Golden Generation?

[bwilly11]

I thought it would be fun to spitball here, even if its delusional to think we can solve anything. 

As it appears today, we have a golden generation coming up that would be in their prime by the time 2026 rolls around. Despite our history of failure, we have the building blocks of something very special around David and Davies. We also have guys like guys like Millar, Larin, Eustaquio to make up the core as we project it right now. Two years ago nobody really knew about David, so one would think we may also get a few more pleasant surprises in the next 6 years, especially with the CPL now.

We are getting strong on paper, we need to start taking advantage of this. I really hope we can get into the 2022 WC and build from there, it would be huge for us. We saw how Iceland, a small nation with the population of Halifax managed to burst onto the scene in recent years. The development of indoor soccer was a huge contributor to that. They also had a very clear identity as a team the way they played defensively. 

What do we need to do to take the next step? What do you think we need to do to truly compete?

What happens when 2026 rolls around? Can Herdman really handle all of this come 2026, or do we need to consider a big time manager for the big stage?

Do you think we will see more infrastructure built? CPL academies? 

We have been given a gift, how do we make sure its not wasted?

 

[Shway]

I won't speak on what I believe of Herdman, but I will say if we don't qualify for the 22' WC, I don't believe he should still be in charge for the 26' WC. Involved as recruiter/speaker/motivator yes. Nothing else.

In regard to infrastructure the CSA has been making all the right moves in recent years - slowly, but its still the right ones. 
I think we are on the right path for infrastructure development. For as long as I've been alive, Canada has never had an issue with accessibility to play the sport, even if you're really good and can't afford it - I've seen the good guys play for free their entire youth, and that same guy go on to play for Canada. We have indoor, outdoor fields, futsal courts, small side fields, and soccer programs for days. I just think it's the flipside of where we need to improve the professional development side where players who want to/are good enough to make soccer a career is where the hole currently exists today. What does that mean? I strongly believe the CPL needs to have academies. Not next year or the following, but definitely in the near future. Way too much expectation is put on the MLS clubs to basically birth Davies, David. And when Yankov (for instance) is missed, and goes to Europe and performs it's looked at like dumb idiots at TFC, when the reality is there are millions of kids playing soccer in Canada - 3 clubs can't do all the work, because when kids don't make it at these clubs the options are limited for them. Majority of them end up going to Europe (if they have the sweet, sweet passport) in search of getting an opportunity there - solely because there's just a greater amount.

So for me in a nutshell it's continuing to develop the professional infrastructure - more professional teams, more professional academies = better development, greater opportunities equalling to more stones being turned over. Oh yea and my pet peeve = less relying on the country south of us for infrastructure, as we see in this pandemic it's a detriment to our top clubs. 

[TGAA_Star]

Canada is on the cusp of a golden generation yes I can agree with that but our players need to be playing more top flight football at top clubs but also more has to be put towards development of future players for decades to come and more emphasis on Canadian coaches

[dyslexic nam]

57 minutes ago, Shway said:

I won't speak on what I believe of Herdman, but I will say if we don't qualify for the 22' WC, I don't believe he should still be in charge for the 26' WC. Involved as recruiter/speaker/motivator yes. Nothing else.

In regard to infrastructure the CSA has been making all the right moves in recent years - slowly, but its still the right ones. 
I think we are on the right path for infrastructure development. For as long as I've been alive, Canada has never had an issue with accessibility to play the sport, even if you're really good and can't afford it - I've seen the good guys play for free their entire youth, and that same guy go on to play for Canada. We have indoor, outdoor fields, futsal courts, small side fields, and soccer programs for days. I just think it's the flipside of where we need to improve the professional development side where players who want to/are good enough to make soccer a career is where the hole currently exists today. What does that mean? I strongly believe the CPL needs to have academies. Not next year or the following, but definitely in the near future. Way too much expectation is put on the MLS clubs to basically birth Davies, David. And when Yankov (for instance) is missed, and goes to Europe and performs it's looked at like dumb idiots at TFC, when the reality is there are millions of kids playing soccer in Canada - 3 clubs can't do all the work, because when kids don't make it at these clubs the options are limited for them. Majority of them end up going to Europe (if they have the sweet, sweet passport) in search of getting an opportunity there - solely because there's just a greater amount.

