Boys U13/U14 - 2019-2020 Leagues

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Timbers aren't some renegade (or even independent) organization. Are we really supposed to imagine they're going to be the first MLS academy to play outside of the da?

A couple of things here:

Toronto played outside of DA for a while. They felt that players coming out of DA were too soft and played local amateurs/men for a while. Eventually did fold back into DA.

I don't think MLS cares whether Timbers put their middle school teams or if they even have them.

Peregrine's involvement in youth soccer - generally a critic. However, this crazy setup isn't their fault; Washington clubs kind of screwed them over by going bECNL. Should have only affected 1 DA age-group, but seems to be restructuring boys soccer pathway more broadly up there.

Norcal DA - flying to every away game like FC did back in the way (Rilette's disastrous entrance in HS DA)? Wasted days and wasted nights, no es bueno. But hey it is Peregrine's money I guess. 4 trainings a week all over town, ending at 9:30 at night, and then airplane rides to play 50 minutes - good luck with that.

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Sounders consolidate and train kids during the week at those ages. Where they have a lot of clubs, there's no reason there couldn't be the same thing in OR with 2-3 clubs in ecnl.

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The Sounders system works because they have a much deeper talent pool mainly due to bigger population which allows meaningful training at more local clubs than what can be done in Portland. Training environment is everything. Seattle can support 3-4 stellar clubs that feed the Sounders at U15. Portland can really only support 1-2. The boys in Portland are significantly behind their Seattle counterparts at U15 because the local clubs can't offer the same competitive training environment. The TA needs to exist at the younger ages just to keep up with what the local clubs in Seattle are producing. The talent needs to be consolidated to create the training environment of the top clubs up there

Also, it's not the coaching that drives the Seattle clubs. It's that they have more kids who are all in on making soccer their focus.

Sounders have a bigger population base, but they are also very aggressive in recruiting players from outside Seattle--just like the Timbers.

One big difference is that the blue chip clubs are more or less entrenched up there--PacNW, Crossfire, SU, Eastside, NWPL--and nobody really can challenge them. Down here we've got more clubs than that--the three local Alliance clubs, FC, OPFC, UPDX, ADF, PCU... all with pretense to greatness, and all getting fussy if anyone ever suggests otherwise, so the talent is spread out. And if the Timbers were to pick three clubs to be "training centers"--go with the obvious and say the Alliance clubs--the rest will scream bloody murder about their club being passed over for this role, and try and throw as many wrenches into the gears as they can.

And of course--if there were three U14 pre-Academy teams, subsidized and picked by the Timbers--where would they play? If OYSA, it would make a mockery out of the competition (assuming the Timbers do their jobs right). BECNL, with Seattle teams? Perhaps. OYSA playing a year up, and no participation in State Cup? Might work.

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Sounders have a bigger population base, but they are also very aggressive in recruiting players from outside Seattle--just like the Timbers.

One big difference is that the blue chip clubs are more or less entrenched up there--PacNW, Crossfire, SU, Eastside, NWPL--and nobody really can challenge them. Down here we've got more clubs than that--the three local Alliance clubs, FC, OPFC, UPDX, ADF, PCU... all with pretense to greatness, and all getting fussy if anyone ever suggests otherwise, so the talent is spread out. And if the Timbers were to pick three clubs to be "training centers"--go with the obvious and say the Alliance clubs--the rest will scream bloody murder about their club being passed over for this role, and try and throw as many wrenches into the gears as they can.

And of course--if there were three U14 pre-Academy teams, subsidized and picked by the Timbers--where would they play? If OYSA, it would make a mockery out of the competition (assuming the Timbers do their jobs right). BECNL, with Seattle teams? Perhaps. OYSA playing a year up, and no participation in State Cup? Might work.

Don't want to belabor the point, but there are good reason local clubs yell bloody murder about Timbers, that goes beyond pro pathway - OYSA relationship, Thorns mercenary relationship, taints the well here; Sounders have largely stayed out of that kind of thing, for good reason.

Washington did have a bit of a closed system for a while with RCL - gave the established clubs a leg up, that enhanced their brand, etc. If you like open systems, maybe that doesn't work for you (I kind of like open systems), but it did help consolidate talent/resources. Structure is being replaced by BECNL it appears, but it is a continuation of a closed system benefiting a cabal of clubs.

Sounders rise though feels fast - when Timbers first entered DA, seemed like their teams were closer to Sounders; for awhile crossfire had a better program then the Sounders. Probably too much ego at Peregrine to emulate what is done by Sounders, but they seem to be hitting the right notes.

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Other than the 05 team, any Timbers Academy team would crush any local club team on age. The 05s, of course, are a gross anomaly, bankrolled by a team father and with a somewhat-poorly chosen roster of players--resulting in a team that wouldn't have an easy time winning the Oregon DA league. The good news is that it appear the Timbers are getting serious about this age group, and rumor has it that there will be many cuts and new players announced, perhaps as soon as this week.

