NYCFC And Youth Soccer...
- Thread starter Andy
- Start date
Word. I've only played against their over-30s and CSL teams and they were always aggro and dirty off the ball. We had to hire extra assistants in over-30s because of all the off the ball malarkey a few years back, when I was playing for CPR. May not reflect the attitude at youth levels though.
nah, completely separate from the youth team. its class on grass
So there's no real path from the youth clubs to the MLS academies then? Another broken part of the pyramid? This has to be pretty chaotic for youth soccer.
Are there any predictions about how this might be rectified?
i'm not sure how involved the affiliate clubs are with NYCFC in regards to recruitment, trials, scouting and such. I couldn't tell you at this point if there was anything other than a name branding. Gottschee was bought out by Cosmos like 7 years ago, basically just took the academy and changed the logo then took David Diosa to say that thereres a chance for other players to move up from the youth team, then never took a kid again until the Cosmos B came around.
There had to be a path, otherwise there would be no kids on the teams. The pathway is any kid who shows up at one of their many tryouts. There are plenty of high level clubs that act as feeders and any kid can come to a talent center to be seen by coaches.
Remember, the NYCFC academy could are free, so the only financial barrier is travel (which can be considerable, given travel cost and opportunity cost for a parent).
The affiliate clubs were kind of a marketing scam - they paid to be there, whether through actual dollars or ticket commitments and got to brag that they were part of some imaginary pathway.
I don't know about NYCFC (I will have my son in the Manhattan Soccer Club's U7 class this spring since I don't want to truck over to Randall's Island), but I did coach in West Side Soccer League for the past two years (U6 and U7) which is affiliated with the Red Bulls. While not a direct feeder, the Red Bulls did send coaches two times a year to the games to help and they do run a dedicated developmental practice that you can pay for that has Red Bull coaches (these are quite good especially for the young kids). There are also travel teams as the kids get older. It seemed fine and every once in awhile a more senior Red Bulls guy would show up to help (I mean scout). If I could do just the dedicated practices with the Red Bull coaches I would.
Like I said I have no idea how NYCFC and MSC interact for the U7s, but they did change the program once they became affiliated with NYCFC (if memory serves about a year and a half ago).
Having said all that, the entire youth setup in the city is a giant cluster. The WSSL league games are for the most part a waste (and I feel safe in saying that as a coach), but the only way to get to Red Bull coaches is to sign up for them. I'm hoping the MSC coaches are of similar quality.
The Red Bulls run all the coaching sessions for my town's rec league (which led to many amusing interactions between their coaches and my sky blue clad son). Oddly, they don't have anything to do with travel team coaching.
The red bulls have a business that is entirely separate from the MLS team that runs clinics, provides coaches for local teams and runs the Red Bull Development School (RDS). They don't go out of their way to make it clear that they are affiliated, but different entities that are run by different groups.
Continuity in coaching is of incredible importance to a travel or club team and the Red Bulls can't offer that, as many of their coaches are either foreign on short-term work visas (that typically don't actually allow employment) or young former HS or college players making a buck or two on the side.
Manhattan SC is a great program at the top levels and no different than anyone else below them. NY Stars is also a solid program.
My advice to parents of young kids finding their way in travel or club soccer is to have their kids play at the highest level club that their kid can play on the A team. Most B or C teams exist to subsidize the A team, and the coaching/priority given to those teams reflect that. And being on the A team of a great club but barely playing sucks for your kid.
if you want your kid to become a real soccer player, you'll take them to play for Gottschee, all other clubs are a scam.
Pay to troll? We have to remove that from soccer in America.
no we don't... it just separates the mentally weak from the mentally stable. no need to cry about everything that doesn't go your way.