So for me in a nutshell it's continuing to develop the professional infrastructure - more professional teams, more professional academies = better development, greater opportunities equalling to more stones being turned over. Oh yea and my pet peeve = less relying on the country south of us for infrastructure, as we see in this pandemic it's a detriment to our top clubs. 

Agree with all of this.  
 

CPL is massive for Canadian footy - which is why I am so hopeful that it can succeed financially.   If we can get sufficient revenue flowing into the league that it is healthy enough for longevity and expansion, I think it will be the single biggest factor in our country’s growth and sustained success.  A national network of scouts and academies would offer a substantially increased number of opportunities for talented kids above and beyond what the 3 MLS sides could hope to do, and provide them with a pathway for talented young players to jump directly to professional competition.   That would be game changing.  

[Alex]

One would argue that we’ve seen this mention of a golden generation once before. 

2007, 2008 we had de Guzman, Derosario, Bernier, Atiba (still), Radzinski, Gerba, Friend, Klukowski, Stalteri, McKenna, etc. I just hope we don’t crash and burn now like we did then. 

[johnyb]

1 minute ago, Alex said:

One would argue that we’ve seen this mention of a golden generation once before. 

2007, 2008 we had de Guzman, Derosario, Bernier, Atiba (still), Radzinski, Gerba, Friend, Klukowski, Stalteri, McKenna, etc. I just hope we don’t crash and burn now like we did then. 

Atiba was Onside!! They just may have accomplished something if a few calls went our way.

[Lansdude]

I think we may be past a generational ebb and flow and are just establishing what will be a new baseline standard.

[Floortom]

I wouldn’t put anyone other than David or Davies into that “Golden Generation” category. We need at least one or two more world class (or close) talents.

[SpursFlu]

I actually think its just the new normal 

[CanadaFan123]

33 minutes ago, Alex said:

One would argue that we’ve seen this mention of a golden generation once before. 

2007, 2008 we had de Guzman, Derosario, Bernier, Atiba (still), Radzinski, Gerba, Friend, Klukowski, Stalteri, McKenna, etc. I just hope we don’t crash and burn now like we did then. 

Well no one had vision to know what would occur in the future so at that time it was the golden generation. 

I was talking to a friend yesterday and was saying that a guy like De Rosario (bless him) would find it tough to start on this team. There are a few other pieces I would pick out from that generation though - definitely would take that back line (on paper at least). Pre-TFC JDG would look nice in midfield as well. 

[Obinna]

1 minute ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Well no one had vision to know what would occur in the future so at that time it was the golden generation. 

I was talking to a friend yesterday and was saying that a guy like De Rosario (bless him) would find it tough to start on this team. There are a few other pieces I would pick out from that generation though - definitely would take that back line (on paper at least). Pre-TFC JDG would look nice in midfield as well. 

I think prime DeRo would start, even on this team with all the fire power it has. 

This is not the only reason, but one thing we are missing is a lethal free-kick taker. For years DeRo gave us that.

Hoilett, Davies and Arfield are the prime candidates right now, but at the moment none of them are DeRo level.

[CanadaFan123]

16 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I think prime DeRo would start, even on this team with all the fire power it has. 

This is not the only reason, but one thing we are missing is a lethal free-kick taker. For years DeRo gave us that.

Hoilett, Davies and Arfield are the prime candidates right now, but at the moment none of them are DeRo level.

Did DeRosario ever score a free kick for Canada? The only players I can remember scoring off a free kick in the last 10-15 years are Hume and De Jong.

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Did DeRosario ever score a free kick for Canada? The only players I can remember scoring off a free kick in the last 10-15 years are Hume and De Jong.

