Boys 05

[Unregistered]

I wasn't there. Maybe it was a bad day at the office; or the other team was on fire.

But usually, 9-0 means something was seriously wrong. Crossfire did well to finish fifth, and took out a really good team in Albion. But the drop in quality from the top four to the rest of the field is significant.

Besides. There's no shame in "we ran into a better team from a soccer-rich part of the country, and got beaten". That sounds a bit more respectable than "we had a bad plane flight, so ignore our first game--in truth we kicked azz, woohoo!" Y'all are starting to act like Westside used, before all the crazies left.

I was there. Strikers are a better team than we are. As of right now, they would probably beat us 10 out of 10 times. That team is unbelievably fast, top to bottom. The movement with and without the ball. The big switches...unbelievable group of kids. Having said all that, I truly do believe that they are not 9 goals better than our group....however that day, and under those circumstances, they were.

I am not sure why that game has been so polarizing on here? Based on what I have read, there seems to be a great deal of insecurity by other clubs about Crossfire's performance at Surf. Particularly by TA parent's/interns/coaches. I can guarantee that Strikers would have run TA and ANY club from Oregon off of the field. They are just better. That is sports. There is always somebody faster, stronger, quicker...better. nonetheless, you compete and you learn. And for every doofus on here who wants to back seat drive and say "losing 9-0 does not reach you anything," please shut the hell up. You don't know these kids. In fact, I would argue that you don't know kids at all. Just because you want to protect whatever image you want your son's team to portray, does not mean you do not try. Seriously, quit being so soft. Crossfire came away from that game and realized they needed to do better, and did so. I would hope a fee other teams from around here would have been able to do the same. I know this, I would celebrate their having done so....TA, I am looking at you. What have you done? I watched your game against LA last November....0-3, and would have been 0-10 if LA had not pulled their starters at half. You of course kept your starters in.

[Unregistered]

No, your assumption is wrong. TA is included in this. They may be a step up from some of the local clubs, but everyone in town has a LONG way to go to approach a professional training environment.

Local clubs are fine if you want to have fun, or get a scholarship. And maybe even for reaching MLS.

But there's several levels of soccer above that that nobody from this state has come close to touching.

Under the current format you can can be "they may be a step up" to "they are not a step up." Although, I really wish they were.

[Unregistered]

None of the local 05 clubs is presently a superclub, especially in the local DA.

And none of the DA kids that I've seen are so bad that they can't be meaningfully instructed by a coach. Very few are "elite", but all of them know how to play soccer. If the kids are struggling with the drills, perhaps the coach ought to be working on something else? There might be some other skill that they need to master?

Some coaches are like trying to teach calculus to a bunch of kids that haven't yet learned algebra, and then everyone complains that they suck at math.

Timbers Academy U14, is local DA. You do realize this, right?

[Unregistered]

Under the current format you can can be "they may be a step up" to "they are not a step up." Although, I really wish they were.

Since there are a few TA honks in this forum, apparently--tell us what is different about the Timbers Academy? Other than the teams they play:

* Where do you train? Prov Park? King St. in Beaverton? Other fields?
* Do you train with the older TA teams? With the Timbers' adult teams--even the first team?
* How many hours a week in training? Is this the same schedule at U14 that it is for U15, U17, or U19?
* How many coaches at training? Just one? Multiple? Do players ever stand around, waiting their turn to complete drills?
* What technology or equipment (beyond the standard balls, cones, pop-up goals, and other stuff that anyone can buy at Dick's or Tursi's) is used to assist with training?
* Does the coaching staff measure and record things--footspeed, shot accuracy, pass accuracy, etc, or does the coach depend on his "eyeballs" when evaluating players?
* Does everyone do the same drills? Is instruction customized for particular players--"you need to work on this", "you need to work on that"?
* How much is "fitness" (strength, agility, endurance, and other activities without the ball) part of the curriculum? Do players (particularly at older age groups; U14s may not benefit so much) have access to the weight room, etc?
* Are players given "homework"--stuff to work on outside of training? Is it checked if they accomplish these tasks, and are their consequences if they don't (other than the nebulous threat of "if you don't keep up, you might get cut some day")?
* What sort of feedback do players get? Video review? Written evaluations? Verbal "attaboys" or "need some work"?
* How is futsal part of the curriculum? Team views on cross-training (basketball or other sports that don't involve kicking a ball).

Likewise for the other clubs: How does your team's training sessions compare to the above quesitons?

I'd love to hear the answer to those. For most local clubs (WashT is the only one I've heard that seems to do better), the standard seems to be a single coach (maybe one assistant), in some local park, with no tech whatsoever, doing monolithic drills, with nobody recording anything.

[Unregistered]

Timbers Academy U14, is local DA. You do realize this, right?

If you prefer "Oregon DA league".

I'm using the term to explicitly exclude TA, but refer to the 5 other Oregon-based DA teams, along with Washington Timbers.

