US Soccer closes Development Academy

 
The DA was a joke to begin with. That's why. What really needs to be talked about?

MLS will try to get their own thing going, it'll flounder. Something else will pop up in place. It's not like USSF or MLS has made right decisions along the way for many years.
 
belied dat said:
The DA was a joke to begin with. That's why. What really needs to be talked about?

MLS will try to get their own thing going, it'll flounder. Something else will pop up in place. It's not like USSF or MLS has made right decisions along the way for many years.
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US Soccer is ugly. Give me their funding i will win 16 consecutive world cups.
 
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belied dat said:
The DA was a joke to begin with. That's why. What really needs to be talked about?

MLS will try to get their own thing going, it'll flounder. Something else will pop up in place. It's not like USSF or MLS has made right decisions along the way for many years.
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It's anecdotal, but from what I saw from my kid's perspective, I liked the DA a lot. The level of training and competition was head and shoulders above anything else he experienced.

Call it what you will, but it's still a sizable pool of elite athletes now about to be moved around. How will they all shake out? Especially with the corona issue hampering all of soccer right now.
 
Unfortunately the amount of overhead at some of the clubs is causing quite the stir as the spring basically did not happen yet not much coming back in the way of refunds to parents. Pretty much a disaster.

As for the DA, I was all for it - provided that it did not turn into another Crew Juniors pyramid - but it did with all of the Pre and North, South. The Crew blew up that mess to concentrate on the real DA teams only. So Philly if your son played on the top team I bet he did play great competition at practice and in games, exactly what it was for. I am glad he liked it.

About the moving around, how weird is this about to get? With the clubs getting to offer returning on May 26, then any others on the 29th it is going to be crazy.

And then this just hit: http://www.cincinnatiunitedsoccer.c...-member-of-new-mls-youth-development-platform
 
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Not to belabor things to death, but if you're a professional track player or a high-D1 player, playing at the DA level is of benefit. If you're below that, you should be playing at a club or below level. However, the politics, egos, and money side of soccer turned what is a necessary and good idea into the train-wreck it ended up being.
 
bucksman said:
Not to belabor things to death, but if you're a professional track player or a high-D1 player, playing at the DA level is of benefit. If you're below that, you should be playing at a club or below level. However, the politics, egos, and money side of soccer turned what is a necessary and good idea into the train-wreck it ended up being.
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I would like to think if it was just MLS clubs it could have helped with the money aspect that waters it all down and ultimately ruins it. MLS clubs don't have to necessarily rely on revenue being generated by their youth academy, while private clubs need as many teams as they can get in order to keep generating money. But as I say that the new "DA" is basically recreated with this new MLS Elite Youth Development Program, which on its face just looks like the DA under new management lol.
 
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bucksman said:
Not to belabor things to death, but if you're a professional track player or a high-D1 player, playing at the DA level is of benefit. If you're below that, you should be playing at a club or below level. However, the politics, egos, and money side of soccer turned what is a necessary and good idea into the train-wreck it ended up being.
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You are correct on your first statement and it pretty much goes for all sports. If like PC said that only MLS clubs were involved, it would be in their best interest to only recruit and develop the best players with the intent that those guys would play for them one day. Money would not be an issue and the BS would be kept to a minimum. I wish baseball did something like this.
 
Philly_Cat said:
I would like to think if it was just MLS clubs it could have helped with the money aspect that waters it all down and ultimately ruins it. MLS clubs don't have to necessarily rely on revenue being generated by their youth academy, while private clubs need as many teams as they can get in order to keep generating money. But as I say that the new "DA" is basically recreated with this new MLS Elite Youth Development Program, which on its face just looks like the DA under new management lol.
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My thoughts exactly. Would love to see the differences between "MLS Elite" and DA... Seems like it's the same thing with a new name... Even the clubs involved appear almost identical...

The very best players do get better exposure to college coaches with DA, but I question that the level of play is that much higher than other leagues...
 
There is no difference. Never was going to be a difference. The next move is to keep MLS academies playing against each other and the "others" to play against each other. To further separate, but still make it appear that MLS "cares."

The exposure is only so much different. These DI schools that recruit the DA know and get those players regardless of it being DA/MLS/ECNL/etc. No one is truly "hidden" from these DI programs at these clubs. Coaches know who the high-level players are. Players know where the high-level places to play are as well.

MLS and the DA has failed to truly do what it's meant to do: create pros that impact the USMNT (and the professional teams who have the academies). Give it another 3 years, when the adidas contract is up for renewal, then see what happens with this "elite program."
 
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