End of GDA

[Unregistered]

Putting my prediction down for posterity. Covid-19 will lead to the end of the GDA. Four more top clubs have dropped out in just the past few months. One thing that has become abundantly clear is that putting kids as young as 12-13 years old on an airplane to fly a thousand miles for ONE soccer game is not only a waste of resources, it’s risky behavior and bad parenting. Areas with a more concentrated group of GDA clubs (So Cal, Florida, Northeast) will hang on a bit longer because their kids don’t get on airplanes for away games. But the end is here for Oregon GDA and other states whose GDA teams are geographically isolated.

The GDA model, while admirable in theory, could never practically work in a country as large as the United States. A far wiser plan would have been to use the old ODP structure to form regional teams, and create a free regional live in academy for each region, where players would live, go to school, train. Games could have been played as scrimmages against other age groups in their same academy, against top local youth or college teams (for example putting the region 4 academy in So Cal gives them many many good teams to play against locally), and an annual tournament bringing all four regions together to crown a champion and to form a national pool.

This model would have solved the travel issue and would have done a much better job of consolidating soccer talent. Ecnl teams would have remained for talented kids who didn’t want to leave their home state/school/family. US soccer could have come out and stated what is already obvious - if you want to make a national team you need to go through their academies. And no one could throw a fit about it if the academies were free.

This would have worked! Except for one thing, and don’t forget this. Greedy people saw all the money being spent on ecnl and wanted to get their own snouts in the trough. When the world returns to normal, one thing we should all remember is that none of these programs and none of these coaches have our individual player’s best interests in mind. They are all about money, positioning, and trying to drive the other guy out of business.

[Unregistered]

End of GDA

100 percent agree

[Unregistered]

Well more big announcements of GDA clubs leaving are coming and I don’t think this surprises anyone.

Will DA and ECNL get together or will ECNL just take what clubs it wants?

[Unregistered]

Well more big announcements of GDA clubs leaving are coming and I don’t think this surprises anyone.

Will DA and ECNL get together or will ECNL just take what clubs it wants?

ECNL has absolutely nothing to gain from joining forces with DA. US Soccer openly dangled roster spots on national teams as bait to entice players to leave ECNL teams. They have spent years badmouthing (at best) and sabotaging (at worst) the ECNL league, clubs, and coaches. And now their DA league has failed, surprising no one who was paying attention. I feel bad for the kids who sacrificed years of their lives to the "play DA it's the path to the pros!" nonsense. But I expect ECNL will take the top clubs from DA and say "nah" to the rest. Which means Thorns will either fold or head back to OYSA.

[Unregistered]

Putting my prediction down for posterity. Covid-19 will lead to the end of the GDA. Four more top clubs have dropped out in just the past few months. One thing that has become abundantly clear is that putting kids as young as 12-13 years old on an airplane to fly a thousand miles for ONE soccer game is not only a waste of resources, it’s risky behavior and bad parenting. Areas with a more concentrated group of GDA clubs (So Cal, Florida, Northeast) will hang on a bit longer because their kids don’t get on airplanes for away games. But the end is here for Oregon GDA and other states whose GDA teams are geographically isolated.

The GDA model, while admirable in theory, could never practically work in a country as large as the United States. A far wiser plan would have been to use the old ODP structure to form regional teams, and create a free regional live in academy for each region, where players would live, go to school, train. Games could have been played as scrimmages against other age groups in their same academy, against top local youth or college teams (for example putting the region 4 academy in So Cal gives them many many good teams to play against locally), and an annual tournament bringing all four regions together to crown a champion and to form a national pool.

This model would have solved the travel issue and would have done a much better job of consolidating soccer talent. Ecnl teams would have remained for talented kids who didn’t want to leave their home state/school/family. US soccer could have come out and stated what is already obvious - if you want to make a national team you need to go through their academies. And no one could throw a fit about it if the academies were free.

This would have worked! Except for one thing, and don’t forget this. Greedy people saw all the money being spent on ecnl and wanted to get their own snouts in the trough. When the world returns to normal, one thing we should all remember is that none of these programs and none of these coaches have our individual player’s best interests in mind. They are all about money, positioning, and trying to drive the other guy out of business.

With the most recent defections the SE region is down to five teams, stretching from S. FL to NC. Almost every game will require a plane ride or very long drive. The NE (where GDA is incredibly weak) and S. Cal, where the competition is very strong, are the only two manageable commutes for games. And by manageable in the NE i mean 3-5 hour car rides.

[Unregistered]

I think that game is over. USSF has an almost entirely new leadership group.

NCFC (NC Courage) just announced they are leaving GDA.
NCFC is two time NWSL champion.
NCFC coaches also coach US Youth National Teams.
NCFC has several players in the YNT pool.
Cindy Parlow Cone works for NCFC youth, and she now heads USSF.
NCFCs top team will play in the ECNL next season.

= the GDA gig is up.

