MLS Academies

[FSM]

Came across some info in another thread on what the different clubs are doing. Here is a compilation of several posts:

Chivas – The organization mostly seems likes it is working to build up grass roots support and as a bonus maybe develop a few players in the process. They have U16 and U18 teams playing in USSF Leagues. Focus has been on Hispanic players and unlike other LA based Academy teams they are not playing during the HS season. U18 team recruited some kids that can really play and might be willing and able to make the transition to the senior team. I think a couple may have been selected for US residency. U16 has more marginal players.

Club runs 14 different “Academiesâ€￾ in US 2 in LA that are run by the club and 12 others that are "independently owned and operated under license from Chivas USA Futbol Education, LLC,"

Galaxy – Announced with great fanfare in March that they starting Galaxy Rios and announced Tristan Bowen as there first player. Never heard of a second. Announced that they were going to have teams in the USSF league and then were replaced by LAFC. Run the Beckham academy targeted for kids 4-18 willing to pay the going rate.

Chicago – Started out with what looked like just another mediocre club outfitted in Fire gear at players cost. However with their two teams in USSF league, they appear more serious about acquiring talent. They appear to have attempted to recruit all the top area club players with free training, travel and gear. They also appear to have signed many of them.

Colorado – Have teams in USSF League. Played this summer in Super-Y against RSL’s teams and seemed to be a cut above the couple of club teams that played in the league.

Columbus – Have Crew Jrs. entered in USSF league. The program seemed to me nothing more than another glorified club much like Fire Juniors was. However, they seemed to partner with Friedel’s program which seems to be the real deal so maybe they are getting a bit more serious.

DC United – Has teams entered in USSF league and has a number of pretty good looking teams entered in Super Y. Seem to have hired a group of experienced coaches. They seem to be make a reasonable effort acquire and develop talent.

FC Dallas – Seemed to turn a large youth club (inter) into FC Dallas. Seems like just another Tx club outfitted in FC Dallas Gear..

Houston – Houston has a unique system. They work with all the clubs and offer supplemental training. They appear to also play matches in Mexico as well as the US. They also appear to be pretty serious about finding potential players. Last year I thought their model was the way to start out. It seems to work with clubs rather than competing with them. However it is at odds with the USSF model. In addition to the academy in Houston, the Dynamo have also opened the Dynamo South Texas Academy in the Rio Grande Valley.

Kansas City – Have a U15,U16, U17 program called KCW Juniors. Appear to play against local club teams – something like a smaller version of DC or Red Bulls, only they are not part of USSF League

New England – Seem to having nothing more than an “Academyâ€￾ that is targeted at anyone from 4-18 willing to pay the going rate.

Red Bull – Has teams entered in USSF league and a U15 Academy team as well. Seem to have hired a group of experienced coaches. They seem to be make a reasonable effort acquire and develop talent and seem to have players capable and interested in moving to the team.

Real Salt Lake – They also have an interesting model. They seem to partner with OPD in Arizona and Utah and have a U16 and U17 team in the Super-Y league. Talent looked a step above as Colorado Rush (at one time not too long ago one of the strongest clubs in the US) one of the two club teams also in the league at U17. They also seem to have a Chivas like licensed program in Florida that seems more like branding and money than development.

Toronto FC was given an extra year before starting up an academy by MLS so they could get their feet on the ground. I don't know a ton about it but there were a couple of times now where if you called up ticketmaster and paid $125 or so, they would graciously let you try out. I also understand that they have training grounds under construction.


Red Bull, DC, Houston all seem to have players capable and interested in foregoing college and turning pro. Chivas is building up the grass roots with Hispanic targeted programs and is also providing a platform for lower income kids that want to go directly to the pros. Houston seems to be targeting similar players but is working in conjunction with South Tx programs. Red Bull also seem to have players ready to make the jump but does not seem as strongly Hispanic based as the other two.

Chivas, Columbus, Chicago, Colorado, Red Bull, LA, and DC have teams in the USSF Academy League.

[FSM]

BTW Paul Mariner is said to have interviewed for the Chicago Fire's coaching position: http://njmg.typepad.com/sbi/2007/12/spe ... riner.html

How many of these so called "MLS youth players" will get a chance to be moved up to the Senior team each year? Will the so called "Super Draft" still be the main source of players getting into MLS?

New England – Seem to having nothing more than an “Academyâ€￾ that is targeted at anyone from 4-18 willing to pay the going rate.

I think they thought MPS was part of the Revolution.

[FSM]

New England is now the only MLS club without an official youth development academy.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://toronto.fc.mlsnet.com/t280/youth/academy/

TFC Academy
To provide elite young Canadian soccer players with an opportunity reach their technical, tactical, mental, and physical potential with Toronto FC.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Toronto FC is excited to launch their official academy. The TFC Academy is a professional training and development program for young elite Canadian soccer players.

