DA vs ECNL seems to be a real hot button for a number of ECNL loyalists including some whose players have aged out of club soccer. If I was a newbie parent and came on here and read this and other threads I would get the impression that the GDA was an inferior product. I remember on the old forum years ago reading arguments from some of the same posters whose players are now in college defending ECNL when those teams tied or loss to non ECNL teams in non ECNL tournaments. The non ECNL teams claiming they were as good or better as the ECNL teams they had beat and the ECNL parents saying they didn't care, coming off a break, or didn't play their top players, that's why they loss. Flash forward a couple years and some of those old ECNL parents are claiming superiority based on Silverlakes or the younger ages at Surf Cup that ECNL is better than DA. It's ironic to see this argument come full circle. I am not here to claim DA teams are better than ECNL teams nor the opposite that ECNL is better than DA. Prior to Silverlakes or Surf Cup the DA was on a 4 week break many DA clubs came back that week and it was their first time they ever played together as a team was that weekend. The fact that so much was put on 3 friendlies in 90+ degree weather is silly at best no matter which way the score went. As far as the US Youth National team losses are a referendum on the GDA after one season of existence is absurd. There are issues that run deep within US soccer going back as long there has been US soccer. I am sure if your daughter is one of the .0001% that get to play for the US she will be discovered no matter what league she plays for. High School soccer if you followed these threads you would think there is a mass exodus of GDA players running from their DA teams to join ECNL teams or other teams because of the no HS rule. This is absolutely false. Every player I know that left the GDA was for 3 reasons just like any team, didn't make the squad, didn't like the coaching staff, or the 4 days a week of training was too much. HS soccer wasn't never the catalyst it was sometimes the final excuse. So why all the hostility or negativity towards the GDA on here because most of the active posters kids play in ECNL, or the posters coach an ECNL team, or their kids have aged out but they played ECNL and know nothing or very little of the GDA, or they are jaded about US soccer. Like most forums there is bits of truth and pieces of good info on here but the majority of it is false. If I were a parent and my daughter was good enough to play GDA or ECNL I would find the best coaching staff and program within a reasonable distance that would help her reach her goals but improve her as a player. The days of getting a couple unicorns and playing kick and run, high pressure D, and free substitution to keep the ranks fresh doesn't help the growth of soccer in this country or the growth of individuals. Clubs that win aren't superior they have superior players and most feed the one or two best players on those teams and the rest are just a supporting casts. You want to know what would make the US even better at women's soccer finding players that were technical, had tremendous soccer IQs, and when they were on the field they made everyone else around them better, not because of how many goals they scored, but how they moved the ball and made real time decisions that made their teammates better. Maybe GDA fails, maybe ECNL gets relegated to a 2nd tier league, maybe someday they figure out how to combine the two who knows but that's on a macro level on the micro level you can do your part by finding quality coaches and a program that helps your daughter reach her potential.
