Girls DA

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The culture in the US revolves so much around organized games that it becomes a revelation when someone essentially says you can scrimmage when you dont have a game.

The development of soccer players should be something that expert are doing. It is not following some mandate laid out by mandarins.

we really do over complicate this.

Totally over done but that being what it is, the open weekends will have to be organized to be left open by several competitive leagues so these casual scrimmages can be casually played.

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Totally over done but that being what it is, the open weekends will have to be organized to be left open by several competitive leagues so these casual scrimmages can be casually played.

you assume that the teams are of similar type? How about boys teams? or pick up ?

[Unregistered]

you assume that the teams are of similar type? How about boys teams? or pick up ?

do boys teams just happen to have the same weekends off without organization? If the point is to give our GDA players some low travel quality local competition, put a little effort into giving them that or what is the point?

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do boys teams just happen to have the same weekends off without organization? If the point is to give our GDA players some low travel quality local competition, put a little effort into giving them that or what is the point?

not everything has to be as structured as some people seem to want it to be. I would happily drive my kid to a facilty up to an hour away and simply meet other kids on off days and play pick up small sided games.

[Unregistered]

do boys teams just happen to have the same weekends off without organization? If the point is to give our GDA players some low travel quality local competition, put a little effort into giving them that or what is the point?

First off, do realize they are figuring out this as they go along. Part of this is due to the fact that some divisions will have fewer teams, thus fewer games to schedule. At this point, it is not any formal structure. Once USSF settles on the divisions, then they can work on scheduling. I wouldn't expect this to be a major part -- maybe 1 or 2x a season.

There isn't a lot of incentive for other teams to play this either -- some teams/coaches would feel it might be a poaching opportunity. No one is truly focused on development or what is best for the kids.

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not everything has to be as structured as some people seem to want it to be. I would happily drive my kid to a facilty up to an hour away and simply meet other kids on off days and play pick up small sided games.

That is not how I was interpreting the comments by US soccer. I read it as she was trying to address the problem of far travel for weak competition. This is an issue in my players age group. Scrimmages against other good local players would be a reasonable solution to try.

[Unregistered]

That is not how I was interpreting the comments by US soccer. I read it as she was trying to address the problem of far travel for weak competition. This is an issue in my players age group. Scrimmages against other good local players would be a reasonable solution to try.

there is no way some lawmaker in an ivory tower in Chicago can address it. This is the huge problem here. in a country this size the implementation of various directives is going to vary. the focus here is always on the 20 or so structured games in the season. too little time is spent on the rest.

What Clubs offer in between games is where the real differentiation is. USSF can only suggest best practices the rest is up to Clubs

[Unregistered]

there is no way some lawmaker in an ivory tower in Chicago can address it. This is the huge problem here. in a country this size the implementation of various directives is going to vary. the focus here is always on the 20 or so structured games in the season. too little time is spent on the rest.

What Clubs offer in between games is where the real differentiation is. USSF can only suggest best practices the rest is up to Clubs

If USSF wants to run a league and control this level, then there should be stricter implementation requirements of the clubs. There should be a standard curriculum and process that every team follows. Of course, there will always be variances from the individual coaches, but the overall "plan" shouldn't be that different from club to club. Otherwise, what is the point of the GDA anyway if all they are doing is organizing games and it falls back down to the clubs to implement?

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If USSF wants to run a league and control this level, then there should be stricter implementation requirements of the clubs. There should be a standard curriculum and process that every team follows. Of course, there will always be variances from the individual coaches, but the overall "plan" shouldn't be that different from club to club. Otherwise, what is the point of the GDA anyway if all they are doing is organizing games and it falls back down to the clubs to implement?

but that is always going to be the case. ECNL is no different right? USSF lays down guidelines and the club operates within them. USSF do not own the people doing the coaching.

[Unregistered]

but that is always going to be the case. ECNL is no different right? USSF lays down guidelines and the club operates within them. USSF do not own the people doing the coaching.

GDA could take a different approach and create a consistent methodology -- similar to Red Bulls approach to RDS. If you go to RDS in one place it is the same as another place. A particular practice focuses on certain itemss, the drills, etc are goals are all established. USSF could create a master plan for organizations to follow. In fact, they could eliminate clubs all together and hire staff themselves (who still get compensated through parent's pay to play).

[Unregistered]

Honestly this is already happening. NYCFC played a series of formal (refs) friendlies with Penn Fusion both in the summer and spring. They weren't scheduled to play Penn Fusion and took the opportunity to play them on an off weekend. More locally some age groups (00) would benefit playing HBC etc. That was never not allowed. I think some ages have participated in non DA tournaments that even put DA versus ECNL allowed if the tournament follows DA sub rules

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Good. There are good teams in DA and non DA leagues and they can play locally. From a soccer parent's perspective that is progress. No wasted gas, mileage, or hotel.

Good luck with that. Already was asked : who will you play and when? Fall has high school. Spring? Too busy. So you get in some winter games if you can find anyone to play. What if a club can't find anyone to play or doesn't want to play anyone (in case of a loss or possibly poaching)? There's already not that many games as it is. People are paying significant dollars for an organized, quality league, not one that's 1/3 pickup games. Players are sacrificing time and high school sports and are getting less than before. To me it smacks of UASF throwing in the towel.

[Unregistered]

Honestly this is already happening. NYCFC played a series of formal (refs) friendlies with Penn Fusion both in the summer and spring. They weren't scheduled to play Penn Fusion and took the opportunity to play them on an off weekend. More locally some age groups (00) would benefit playing HBC etc. That was never not allowed. I think some ages have participated in non DA tournaments that even put DA versus ECNL allowed if the tournament follows DA sub rules

Yes. it happens wen the Clubs actually implement instead of trying to find ways not to and blaming rules.

[Unregistered]

Good luck with that. Already was asked : who will you play and when? Fall has high school. Spring? Too busy. So you get in some winter games if you can find anyone to play. What if a club can't find anyone to play or doesn't want to play anyone (in case of a loss or possibly poaching)? There's already not that many games as it is. People are paying significant dollars for an organized, quality league, not one that's 1/3 pickup games. Players are sacrificing time and high school sports and are getting less than before. To me it smacks of UASF throwing in the towel.

People are so caught up in structure. Fear of loss. These are the coaches and clubs you want to avoid. very few people do. Playing games and getting better includes losing. Includes trying things etc. This is one reason why we will never be what we could unless things change .

[Unregistered]

People are so caught up in structure. Fear of loss. These are the coaches and clubs you want to avoid. very few people do. Playing games and getting better includes losing. Includes trying things etc. This is one reason why we will never be what we could unless things change .

That comes from the top -- GDA keeps standings which lead to playoffs. Clubs are evaluated on how well they do (i.e., who wants to be part of a club that is in the bottom of the standings, even if most games were close?) The whole aspect of being focused around a competitive national league needs to be rethought -- eliminate standings for most of the games and maybe more meaningful development could occur.