MLS youth league

That's a great way to describe it. IMO the no-reentry does not serve the domestiques very well. My concern is they don't get in until late in the game and possibly only get garbage minutes. I feel like no-entry in the same half is way better than no-reentry the remainder of the game.

Clubs need to be more upfront with parents and kids about what they can expect in terms of playing time and where their kids are in the pecking order (since parents are incapable of seeing that for themselves). Our coach was very upfront in our first parent meeting that there were 5-6 players that were identified as players that are going to be groomed to play with the club long term and that the others would have to show significant development to be part of that group. I'm not sure that the parents of the non-anointed fully comprehended what that meant and the coach didn't go into any real detail.
Soccer coaches, God love ‘em and they devote their lives to these kids at very little pay, are the worst communicators ever. A parent has to be adept at reading the tea leaves and ask the kid if s/he wants to keep fighting for the spot, just be happy to be there or to move on. Never easy and the coach never provides clear guidance.
 
Soccer coaches, God love ‘em and they devote their lives to these kids at very little pay, are the worst communicators ever. A parent has to be adept at reading the tea leaves and ask the kid if s/he wants to keep fighting for the spot, just be happy to be there or to move on. Never easy and the coach never provides clear guidance.
I know parents can be a pain in the ass and its probably the worst part of a coaches job, but coaches don't make their job any easier by not communicating and managing expectations.
 
Any sense on what - if anything - they're doing with "late developers" being able to play a year down? same as DA or different or not at all?

I just saw this interview and thought about your question. Fred Lipka, who has basically been MLS' point person for getting the MLS Next league off the ground, speaks positively about bio-banding, which is one way to address the "late developer" issue and can be done through showcases of selected players rather than playing players down.

 
Hearing non-MLS teams saying no league till 2021. Anyone hearing anything from LAG or LAFC?

Yes about the same. Thing is that MLS youth wants to align with the first team play which will end soon and pickup in March.

The big news is there will be USL academy in the spring and the new u23 reserve league also

 
Outside of CA, MLS Next league games are in full swing, including in Arizona where they’ve played 4 League games thus far. CA teams other than LAG and LAFC have played scrimmages in AZ against AZ and CA MLS Next teams and I expect they’ll continue with the scrimmages until CA opens up for games
 
San Jose Earthquakes got this:
Here is the body of an email that went out to west coast MLS Next teams:

The MLS NEXT Fall schedule for West Coast clubs, we agreed to wait for one month to see if the public health positions in WA-OR-CA-BC will change to allow more organized activity.

Given the current positions of your state and local governments, we will postpone the start to any official MLS NEXT League matches in WA-OR-CA-BC for another month. Again, we will be ready to adjust should conditions change and we will plan to revisit the situation in early November.
 
I heard clubs are already either being removed or are dropping out. Any truth?
Not hearing that at all... LAFC and San Jose both said they were waiting to reassess in November. That is consistent with the email that was allegedly sent to all MLS Next clubs. Atlanta United started its own "tournament" over several months.
 
cool. I was asking because I heard a few east coast squads and west coast squads non-mls affiliated did not meet whatever requirements there are.
 
I heard clubs are already either being removed or are dropping out. Any truth?

Next is new it just came out so it's going to be a while before it's really established.

After the initial marketing blitz the enthusiasm has kind of died off a little bit around here partly due to the restrictions.

Some teams or clubs have decided not to wait and they moved players around, entered other leagues, going out of state for tournaments, scrimmages or setting up a schedule of some sorts where they play scrimmages in non club gear at private places or facilities that are open.

When the rules (no concurrent HS play) and brackets came up where there is mostly intra play with the same teams they always play with a possiblity of a MLS game here or there is wasn't well received by some players especially the olders. With some clubs like Galaxy not even fielding a u19 team the support for college exposure doesn't seem to be there that much.

With USL academy a starting up in spring 2021 and the reported u23 reserve league next seems destined for a focus on U17 and below for the most part.
 
With USL academy a starting up in spring 2021 and the reported u23 reserve league next seems destined for a focus on U17 and below for the most part.
Is anyone hearing anything about USL Clubs forming youth teams at this point? I'd be curious to know what SD Loyal is doing.
 
Several non MLS socal teams apparently not waiting for "next" months update and have been either traveling out of state or to places like the SB complex that was reported packed with teams scrimmaging in pinnies last couple weekends. At least they check everyone including spectators with temp guns before they let cars in. Some players have decided to wear masks while playing, mostly defenders it seemed.

Teams have also been playing in Sunday leagues at different look the other way facilities in parts of cities and counties locally.

So what's going on with the local MLS clubs have they moved past the conditioning in small groups to have teams together and actually playing something?
 
LAFC has canceled all in-person activities at its Performance Center

Dang just when I thought we might get back to next phase in training now I'm not sure.
The press never circles back around after 2 weeks to say...hey nobody actually had an issue. If we were actually concerned about the health of the people testing positive on these sports teams, the articles would I don't know mention that.

Instead the concern is a delay of games and how that affects playoffs.
 
The press never circles back around after 2 weeks to say...hey nobody actually had an issue. If we were actually concerned about the health of the people testing positive on these sports teams, the articles would I don't know mention that.

Instead the concern is a delay of games and how that affects playoffs.

The concern for youth players is moving out of the conditioning phase to scrimmages and playing at our home facilities. So far that hasn't happen and now our performance training facilitiy is closed also while they do a through "cleaning" and test more.
 
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