[Unregistered]

ECNL has absolutely nothing to gain from joining forces with DA. US Soccer openly dangled roster spots on national teams as bait to entice players to leave ECNL teams. They have spent years badmouthing (at best) and sabotaging (at worst) the ECNL league, clubs, and coaches. And now their DA league has failed, surprising no one who was paying attention. I feel bad for the kids who sacrificed years of their lives to the "play DA it's the path to the pros!" nonsense. But I expect ECNL will take the top clubs from DA and say "nah" to the rest. Which means Thorns will either fold or head back to OYSA.

Thorns aren’t even a club so they will just fold and the Timbers will be happy to see that waste of money off their books completely. That way they can go back to milking Oregon soccer for scraps to fatten their hack wannabe professional coaches.

[Unregistered]

Putting my prediction down for posterity. Covid-19 will lead to the end of the GDA. Four more top clubs have dropped out in just the past few months. One thing that has become abundantly clear is that putting kids as young as 12-13 years old on an airplane to fly a thousand miles for ONE soccer game is not only a waste of resources, it’s risky behavior and bad parenting. Areas with a more concentrated group of GDA clubs (So Cal, Florida, Northeast) will hang on a bit longer because their kids don’t get on airplanes for away games. But the end is here for Oregon GDA and other states whose GDA teams are geographically isolated.

The GDA model, while admirable in theory, could never practically work in a country as large as the United States. A far wiser plan would have been to use the old ODP structure to form regional teams, and create a free regional live in academy for each region, where players would live, go to school, train. Games could have been played as scrimmages against other age groups in their same academy, against top local youth or college teams (for example putting the region 4 academy in So Cal gives them many many good teams to play against locally), and an annual tournament bringing all four regions together to crown a champion and to form a national pool.

This model would have solved the travel issue and would have done a much better job of consolidating soccer talent. Ecnl teams would have remained for talented kids who didn’t want to leave their home state/school/family. US soccer could have come out and stated what is already obvious - if you want to make a national team you need to go through their academies. And no one could throw a fit about it if the academies were free.

This would have worked! Except for one thing, and don’t forget this. Greedy people saw all the money being spent on ecnl and wanted to get their own snouts in the trough. When the world returns to normal, one thing we should all remember is that none of these programs and none of these coaches have our individual player’s best interests in mind. They are all about money, positioning, and trying to drive the other guy out of business.

You have to be incredibly stupid to think ECNL enriches clubs or coaches. Club cost is higher because the coaching commitment is higher due to the travel and the rest of the costs is to travel. This is really simple if you understand 1st grade math.

GDA was always going to fail because USYS is run by arrogant fools who have no clue what is going on and what is needed. Oh... and they originally tried to sell GDA as the only pathway to the national team but they still couldn’t land all the right clubs and players for that.

Now let’s hope they roll back the birth year mandate!!!!

[Unregistered]

The Achilles heel of the GDA was high school soccer. The top girls in the country want to play for their school. Period.

They listened to the high priced euro consultants in their Puma track suits instead of people that work with the best female players.

[Unregistered]

It's not going to happen but I would love it if the USSF took this opportunity to unify the leagues under one unified up/down promotion/relegation system.

National League Teams - U14/U15 mix and U16/U17 mix with separate teams by gender - All run by MLS franchises and have the youth teams play the same exact schedule as MLS, essentially having the youths travel to the same cities and play in the same stadiums as the MLS teams. Play the youth games in the hours before the top game. This would replace DA.

Regional Leagues - U13 and up, single year age groups - Create enough regional leagues where no team would need to travel more than 5 hours to a game. Have as many divisions as needed to support the region with team based promotion/relegation within it. Teams must compete in top division of local travel league for at least one season before joining.

Travel Leagues - U9 and up, single year age groups - These would fall under specific regional leagues with the goal of no team needing to travel more than an hour to a game. Have as many divisions as needed to support the number of teams within the local area with promotion/relegation within it.

Interleague Leagues - U9 and up, single year age groups and single gender where possible but multi-year and co-ed where there are not enough teams - These competitions would be all 7v7. U9 through U11 would play on the U9/U10 travel sized field. U12 through U19 would play on the U11/U12 sized field. These would be run with an intramural/low cost mindset. Use reversable uniforms, one ref systems (possibly provided by the club vs USSF licensed refs to keep costs down), no scores or rankings kept, etc. Keep the travel to no more than an hour to a game.

Intramurals - U4 to U8 - All 4v4 with sweeper/keeper on tiny fields. Single year age groups and single gender where possible. Reversable uniforms, one ref systems provided by clubs, no scores or rankings kept, etc.

[Unregistered]

ECNL is not innocent in this whole mess either. If their intention was to create an elite league, they should have stayed with their original 40 teams they started with. They started diluting talent and purpose when they started expanding. There is not enough talent to have more than 40 clubs. Period. When they started making decisions based on greed, US Soccer started pushing for more standards.

When it was 40, you had the very best clubs involved but then you expand and the quality suffers, so they wanted assurances that their national team players were in a good environment. Like the previous poster said, the right thing for US Soccer to do was regional residencies for the top 180 girls in the u16-19 age group. 180 players total. But instead they created a league, so now there is 160 clubs, and all the 2nd team players now have access to the “elite” leagues. What a joke.