I can't recall one off the top of my head. It is actually a very good question.

Regardless, the threat was always there.

He scored some absolute rockets at club level, though it never always came off with Canada. With De Jong now phased out, and DeRo long gone, I don't think we have the same fear factor on free kicks. Davies has shown some promise however, which is good for us. 

The other thing about DeRo was his ability to score from distance. That is something he has done for Canada (the goal against CR at BMO remains one of my favrouites).

Right now the only player who is a threat from distance is Hoilett. Actually, if there is one player who has sort of filled the gap for us that DeRo left behind, it is Junior.

[SthMelbRed]

4 hours ago, dyslexic nam said:

Agree with all of this.  
 

CPL is massive for Canadian footy - which is why I am so hopeful that it can succeed financially.   If we can get sufficient revenue flowing into the league that it is healthy enough for longevity and expansion, I think it will be the single biggest factor in our country’s growth and sustained success.  A national network of scouts and academies would offer a substantially increased number of opportunities for talented kids above and beyond what the 3 MLS sides could hope to do, and provide them with a pathway for talented young players to jump directly to professional competition.   That would be game changing.  

I have suggested this before, but I will put it out there, again.

If running full-time academies isn't an option for CanPL clubs at this time, why not start in a more modest way? Each club could partner with the existing youth clubs in their immediate catchment area to run all-star programs. So, the best players in their region would train with their club teams twice a week and play matches on the weekends. They would also attend a once-weekly training session with the 'all-star' team, giving them the opportunity to train with the other top players under the guidance of fully-professional coaches. In the off-season, when they're not with their club teams, they could increase the frequency of all-star training and also travel to play together in tournaments.

This would benefit the CanPL clubs by connecting them with the best youth prospects in their area, giving them leg up on recruiting them once they're ready to go pro. It would benefit the youth clubs by recognising the hard work they do and giving them training assistance with their best players. It would benefit the players by giving them elite training opportunities while still allowing them to stay home and get as many games as possible.

I would suggest that the youth and CanPL clubs, at least initially, equally share rights on the players when it comes to potential transfer fees and training compensation. The youth clubs could also get some smaller financial consideration for every player they supply to the all-star program. To show that the program is a true partnership between the pro and amateur clubs, the kids could wear both club's badges on their shirts when they play with the all-star team. So, each kid playing in an all-star tournament would be wearing the strip of the CanPL club, but would each also have their respective youth club's badge on their right shoulder, for example.

I think it's worth a shot as a first step towards building another 8 full-time academies.

[Kent]

The thing I worry about with regards to pro academies, is if players get passed over because they aren’t part of the academy. To illustrate what I mean, say you have 2 14 year old players about the same skill level in a CPL teams area. There is only enough room for one of them on the academy, so one stays with their existing club. A few years later, let’s say they are both playing in L1O. One kid is on the York 9 academy team, and the other is playing for Woodbridge Strikers. By now the kid on Woodbridge is better than the York 9 player, but when it comes time to give out a pro contract, the team decides to offer the contract to the York 9 player because they have been with the team for years. The player ends up not being good enough, but in the meantime the Woodbridge player had to give up the game.

If this is what the reality would be, you end up having effectively 3 youth teams in Ontario getting picked from instead of 16 or 20. 1 team in Manitoba instead of 10, etc.

I know TFC did recruit players late in the game, like Osorio and Edwards, so I don’t know if my worry is rational or not. But for me it isn’t as much of a clear cut benefit as I thought it was 8 years ago.

We will see if this is a golden generation (or more realistically, we should be aiming for a “participation ribbon generation”, since the goal is to participate in the World Cup). I kind of think we are somewhere between golden generation and “new normal”. We shouldn’t expect a new Davies or David every few years, but maybe we can have a bunch of players near that level going forward. So not quite a new normal. And it remains to be seen what this group can accomplish together, so I’m not ready to anoint this a golden generation either.

