WNT beginning to fail....and why?

[Unregistered]

The womens developmental model is ***** backwards.
Women have an ultra competitive model in ECNL but lacks any development.
Girls are competing before they even know how to play the game. ***** backwards to the rest of the country. Our style of play sucks.

it's going to be a painful 2015 for the WNT.

80% of their youngins are former ECNL players.

Trouble is....ECNL provides a competitive environment not a developmental environment.
You will all understand when the 2015 World Cup is over.

WE ARE BEHIND!
WE NEED TO CHANGE HOW WE DO THINGS!

WOMEN NEED A DEVELOPMENTAL ACADEMY

[Unregistered]

You are about to here from the USA, USA, USA! Athletes > Technique crowd in 3...2...

However, all of this is 100% true. It is further compounded by an insular and incestuous governing body and coaching tree, that refuses to take any top down actions to try and incorporate a new system, new players and new identity, despite the need for it being so obvious that they pay lip service to it.

The only good news is that the flame out may be so spectacular and so thorough that a real change happens. The worst case scenario is that they eek out a trip to the quarters or something playing negative long ball BS and call that a victory for our "style" of play.

[Unregistered]

You are about to here from the USA, USA, USA! Athletes > Technique crowd in 3...2...

However, all of this is 100% true. It is further compounded by an insular and incestuous governing body and coaching tree, that refuses to take any top down actions to try and incorporate a new system, new players and new identity, despite the need for it being so obvious that they pay lip service to it.

The only good news is that the flame out may be so spectacular and so thorough that a real change happens. The worst case scenario is that they eek out a trip to the quarters or something playing negative long ball BS and call that a victory for our "style" of play.

hm.... it sounds like someone got kicked off the Thorns Academy and has sour grapes.
Thorns Academy is quality and the "long ball" as you say is a strategy that teams use to get the ball over defenders for our forwards to run onto. It's not like we invented it in TA.

[Unregistered]

Buzz kill. You must be a joy to be around.

[Unregistered]

Agree. But as long as we can use the long ball (all the more to a pretty girl) & eek out wins, nothing will change. Huge failures is what it will take for significant changes to come from USSF. We need development-based approach, a DA for girls, small-sided games for youngers & a switch to calendar year age-group teams. All the soccer gurus the world over know this. We won't implement it though because youth soccer is a huge business and they think parents are only willing to fork over the big $$$ if little Suzy can play with all her little classmate besties and win win win with the long-ball. As long as USSF continues to cater to the rec crowd on the girls side, the downside will continue.

[Unregistered]

The womens developmental model is ***** backwards.
Women have an ultra competitive model in ECNL but lacks any development.
Girls are competing before they even know how to play the game. ***** backwards to the rest of the country. Our style of play sucks.

it's going to be a painful 2015 for the WNT.

80% of their youngins are former ECNL players.

Trouble is....ECNL provides a competitive environment not a developmental environment.
You will all understand when the 2015 World Cup is over.

WE ARE BEHIND!
WE NEED TO CHANGE HOW WE DO THINGS!

WOMEN NEED A DEVELOPMENTAL ACADEMY

The problem isn't ECNL's model. The problem is that the USWNT is old and can only play bootball.

[Unregistered]

Agree. But as long as we can use the long ball (all the more to a pretty girl) & eek out wins, nothing will change. Huge failures is what it will take for significant changes to come from USSF. We need development-based approach, a DA for girls, small-sided games for youngers & a switch to calendar year age-group teams. All the soccer gurus the world over know this. We won't implement it though because youth soccer is a huge business and they think parents are only willing to fork over the big $$$ if little Suzy can play with all her little classmate besties and win win win with the long-ball. As long as USSF continues to cater to the rec crowd on the girls side, the downside will continue.

All those things exist. Look around and you'll find development focused clubs and coaches. U11 and under play small sided games now. And the "elite" youth players do iD2/ODP/US Soccer camps where they are divided up by calendar year. None of those things are the root cause of the decline. The root cause is in the selection process used for the various WNTs. Coaches select size/strength/speed/skill/smarts in that order while other countries use the smarts/skill/speed/strength/size approach.

[Unregistered]

There should be a calendar year program for the best 1% of kids (DA) and academic year predominate age cutoffs for all of the rest. That would facilitate the development of the early calendar year kids because they would essentially be playing up until they hit the DA ages. The late calendar year kids would benefit by being selected to the best training etc. I think this would maximize the development of our potential national teamers and cast the biggest net.

Might lose a few marginal early calendar year kids to the u10 B team, but those aren't the ones who will make a national team in the future. The relative age effect dissipates with the superstars. Christian Pulisic the U17 MNT kid who is head and shoulders above the rest (watch the CONCACAF qualifiers) is born in September. Despite being a late maturing kid, can see this in his id2 trip interviews, his abilities shone from the earliest ages and he mostly played up as a young child. I think the kids who might actually play internationally and be subject to FIFA rules should be put in FIFA age groups starting around U12. The others playing with their classmates, will more likely stay playing the game, and will help to build a soccer culture for the future.

