U14 NTX National Team

Congratulations to the North Texas U14 players selected to the national team.

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/50308/us-under-14-boys-national-team-roster.html

Congrats to ALL 35 boys for sure. I do have a follow up question:

How did the local boys obtain their selection? Was it from ODP? Was it from Academy or Pre-Academy? Was it Classic League play? Or a tournament, camp, FIFA video game?

Would love to know, and knowing is half the battle! (couldn't help myself)

MC

Something for the '04 parents to check out. If you take a look at the 98-99 birth year kids and look back at the super studs at U8/U9/U10, you'll see that only 2 have made the national team by U14 and U15. One is a GK (a super star since birth) and a midfielder (the chosen one). Everyone else faded rather quickly when the "other kids" caught up.

Madcap wrote:Congrats to ALL 35 boys for sure. I do have a follow up question:

How did the local boys obtain their selection? Was it from ODP? Was it from Academy or Pre-Academy? Was it Classic League play? Or a tournament, camp, FIFA video game?

Would love to know, and knowing is half the battle! (couldn't help myself)

MC

id2 camps - we had roughly 8 boys chosen in the 99 age group to attend the id2 camp. Of those 8, 3 were chosen to go to Spain with id2 and those same three were chosen to attend the U14 Nat'l camp. One of the three is only going to national camp - he opted out of Spain. Too much time away from school back-to-back.

Awesome......so what is id2 ran by ODP? I tried to look at their (id2) website but it doesn't say anythign except that it is invite only....but how do they know to invite you? through ODP?

just curious.

Madcap wrote:Awesome......so what is id2 ran by ODP? I tried to look at their (id2) website but it doesn't say anythign except that it is invite only....but how do they know to invite you? through ODP?

just curious.

ODP has nothing to do with id2. id2 is run by US Soccer. They have national scouts, and use coaching recommendations. Seems like they look almost exclusively at the USSF DA Clubs - at this age (99) that would be the USSF clubs PA teams. All of our local boys came from PA teams. One or two also came from South Tx PA teams, but they did not make U14 nat'camp.

finish1 wrote:Something for the '04 parents to check out.

Geez, Finish. One bad apple and we're all crazies? I spent months campaigning against the craziness and apparently only added to it, so I gave up. Apparently too many people are in favor of the drama

Anyway, so proud of all these boys. Regardless of talent, it takes real heart and commitment to make it this far. THAT'S what impresses me!

Their website clearly states over and over again that it is an Olympic Development Program that is run by US Soccer.

I am officially confused.

Madcap wrote:Their website clearly states over and over again that it is an Olympic Development Program that is run by US Soccer.

I am officially confused.

US Club Soccer competes with Us Youth Soccer. The local ODP that I am sure you are thinking of is US Youth Soccer. That program is a fading dinosaur, unfortunately. US Club Soccer has won that competition. id2 is the route to soccer stardom, so to speak.

ontherightside wrote:

Madcap wrote:Their website clearly states over and over again that it is an Olympic Development Program that is run by US Soccer.

I am officially confused.

US Club Soccer competes with Us Youth Soccer. The local ODP that I am sure you are thinking of is US Youth Soccer. That program is a fading dinosaur, unfortunately. US Club Soccer has won that competition. id2 is the route to soccer stardom, so to speak.

Precisely. The key word here is "an," as in one of many. USCS has an ODP and USYS has an ODP. No trademark on the use of ODP

wait!!!! you mean my kid won't get on the national team from just playing ODP? What if I pay extra for the camp?

bunited wrote:

finish1 wrote:Something for the '04 parents to check out.

Geez, Finish. One bad apple and we're all crazies? I spent months campaigning against the craziness and apparently only added to it, so I gave up. Apparently too many people are in favor of the drama

Anyway, so proud of all these boys. Regardless of talent, it takes real heart and commitment to make it this far. THAT'S what impresses me!

I am now a lurker bunited and will not get caught up in the insanity. Had my share of it. No point to it al. Echo your thoughts, congrats to these boys. Great achievement.

finish1 wrote:Something for the '04 parents to check out. If you take a look at the 98-99 birth year kids and look back at the super studs at U8/U9/U10, you'll see that only 2 have made the national team by U14 and U15. One is a GK (a super star since birth) and a midfielder (the chosen one). Everyone else faded rather quickly when the "other kids" caught up.

I count three, but your point still stands. 2 GK's and a midfielder.