[Kent]

I guess I should answer the OP. What do we need to do to take advantage? Honestly I think we are seeing the participation at youth levels, like we have for a generation. We are seeing investment at the top levels, with CPL, and D3 leagues (in particular thinking of Barrie and Peterborough announcing their ambitions, and a potential league in BC, but of course also teams sticking with it in PLSQ and L1O). We need the fans now. Obviously I am preaching to the choir, but we need these D3 and higher levels to succeed financially. We need to pack the stands across the country! Regular season, Voyageurs Cup, playoffs, whatever, fill those stands, buy merch if you are able, get a OneSoccer subscription, or if you aren’t able to do those things, give websites that cover these leagues clicks, talk to your friends about the leagues.

But like I said, people here are already doing those things, so I guess keep up the good work and let’s hope our passion spreads.

[SthMelbRed]

Honestly, there are a lot of things that need to happen to establish this as the new normal. First thing has to come from corporate Canada. We have one of the most exciting and delightfully charismatic, with a wonderful back story,  professional athletes in the world today. Alphonso Davies' face should be on every TV, newspaper, and billboard across the country. That will inspire the best, young athletes to consider football over hockey, baseball, basketball, etc.

[Obinna]

12 hours ago, Kent said:

The thing I worry about with regards to pro academies, is if players get passed over because they aren’t part of the academy. To illustrate what I mean, say you have 2 14 year old players about the same skill level in a CPL teams area. There is only enough room for one of them on the academy, so one stays with their existing club. A few years later, let’s say they are both playing in L1O. One kid is on the York 9 academy team, and the other is playing for Woodbridge Strikers. By now the kid on Woodbridge is better than the York 9 player, but when it comes time to give out a pro contract, the team decides to offer the contract to the York 9 player because they have been with the team for years. The player ends up not being good enough, but in the meantime the Woodbridge player had to give up the game.

If this is what the reality would be, you end up having effectively 3 youth teams in Ontario getting picked from instead of 16 or 20. 1 team in Manitoba instead of 10, etc.

I know TFC did recruit players late in the game, like Osorio and Edwards, so I don’t know if my worry is rational or not. But for me it isn’t as much of a clear cut benefit as I thought it was 8 years ago.

We will see if this is a golden generation (or more realistically, we should be aiming for a “participation ribbon generation”, since the goal is to participate in the World Cup). I kind of think we are somewhere between golden generation and “new normal”. We shouldn’t expect a new Davies or David every few years, but maybe we can have a bunch of players near that level going forward. So not quite a new normal. And it remains to be seen what this group can accomplish together, so I’m not ready to anoint this a golden generation either.

The solution to this is more platforms. 

You are always going to get the scenario where a lesser academy player will get a first team chance over an outsider. The reverse can, does and will occur too. In both cases the more teams and clubs, the better off we are. With more clubs, be it professional or amateur, there are more opportunities to continue the football journey and get noticed. For me that is the key.

[superstarss]

15 hours ago, SthMelbRed said:

I have suggested this before, but I will put it out there, again.

If running full-time academies isn't an option for CanPL clubs at this time, why not start in a more modest way? Each club could partner with the existing youth clubs in their immediate catchment area to run all-star programs. So, the best players in their region would train with their club teams twice a week and play matches on the weekends. They would also attend a once-weekly training session with the 'all-star' team, giving them the opportunity to train with the other top players under the guidance of fully-professional coaches. In the off-season, when they're not with their club teams, they could increase the frequency of all-star training and also travel to play together in tournaments.

This would benefit the CanPL clubs by connecting them with the best youth prospects in their area, giving them leg up on recruiting them once they're ready to go pro. It would benefit the youth clubs by recognising the hard work they do and giving them training assistance with their best players. It would benefit the players by giving them elite training opportunities while still allowing them to stay home and get as many games as possible.