Compound that with an 05 thread here that is more active than any boys' thread before or since, and a casual reader of TS might be confused into thinking that the Timbers are simply running a glorified club team. For the most part, they're not. There's much they can do better--and a good argument can be made that they shouldn't start until U15, and instead work with clubs to identify and develop prospects before that.

Historically speaking Timbers don't even measure up with any academy team to the national level OYSA/USYS clubs of ole.

You can describe that as confusion.

This reality is confusing considering the population growth in our area and unlimited resources available in the Timbers Academy.

It's arguably not even a glorified club team.

More of an argument can be made it should be entirely dumped in Portland.

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Historically speaking Timbers don't even measure up with any academy team to the national level OYSA/USYS clubs of ole.

Why would they? If they are drawing their talent mainly from Oregon, they are going to be weaker than teams from SoCal. The academy format (if done right) can help by improving the training environment--but it will help the other MLS academies as well.

This reality is confusing considering the population growth in our area and unlimited resources available in the Timbers Academy.

Except resources aren't unlimited--and that is part of the problem. At the current time, the Timbers aren't taking it as seriously as other teams; including Seattle. Maybe things will change, particularly with training comp now being available. The team no longer has to worry about its talent going abroad and them not being compensated. (That said, only one local player in recent years has been good enough to play abroad, and his club--not the Timbers--is trying to get compensated).

It's arguably not even a glorified club team.

Other than the 05s, it's clearly better than any of the clubs. Even the 05s would probably finish first in the local DA; they just wouldn't go undefeated and have one of those seasons where opponents celebrate even scoring a goal against them.

More of an argument can be made it should be entirely dumped in Portland.

Some think that Merritt Paulson would agree with you, and is only running an academy because Don Garber says he must. Others would suggest that such arguments are self-serving nonsense, likely from a coach who either wants to keep his talented players for himself, or is sufficiently deluded to think that Premier Oregon United Toepokers or whoever is the equivalent of a professional youth academy, and feels disrespected whenever anyone suggests otherwise.

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Why would they? If they are drawing their talent mainly from Oregon, they are going to be weaker than teams from SoCal. The academy format (if done right) can help by improving the training environment--but it will help the other MLS academies as well.



Except resources aren't unlimited--and that is part of the problem. At the current time, the Timbers aren't taking it as seriously as other teams; including Seattle. Maybe things will change, particularly with training comp now being available. The team no longer has to worry about its talent going abroad and them not being compensated. (That said, only one local player in recent years has been good enough to play abroad, and his club--not the Timbers--is trying to get compensated).



Other than the 05s, it's clearly better than any of the clubs. Even the 05s would probably finish first in the local DA; they just wouldn't go undefeated and have one of those seasons where opponents celebrate even scoring a goal against them.



Some think that Merritt Paulson would agree with you, and is only running an academy because Don Garber says he must. Others would suggest that such arguments are self-serving nonsense, likely from a coach who either wants to keep his talented players for himself, or is sufficiently deluded to think that Premier Oregon United Toepokers or whoever is the equivalent of a professional youth academy, and feels disrespected whenever anyone suggests otherwise.

Methinks there is some friendly fire above from the alliance in the thread above; probably from an old coach who remembers what Westside, Eastside, and FC did on occasion before Timbers Academy came to down.

More than half of middle schools boys accepting a place in the Timbers Academy will be out of the academy by u15. Every year after that a smaller % will be left.

We are relatively new to professional academies in this part of the country. There are some sobering stats in other parts of the world as to what happens to academy dropouts.

Assuming the training is good and teammates are as well; driving all over town, getting out of practice 9:30 4 times a week, flying to every away game . . . .

Think it is a fair game for an adult to ask whether that environment is the best from a whole child's perspective.

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How far out from tryouts are we and still no word on where all these teams are playing?

Have the 07s really not heard about roster decisioms at TA?

I think we're going to be in for some surprises.

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How far out from tryouts are we and still no word on where all these teams are playing?

Have the 07s really not heard about roster decisioms at TA?

I think we're going to be in for some surprises.

Who they'll play for 20 games is largely irrelevant to making them better players. The training environment is everything. Go watch a training and compare it to what your son is getting at his current club. The TA is on a different level. That's really what he's signing up for.

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Who they'll play for 20 games is largely irrelevant to making them better players. The training environment is everything. Go watch a training and compare it to what your son is getting at his current club. The TA is on a different level. That's really what he's signing up for.

You sure about that?

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You sure about that?

Yes. Are you?

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Yes. Are you?

About what? I was asking the question.

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How far out from tryouts are we and still no word on where all these teams are playing?

Have the 07s really not heard about roster decisioms at TA?

I think we're going to be in for some surprises.

This. Have these TA 07 invitations really not gone out yet? What are they waiting on?

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Haven’t heard a peep and neither has our doc.

They said 2 weeks in the meeting

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Haven’t heard a peep and neither has our doc.

They said 2 weeks in the meeting

As they say in Hollywood, "don't call us. We'll call you".