Simon Magus Top Picks

INFAMEE

SILVER ELITE
Top Picks 03

Golden State Academy

Los Angeles Galaxy Academy

Total Futbol Academy

LAUFA

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Worse Picks 03


Arsenal Academy

Pats Academy

Surf Academy

LA Pats

Legends

West Coast

Albion

Strikers

Slammers
 
Not sure if Simon is a free loading cheap son of a gun ( no idea if he even has a kid that plays) or unknowingly listed the free to play academies- Hard to determine which organizations are best because they operate on totally different business models.

Ive seen SO MANY coaches that worked for the free academies leave under the idea that they are amazing coaches only to disappear once they entered the pay to play arena. Its so hard to build a winning team that plays "the right way" in the pay to play model. Many of the top teams in your "worst" category do well because they scholarship 3-5 difference makers, the rest of the team are decent to pretty good, but cant constantly build from the back, connect 7-15 passes as a team (takes all eleven playing at an elite level to make that happen against quality competition) . Many of these teams carry a couple players that are not at the same level because the family helps pay the bills

BTW- I think the free model is ideal- But with so few that are free they better be winning as they can collect the best players money can buy. I also despise the pay to play model as its extremely flawed- many quality players cant get a shot, but that is the current model most of America has. Unfair to compare the two as they are so different and there are so few fully funded teams that its silly to even take your rankings seriously.

The pay to play FCGS, Galaxy affiliates, LAUFA and TFA teams usually sit right in the middle or struggle in their respective leagues. Weird right?

Now the interesting thing would be to find the anomalies if they ever got to regularly compete. Example- The Slammers Black/ ECNL team have beaten all but one (lost in a shootout) of the "free" academy teams they have faced nation wide. They shouldn't even be able to compete on the same pitch as these fully funded programs, but they do.

A better way to look at these clubs is which ones are preforming above or below their expectations based on the business model they provide.

The money, time and resources that goes into the Galaxy and LAFC should be expected to have results at the top of the table- ID fire ANY coach in those programs even if they had a couple loses- there is no DA group with even comparable resources- you better destroy the competition. There are academies that are not fielding quality teams despite free to play teams- whats going on there? What clubs are limited in resources etc but have excelled despite their limitations. How are they doing that? Are they just good recruiters or are they developing good players into great ones? No clue and each is different BUT thats the only real data, questions that can help build the current models into better programs.
 
My list would be similar but the criteria would be:
Quality and consistency of coaching, best at recruiting/poaching players, most screaming and yelling parents, MVP drunks, pounds of trash left at fields, then the hot moms and uniforms would kick in. Albion would be higher based on the last 2 points, I dig those stripes and multi colored kits.

GalaxyDad makes a lot of good points. 1. Resources of MLS academy programs, no brainer. 2. Ability to poach/recruit players. The 2 academy teams have players from most of the other academies, as well as top players from top teams. So do Laufa and TFA. 3. Level of performance at multiple levels, within academy, and outside of it- consistency of the overall program? We all know Simon, Infamee likes to post...interesting (or inflammatory to some) viewpoints, what's also interesting is his inability to answer a simple question that requires a bit of critical thinking and explanation. Asked him one in the other thread in 03's, and one above. So I'll just figure he likes to give the opinion, trash people, and leaves it at that. No worries either way, but I would like to hear what he has to say about the questions I posed. Especially if he can do it in a manner which is legible, thought out, and without name calling and additional insults. We'll see.
 
Pay to play has always and will continue to be a problem to get more players into soccer.

With the da program does is give out sholarships to clubs on behalf of lower income families. I wish the other leagues/clubs would do this. Even so not nearly enough to cover the cost so those clubs have to raise funds or have a deep pocket sponser. I think LAUFA is the only independent that manages this without the sponsers and their p2p team is really good at this age also.

Nothing is "free" and most of the ones mentioned here actually ask for "donations" if your family income doesn't qualify for sponsership. This is especially true with travel expenses, tournament fees, hotel, etc. Don't get carried away with the "free" concept, selling raffle tickets, going to poker night or whatever is not free.

Local soccer needs to be supported and not everyone has parents that can shuttle them around for hours each night so local can be "cheaper" overall even when it's p2p.

High school is pretty good bang for your buck and it's easy to see which clubs are getting the most out of their player's. My son's current club is not listed, they do a mediocre job of making use of what's available so they have to recuit more and end up being middle of the pack since talent is so spread out nowadays.
 
I’ve read it and totally agree with the article, but there are few organizations with the deep pockets to make it a reality
 
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