Girls Development Academy

SoccerDad77 said:
I'm not in the dark... And I've never even seen a girls Pats team anywhere to be completely honest with you. I didn't even know they existed until I read this post... Would you rate them as one of the best 4 GIRLS clubs in OC? Would you rate them as one of the top 10 even? That's great they have a million teams, how many of those are girls? How many of those are elite? How many of those are even competitive flight 1 teams?.... That's embarrassing.
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SD77, just looking at how the chips are laid out, I am not sure the Executives at GDA care about getting the best of the best from a "pure soccer" standpoint...Pats appears to have success, size and scale as an organization...maybe GDA executing a multi-year strategy...Stage 1 obtain the biggest market share possible with the biggest "organizations" not necessarily the best "girls soccer" clubs...in stage 2 upgraded coaching credentials and the increased practices create visible, tangible differences between the GDA and everybody else...better players with 1,000's more touches on the ball per year as well as higher credentialed coaches...in stage 3 maybe there will be some consolidation ...over time ECNL slowly morphs into something else but the biggest exodus to come when when DA expands to 1 team per age band...CSL and SCDSL stay basically the same w DA Clubs feeding their most ambitious soccer families into GDA???...
 
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meatsweats said:
Does this happen on the boys side? Are there underperforming clubs that are kicked out and replaced with better performing? I like the idea of relegation, but with 74 GDA clubs currently and maybe more to be added, I don't see it as all that exclusive.
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In theory or on paper yes in reality not so much. USSF stated they regularly review / audit DA clubs but they have been slow doing so or very selective.

Have yet to see any club kicked out. May have been sent areas to correct during eval or not approved for full status but those full DA clubs seem to have very strong connectios.

Is DA or ECNL operations that much different than club? Same old boys network running they show so really more of a extension of club for all those but mls organizatios.
 
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MakeAPlay said:
Hey I get it. It's a shiny new object. However if ECNL was doing so poorly why admit most of the ECNL clubs? it is strictly a power play. I know you truly believe as I do that if they were serious about development on the girls side that they would open a residential academy like they have for the boys (I believe you said this several times to me). At the end of the day it is about the player, the family and the coach.

Good luck to your daughter this weekend. That Chinese team will be better than Santa Clara!
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I have said a residency program for the girls? If so was I drunk? With no money in womens soccer that would be lunacy. Just to get players for the NT? How many times have I said the NT is not the goal. Lucrative pro soccer is the goal. The NT happens from the outcome of lucrative pro soccer. The US has it backwards. If they truly want to move forward they have to fix that. Who makes the money? Barca and Real Madrid or the Spanish Federation? Who trains the players the clubs or the federation. That is what is wrong here. We can't get that figured out. BTW Santa Clara is an RPI game Beijing is a scrimmage. So Sunday might be another play 29 game and figure out some more personal combinations. Should be fun.
 
pulguita said:
I have said a residency program for the girls? If so was I drunk? With no money in womens soccer that would be lunacy. Just to get players for the NT? How many times have I said the NT is not the goal. Lucrative pro soccer is the goal. The NT happens from the outcome of lucrative pro soccer. The US has it backwards. If they truly want to move forward they have to fix that. Who makes the money? Barca and Real Madrid or the Spanish Federation? Who trains the players the clubs or the federation. That is what is wrong here. We can't get that figured out. BTW Santa Clara is an RPI game Beijing is a scrimmage. So Sunday might be another play 29 game and figure out some more personal combinations. Should be fun.
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i remember you saying that if they were serious that was what they would do. I didn't think that you were advocating it you were just stating that it would be a sign that they were serious. To give you context we were talking about the Japanese team and what they were doing right. I also believe that you mentioned the lengths that the Japanese Federation was going through in order to improve their program. We did discuss pro women's soccer and many other topics. We usually see eye to eye on most issues.

I hear you about the Santa Clara game mattering more but that Beijing team is gonna be the tougher of the two. With the upcoming schedule they have KM will want to get some things figured out and probably won't go that deep down the roster again. Good luck to your daughter again. She is a sweet kid and my player thinks the world of her.
 
outside! said:
Just because a club has never won anything does not mean they don't develop players. Many of the big successful clubs got that way at least partly by recruiting players developed at other clubs. Note that I also think GDA is a power grab, just like ECNL was.
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Based on recruitment by the top academic and top division 1 soccer universities, you cannot make the case that Pateadores develops elite players. All other GDA clubs at least have 3 players (if not many more in the case of Blues, Slammers, Real, and WC) recruited by the top schools.

There is a reason Pateadores was admitted, but developing great female players ain't it.
 
soccermanifesto said:
Based on recruitment by the top academic and top division 1 soccer universities, you cannot make the case that Pateadores develops elite players. All other GDA clubs at least have 3 players (if not many more in the case of Blues, Slammers, Real, and WC) recruited by the top schools.

There is a reason Pateadores was admitted, but developing great female players ain't it.
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I always thought development happened at the younger ages as well. How many of the top OC/LA area teams have players that may have started their development at Pats?
 
outside! said:
I always thought development happened at the younger ages as well. How many of the top OC/LA area teams have players that may have started their development at Pats?
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In my DDs U18/19 age group, NOT many. Matter of fact, I can't even name one who played for a Pats ulittle team and on an ECNL team today. Who in the OC is going to have their DDs play on a Pats Ulittle girls team 9 or so years ago when their DDs could play for Blues, WCFC, Slammers, and Eclipse (before Strikers merger)?