Had ECNL just stayed with being a 40 team league, and not expanded and watered down the talent to 80 teams, US Soccer would not have intervened. But their ego driven solution was even more disastrous, although, 95% of the top players in the country (national team players) are still in DA, even if the best clubs are leaving. People cheer when good clubs leave DA for ECNL but the reality is, national team players do not switch to ECNL with their club, they find a different DA team to play for.

[Unregistered]

ECNL is not innocent in this whole mess either. If their intention was to create an elite league, they should have stayed with their original 40 teams they started with. They started diluting talent and purpose when they started expanding. There is not enough talent to have more than 40 clubs. Period. When they started making decisions based on greed, US Soccer started pushing for more standards.

When it was 40, you had the very best clubs involved but then you expand and the quality suffers, so they wanted assurances that their national team players were in a good environment. Like the previous poster said, the right thing for US Soccer to do was regional residencies for the top 180 girls in the u16-19 age group. 180 players total. But instead they created a league, so now there is 160 clubs, and all the 2nd team players now have access to the “elite” leagues. What a joke.

Had ECNL just stayed with being a 40 team league, and not expanded and watered down the talent to 80 teams, US Soccer would not have intervened. But their ego driven solution was even more disastrous, although, 95% of the top players in the country (national team players) are still in DA, even if the best clubs are leaving. People cheer when good clubs leave DA for ECNL but the reality is, national team players do not switch to ECNL with their club, they find a different DA team to play for.

GDA was always a joke. GDA move away from ECNL was a money grab and our youth national team system is a cycle of friends helping friends.

Be honest with this... Our youth soccer system is a trilogy of not very talented people running a program for entitled kids who's parents fund the madness..... Their are no winners..

[Unregistered]

GDA was always a joke. GDA move away from ECNL was a money grab and our youth national team system is a cycle of friends helping friends.

Be honest with this... Our youth soccer system is a trilogy of not very talented people running a program for entitled kids who's parents fund the madness..... Their are no winners..

The entire youth soccer system is corrupt from youth national team selections biases all the way down to local club coaches that private train, promoting their paying private trainees over other deserving players.

[Unregistered]

ECNL is not innocent in this whole mess either. If their intention was to create an elite league, they should have stayed with their original 40 teams they started with. They started diluting talent and purpose when they started expanding. There is not enough talent to have more than 40 clubs. Period. When they started making decisions based on greed, US Soccer started pushing for more standards.

When it was 40, you had the very best clubs involved but then you expand and the quality suffers, so they wanted assurances that their national team players were in a good environment. Like the previous poster said, the right thing for US Soccer to do was regional residencies for the top 180 girls in the u16-19 age group. 180 players total. But instead they created a league, so now there is 160 clubs, and all the 2nd team players now have access to the “elite” leagues. What a joke.

Had ECNL just stayed with being a 40 team league, and not expanded and watered down the talent to 80 teams, US Soccer would not have intervened. But their ego driven solution was even more disastrous, although, 95% of the top players in the country (national team players) are still in DA, even if the best clubs are leaving. People cheer when good clubs leave DA for ECNL but the reality is, national team players do not switch to ECNL with their club, they find a different DA team to play for.

The best lessons all of us can take from the fiasco that girls youth soccer has become are this:

Your kid is not as good as you think she is.

You will not see this, as you are a parent who loves her and is her biggest cheerleader

Unscrupulous people will recognize this parental love and see it as a way to coerce you into spending more money than you should on soccer.

Your job as a parent is to make sure your kid is in a safe environment where she is having fun, and to help her maintain balance in her life. To further that point, imagine her life without soccer. What is there? If the answer is "academics, family, friends, church, hobbies, other sports" you are doing it right. If the answer is "um..." you are not doing it right.

Finally, this is all temporary. Her involvement in sports is temporary. For most kids, it'll end after high school. For those that play in college, it'll end 1-4 years after that. ENJOY it. Don't get caught up in keeping up with the Jones's and think you have to constantly be looking for better opportunities. Going back to your job as a parent - is she happy? Is she having a good time? Is her life in balance? If so you are in exactly the right place. If not, find the place where she can find those things, or consider maybe this isn't her thing anymore...and if that's the case, be at peace with it.

But above all, remember - there isn't a single coach out there - whether it's the coach who played professionally and puts players in D1 programs left and right, the coach affiliated with the new flavor of the month program, the coach who shouts on social media that his team is a family - not a single one of those coaches truly cares about your kid beyond what she can do to help further his/her professional goals. If your kid can help the coach's team (and therefore the coach) succeed, great. But the minute your kid's ability to help the coach is compromised, the coach will move right on to the next player without hesitation. Your kid may be valuable as a player and teammate. Don't mistake that for earning them any kind of loyalty from a coach. It's a business and it's their job, and your kid is a product to them. And there is not a single coach in the entire state that that statement isn't true about, whether their team plays in GDA, ECNL, NLNC, or OYSA.

[Unregistered]

The entire youth soccer system is corrupt from youth national team selections biases all the way down to local club coaches that private train, promoting their paying private trainees over other deserving players.

So true. Money and politics plays too big a role.