USYS Far West Regionals

[Unregistered]

USYS Regionals was a great event prior to girls ECNL. Now, none of the top clubs in California, Washington, Arizona and Colorado send their #1 team to Regionals. It has become a lower level tournament because of ECNL.

The tradeoff is OYSA girls teams now actually have an opportunity to advance from group play into the Quarterfinals and Semi Finals. It is nice to see these players OYSA players and teams get to have that experience even if it is very watered down competition.

Same can be said about the boys and ECNL and MLS next. It is funny that the local clubs fight over who is best, more successful and have better coaches when, in reality, they are all just slightly better than recreation.

[Unregistered]

Same can be said about the boys and ECNL and MLS next. It is funny that the local clubs fight over who is best, more successful and have better coaches when, in reality, they are all just slightly better than recreation.

Why doesn't someone offer an alternative to Timbers?

[Unregistered]

Why doesn't someone offer an alternative to Timbers?

$$$.

A big piece of why TA generally gets their pick of the local talent pool, is that it doesn't cost anything. No club dues, no travel expenses, and nobody hustling the players for "privates" on the side.

Without someone footing the bill, pay to play clubs can't compete.

Now imagine if the Timbers had a GOOD academy...

[Unregistered]

$$$.

A big piece of why TA generally gets their pick of the local talent pool, is that it doesn't cost anything. No club dues, no travel expenses, and nobody hustling the players for "privates" on the side.

Without someone footing the bill, pay to play clubs can't compete.

Now imagine if the Timbers had a GOOD academy...

The Timbers are universally known as the worst MLS academy and their record on the pitch speaks towards this. When MLS came out with the bare minimum age groups for the MLS NEXT the Timbers cut loose their youngest team and sent the boys back out to premier teams in the OYSA.

If there was a "Portland United" (made up name) where the team competed in MLS Next, ECNL, etc plenty of the top kids from U12 to U19 would play despite having to pay for expenses. I suspect they would be better ran, more efficient and actually want to WIN. Only way this would work is if it was a united team and all of the premier teams allowed (encouraged)their boys to be a part of it if they qualified.

[Unregistered]

Update

quarterfinal updates...

UPDX 08B lost
WT 03B lost

[Unregistered]

Corrected update...fat fingers...

Quarter finals...

WT 03B lost 3-2

UPDX 07B lost 3-2
ADF 07B lost 7-2

[Unregistered]

If there was a "Portland United" (made up name) where the team competed in MLS Next, ECNL, etc plenty of the top kids from U12 to U19 would play despite having to pay for expenses. I suspect they would be better ran, more efficient and actually want to WIN. Only way this would work is if it was a united team and all of the premier teams allowed (encouraged)their boys to be a part of it if they qualified.

Which means, in practice, that said academy would PROBABLY not be accepted unless it were independent from any particular club, or a joint venture of a large number of clubs. In other words:

1) not in competition with any local youth club (other than in the marketplace for players). BECNL or MLS Next only. No reserve or B team in OYSA.
2) not useable as a recruitment tool for any youth club ("join Portlandia United FC! You'll be first in line for selection by Portlandia Elite BECNL")
3) not run by anyone that the local soccer community distrusts.

Chances of this happening? Unless a Phil Knight or similar were to get out his checkbook, and do something entirely outside of the local club ecosystem, the chances are essentially none. Far too many clubs have whale-hunting as the core of their business model--find elite-level players (or those close) who can be upsold on personal training and other big-ticket items; and an Independent Academy team (independent of both the Timbers and the local clubs) would be siphoning off the best customers.

There's a reason that so many DoCs hate Timbers Academy, and would love nothing more to see it fail--they want those kids to stay with them, both to get hardware, and for the upsell opportunities. I can't see any of them supporting any "independent academy" that isn't theirs, and doesn't put their club and their staff at the center of it all.

And that's assuming the Timbers and other MLS academies in the region don't interfere. Crossfire Premier, which is the closest thing you'll find to an independent academy in the Northwest, was rather pointedly told to "get lost" by MLS Next, despite (or perhaps because of) a history of beating MLS academy teams. (Either that, or as revenge for the DeAndre Yedlin solidarity payments case). I suspect that a new joint venture of Portland clubs would not be invited to participate in MLS NExt, if Crossfire can't get in. There's always BECNL, but that would involve a lot of travel to Seattle (many of the Seattle clubs refused to travel to Portland to play Timbers Academy back when they were in DA; and might take a similar line against a BECNL Academy team), and would require missing high school soccer, owing to the different seasons in OR and WA.