Carlos Avilez (FC Dallas; Dallas, Texas), Carson Williams (Dallas Texans; Plano, Texas).
Omar Beltran (Dallas Texans; Garland, Texas).

I think he was trying to say that two of those guys have always been known as "studs." The third one is a newcomer to superstardom?

Great job by all! Will be fun to watch them go farther!

Soccerinsanity wrote:I think he was trying to say that two of those guys have always been known as "studs." The third one is a newcomer to superstardom?

Great job by all! Will be fun to watch them go farther!

He was actually talking about a 98 boy that plays up and made the U15 Nat'l team. He was known as a stud way back in U9 - U10 days - they called him the chosen one on this forum back in the day - of the German/Not German as well.

I would say two of the current three U14 picks are newcomers.

Along with finish1's sentiment... How many of these 35 will still be involved in this program at u18? Or at u21? Does this program do a good job of retaining players and helping them to continute to move forward? Or will these 35 guys be on the way out if somebody new comes along next week?

finish1 wrote:Something for the '04 parents to check out. If you take a look at the 98-99 birth year kids and look back at the super studs at U8/U9/U10, you'll see that only 2 have made the national team by U14 and U15. One is a GK (a super star since birth) and a midfielder (the chosen one). Everyone else faded rather quickly when the "other kids" caught up.

So....what you are saying is that 50% of the NTX kids (2 of 4) on the US 14 and 15 team were superstars at U9? So, out of the (lets say) 10 superstars at U9....20% of them made the national team. And of the....what?..... 1,500 other kids at U9, 2 of them made the national team?

Maybe I'm reading this wrong. My hunch is its like being a 5 Star HS football player. There are no guarantees, but if you are great at a sport at age X, there is a FAR better chance that you will be great at age X+5 than the other folks.

But yeah sure a lot of 04 parents are nuts.

Number13 wrote:

finish1 wrote:Something for the '04 parents to check out. If you take a look at the 98-99 birth year kids and look back at the super studs at U8/U9/U10, you'll see that only 2 have made the national team by U14 and U15. One is a GK (a super star since birth) and a midfielder (the chosen one). Everyone else faded rather quickly when the "other kids" caught up.

But yeah sure a lot of 04 parents are nuts.

Nuts because most of them 'think' their child is in that stud category when truthfully most are just really good soccer players. But we love their posts anyway so keep em going!

ontherightside wrote:

Soccerinsanity wrote:I think he was trying to say that two of those guys have always been known as "studs." The third one is a newcomer to superstardom?

Great job by all! Will be fun to watch them go farther!

He was actually talking about a 98 boy that plays up and made the U15 Nat'l team. He was known as a stud way back in U9 - U10 days - they called him the chosen one on this forum back in the day - of the German/Not German as well.

I would say two of the current three U14 picks are newcomers.

He speaks German and understands German but he is not German.

We watched Beltran grow up in Garland very good and humble kid he has worked very hard good luck!! (AKA) Flaco!!!!

#27, how long has he played for the Texans?

bunited wrote:

ontherightside wrote:

Madcap wrote:Their website clearly states over and over again that it is an Olympic Development Program that is run by US Soccer.

I am officially confused.

US Club Soccer competes with Us Youth Soccer. The local ODP that I am sure you are thinking of is US Youth Soccer. That program is a fading dinosaur, unfortunately. US Club Soccer has won that competition. id2 is the route to soccer stardom, so to speak.

Precisely. The key word here is "an," as in one of many. USCS has an ODP and USYS has an ODP. No trademark on the use of ODP

Don't know if it still exists...but USL Super Y league also has/had an ODP program.

USYS ODP is going away.

bigtex75081 wrote:Along with finish1's sentiment... How many of these 35 will still be involved in this program at u18? Or at u21? Does this program do a good job of retaining players and helping them to continute to move forward? Or will these 35 guys be on the way out if somebody new comes along next week?

The majority of these kids are selected using the wrong criteria. Physical maturation and or skill without brains. They will and should be replaced. Look at how many pro/national team players were on "U14 national teams" at this age.

Some will be continued to be 'promoted' largely due to politics/cronyism.

And, face it, some kids peak early.

players are selected and promoted by coaches who have no background or experience in finding world class talent at young ages. The selection pool is ridiculously small. The working pool of talent should be one of the largest in the world but it isn't. It's full of athletes with little potential for soccer and rife with politics

Unfortunate, but true in every sport, not just soccer.