mahrez
SILVER ELITE
You clearly know a lot about soccer but I think you are placing way too much emphasis on the DA label and style of play, and not enough on talent on the field. Losing 3 top players is a huge loss. Losing a defensive starter to another team and another top winger to injury means that 4 of their starting 11, or 5 of their top 12 has to be replaced. Percentagewise that is a huge loss, nearly 40% of the starters and loss of top offensive reserve.
I'm really not sure what your point is because you make no sense. Saying last year's Strikers was a big fish in a small pond is false. There was no DA League last year, they beat up on GSA, Galaxy and everyone else's academy team and they did it in great style. That was a great team. They were the big fish in the ONLY pond.
I'm sure transitioning to new systems added to Strikers difficulties. But they ran a 4-3-3 last year that was winger oriented and a 4-3-3 this year that involves their center mids more. I don't think the transition from one flavor of 4-3-3 to another flavor of 4-3-3 is that difficult. What made the transition difficult is they added a bunch of players, mainly defenders, that were new to academy several of whom were flight 2 players the year before. The GK and right winger who used to bail them out of trouble are gone. So they are struggling. I know they are still looking for players, and they added to their roster a new defensive player over the break.
Galaxy is a brand new team. Most of their starters are new, or they were rostered with the 03 Galaxy team but played up a year and have now moved back down. You were wrong to say that Galaxy has been successful this season because they were continuously good with the same players, coaches, and systems, and should just admit it.
There is no continuity in this Galaxy team. They recruited top players from a bunch of teams and got a new coach for this new group, and he has them playing more direct. Last year's team actually played more of the passing system you seem to favor.
We have different perspectives,. Your a OC parent of a player that some connections to those teams.
I have older kids and scout players for certain organizations starting with this age group that have the potential to play at the highest levels. We use a ton of footage & reports for evaluations so I see a lot of players and teams.
What you think you see and what we care about is much different. A players from any team can be a diamond in the ruff, doesn't have to be in the da league but the % of the players in that league that have potential is greater so we spend more time there.
We see continuity when a player has been with a club the previous year or a number of years, if they play up we are more interested. However, also very important to see how these players do when the coach or style changes,. If they regress or don't make progress as a result hard to recommend them because this normally means they will have a difficult time in new environments when the fair weather turns stormy. There are a number of Galaxy players in the mix, some from GSA, and other LA clubs but very few from the OC area. Maybe that will change in the future now that da starts younger and there are more oc clubs.
Yes SCDSL or CSl is a small pond. When you play Dallas cup, internationally or the other top national tournaments how players do at those carry more weight for me.