I would suggest that the youth and CanPL clubs, at least initially, equally share rights on the players when it comes to potential transfer fees and training compensation. The youth clubs could also get some smaller financial consideration for every player they supply to the all-star program. To show that the program is a true partnership between the pro and amateur clubs, the kids could wear both club's badges on their shirts when they play with the all-star team. So, each kid playing in an all-star tournament would be wearing the strip of the CanPL club, but would each also have their respective youth club's badge on their right shoulder, for example.

I think it's worth a shot as a first step towards building another 8 full-time academies.

I really like this idea, but it will be harder to implement and get buy in from local clubs for this, at least in the area where I coach.

An example, our initial path to the provincial program involved coaches sending their best players to a weekly identification camp for the region. This worked well for a number of years as the coaches from these camps were a mix from the different clubs. However, as certain clubs upped their coaching standards, the representation of coaches from the different clubs in the region started to dwindle down to only a few clubs.

This led to a massive amount of tampering, from players and coaches. The top players from clubs without a coach present were being aggressively recruited by the coaches at other clubs at these weekly sessions because they had no one there to stop them. As this continued to happen, more and more clubs were hesitant about sending players to these weekly sessions in the fear of losing their few good players and having a less competitive team. This led to the quality of players that were supposed to be the best in the region to being suddenly not at the level. 

There is still an old guard from some clubs where they do not want to lose their best players, even if it is for the good of the player to train at a higher level with more certified coaches. Big fish in small pond, looking good in lower leagues and all that. 

If York 9 scouts were able to watch games from all clubs in York and get the support of coaches sending their best players, it will be a huge accomplishment. I'm just wary of those that will not want to let their top players go. 

Another thing that would be a bit of a detractor is something I see with the current Team Ontario and them wanting all their players from OPDL. There is talent in the CSL and Academy leagues that can easily outplay the OPDL players, but are not being scouted enough. We had a game where the top two CSL teams played and a Team Ontario scout came to watch after begging him to come and at least see. He was actually impressed and said there was more talent in that game than half the OPDL. The reason these kids don't play there? Money and transportation. 

If York 9 (not picking on them, just a good example) gets buddy buddy with certain clubs and only picks players for their academy from those clubs, we run the risk of losing kids in the cracks. But I guess that's really not much different from before, so moot point. 

Apologies for the long post. Hope my thoughts came out clear. Happy to further elaborate.

Edited August 18, 2020 by superstarss
typo

[Obinna]

55 minutes ago, superstarss said:

I really like this idea, but it will be harder to implement and get buy in from local clubs for this, at least in the area where I coach.

An example, our initial path to the provincial program initially involved coaches sending their best players to a weekly identification camp for the region. This worked well for a number of years as the coaches from these camps were a mix from the different clubs. However, as certain clubs upped their coaching standards, the representation of coaches from the different clubs in the region started to dwindle down to only a few clubs.

This led to a massive amount of tampering, from players and coaches. The top players from clubs without a coach present were being aggressively recruited by the coaches at other clubs at these weekly sessions because they had no one there to stop them. As this continued to happen, more and more clubs were hesitant about sending players to these weekly sessions in the fear of losing their few good players and having a less competitive team. This led to the quality of players that were supposed to be the best in the region to being suddenly not at the level. 

There is still an old guard from some clubs where they do not want to lose their best players, even if it is for the good of the player to train at a higher level with more certified coaches. Big fish in small pond, looking good in lower leagues and all that. 

If York 9 scouts were able to watch games from all clubs in York and get the support of coaches sending their best players, it will be a huge accomplishment. I'm just wary of those that will not want to let their top players go. 

Another thing that would be a bit of a detractor is something I see with the current Team Ontario and them wanting all their players from OPDL. There is talent in the CSL and Academy leagues that can easily outplay the OPDL players, but are not being scouted enough. We had a game where the top two CSL teams played and a Team Ontario scout came to watch after begging him to come and at least see. He was actually impressed and said there was more talent in that game than half the OPDL. The reason these kids don't play there? Money and transportation. 