Pats was an all boys club 8-9 years ago.
http://www.pateadores.org/Default.aspx?tabid=147314&articleType=ArticleView&articleId=17
 
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well folks we get to determine if this works. Based on the Nor cal, so cal, Arizona, TX and OR forums it's split and no slam dunk.
To me this will be just more talent dilution that really will do nothing to improve development but will put more money in coaches pockets.
 
soccermanifesto said:
Based on recruitment by the top academic and top division 1 soccer universities, you cannot make the case that Pateadores develops elite players. All other GDA clubs at least have 3 players (if not many more in the case of Blues, Slammers, Real, and WC) recruited by the top schools.

There is a reason Pateadores was admitted, but developing great female players ain't it.
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For what it's worth, my daughter's team played up and was grouped with 2 Pats team in the U18 age group of Player's Showcase last year. The two teams varied widely in quality. The stronger of the 2 was very good. They were strong, fast, technical....pretty much a handful.I had a brief conversation with one of the parents. His daughter was committed to Pepperdine. She was a very pacey, wing attacking player. He said that many of the girls were committed to Division 1 programs. To give you a reference point for my comments, my daughter's team competed in Virginia in the ECNL U16 finals in 2015. So I don't know much about Peteadores as a whole, but that particular team we played can compete with just about anyone.
 
pulguita said:
I have said a residency program for the girls? If so was I drunk? With no money in womens soccer that would be lunacy. Just to get players for the NT? How many times have I said the NT is not the goal. Lucrative pro soccer is the goal. The NT happens from the outcome of lucrative pro soccer. The US has it backwards. If they truly want to move forward they have to fix that. Who makes the money? Barca and Real Madrid or the Spanish Federation? Who trains the players the clubs or the federation. That is what is wrong here.
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While I agree with most of your post and you seem to get it, winning a world cup or other major international championship can actually funnel a lot of $$$ into your national program.
 
goldentoe said:
For what it's worth, my daughter's team played up and was grouped with 2 Pats team in the U18 age group of Player's Showcase last year. The two teams varied widely in quality. The stronger of the 2 was very good. They were strong, fast, technical....pretty much a handful.I had a brief conversation with one of the parents. His daughter was committed to Pepperdine. She was a very pacey, wing attacking player. He said that many of the girls were committed to Division 1 programs. To give you a reference point for my comments, my daughter's team competed in Virginia in the ECNL U16 finals in 2015. So I don't know much about Peteadores as a whole, but that particular team we played can compete with just about anyone.
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Pepperdine is a great Academic institution ranked 52nd in the nation, and is well-coached and scrappy based on 2 fairly recent games I've seen, better than their NCAA 133rd rank would indicate. A year ago I think it was, I watched them upset USC.

Presently in the 2016 -2018 graduating classes from So Cal, Pepperdine has 1 Real So Cal recruit, 3 from Slammers, 2 from Eagles, 1 from Surf, a GK from Strikers, 1 from WC, and 1 from non-ECNL Carlsbad Elite.

While I'm sure they have some good players, I do think its telling that Pateadores, as far as I know, hasn't got a single 2016-2018 commit in the top 26 Academic and NCAA ranked teams, whereas non-ECNL Legends, LA Premier, and Carlsbad all have several. They seem to be the one head-scratcher on the girls side of the GDA announcements.
 
goldentoe said:
For what it's worth, my daughter's team played up and was grouped with 2 Pats team in the U18 age group of Player's Showcase last year. The two teams varied widely in quality. The stronger of the 2 was very good. They were strong, fast, technical....pretty much a handful.I had a brief conversation with one of the parents. His daughter was committed to Pepperdine. She was a very pacey, wing attacking player. He said that many of the girls were committed to Division 1 programs. To give you a reference point for my comments, my daughter's team competed in Virginia in the ECNL U16 finals in 2015. So I don't know much about Peteadores as a whole, but that particular team we played can compete with just about anyone.
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A alot of those players were not developed at Pateadores. A few players followed Neil Powell from Eclipse or Strikers after Neil elected not to coach at Strikers after the club merger. That team was formed 2 years ago, 3 years tops.
 
soccermanifesto said:
Pepperdine is a great Academic institution ranked 52nd in the nation, and is well-coached and scrappy based on 2 fairly recent games I've seen, better than their NCAA 133rd rank would indicate. A year ago I think it was, I watched them upset USC.

Presently in the 2016 -2018 graduating classes from So Cal, Pepperdine has 1 Real So Cal recruit, 3 from Slammers, 2 from Eagles, 1 from Surf, a GK from Strikers, 1 from WC, and 1 from non-ECNL Carlsbad Elite.

While I'm sure they have some good players, I do think its telling that Pateadores, as far as I know, hasn't got a single 2016-2018 commit in the top 26 Academic and NCAA ranked teams, whereas non-ECNL Legends, LA Premier, and Carlsbad all have several. They seem to be the one head-scratcher on the girls side of the GDA announcements.
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The GK is at pats now. The other Pepp committ isn't listed on the Google spreadsheet. Neither is the San Francisco commit nor the others.
 
NoGoal said:
A alot of those players were not developed at Pateadores. A few players followed Neil Powell from Eclipse or Strikers after Neil elected not to coach at Strikers after the club merger. That team was formed 2 years ago, 3 years tops.
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Both academy teams at Pats are a combination of ex strikers players that followed NP and top players from existing pats teams. NP started a program at Pats that follows the boys Academy structure.
 
gkrent said:
Both academy teams at Pats are a combination of ex strikers players that followed NP and top players from existing pats teams. NP started a program at Pats that follows the boys Academy structure.
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What structure would that be? Recruit as much as you can? Hope to get lucky and "develop" a player or two from within your 196 team player pool?... It works for them on the boys side, so I assume it will work on the girls. But on merit alone, there's no argument to made they belong in the same sentence as blues, WCFC, slammers etc.
 
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