In its first year, the academy will be home to two age groups: U-18 and U-16. Players must be born between 1990-1994 to play in these age categories.

Training will take place at BMO Field and a typical season will run from February-November. BMO Field is home to:
~Toronto FC and the Canadian National Teams
~Indoor training room
~Fully equipped weight room
~State of the art field surface
~Media facilities

Players will train up to 4 times a week with games scheduled on weekends.

Transportation to and from training sessions will be the responsibility of the player.

Toronto FC is looking for talented youth players born between 1990-1994 to join our elite development program. Take your game to the next level.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some FAQs:

Q: What will be the cost for the players who make the TFC Academy?
A: There will be no cost for the players that make the TFC Academy teams. The players who enter the program will have their training expenses and equipment provided for them. In addition to training and equipment, travel expenses for TFC Academy related tournaments and games will also be covered.

Q: How many players will be selected for the TFC Academy?
A: No cap has been placed on the number of players in the TFC Academy. The plan is to select approximately 20-30 players for each team.

Q: Will players in the TFC Academy be allowed to play for their local clubs?
A: Players enrolled in the TFC Academy will not be allowed to play for any additional soccer clubs. Toronto FC will be the player's club.

Q: Who will be coaching the TFC Academy?
A: Mike Matkovich (Toronto FC assistant coach) will be the Academy Director. Qualified and highly professional Head and Assistant coaches will be hired and announced as we approach the beginning of the training season.

Q: Will participation in the TFC Academy affect college/university eligibility?
A: A player's eligibility will not be affected by participating in the TFC Academy.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TFC Academy Coaching Staff
Mike Matkovich
TFC Academy Director
Head Coach U-18

Mike Matkovich joined the Toronto FC coaching staff for their inaugural season and now brings his wealth of experience at the youth level to the team's Academy. Matkovich arrived in Toronto from the Chicago Magic Soccer Club of the Super Y League where he was Director of Coaching. The Super Y League is the highest form of youth soccer in North America and consists of over 100 teams, many of which are operated by clubs from Major League Soccer.

His past coaching accomplishments include - Lewis University men's coach (Romeoville, Illnois), member of the U.S. National Team coaching staff as well as serving as a member of the Chicago Fire's (MLS) Reserve squad coaching staff. Matkovich holds a National "A" license from the United States Soccer Federation and has been a member of the National Soccer Coaches of America for the past 16 years.

New England is now the only MLS club without an official youth development academy.

Wasn't Kraft in the news over the summer about an SSS in the Metro West area?

Q: What will be the cost for the players who make the TFC Academy?
A: There will be no cost for the players that make the TFC Academy teams. The players who enter the program will have their training expenses and equipment provided for them. In addition to training and equipment, travel expenses for TFC Academy related tournaments and games will also be covered.

Wow

[FSM]

For those that are interested, some info on the Red Bulls program:

http://www.empiresc.com/fanzine/ESC%20F ... ue%205.pdf

Scroll to page 22 for the complete article.

A Look at Red Bull’s Youth Development Programs

.....with the league’s Youth Development Initiative of November 2006, requiring all MLS clubs to develop youth teams, giving them the ability to sign players who have played a minimum of two years in their set-up without exposing them to the SuperDraft. As Technical Director Jeff Agoos notes, “Before this Homegrown Rule was in effect you basically would develop a player and then any team could take him. So there was no incentive into developing players and putting money into developing
your own players.â€￾ But now, a team can sign two players trained within their youth set-up who live within a seventy-five mile radius of the club’s training grounds, or one player outside that radius, provided they do not live within another team’s seventy-five mile territory. Given this initiative, it seemed as though the MetroStars’ forethought might well provide the Red Bulls with a head start on other MLS clubs’ youth programs.

Red Bull had finally named Bob Montgomery its new Director of Youth Programs, a key role in what Agoos describes as the club’s “pyramidâ€￾ structure. This structure features the first and reserve teams at the top, the Academy (with its U14, 15, 16, 18 & 20 teams) just beneath, the Regional Development School in the third tier, and Training Programs fulfilling the grassroots role at the base.