If York 9 (not picking on them, just a good example) gets buddy buddy with certain clubs and only picks players for their academy from those clubs, we run the risk of losing kids in the cracks. But I guess that's really not much different from before, so moot point. 

Apologies for the long post. Hope my thoughts came out clear. Happy to further elaborate.

Thanks for the insight. Having gone through the provincial team program in a small province (Newfoundland), it is very interesting to hear that.

Being a small province with a population centered on a single metro area, there were a couple of good players who slipped through the cracks over the years, because of geography. However, none of those would have been stars on our team. The guys who were "that" good would always be on the provincial team, no matter what, even if it meant driving 5 hours to St. John's to train with the rest of the team every week.

I suspect the problem you describe interestingly does not occur in the low population provinces, at least it didn't in my experience.

One question for you though. Why do the Ontario provincial teams prefer OPDL players? Is there some kind of formal or informal commitment to harvest this player stream? 

Edited August 18, 2020 by Obinna

[superstarss]

3 hours ago, Obinna said:

Thanks for the insight. Having gone through the provincial team program in a small province (Newfoundland), it is very interesting to hear that.

Being a small province with a population centered on a single metro area, there were a couple of good players who slipped through the cracks over the years, because of geography. However, none of those would have been stars on our team. The guys who were "that" good would always be on the provincial team, no matter what, even if it meant driving 5 hours to St. John's to train with the rest of the team every week.

I suspect the problem you describe interestingly does not occur in the low population provinces, at least it didn't in my experience.

One question for you though. Why do the Ontario provincial teams prefer OPDL players? Is there some kind of formal or informal commitment to harvest this player stream? 

No worries.

To be an OPDL club you have to meet certain standards that are not just in regards to the level of certification that coaches have. Facilities, certain types of staff such as physio and medical, the right ratio of coaches to players and some other criteria are all taken into account. The OPDL clubs that meet these standards are considered by the OSA to be the best place for kids to train. 

My club has two UEFA B certified coaches and several with their National B and Provincial C (which apparently is National now). However, we trained on garbage grounds for years when our program was growing. As our demographic is not the richest, we cannot raise our fees enough to get a physio or medical staff on site without losing a lot of our players. This is why we won't go to OPDL until there's some serious funding in the future. Trying to be as unbiased as possible, our coaches have created a few Team Ontario players that got on despite still being in the CSL (our local soccer league, a level beneath OPDL) and three players who are in Toronto FC's academy currently. We make sure some of our strongest coaches are at the grassroots level, the 8 - 12 range, which has made a huge difference.

Side note, I'll never forget the day our U16 boys beat an academy team 7-0 in the finals of a showcase tournament and as we walked by the parents of the other team we hear, "We paid $5000 a year to lose to a local team."

Moments like that make it all worth it. 

[Shway]

Repeat after me: OPDL is a bullsh!t, cash grab initiative.

Ive heard parents say that’s its killed the joy of playing the game from boys and girls.

[SthMelbRed]

4 hours ago, superstarss said:

I really like this idea, but it will be harder to implement and get buy in from local clubs for this, at least in the area where I coach.

An example, our initial path to the provincial program involved coaches sending their best players to a weekly identification camp for the region. This worked well for a number of years as the coaches from these camps were a mix from the different clubs. However, as certain clubs upped their coaching standards, the representation of coaches from the different clubs in the region started to dwindle down to only a few clubs.

This led to a massive amount of tampering, from players and coaches. The top players from clubs without a coach present were being aggressively recruited by the coaches at other clubs at these weekly sessions because they had no one there to stop them. As this continued to happen, more and more clubs were hesitant about sending players to these weekly sessions in the fear of losing their few good players and having a less competitive team. This led to the quality of players that were supposed to be the best in the region to being suddenly not at the level. 

There is still an old guard from some clubs where they do not want to lose their best players, even if it is for the good of the player to train at a higher level with more certified coaches. Big fish in small pond, looking good in lower leagues and all that. 

