both leagues suffer as a result. Even the best team in the area, FCV, isnt performing at the level it did 4 years ago, when the only true options were FCV, Mclean, and Bethesda. It will settle out, and some of these clubs will no longer be viable ‘elite’ options in another four years. Maybe DA and ECNL will even settle their grievances and force the necessary tightening of the market. But until at least two of these clubs throw in the towels, the teams aren’t going to be positioned to compete nationally. Individual players will still get recruited but the clubs and teams will become or remain mediocre at best without the talent consolidation. Although they generally play a higher level of soccer so it isn’t as apparent, the SOCAL teams are facing a similar problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year's "06" group also featured several 07 and 08 players. By this time last year they had 51 goals against and 3 for. Both years are uncompetitive.

There were double the 2006s on the team last year vs this year. Agree that the result is about the same between the two, but would argue that it’s much harder to do with half the at age full time players. Impartial readers can make their own judgments.

So isn't the question this year then the same as last year? Where are they going to find qualified, talented 2006 players? Are there DA level players out there who aren't already at Arlington/FCV/McLean/Loudoun/VDA/BRYC/Bethesda? Is anyone at one of those clubs going to come to MU rather than just staying put or going to another one of those clubs? Much is made of the Spirit mess, but George and Spencer were there last year too -- maybe the admin was different, but the coaching is the same.... Are people going to move for coaching that seems to still not identify players who can score goals or teach whatever players they do have how to score them? What is missing?

This post is Uber focused on one team out of several (who aren’t in the same position), but how easy do you think it is to score goals when you are only fielding half of a team at age in the DA? As for this team, they need to find the players, whether they can or not remains to be seen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year's "06" group also featured several 07 and 08 players. By this time last year they had 51 goals against and 3 for. Both years are uncompetitive.

There were double the 2006s on the team last year vs this year. Agree that the result is about the same between the two, but would argue that it’s much harder to do with half the at age full time players. Impartial readers can make their own judgments.

So isn't the question this year then the same as last year? Where are they going to find qualified, talented 2006 players? Are there DA level players out there who aren't already at Arlington/FCV/McLean/Loudoun/VDA/BRYC/Bethesda? Is anyone at one of those clubs going to come to MU rather than just staying put or going to another one of those clubs? Much is made of the Spirit mess, but George and Spencer were there last year too -- maybe the admin was different, but the coaching is the same.... Are people going to move for coaching that seems to still not identify players who can score goals or teach whatever players they do have how to score them? What is missing?