Although the U16s made it to the SuperY League Final this November, where they lost to the Los Angeles Futbol Club (2-0), rumors were flying that the teams were already suffering in the absence of Savarese’s guidance. But Montgomery rejects wins and losses as an accurate barometer of the Academy’s success. Instead, he insists, “The purpose of the youth development program is to develop players and the emphasis
that I’ve discussed with the coaches, in agreement with the Technical Director Jeff Agoos, is development has to come before winning, they don’t operate hand-in-hand.â€￾

This problem of perception extends well beyond the Red Bulls’ fan base because “one of the problems in our society and with youth soccer in the United States is that everybody is concerned about winning and going to tournaments while development gets put on the back-burner.â€￾ With Montgomery’s vision for the Red Bulls Academy, “emphasis will be on teaching players to play the game the way it’s meant to be played.â€￾ Montgomery’s response to the disappointment over the U14s quarter-final exit from the New Jersey State Cup this fall is that everyone needs to understand, “development is a long-term thing and short-term results do not help you; they work against you in the long run.â€￾

Asked if this marks a shift in philosophy for the Academy, Montgomery notes: “Red Bull is in a change from when they were the MetroStars and there were obviously some coaches within the program that thought winning was important for them to maintain their jobs. In my discussions with everyone here, they understand that winning games at 13 and 14 years of age does not mean anything.â€￾

Jeff Agoos is likewise disappointed that “kids now, when they’re 15 or 16 years old, are playing a lot of games where the score is more important than how the child develops. We’ve got to put more emphasis on how the child is developing than how many goals we’re scoring or what the score from the last weekend is. Don’t get me wrong, I want to win every game, but the focus of our Academy is to develop players.â€￾

Rather than assessing the quality of the program and its players based upon standings and results, Agoos contends “the gauge of success for our Academy will be how many players our academy develops for the first team, not how many championships we win.â€￾

The Regional Development School (RDS) is an elite player development program for boys and girls ages 8-14 and is the only pre-academy program among MLS clubs. As the tier beneath the Academy in the pyramid, it focuses on what many call the golden years of player development. As the Manager of the RDS, Simon Barrow, explains: “The reason we work with 8-14 yr olds is we can refine their technique at a time when a) they’re most receptive to learning and b) they haven’t yet developed many bad habits.â€￾ Echoing the sentiments of Agoos and Montgomery, Barrow explains that the objective of the Regional Development School “is the development of the individual player over results. Now that’s true not only at the academy level, for the players 14 through 18, but it’s especially true for the pre-academy level, those kids 8 to 14. It’s based very much on a European model whereby the development of an individual player’s skill and technique are far more important than the development of winning teams at a young age.â€￾

Responsible for the many programs that comprise the tier at the base of the pyramid, Nee develops the curriculum, then selects and trains the coaches who will teach it. Not only are gifted players sometimes encouraged to move up the pyramid, so are the coaches. If a trainer demonstrates “consistent qualityâ€￾ coaching the various camps, clinics, team and individual training sessions offered from early spring to late fall, “we’ll move him up to work with the better level children,â€￾ Nee says (Simon Nee, Red Bull’s Manager of Education, Training and Recruitment). The vast majority of the coaches in the upper tiers of the RDS and Academy started with the grassroots programs.

[FSM]

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_i ... teams.html

DC, Red Bulls and Chivas USA can now sign youth academy players
Some 14 months after Major League Soccer announced initiatives that would allow MLS teams to sign players they develop through their own youth programs, three MLS teams are set to take advantage of those initiatives.

Chivas USA, D.C. United and the New York Red Bulls have been identified by MLS as having players who qualify to be signed to the senior teams directly. This means that players who have spent at least two years in the youth programs of these teams can be signed directly to the senior roster without having to go through the MLS draft.

According to Alfonso Mondelo, MLS technical director of player programs, Chivas USA, DC United and the Red Bulls have had programs that meet the league's current standards for at least two years(all three had established programs before the league's official initiative in November of 2006), meaning that these teams can now sign as many as two players from their youth set-up.

Will these teams take advantage of this opportunity? The Red Bulls are still in the preliminary stages of considering the option, with highly-rated midfielder Matt Kassel regarded as the top prospect in the Red Bulls' program and most likely to be signed.

"It is something we are looking into but we are more likely to seriously pursue that closer to the season," said Jeff Agoos, Red Bulls technical director. "We need to see if there are players who are ready to step into the first team and contribute.

"Obviously with Matt, you have a quality young player who we have seen closely and he's certainly someone we will consider."

An added twist to the new player development initiative also allows qualified teams to select players from other qualified programs once those teams have signed two players in a calendar year. So if the Red Bulls signed Kassel and speedy forward Walter Hines to the senior team, Chivas USA and DC United could theoretically sign Haitian-born striker Johnny Exantus, another top prospect in the Red Bulls youth system, assuming DC hasn't already signed two of its own players.

The catch there is that teams who do not have qualified programs cannot participate in the signing of other team's youth players. Currently, eight MLS teams have set up player development programs that are now running. The only two teams that have yet to launch a program? The New England Revolution and Toronto FC, both of which are said to be in the planning stages of establishing programs in 2008. Both teams will essentially be a full two years behind the rest of the league in terms of being able to develop and sign their own talent.

