Subject : five games in a row. Its hard to make up for those. So we gotta try to
Imagine if the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup included the likes of Steven Stamkos, Drew Doughty, Rick Nash, Alex Pietrangelo, Jeff Carter, Matt Duchene, Corey Perry, Mike Smith and John Tavares. Joe DiMaggio Yankees Jersey . Do you think the Leafs would be perennial Stanley Cup contenders? Now imagine if that team also contained the likes of Patrick Kane, Eric Staal, Mike Richards, Bobby Ryan, Marc Staal, James Neal, Jordan Staal, Logan Couture, Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin, Jeff Skinner, Gabriel Landeskog and Alex Galchenyuk. How do you like their chances now? Before anyone jumps in and shouts, "But theyd never get those guys under the salary cap!" let me explain. Every single one of those players is a product of the Ontario Hockey League. What if the Toronto Maple Leafs had actually created the Ontario Hockey League. What if they had started the league from scratch and picked up the cost through its early years of development? And what if, because they created the OHL, they now have the first option on every player in the league? You see where Im going with this? What if Toronto FC did the same thing for youth soccer in Ontario. What if they created a high performance development league that harnessed the bottomless pit of potential that currently exists among the 300,000-plus soccer players in the province? Even better: What if they created an entire development system for kids as young as eight, ensuring that they got the best football education imaginable? What do you think that would do for their long-term success as a professional club? What if Toronto FC turned its Club Affiliate Program into such a development system? Its goal would be to produce a continual stream of talented young players for its academy, and ultimately, for its first team. Do you think they would be perennial MLS Cup contenders? Here is how I would set it up: • Expand the Club Affiliate Program to 20 clubs, ensuring that there is geographical representation across the major areas of the province. • Hire qualified, professional coaches to work with players between the ages of eight to 16, implementing a periodized training curriculum to ensure that the focus is on mastering technical skills. Allow players to come into the program at any age, focusing resources on the most promising young players (20 per age group per club). • Remove the 20 clubs from the current competitive system in Ontario, ensuring that they play regularly scheduled games against other CAP organizations. • At the top of the development system, create the equivalent of the OHL - a high performance league for players between the ages of 15-20 - where the best players from the 20 clubs would compete against each other on a weekly basis. • Pick up the entire cost for every player at every club. The last point is especially important. One of the major challenges that is faced when developing young soccer players in Canada is that our system of player development is pay-for-play. What that means is that the end user (the player) carries the full cost of their development. This system often sees players participating in sub-optimal development programs, and also restricts talented players whose parents cannot afford the cost of the best development programs - which can cost anywhere from $2,000-$5,000 per year. So what would it actually cost Toronto FC to make soccer free for every participant in its CAP program? If TFC had 20 clubs in its Club Affiliate Program, with 20 players per club, that would be 400 players per age group. If such a program ran from U8 - U15 (with the OHL-equivalent league sitting on top of those age groups), there would be nine age categories. That is 3,600 players, from the age of eight onwards. Conservatively, a program such as this one could be run for as little as $3,000 per player, annually. That is just over $10 million per year. Not very much for a club that just spent close to $100 million to sign two players, is it? Im not arguing against the signings that TFC just made - in fact, I think that the club needed to sign Jermain Defoe and Michael Bradley, not least of which to give the fans a reason to care again. But while the club will be hoping that their off-season moves will quickly turn them into an MLS contender, their long-term success can come through developing the countless talented youngsters currently playing the game across the province, rather than through hiring expensive foreign professionals. Joe Girardi Yankees Jersey .C. - The New Orleans Saints will have to wait another week for a chance to clinch a playoff spot. Mark Teixeira Yankees Jersey . He didnt even match his first-half total from Friday night. He didnt have