USSF Academy / Is it fair

US Soccer has an article on the Academy websitehttp://www.ussoccer.com/News/Development-Academy/2011/06/Academy-Clubs-Strive-to-Create-a-Professional-Environment.aspx

The article praises FC Dallas as a model. I agree it would be a good place to be if you are one of the fortunate few however no other Academy team in this area can possibly duplicate the model. FC has at least 3 players under pro contract playing in their DA system. They have a few college players on the U18 squad. They have players from Mexico and other U.S. states living and playing here. The players pay for nothing. I may be wrong however I have heard that the players in school all train together in the am and then attend school.

Other DA programs have a few coaches with multiple responsibilities and a parent manager. Parents pay for travel, plan travel, schedule travel, travel with the teams, drive the players around, feed the players, do their laundry....You know...parent things. Often parents do much much more.

I am glad that FC can do what they are doing and I wish their players the best but U.S. Soccer should be praising the small clubs around the country that are doing it without all the resources that a pro club has and making their league competitive.

FC is the best in this area; AND THEY SHOULD BE

And your point is...? FCD is attempting to emulate what has worked so well to create the worlds best players/clubs. Who knows where this takes them but why concern yourself about fair in terms of our other local academy teams. The others might as well be rec.

The other problem DA has when you watch many of the out of area teams play you say "what the heck" this is just kickball and they are not very good as a team. The DA teams are not implementing a style of play and coaching methods that are helping these players become the best players they can possibly be. Many are essentially local area all star teams playing the same style of soccer and with the same coaching they had before DA program. Purpose of all of this is a big ?

FC Dallas is coaching to play possession soccer and is focused on player development. The coaching seems to be pretty good.

DA does provide better college coach visibility for the players on the field.

FC Dallas does what any other soccer clubs do. They use their advantage to win games. Most players that play for FC Dallas have a singular dream to play professional soccer. Most players in the Dallas area that are on the other Academy teams have a different goal. They want to go to college and play soccer. Education is their ultimate goal. Not so with the majority of players at FC Dallas. Two distinct different goals. Therefore when players on Texans, Solar and Andromeda graduate from high school, even though age wise they could play another year in the Academy, they leave and go to college. Not so with FC Dallas. They stay another year with FC Dallas. So the overall makeup of the FC Dallas team is distinctly different than the other three local Academy teams. You can't really blame FC Dallas for doing it, they want to win games. More power to them for doing so.

However, do their results reflect the article? I wonder. Their U17/U18 definitely is a cut above the local Academies. However, they were embarrassed by the Tigres in Dallas Cup. So when they are competing against clubs/teams with a similar structure it doesn’t seem they are anything special. As far as development I would think looking at their U15/U16 team would be a better gauge as they don't get to use held back players or professional players. At least not yet. I see that so far in this year’s Academy payoffs they have lost both of their first two games playing against non MLS teams.

It is a little unusual that in a day and time where the line between professional players and amateur players is being highlighted in other sports with the Reggie Bush situation, Terrelle Pryor, and some others, that the soccer world is going the other way and encouraging professional players to compete against amateur athletes.

Not saying whether it is fair or whether it is good or bad, but it does seem to be unique in amateur sports.

Yak Attack wrote: The others might as well be rec.

Hmmm, looks like those rec teams a slapping the FC Dallas U15/U16 team around pretty good in the USSF Regionals.

the success of the FCD academy program will not be judged by it's wins or losses but by the product it puts out. I really thin grinder gets it but can't escape the having to compete against them. The goal of the FCD program is to turn out future pros that can be worked into the first team or sold abroad not to win a youth tournament. I do think the USSF should split the AL into 2 different leagues. The MLS teams and the other clubs. The resources and goals are completely different and often at odds with each other.