Here is my Herald News article from last summer on the MLS player development initiative. And here is my piece on Kassell , who stands a good chance of becoming the first player signed under the new MLS player development guidelines.

UPDATE- Just to clarify a few things. The two-player limit on signing youth academy players is for the first three years of the program (two PER year). Also, there is compensation involved if one team signs another team's academy player.

Lastly, going through the youth academy setup of an MLS does not, in any way, tie up a players rights. If a prospect decides he doesn't want to sign with MLS he can go wherever he wants (ala Gabriel Ferrari).

[FSM]

Found this in the BS forum:

"Before the launch of the Academy teams, the MLS was planning for each MLS team to have their own youth academy team. One proposed plan was to incorporate the Mass ODP and surrounding state ODP players into a Revolution Academy team training in Foxboro. Basically, a super ODP New England regional team. This plan would have allowed the academy players to 1) stay with their current club soccer teams and 2) with their state ODP programs as well. It would have brought at least 6 national team players under the Revolution Academy umbrella. The deal fell apart when Kraft soccer pulled funding for the project. I don't think this plan would fly under current academy rules."

Found this in the BS forum:

"Before the launch of the Academy teams, the MLS was planning for each MLS team to have their own youth academy team. One proposed plan was to incorporate the Mass ODP and surrounding state ODP players into a Revolution Academy team training in Foxboro. Basically, a super ODP New England regional team. This plan would have allowed the academy players to 1) stay with their current club soccer teams and 2) with their state ODP programs as well. It would have brought at least 6 national team players under the Revolution Academy umbrella. The deal fell apart when Kraft soccer pulled funding for the project. I don't think this plan would fly under current academy rules."

This doesn't seem plausible.

What would be the benefit for the Revs? The Revs Academy would be set up to train players to play in MLS one day. Would their coaches undo what the club coaches were doing with these players? In order to do that, wouldn't the Revs want the players exclusively from about age 16 and older? This would take them out of their club teams at this age. This seems to be confrontational with clubs from the outset.

Further, it is totally against the principle that is ODP. ODP is an ID program. Not a training program. In addition, players on NH, ME, or VT ODP are not likely to make regular trips to Foxboro for training.

This sounds more like someone's pipe dream than a real idea that was killed due to lack of funding.

Found this in the BS forum:

"Before the launch of the Academy teams, the MLS was planning for each MLS team to have their own youth academy team. One proposed plan was to incorporate the Mass ODP and surrounding state ODP players into a Revolution Academy team training in Foxboro. Basically, a super ODP New England regional team. This plan would have allowed the academy players to 1) stay with their current club soccer teams and 2) with their state ODP programs as well. It would have brought at least 6 national team players under the Revolution Academy umbrella. The deal fell apart when Kraft soccer pulled funding for the project. I don't think this plan would fly under current academy rules."

This doesn't seem plausible.

What would be the benefit for the Revs? The Revs Academy would be set up to train players to play in MLS one day. Would their coaches undo what the club coaches were doing with these players? In order to do that, wouldn't the Revs want the players exclusively from about age 16 and older? This would take them out of their club teams at this age. This seems to be confrontational with clubs from the outset.

Further, it is totally against the principle that is ODP. ODP is an ID program. Not a training program. In addition, players on NH, ME, or VT ODP are not likely to make regular trips to Foxboro for training.

This sounds more like someone's pipe dream than a real idea that was killed due to lack of funding.

Sorry, but you're way off base here. This is exactly what I think the Revs should have done as a first cut - because it is the cheapest way to go. This is basically what Houston has done.

This MLS/ODP style basically is an ID program - just ID some players and get them together a few times a year. Add them to your "homegrown" list and if any of them turn out you have the opportunity to sign them.

This is what the Revs should have done and it would have cost them very little. I'm not sure of the timing - but a system like this would have the ability to add a player like Sheanon Williams to your list and then sign him (if he lets you).

I saw this posting on BigSoccer as well and I find it very plausible. The Krafts said "what's the cheapest thing we can do", after some research this was presented to them and they said "We don't want to spend a dime."

Every month that goes by is time that the Revs are falling behind the rest of the league. In a couple of years the "Draft" will be severely diluted between the players going directly to Europe and the other players already ID'd by other MLS clubs.

MLS Academies

I can't even imagine Mass ODP getting involved in a Revs MLS Academy. Thank goodness it never happened.

MLS Academies

I can't even imagine Mass ODP getting involved in a Revs MLS Academy. Thank goodness it never happened.

Re: MLS Academies

I can't even imagine Mass ODP getting involved in a Revs MLS Academy. Thank goodness it never happened.

Why? Don't you think the Revs would have made sure that quality youth coaches would have been working with the kids?