JMHO

[Unregistered]

There should be a calendar year program for the best 1% of kids (DA) and academic year predominate age cutoffs for all of the rest. That would facilitate the development of the early calendar year kids because they would essentially be playing up until they hit the DA ages. The late calendar year kids would benefit by being selected to the best training etc. I think this would maximize the development of our potential national teamers and cast the biggest net.

Might lose a few marginal early calendar year kids to the u10 B team, but those aren't the ones who will make a national team in the future. The relative age effect dissipates with the superstars. Christian Pulisic the U17 MNT kid who is head and shoulders above the rest (watch the CONCACAF qualifiers) is born in September. Despite being a late maturing kid, can see this in his id2 trip interviews, his abilities shone from the earliest ages and he mostly played up as a young child. I think the kids who might actually play internationally and be subject to FIFA rules should be put in FIFA age groups starting around U12. The others playing with their classmates, will more likely stay playing the game, and will help to build a soccer culture for the future.

JMHO

Agreed. Keep ODP/iD2/US Soccer camps calendar year. Leave the rest as is.

[Unregistered]

The womens developmental model is ***** backwards.
Women have an ultra competitive model in ECNL but lacks any development.
Girls are competing before they even know how to play the game. ***** backwards to the rest of the country. Our style of play sucks.

it's going to be a painful 2015 for the WNT.

80% of their youngins are former ECNL players.

Trouble is....ECNL provides a competitive environment not a developmental environment.
You will all understand when the 2015 World Cup is over.

WE ARE BEHIND!
WE NEED TO CHANGE HOW WE DO THINGS!

WOMEN NEED A DEVELOPMENTAL ACADEMY

People only care every 4 years about the women's national team.

You are being just a little dramatic. It would not be the end of the world if the US came in last place.

[Unregistered]

There should be a calendar year program for the best 1% of kids (DA) and academic year predominate age cutoffs for all of the rest. That would facilitate the development of the early calendar year kids because they would essentially be playing up until they hit the DA ages. The late calendar year kids would benefit by being selected to the best training etc. I think this would maximize the development of our potential national teamers and cast the biggest net.

Might lose a few marginal early calendar year kids to the u10 B team, but those aren't the ones who will make a national team in the future. The relative age effect dissipates with the superstars. Christian Pulisic the U17 MNT kid who is head and shoulders above the rest (watch the CONCACAF qualifiers) is born in September. Despite being a late maturing kid, can see this in his id2 trip interviews, his abilities shone from the earliest ages and he mostly played up as a young child. I think the kids who might actually play internationally and be subject to FIFA rules should be put in FIFA age groups starting around U12. The others playing with their classmates, will more likely stay playing the game, and will help to build a soccer culture for the future.

JMHO

Agree with selection criteria point. Probably biggest problem. Disagree about birth year. Currently the Aug-Dec born kids don't develop high enough skips because they aren't challenged enough playing & training with the younger Jan-July kids of the next year. They typically can't compete well with the older kids of the same year when they get thrown together at odp/id2, etc. Having 2 diff systems essentially pushes out 5 months (Aug-Dec) of kids from top development. The May-July kids are typically the youngest in school sports & club soccer school year system so have an even bigger disadvantage. It's much harder to find & develop the true top 1% when as a system, you are really only identifying & developing mostly from the Jan-Apr kids - 1/3 of the players. This is why England finally changed to birth year, leaving the U.S. the only holdouts. England has school year similar to our. Little League & other sports have done it as well. Having two separate systems is very detrimental to the long term development of soccer in the USA.

[Unregistered]

hm.... it sounds like someone got kicked off the Thorns Academy and has sour grapes.
Thorns Academy is quality and the "long ball" as you say is a strategy that teams use to get the ball over defenders for our forwards to run onto. It's not like we invented it in TA.

But 80% are former ECNL players, so that must be where they are learning it.

[Unregistered]

The womens developmental model is ***** backwards.
Women have an ultra competitive model in ECNL but lacks any development.
Girls are competing before they even know how to play the game. ***** backwards to the rest of the country. Our style of play sucks.

it's going to be a painful 2015 for the WNT.

80% of their youngins are former ECNL players.

Trouble is....ECNL provides a competitive environment not a developmental environment.
You will all understand when the 2015 World Cup is over.

WE ARE BEHIND!
WE NEED TO CHANGE HOW WE DO THINGS!

WOMEN NEED A DEVELOPMENTAL ACADEMY

No they don't.


The Men have a developmental academy and look at all their successes.

Truth is the USWNT is on the older side and everyone knows their tactics. Kick it long to Morgan, then cross it to Wambach's head.

[Unregistered]

No they don't.


The Men have a developmental academy and look at all their successes.

Truth is the USWNT is on the older side and everyone knows their tactics. Kick it long to Morgan, then cross it to Wambach's head.

Developmental academies are 20+ years old in Europe...
Yes, we are that far behind.
You won't see the benefits of a DA Academy for at least 10 years

[Unregistered]

No they don't.


The Men have a developmental academy and look at all their successes.

Truth is the USWNT is on the older side and everyone knows their tactics. Kick it long to Morgan, then cross it to Wambach's head.

while Wambach stumbles over her own feet cause she's working so hard to just breathe