to, with the Knicks offering him plenty of support for a change.ORLANDO, Fla. -- One thing has remained consistent about Magic coach Jacque Vaughn whenever he is asked how he gauges improvement for his team. Its day to day and game by game, he says. Well, he can count Wednesday as one of the good days. Nik Vucevic had 21 points and 16 rebounds as the Orlando Magic beat the Philadelphia 76ers 105-94 to post back-to-back wins for the first time since early this month. "We needed it," Vaughn said. "We were all over the place...Just a lot of guys who were getting into the game who were ready to play and were playing unselfishly on both ends. "We need guys and were gonna continue to need guys throughout the course of the year," he said. Glen Davis added 19 points, and Arron Afflalo and Victor Oladipo each finished with 18. The Magic led by 15 points before fighting off several second-half surges by the Sixers, which they beat for 17th time in 20 meetings. The game was the first meeting between rookies Michael Carter-Williams and Oladipo, and both played big roles. Oladipo registered a season-high 42 minutes. Though both had their highlights, it was how Orlando played together down the stretch that stuck out more. The Magic saw their double-digit, first-half lead dwindled down to a point early in the third quarter. It was 85-83 when Afflalos three-point play gave Orlando a little breathing room with 6:49 to play in the game. The 76ers kept coming before Afflalo struck again and turned a Philadelphia turnover into a layup that made it 93-87. That was followed a few possessions later by a 3-pointer by Oladipo that put the Magic up 98-89 with three minutes remaining and ended the threat. "We had a pretty impressive win (Tuesday) night (at Atlanta)," Afflalo said. "We hadnt had the best track record of backing up good victories with solid, back-to-back victories on back-to-back nights. It got a little ugly there in the second and third quarters, but we showed a little mental toughness and got us a good victory." Thaddeus Young led Philadelphia with 26 points and Carter-Williams added 23. It was Youngs first game in a week after missing three games while dealing with a death in his family. "They did a good job tonight of keeping the lead," Young said. "Once they got it, wed make a run to take the lead and they would (answer with) five or six points. They just kept their foot on the ggas and kept moving. Joe Girardi Jersey. " 76ers coach Brett Brown said the plan going forward was to ease him back into things slowly following his absence. Young didnt start, but entered the game for the first time at the 7:42 mark of the first quarter and immediately started to make an impact. "I didnt want to start him; I didnt know how long I was going to play him," Brown said. "You just go by gut feeling and judgment, and it was clear right from the get-go that he had bounce, he had energy, he wanted to play. He was good. So he ended up with (29) minutes, which I would not have guessed at the start of the game." The 76ers have now lost two straight and six of seven. Despite the victory, the Magic continued to deal with the injuries on Wednesday. Point guard Jameer Nelson left the game in the second quarter and did not return after limping off with a sprained left foot. Also, after making his season debut Sunday against Phoenix, Magic forward Tobias Harris sat out his second straight game with soreness in his left ankle. Harris was supposed to make his first start of the season against Atlanta Tuesday night, but was scratched just before tip-off. The ankle has now kept him out of 14 of the Magics 15 games this season. It was 55-50 at halftime as the Magic -- riding Vucevics 17 points and 10 rebounds -- dominated the first 21 minutes of the first half and built a 15-point lead. He went right at Philadelphias Daniel Orton, and hit his first eight shots of the night. It nearly evaporated in the final three minutes of the half, though, as the Sixers closed with a 10-0 run that included eight points by Young. Vucevic said he hopes the win will help the Magic to begin to play with a lot more consistency. "We made improvements, but weve still got a ways to go," he said. "We cant have streaks when we lose four or five games in a row. Its hard to make up for those. So we gotta try to be more consistent. We cant win every game ... but we gotta try to play the way we played the last two games." NOTES: Referee Tre Maddox left the game in the first quarter with an ankle injury. ... Davis made his second start of the season and appeared in his fourth game of the year since missing the first 11 games of the season with a broken bone in his left foot. ... Sixers F Spencer Hawes missed his second straight game with soreness in his left knee. cheap jerseys cheap jerseys from china ' ' ' |
