Only OC got DA in Fl, No other FL club

[Unregistered]

Where will the practice fields be for the DA? Will they make it a bit closer so Tampa girls could possibly try-out.

[Unregistered]

If the US Soccer Federation is telling its girls DA program clubs they must have their best players on their DA teams and if US Club Soccer is telling its girls ECNL clubs they must have their best players on their ECNL teams, what are clubs which have both girls DA and ECNL teams gong to do?

Their best players will be split between the two programs, resulting in two watered down teams, both of which will be less competitive than the previous ECNL team.

This is exactly what will happen at Orlando City.

You will notice that in 11 pages of this thread, nobody has offered an idea, a plan, or any kind of strategy to keep this from happening. OC management will ignore or deny this problem until club parents start demanding answers for why all their "top" teams are losing so many games.

[Unregistered]

The stupidity is unreal. You really think D1 scouts only recruit from ECNL, and now you say only ECNL and DA. Your ignorance is remarkable! An explanation of how recruiting works does not even need to be explained because I'm sure you have a theory for any explanations given.

Let me see
Daughter is at non ecnl/ da club
Is on u 16 team just completed sophomore year and she and many teammates are verbal committed to div 1 schools .....
Theory above is inaccurate

[Unregistered]

This has been in the politics for a long time coming. US Club built up clubs for USSF to be successful coming in. Clubs with ECNL will be happy to have both and as such will push GDA first. Why not?

The clubs "happy to have both" haven't thought it through. They have no idea how difficult it will be to get players to sign up for GDA, when ECNL is the superior alternative.

Clubs who focus on ONE top team in each age group, whether ECNL or GDA, will mop the floor with clubs like OC who think they can have it all.

[Unregistered]

College coaches will recuit from the GDA first. Training 4 times per week and playing at the highest level week in. Taking 4/5 months off playing kickball high school with there friends will become a thing of the past, just like the boys.

You have nothing to back up these delusional fantasies except wishful thinking. How many coaches have you actually talked to? Most of them are very skeptical of a new unproven program.

They will recruit from where the talent is. Period. If GDA survives at all, it will be years before the majority of youth talent migrates there.

[Unregistered]

You have nothing to back up these delusional fantasies except wishful thinking. How many coaches have you actually talked to? Most of them are very skeptical of a new unproven program.

They will recruit from where the talent is. Period. If GDA survives at all, it will be years before the majority of youth talent migrates there.

Coaches go to where the talent it, so they'll look at both if both have talent (there's a lot of college programs out there that need to fill rosters). But the talent won't move to DA until they see the college coaches are shopping there. And the coaches won't shop there (heavily) until they see the talent there, and that they're getting the kind of training and competitive level college coaches want. See the conundrum? Who goes first.

[Unregistered]

Coaches go to where the talent it, so they'll look at both if both have talent (there's a lot of college programs out there that need to fill rosters). But the talent won't move to DA until they see the college coaches are shopping there. And the coaches won't shop there (heavily) until they see the talent there, and that they're getting the kind of training and competitive level college coaches want. See the conundrum? Who goes first.

Did you read the list of accepted clubs ? The GDA has already landed the best clubs in the country and more will follow. College coaches will be all over the GDA and ECNL with smaller D2/D3 shopping at Regional leagues.

[Unregistered]

What in the hell was Orlando Pride and thinking joining the Girls Development Academy operated by US soccer. Disgraceful and disgusted that a professional Women's franchise could do this. Tophat, CASL and Concorde are Sh$ty clubs and you are harming kids in central Florida with this selfish move, shame on you.

[Unregistered]

Let me see
Daughter is at non ecnl/ da club
Is on u 16 team just completed sophomore year and she and many teammates are verbal committed to div 1 schools .....
Theory above is inaccurate

I"m not sure what part you are referring to as inaccurate. You just proved my point with your statement.

[Unregistered]

Congrats Orlando, I'm hoping my clubs gets accepted so we can represent north Florida in the GDA.

[Unregistered]

Did you read the list of accepted clubs ? The GDA has already landed the best clubs in the country and more will follow. College coaches will be all over the GDA and ECNL with smaller D2/D3 shopping at Regional leagues.

First list is impressive, but they need to match it in the next round(s), plus convince players the travel won't be gawd awful. Someone posted somewhere they're leading with the best list initially because they want to make an impression on all the others. I totally agree. Let's see what the final list is.

