Scorecard: ECNL vs GDA

[Unregistered]

USYS & US Club offers leagues for clubs always have and always will.

US DA is a different animal.

Why clubs who elect to play in a US Club league need to compare themselves to the DA has more to do with pen1s envy and delusion.

Oregon clubs on the girls side of things are not even worth discussing, seriously. But the $$$ these parents spend for club soccer is the needle that is moving and scares the be jesus out of the scam artists. It's truly wonderful to watch the meltdowns.

That is funny. Same "scam artists" work at Westside and Peregrine ; just different wolves in sheep's' clothing.

[Unregistered]

That is funny. Same "scam artists" work at Westside and Peregrine ; just different wolves in sheep's' clothing.

Remember it's OK to fight the 'power'. Not much fight in you though.

Sheep.

[Unregistered]

Remember it's OK to fight the 'power'. Not much fight in you though.

Sheep.

Have a day job and resistant is rather time consuming.

Can call a spade a spade and the freedom to make some choices around where I spend my money, although the Timbers' tax on youth soccer is here for the foreseeable future, unfortunately.

[Unregistered]

Have the main figures from US Soccer DA, including April, made any statements about these top clubs dropping out? Plans moving forward, changes they will make?

Many, including myself thought DA was the path long term, but they've failed in year one to prove that. Can they change their arrogant ways to get these top clubs back?

[Unregistered]

Have the main figures from US Soccer DA, including April, made any statements about these top clubs dropping out? Plans moving forward, changes they will make?

Many, including myself thought DA was the path long term, but they've failed in year one to prove that. Can they change their arrogant ways to get these top clubs back?

April and company are so unengaged that they don't even know what the GDA is. They've already written it off as a monumental failure.

[Unregistered]

Skip down to the "open weekend" concept. This is their lame response to some regions now having fewer clubs to play against. USSF won't schedule games on some weekends so DA teams can play other non DA teams. Ok, interesting in concept - why do all that travel if you can play quality teams near by? But who will they play? Will a DA club want to risk losing to a supposedly lesser team? No freaking way. In most areas there's no ECNL action when high school is in season. When ECNL is in full swing there's little room in the schedule to play additional games. Anyway, it's USSF's way of saying "We've got nothing. You're on your own"

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/featu...wnt-challenges

[Unregistered]

Have the main figures from US Soccer DA, including April, made any statements about these top clubs dropping out? Plans moving forward, changes they will make?

Many, including myself thought DA was the path long term, but they've failed in year one to prove that. Can they change their arrogant ways to get these top clubs back?

They seem completely unprepared for this level of blowback. Frankly, the response of a few GDA clubs (Crossfire, some Texas clubs) is stronger than the federation's.

At minimum they are losing (i) any ability to compel standards and (ii) some of the strongest club in the country.

[Unregistered]

Have the main figures from US Soccer DA, including April, made any statements about these top clubs dropping out? Plans moving forward, changes they will make?

Many, including myself thought DA was the path long term, but they've failed in year one to prove that. Can they change their arrogant ways to get these top clubs back?

In Oregon on the other hand, they created a top DA club from an NWSL franchise since our State had nothing to offer with it's own stable of neighborhood clubs, which is so telling and spot on.

[Unregistered]

They seem completely unprepared for this level of blowback. Frankly, the response of a few GDA clubs (Crossfire, some Texas clubs) is stronger than the federation's.

At minimum they are losing (i) any ability to compel standards and (ii) some of the strongest club in the country.

It's US Soccer's platform for developing our country's youth best players, Oregon girls have never been in this discussion (best youth in US), why would anyone from Oregon actually care. It's merely a coincidence that the Thorns are located in Portland, as the flagship club of the NWSL and US Soccer want's the best pro club to have a DA. Oregonians are welcome to tryout for sure, they can also stay and play with their local club.

[Unregistered]

Have a day job and resistant is rather time consuming.

Can call a spade a spade and the freedom to make some choices around where I spend my money, although the Timbers' tax on youth soccer is here for the foreseeable future, unfortunately.

You may want educate yourself, time permitting of course, this is a discussion about the Thorns DA.

Thorns subsidize their DA program, having parents spend less of their own money.

The Men's MSL Timbers are a business valued at roughly $300 million, yes they do pay income taxes that are staggering. How this reality connects with your mythical 'youth soccer tax' theory speaks to your ability to even articulate on the matter.

Keep your day job.