But ADF, FC, 0PFC, etc. aren't all going to send their top kids to Brandon; Brandon isn't going to send HIS top kids to Joa or to Liberty HS or to Lake Oswego; et cetera. Maybe if the various Nike clubs (Alliance clubs will continue sending theirs to the Timbers; that's part of the deal) agreed to divvy up the age groups, with Brandon getting the top 04s, Joa the top 05s, FC getting the top 06s back, OPFC getting the top 07s, with the deal that said top clubs don't compete in OYSA Premier at that age (so no trying to stuff the B team with the academy team as a carrot)... maybe it could work. But there's a lot of sharks in this pool; were I a DoC I wouldn't trust BM or Joa around any of MY talent.

[Unregistered]

Which means, in practice, that said academy would PROBABLY not be accepted unless it were independent from any particular club, or a joint venture of a large number of clubs. In other words:

1) not in competition with any local youth club (other than in the marketplace for players). BECNL or MLS Next only. No reserve or B team in OYSA.
2) not useable as a recruitment tool for any youth club ("join Portlandia United FC! You'll be first in line for selection by Portlandia Elite BECNL")
3) not run by anyone that the local soccer community distrusts.

Chances of this happening? Unless a Phil Knight or similar were to get out his checkbook, and do something entirely outside of the local club ecosystem, the chances are essentially none. Far too many clubs have whale-hunting as the core of their business model--find elite-level players (or those close) who can be upsold on personal training and other big-ticket items; and an Independent Academy team (independent of both the Timbers and the local clubs) would be siphoning off the best customers.

There's a reason that so many DoCs hate Timbers Academy, and would love nothing more to see it fail--they want those kids to stay with them, both to get hardware, and for the upsell opportunities. I can't see any of them supporting any "independent academy" that isn't theirs, and doesn't put their club and their staff at the center of it all.

And that's assuming the Timbers and other MLS academies in the region don't interfere. Crossfire Premier, which is the closest thing you'll find to an independent academy in the Northwest, was rather pointedly told to "get lost" by MLS Next, despite (or perhaps because of) a history of beating MLS academy teams. (Either that, or as revenge for the DeAndre Yedlin solidarity payments case). I suspect that a new joint venture of Portland clubs would not be invited to participate in MLS NExt, if Crossfire can't get in. There's always BECNL, but that would involve a lot of travel to Seattle (many of the Seattle clubs refused to travel to Portland to play Timbers Academy back when they were in DA; and might take a similar line against a BECNL Academy team), and would require missing high school soccer, owing to the different seasons in OR and WA.

But ADF, FC, 0PFC, etc. aren't all going to send their top kids to Brandon; Brandon isn't going to send HIS top kids to Joa or to Liberty HS or to Lake Oswego; et cetera. Maybe if the various Nike clubs (Alliance clubs will continue sending theirs to the Timbers; that's part of the deal) agreed to divvy up the age groups, with Brandon getting the top 04s, Joa the top 05s, FC getting the top 06s back, OPFC getting the top 07s, with the deal that said top clubs don't compete in OYSA Premier at that age (so no trying to stuff the B team with the academy team as a carrot)... maybe it could work. But there's a lot of sharks in this pool; were I a DoC I wouldn't trust BM or Joa around any of MY talent.

First will say that I saw several Oregon teams play in smelting Boise. I cheered for them all. Not sure why the parents of talking soccer are so hell bent on putting clubs down. But was really glad to see several parents from our team and others cheer for the teams that were there. Reassuring that Oregon is not really full of D bags.

There seems to be a need for more than what our market has. Not more teams or artificial specialty leagues (EAL) but a place where talented kids can be condensed and play together. ODP is this in many ways and Timbers is this as well. Yet, Knowing several parents who do not care much for the TA there is a true market if someone, some team, could pull this off.

Hey, there are a bunch of really cool parents from ADF, westside, OPFC and UPDX that I met this week. Kudos. Enjoyed watching your teams.