[Unregistered]

Since there are a few TA honks in this forum, apparently--tell us what is different about the Timbers Academy? Other than the teams they play:

* Where do you train? Prov Park? King St. in Beaverton? Other fields?
* Do you train with the older TA teams? With the Timbers' adult teams--even the first team?
* How many hours a week in training? Is this the same schedule at U14 that it is for U15, U17, or U19?
* How many coaches at training? Just one? Multiple? Do players ever stand around, waiting their turn to complete drills?
* What technology or equipment (beyond the standard balls, cones, pop-up goals, and other stuff that anyone can buy at Dick's or Tursi's) is used to assist with training?
* Does the coaching staff measure and record things--footspeed, shot accuracy, pass accuracy, etc, or does the coach depend on his "eyeballs" when evaluating players?
* Does everyone do the same drills? Is instruction customized for particular players--"you need to work on this", "you need to work on that"?
* How much is "fitness" (strength, agility, endurance, and other activities without the ball) part of the curriculum? Do players (particularly at older age groups; U14s may not benefit so much) have access to the weight room, etc?
* Are players given "homework"--stuff to work on outside of training? Is it checked if they accomplish these tasks, and are their consequences if they don't (other than the nebulous threat of "if you don't keep up, you might get cut some day")?
* What sort of feedback do players get? Video review? Written evaluations? Verbal "attaboys" or "need some work"?
* How is futsal part of the curriculum? Team views on cross-training (basketball or other sports that don't involve kicking a ball).

Likewise for the other clubs: How does your team's training sessions compare to the above quesitons?

I'd love to hear the answer to those. For most local clubs (WashT is the only one I've heard that seems to do better), the standard seems to be a single coach (maybe one assistant), in some local park, with no tech whatsoever, doing monolithic drills, with nobody recording anything.

What are your qualifications to assess academy programs, other than what you read on the internet about how Barcelona runs things?

[Unregistered]

What are your qualifications to assess academy programs, other than what you read on the internet about how Barcelona runs things?

I'm asking the questions. Different people might disagree on the answer. My "qualifications" are none of your business.

What is training at TA like? Are they offering better (or at least, different) training and programming than the local clubs, or is their claim to superiority based mainly on "we got the best talent!"

If clubs focus on recruiting and not coaching, what value does that add? The whole point of the "academy" is not to travel to other cities and beat those teams, but to produce better soccer players--and in the case of the Timbers, to find players for the first team. Or better yet, since this is MLS, to find the next Alphonso Davies and sell him to Europe for a metric sh1t-ton of money.

[Unregistered]

If you prefer "Oregon DA league".

I'm using the term to explicitly exclude TA, but refer to the 5 other Oregon-based DA teams, along with Washington Timbers.

Do you actually mean to imply that 2005, U14 TA is a super club?

[Unregistered]

What are your qualifications to assess academy programs, other than what you read on the internet about how Barcelona runs things?

Why so defensive? You do realize that most parent's at this age know that TA is a sham, right?

[Unregistered]

I'm asking the questions. Different people might disagree on the answer. My "qualifications" are none of your business.

What is training at TA like? Are they offering better (or at least, different) training and programming than the local clubs, or is their claim to superiority based mainly on "we got the best talent!"

If clubs focus on recruiting and not coaching, what value does that add? The whole point of the "academy" is not to travel to other cities and beat those teams, but to produce better soccer players--and in the case of the Timbers, to find players for the first team. Or better yet, since this is MLS, to find the next Alphonso Davies and sell him to Europe for a metric sh1t-ton of money.

Preach on. You have obviously asked the right questions, as you can tell from the TA Honk's response.

[Unregistered]

Not all SoCal clubs are created equal. Crossfire did well against some, but against one of the top clubs, showed how much further it has to go. 9-0 poundings aren't the result of a bad day at the office; they are the result of a fundamental mismatch in skill between the two teams.

Were you present for 9-0 game? If not you are talking out of your azz and really have no clue....I asked someone from xfire that was there and they said strikers were a better team, (not 9-0 better) and that the kids sitting in the sun for 6 hours prior to kickoff played a large part in the final score. Give credit where it is due and stop being such a hater

[Unregistered]

Do you actually mean to imply that 2005, U14 TA is a super club?

Pretty sure that is wht the poster meant. Which of course is laughable.

[Unregistered]

Do you actually mean to imply that 2005, U14 TA is a super club?

It certainly wants to be--by offering free training, it has attempted to recruit a lot of the top talent in the age group. And while it hasn't gotten it all, it has certainly gotten a lot of it.

But whether its a good academy or not depends more on what it DOES with that talent, not on simply finding the kids who tore through OYSA a couple years ago.

[Unregistered]

It certainly wants to be--by offering free training, it has attempted to recruit a lot of the top talent in the age group. And while it hasn't gotten it all, it has certainly gotten a lot of it.

But whether its a good academy or not depends more on what it DOES with that talent, not on simply finding the kids who tore through OYSA a couple years ago.

Change that from "a lot" of talent, to "some" of the talent, and I will agree with this.

[Unregistered]

OK, honks. The "practice questionnaire" has moved to its own thread: http://talking-soccer.com/TS4/showthread.php?t=154132

And so far, the questions have been answered by someone from WashT, and someone from Westside.

Crickets, so far, from BSC, CFC, FC, Crossfire, and most notably, TA.

It's one thing if the cash-strapped local clubs don't provide a full-fledged training environment with all the bells and whistles a lot of the things on the list are expensive, both in terms of equipment and manpower. For many clubs, a coach and a bag of balls is all they have the budget for, not without charging parents $3k or more a year. But a pro club ought to at least have better answers to SOME of the questions on the list......