[Unregistered]

Skip down to the "open weekend" concept. This is their lame response to some regions now having fewer clubs to play against. USSF won't schedule games on some weekends so DA teams can play other non DA teams. Ok, interesting in concept - why do all that travel if you can play quality teams near by? But who will they play? Will a DA club want to risk losing to a supposedly lesser team? No freaking way. In most areas there's no ECNL action when high school is in season. When ECNL is in full swing there's little room in the schedule to play additional games. Anyway, it's USSF's way of saying "We've got nothing. You're on your own"

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/featu...wnt-challenges

I hadn’t seen this article and thank you for sharing. Wow. When you’ve got powerhouses in the youth soccer world like Chastain openly detailing all the things your program got wrong, and when you’re openly backpedaling on so many “central tenets” of GDA that allegedly made your program stand out - that is a program in a death spiral. No tryout fees. Ok some tryout fees. No other sports but soccer. Ok maybe in some cases other sports. No game re-entry. National team veterans and current GDA program leadership openly saying this is a mistake. Only play GDA teams and no playing with or against “lesser” players. Ok now some open weekends where you can play non-GDA teams if you dare (side note - if Oregon ECNL and Thorns want to fund their programs, sell tickets for a CU ECNL/GDA matchup. We will pay). Only 3 subs per game just like the pros. Ok now 7 subs per game.

How could a program get so many things wrong in just one year? I genuinely have no agenda here other than improving Youth soccer. My kid is a senior, is happily committed, and played on an OYSA team. Her team won more than they lost and we did all the big out of state events we could want. We had a great soccer experience and don’t regret a thing. I hoped ECNL would improve things and GDA would improve them more. But this is an unmitigated disaster.

[Unregistered]

I hadn’t seen this article and thank you for sharing. Wow. When you’ve got powerhouses in the youth soccer world like Chastain openly detailing all the things your program got wrong, and when you’re openly backpedaling on so many “central tenets” of GDA that allegedly made your program stand out - that is a program in a death spiral. No tryout fees. Ok some tryout fees. No other sports but soccer. Ok maybe in some cases other sports. No game re-entry. National team veterans and current GDA program leadership openly saying this is a mistake. Only play GDA teams and no playing with or against “lesser” players. Ok now some open weekends where you can play non-GDA teams if you dare (side note - if Oregon ECNL and Thorns want to fund their programs, sell tickets for a CU ECNL/GDA matchup. We will pay). Only 3 subs per game just like the pros. Ok now 7 subs per game.

How could a program get so many things wrong in just one year? I genuinely have no agenda here other than improving Youth soccer. My kid is a senior, is happily committed, and played on an OYSA team. Her team won more than they lost and we did all the big out of state events we could want. We had a great soccer experience and don’t regret a thing. I hoped ECNL would improve things and GDA would improve them more. But this is an unmitigated disaster.

Individual clubs that market and sell to high income parents of female youth soccer players across this country don't want to have their private money train disrupted by the DA. Well the DA train is on the tracks and it's not stopping. Expect more pushback from dissenters who want to protect their paychecks.

[Unregistered]

Individual clubs that market and sell to high income parents of female youth soccer players across this country don't want to have their private money train disrupted by the DA. Well the DA train is on the tracks and it's not stopping. Expect more pushback from dissenters who want to protect their paychecks.

Are you saying Brandi Chastain and Anson Dorrance are benefitting financially from ECNL? Because they are most certainly dissenters pushing back against the GDA mess.

[Unregistered]

That is funny. Same "scam artists" work at Westside and Peregrine ; just different wolves in sheep's' clothing.

Who are the "scam artists" that you mention?

[Unregistered]

Are you saying Brandi Chastain and Anson Dorrance are benefitting financially from ECNL? Because they are most certainly dissenters pushing back against the GDA mess.

US Club girls league & showcase setup was sexy to college coaches due in large part to it's multiple cattle call/combine structure designed to bring together some of the nation's top clubs at showcases across the country, along with 50 to 60 run of the mill local club fare attending to pay the bills and generate additional revenue. The league aspect of the US Club is not well attended by any college coaches and is simply a sanctioning body deal, be it US Club or USYS with games played in isolation all over the country.

College coaches could care less about how these girls are developed, US Soccer mandates coaching standards, US Club & USYS have no such edict, they(college coaches) just want the best available players brought together without any effort on their part. US Club showcases use to do that and they are being blown up with the development academy philosophy, power and structure.

Brandi Chastain and her World Cup champ teammates never had a DA, just USYS leagues & ODP. Dorrance was a kingpin during that same era and structure. US Club league Showcases just do the leg work of bringing players together for the college ilk like Brandi Chastain & Dorrance. Now with the DA they have to go out and find the talent. Like the rest of their university's staff. It's a painful transition, from lazy to having to work for it. Love it.

Local soccer Clubs that preyed on naive parents pipe dreams of exposure via 'showcases' are upset at the lost revenue source-players moving to the DA, especially in remote areas like Oregon that have no top quality players, coaches or teams to 'showcase'.

This will all pass and people will adjust.

Change is difficult.