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Message: [QUOTE="upstater, post: 3518556, member: 153"] Some more thoughts as I read a good analytical SI article on this mess. One quote from that article critiqued the DA: "It isn’t clear whether the men’s U.S. national teams ever benefited." It's laying the World Cup fiasco at the feet of the DA and development. I find this to be unfair. Look at the young players above who went through the DA. They are just coming into their own. Outside of Yedlin, Arriola, Morris and Pulisic, none of those players on the 2016 roster went through the DA. And only Arriola and Pulisic went through the DA start to finish (12 years old to 17). You can't blame that on the DA. Here's where I am concerned. The MLS clubs are starting a new league, but they don't like the costs of the current one? If you're investing less, isn't the quality going to suffer? The strength of the DA is that there were 90 clubs, throughout the US geographically. The MLS clubs and scouts are NOT so sharp that they will recruit the best talent to play for them. Many top players have developed outside the MLS academies. I spoke with an NCAA D1 AD about the MLS academies and he told me the soccer team landed 3 recruits from 2 different academies, and in all 3 cases, the players never saw the field. Now, this may sound like a critique of the academies, but it is actually more the fact that even our best scouts can't tell the future when it comes to signing 13 year olds. The MLS clubs are likely going to be where the the top players develop BUT we are now fishing with a smaller net. Talent will go unwatched. We're back to traveling to tourney showcases to scout players, which is absurd. My kid's team is coached by a D1 head coach who always schedules our tourneys so that he can recruit. That is the extent of his recruiting. one weekend--on the fly, he only gets glimpses of players, and he readily admits that this is the only way it can be done. Worse than that. Not only will some players not be seen, but kids with the potential will not be developed as well. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach