Jump to content

TFC Academy in the PDL


Levi Oakey

Recommended Posts

  • 3 months later...

TFC has academy teams in both PDL and League1, involvement in PDL is exclusive to this summer. The purpose is to give L1 another season to grow and develop (increase) the level of play. Last year TFCA ran the table without a loss, this year the TFCA team in L1 has lost all games played thus far.

 

TFC is looking to the PDL in the short term for a higher level of play.

 

TFC - MLS

TFCII - USL Pro

TFCA - USL PDL

TFCAII - League1 (Majority of players would fall into the U17 grouping)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They have a PDL team now. L1O is basically their U16 side with a few extras... yes, that's L1Os level.

 

DARRIN MACLEOD was United's starting keeper last year. Plays for Drake and is from Waterloo. He has worked with TFC in the past. He is extremely good and hopefully this position with the TFC PDL team will give him more exposure. For the last two years he has made some unbelievable saves. Just ask FC London.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They have a PDL team now. L1O is basically their U16 side with a few extras... yes, that's L1Os level.

 

I have crapped on L10 my fair share but the TFC Academy team is sitting near the bottom of the table and the whole situation is temporary isn't it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, that is temporary for this year. Level will change for sure. Just think some people might need a wakeup call. By the way, the Toronto Lynx left the PDL and joined L1O and so far have gone 2-0 with a +7 goal difference to their name. 

PDL will still have something to add to player development for a few more years.

 

To be clear again, I think TFC's L1O team is mostly U16s... That's very young, like just past OPDL young.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm looking at the rosters for the TFC PDL and L1O side, and I see that the L1O side is the U17 side. But can somebody tell me if the PDL side is a U20 side or a U18 side? I don't know the players that specifically or anything like that, and too lazy to google a bunch of em.

 

http://www.uslpdl.com/teams/2015/74548977.html#ROSTER

http://www.league1ontario.com/toronto-fc-academy-roster

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PDL's attraction is that it helps clubs maintain a connection to NCAA players. For the MLS this means they can keep their Homegrown connection while remaining in college for all 4 years. That's why TFC has maintained asked for a PDL team. So yes, it is mostly 18-21 year olds. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys. I did watch some PDL before, back in Ottawa in 2013 :) I did know about the NCAA connections, and I was wondering if TFC had gone that same route for their PDL team as well.

 

Here's a fun little question, can L1O fulfill that same role sometime soon, as a league that provides summer play for NCAA players, or will L1O, due to it being an Ontario league, always be more focused on providing a platform for CIS players more than for NCAA players? I ask this as somebody who's only a little bit familiar with PDL and L1O, and would like to learn more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion, that's still a very big question. I have seen it posted that L1O wants to be a legitimate D3, which should mean semi-pro. NCAA players can't be semi-pro, although maybe there is some type of amateur contract  they could sign to keep their NCAA eligiblity.

 

Right now L1O has a few NCAA players, mostly from Sigma FC who tend to have a fairly aggressive training program aimed at getting players into the NCAA. In the summer those players come back and play in L1O. If I remember correctly though, a few of them had to leave before the play-offs which hurt Sigma a bit. (L1O season ends in October)

I think the best person to answer this though would be VP_jr, who tends to come on to here but you can also message him on twitter.

 

My opinion is that even if League 1 Ontario pickups all of the Canadian NCAA players, a significant amount of the league will still be made up of CIS players and lower levels of teams academies. There just isn't enough top quality talent at this time to fill all of L1O's rosters. I think going semi-pro is the next big move, as well as when the OPDL gets up to the 18 year old level, then we will see that teams can easily scout and recruit better talent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah that was my beef with the CSA blocking Canadian teams from joining USL (see Victoria Highlanders); I get that they want to encourage the eventual emergence of D3 leagues at the provincial level (L1O) but how long are we talking here? Years? USL is D3 in the US and at present, there are no leagues in Canada operating at that level so if a Canadian team wants to be at that level, why stop them?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the rumours are true that L1O and PQSL will soon have a qualifying spot in the Canadian Championships, competing for the Voyageurs Cup, People would definitely take more notice. Even though it is a very slight chance, the opportunity to play in the CCL, but more likely against MLS and NASL, would be a massive boost to both leagues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...