Then the next step is convincing players to move. That's going to be a very tough sell with players already in HS, in the process of recruiting or already done. They should have started with U12-U14 - develop them, prove it's a top notch training league while they're not as attached to the idea of playing HS, and build from there. GDA may get there over time but it won't be a light-switch transition

[Unregistered]

Let me see
Daughter is at non ecnl/ da club
Is on u 16 team just completed sophomore year and she and many teammates are verbal committed to div 1 schools .....
Theory above is inaccurate

Playing at Sunrise/FKK doesn't count. Reality will set in when they are forced to play at a higher level. It's not hard to shine in USYS leagues.

[Unregistered]

First list is impressive, but they need to match it in the next round(s), plus convince players the travel won't be gawd awful. Someone posted somewhere they're leading with the best list initially because they want to make an impression on all the others. I totally agree. Let's see what the final list is.

Then the next step is convincing players to move. That's going to be a very tough sell with players already in HS, in the process of recruiting or already done. They should have started with U12-U14 - develop them, prove it's a top notch training league while they're not as attached to the idea of playing HS, and build from there. GDA may get there over time but it won't be a light-switch transition

Part of this is solved by picking clubs already in ECNL. Talent is already consolidated. I agree with your point about travel. Need to play meaningful games. If they add 4 more teams to SE they could play 14 meaningful games. The problem is the travel will be worse then ECNL especially if they add a south florida club. CASL---> South Florida. The DA will struggle with the travel imo.

[Unregistered]

First list is impressive, but they need to match it in the next round(s), plus convince players the travel won't be gawd awful. Someone posted somewhere they're leading with the best list initially because they want to make an impression on all the others. I totally agree. Let's see what the final list is.

Then the next step is convincing players to move. That's going to be a very tough sell with players already in HS, in the process of recruiting or already done. They should have started with U12-U14 - develop them, prove it's a top notch training league while they're not as attached to the idea of playing HS, and build from there. GDA may get there over time but it won't be a light-switch transition

Glenn Crooks tweeted that this was an initial list of clubs accepted, not a list of clubs who actually committed to GDA. Will be interesting to see if any of them decline membership. It is also highly possible that ECNL will make clubs choose. Orlando is immune to this possibility because they can say City have ECNL but Pride have GDA. Same with Sky Blue-PDA and Seattle Reign (they can say Seattle United have ECNL). A problem with GDA is that they will be serving fewer players, probably only 60% the number at a given club. And all but the legit starters on the GDA teams will see massively reduced playing time. This is precisely the type of strategy that ends up hurting the search for late bloomers, players from non-traditional soccer hotbeds, and those from less affluent families. Even scholarships don't go all that far in helping the latter types of players for various reasons. Not saying ECNL was the answer (although they will undoubtedly make modifications to make themselves look like the more inclusive league of the people), but leave it to USSF to choose a strategy that makes our big country with lots of untapped talent even smaller and probably less inclusive. For the sake of our USWNT I hope it works, but i have little faith in the people running soccer in the US.

[Unregistered]

Glenn Crooks tweeted that this was an initial list of clubs accepted, not a list of clubs who actually committed to GDA. Will be interesting to see if any of them decline membership. It is also highly possible that ECNL will make clubs choose. Orlando is immune to this possibility because they can say City have ECNL but Pride have GDA. Same with Sky Blue-PDA and Seattle Reign (they can say Seattle United have ECNL). A problem with GDA is that they will be serving fewer players, probably only 60% the number at a given club. And all but the legit starters on the GDA teams will see massively reduced playing time. This is precisely the type of strategy that ends up hurting the search for late bloomers, players from non-traditional soccer hotbeds, and those from less affluent families. Even scholarships don't go all that far in helping the latter types of players for various reasons. Not saying ECNL was the answer (although they will undoubtedly make modifications to make themselves look like the more inclusive league of the people), but leave it to USSF to choose a strategy that makes our big country with lots of untapped talent even smaller and probably less inclusive. For the sake of our USWNT I hope it works, but i have little faith in the people running soccer in the US.

Well said. Best case, GDA takes years, maybe even a generation to become effective. Worst case, it damages the state of youth soccer across the country. I fear we are headed for the worst case.

National team level players will find their way to the National team no matter what. The other 99.99% are left to suffer the consequences of a program created out of a power grab, not out of national interest.