If York 9 scouts were able to watch games from all clubs in York and get the support of coaches sending their best players, it will be a huge accomplishment. I'm just wary of those that will not want to let their top players go. 

Another thing that would be a bit of a detractor is something I see with the current Team Ontario and them wanting all their players from OPDL. There is talent in the CSL and Academy leagues that can easily outplay the OPDL players, but are not being scouted enough. We had a game where the top two CSL teams played and a Team Ontario scout came to watch after begging him to come and at least see. He was actually impressed and said there was more talent in that game than half the OPDL. The reason these kids don't play there? Money and transportation. 

If York 9 (not picking on them, just a good example) gets buddy buddy with certain clubs and only picks players for their academy from those clubs, we run the risk of losing kids in the cracks. But I guess that's really not much different from before, so moot point. 

Apologies for the long post. Hope my thoughts came out clear. Happy to further elaborate.

This sounds like more of a people failure rather than a system failure. In my vision, the CanPL coaches would run the all-star program using their own coaches, not borrowed coaches from clubs with conflicting interests. Properly run, the kids would be shielded from potential poaching by rival coaches during the weekly training sessions. Coaches with ill intent would have to use their own players in the program to get into other kids' ears for their poaching, just like God intended. 😄 

It's also important to accept that no system will ever catch ALL the best, most-deserving players. You just want to put something in place that will pick up MOST. At the lower fringe of any system, there will always be an element of different coaches seeing different things in any given player. You hope that the coaches pick entirely on merit, and not select Player X over Player Y because X's parents are divorced and his mum's kind of hot.

[Obinna]

3 hours ago, superstarss said:

No worries.

To be an OPDL club you have to meet certain standards that are not just in regards to the level of certification that coaches have. Facilities, certain types of staff such as physio and medical, the right ratio of coaches to players and some other criteria are all taken into account. The OPDL clubs that meet these standards are considered by the OSA to be the best place for kids to train. 

My club has two UEFA B certified coaches and several with their National B and Provincial C (which apparently is National now). However, we trained on garbage grounds for years when our program was growing. As our demographic is not the richest, we cannot raise our fees enough to get a physio or medical staff on site without losing a lot of our players. This is why we won't go to OPDL until there's some serious funding in the future. Trying to be as unbiased as possible, our coaches have created a few Team Ontario players that got on despite still being in the CSL (our local soccer league, a level beneath OPDL) and three players who are in Toronto FC's academy currently. We make sure some of our strongest coaches are at the grassroots level, the 8 - 12 range, which has made a huge difference.

Side note, I'll never forget the day our U16 boys beat an academy team 7-0 in the finals of a showcase tournament and as we walked by the parents of the other team we hear, "We paid $5000 a year to lose to a local team."

Moments like that make it all worth it. 

First of all, thanks for elaborating.

Secondly, this is a great example of how over-regulation can be counter productive. There is value in having standards, but where do you draw the line?

Having physio and medical staff may give kids a safe place to train, but safe and best are not the same necessarily. If you have top coaches, but insufficient medical and physio staff at your club, your players risk being overlooked, which is unfortunate and unnecessary.  

Good for your club for having success despite failing to meet the OPDL threshold.

If we want to continue our progression as a soccer country, we must not let such things hold us back. The best players should always get opportunity, wherever possible. 

Edited August 18, 2020 by Obinna

[Shway]

It’s overkill....how do we have professional standards for pay to play but limited access to actual professional academies/pipeline to a professional team?

It’s ass backwards with the wrong focus (certified coaching = tds/coaches get paid handsomely, but that’s another conversation) and it just creates an impossible funnel where more kids can easily be left out. 

I play with some older experienced guys (Deros team Canada East Masters Champs) who are parents, and they we’re explaining to me the nonsense of strict practice schedules, the cost and the cross roads that they as parents and their children have to face. It’s extremely crazy to me.

Coaching/education is important but like someone mentioned, corporate Canada has to come in to offset these crazy costs for a province that produces 2/3rds of the Canadian talent pool. 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Shway