Yak; I knew if I threw out the word "fair" I would get a response! My son who played last year welcomed the chance to play against the FC Dallas players. As he said "it is the only time I will probably get to play against some pros." I thought his attitude was great!

go99 wrote:I really thin grinder gets it but can't escape the having to compete against them.

go99

I don't really care one way or the other about playing against FC Dallas. It's just another game like any other. You win some you shouldn't have won, you win some you should win and you lose some you should have won. In the end, who really cares, they'll be another game next week. It's not really about winning any more. Yes, when my kid was U10, U11, and U12 I was all about the winning. After having our fair share of gold trophies I've moved on. I'm not about winning any more. Do I want my kids team to win. Sure. But nothing is gauged on it or gained from it. I focus on my BB. Did he play well. If he didn't, why not. What can I do to help him get better?

I think FC Dallas in general is doing an outstanding job in developing its players and they are great for soccer and I am glad they are here in Dallas. They do have a a couple of major issue that keeps many quality players away from wanting to play for them. Maybe over time it will change.

Oh god don't even get me started on their major issues. I am hoping by the time AL comes around all of the politics, manuvering, BS, goes away. Had a really smart soccer guy tell me once that they most important part of soccer development in Brazil and europe was "identification". He said that seems to be the one part missing. Nobody is activiley trying to identify future talent so they can spen the resources developing that. FCD AL team should be full of future pros and any kid with the talent and ambition that is playing at one of the other clubs was a miss by FCD. But to the point of the post, not it is not "fair" but FCD seems to balance it out well by not being very good at running things

go99 wrote:the success of the FCD academy program will not be judged by it's wins or losses but by the product it puts out. I really thin grinder gets it but can't escape the having to compete against them. The goal of the FCD program is to turn out future pros that can be worked into the first team or sold abroad not to win a youth tournament. I do think the USSF should split the AL into 2 different leagues. The MLS teams and the other clubs. The resources and goals are completely different and often at odds with each other.

Look for the MLS teams to pull out of the USSF in the next year or two. They will start their own league and it will be comprised of only the MLS teams with the sole goal of creating professional soccer players.

. "I may be wrong however I have heard that the players in school all train together in the am and then attend school."

I have heard the same thing. Does anyone know how this is done?
Do they have a reduced class schedule that allows them to practice before/after school? If kids just take minimal classes, how does this translate for University? Also, I would guess most kids live outside of Frisco...how do they attend Frisco schools? It is an interesting concept!

From reading the newspaper back in August or September 2010 - Frisco schools voted on and made an exception specifically for FCD Juniors players.

Don't know about reduced hours, but it is certainly possible with off-campus PE. Many athletes in other sports do this.

Here is information on the residency program.

http://www.fcdallas.com/news/2010/09/fcd-leads-way-new-development-academy-academic-curriculum

soccergrinder wrote:

Yak Attack wrote: The others might as well be rec.

Hmmm, looks like those rec teams a slapping the FC Dallas U15/U16 team around pretty good in the USSF Regionals.

Come'on Grinder, just having some fun. The REC label gets thrown around so often I couldn't resist.

I did hear that Kevin's U16's were 1 goal away from going to Milwaukee. Congrats.

the goal of the USSF DA is to identify and produce players for the National team programs. they want to move towards what other teams in the world are doing in terms of development, which is train more and play fewer games. games have rules similar to the world games, which includes limited subs and no re-entry, having a full roster and competition to make the matchday 18 and/or starting 11.

what FCD is doing is creating pros. they are a professional team so who would expect anything less. ultimately, they probably want to identify players that are good enough to play on the big team or even get sold to other clubs abroad and make some money off of a transfer fee. that's probably the biggest difference between FCD and other non-MLS DA teams. a Texans player that's identified by a Euro team, for example, gets to go anytime he wants and Texans get nothing from developing that players (recent ex. Conor Doyle). FCD can develop a player, sign him to a pro contract, and make a transfer fee off him that funnels back into the pro team or even the youth club. Richard Sanchez is having a fantastic U-17 World Cup and who knows what happens when he comes back. NYRB is gonna do the same thing with Juan Agudelo and DC United is gonna do the same with Andy Najar.

IMO, that's a good thing for local soccer and its the way it should be. the pro team should be the leaders of the local area. all local players should have something to aspire too at the highest level and FCD provides it. maybe pro soccer isn't for everyone, but there's no problem having that level as a goal to attain.