Preseason DA Rankings 04

MakeAPlay said:
So you are saying that ECNL should have just watered itself down and made the level of overall competition go down sooner? The real problem is US Soccer as was illustrated quite emphatically on Tuesday. If they hadn't gotten involved the dilution of the SoCal talent pool wouldn't have happened. 6 years ago I thought that 8 teams were too many to be considered elite but I was okay with it due to the geographical limitations. The amount of teams now is ludicrous especially considering that in the entire region there are only about 25-40 elite players AT MOST in any particular age group.

Look I get it you are a Beach homer and fortunately for you Mauricio, Jeff and Rob are fantastic coaches. However, Beach as a club did nothing that would have earned them ECNL admission PRIOR to the ECNL teams forgoing participating in National Cup and USYS competition. If any club should feel screwed it should be Laguna Hills Eclipse because they were the one SoCal club that had won a USYS National championship on the girls side that did not get into ECNL.

It is what it is but there is no denying the the talent pool is much more dilute now than it has ever been. At least more people can call their kids elite and drive around with Slammers, Beach, Legends or Surf stickers on their cars and pretend.
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Yes, I am a bit of a Beach “homer” but it’s for all the right reasons.

You say “watering down”...a bit harsh in the overall context, but that’s your style, unbridled! I would argue however that there is a club of 2 in ECNL that hasn’t done enough to deserve retaining ECNL status.

Considering some of the ECNL “unicorns” are from the SouthBay area, one could also argue there is enough talent in the region (even if it were not Beach, but by your own self admission they have a very strong argument from a Coaching staff standpoint) to warrant someone having ECNL status. In LA County.

Let’s not make this an ECNL vs DA discussion. I honestly don’t give 2 $hits about the label. For me (and you can ask @NoGoal) it is about my DD and the Coaching she is getting. No matter what league you call it.

I’m just happy to see the passion my DD has for the game right now. Makes it all worth it.
 
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Kicker4Life said:
Yes, I am a bit of a Beach “homer” but it’s for all the right reasons.

You say “watering down”...a bit harsh in the overall context, but that’s your style, unbridled! I would argue however that there is a club of 2 in ECNL that hasn’t done enough to deserve retaining ECNL status.

Considering some of the ECNL “unicorns” are from the SouthBay area, one could also argue there is enough talent in the region (even if it were not Beach, but by your own self admission they have a very strong argument from a Coaching staff standpoint) to warrant someone having ECNL status. In LA County.

Let’s not make this an ECNL vs DA discussion. I honestly don’t give 2 $hits about the label. For me (and you can ask @NoGoal) it is about my DD and the Coaching she is getting. No matter what league you call it.

I’m just happy to see the passion my DD has for the game right now. Makes it all worth it.
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I am only responding to it being implied that Beach got screwed by not being allowed into ECNL. I have no beef with what GDA is supposed to be. My problem is with how disingenuous the whole process was. It was a power grab plain and simple and is not an attempt to elevate the game on the girls side. Why else would they simply poach most of the same clubs?

I have to ask how you can deny that the competition is watered down when you are going from 8 teams in a region in a closed "elite" league to 11 or 12 in the same region in an "elite" closed league? The argument that the old Legends/Beach/Carlsbad/Albion/LA Premier/Southbay Force people used to make was that a closed competition circuit was bad and now suddenly it's great! It's just pure unadulterated hypocrisy. I am all about the GDA's stated mission. Unfortunately their words don't match their actions.

Smart of you to focus on your player. Good luck to you and her.
 
MakeAPlay said:
I am only responding to it being implied that Beach got screwed by not being allowed into ECNL. I have no beef with what GDA is supposed to be. My problem is with how disingenuous the whole process was. It was a power grab plain and simple and is not an attempt to elevate the game on the girls side. Why else would they simply poach most of the same clubs?

I have to ask how you can deny that the competition is watered down when you are going from 8 teams in a region in a closed "elite" league to 11 or 12 in the same region in an "elite" closed league? The argument that the old Legends/Beach/Carlsbad/Albion/LA Premier/Southbay Force people used to make was that a closed competition circuit was bad and now suddenly it's great! It's just pure unadulterated hypocrisy. I am all about the GDA's stated mission. Unfortunately their words don't match their actions.

Smart of you to focus on your player. Good luck to you and her.
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One of the best posts regarding US Soccer / GDA I have read on here. You drilled it down and really hit the heart of the matter. Boom!
 
MakeAPlay said:
I am only responding to it being implied that Beach got screwed by not being allowed into ECNL. I have no beef with what GDA is supposed to be. My problem is with how disingenuous the whole process was. It was a power grab plain and simple and is not an attempt to elevate the game on the girls side. Why else would they simply poach most of the same clubs?

I have to ask how you can deny that the competition is watered down when you are going from 8 teams in a region in a closed "elite" league to 11 or 12 in the same region in an "elite" closed league? The argument that the old Legends/Beach/Carlsbad/Albion/LA Premier/Southbay Force people used to make was that a closed competition circuit was bad and now suddenly it's great! It's just pure unadulterated hypocrisy. I am all about the GDA's stated mission. Unfortunately their words don't match their actions.

Smart of you to focus on your player. Good luck to you and her.
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May be some miss communication as my point wasn’t that 12/13 teams in DA isn’t watering down competition ( I agree with you there). Only that if ECNL had trimmed a Club that wasn’t performing and added a Club in a Geographically underserved area, that the competition wouldn’t be watered down.

Thanks for the well wishes. Best to your DD and their quest for the Title!
 
RiverArsenal said:
Any updates on the table?
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1. Legends
2. 4-5 teams
3. 4-5 teams
4. 3 or so teams
Pretty much sums it up right now. With the 03s losing players to injury and also playing up- some 04s seeing more playing time at the 03 level, which changes the the 04 landscape. Any surprises so far?
 
Hired Gun said:
1. Legends
2. 4-5 teams
3. 4-5 teams
4. 3 or so teams
Pretty much sums it up right now. With the 03s losing players to injury and also playing up- some 04s seeing more playing time at the 03 level, which changes the the 04 landscape. Any surprises so far?
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Three waves as predicted. We aren’t in even the second half of the season. We shall see what next year brings already shaking up to be yet again a year of changes.
 
Striker17 said:
Three waves as predicted. We aren’t in even the second half of the season. We shall see what next year brings already shaking up to be yet again a year of changes.
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Just a tbought - accurate? The first place club on your charts has NO other Academy club in their county and acually took many of their competings clubs players. If this was the same case in San Diego County (3 DA clubs) LA County (3-4 DA Clubs) same for Orange County - with just one Academy Club in their selected counties wouldn't these clubs be just as good or better than the top team listed? Just a thought. These other counties have to split the best players to make their rosters diluting the talent pool. This is not a rip towards the top team but a reaction to the DA selection process. Should be fair across the board with all large soccer areas. Most everyone was suprised that another strong program in the IE did not get DA. In Maps defense lesser teams but equal amount in each geographic area if you want to go that direction.
 
I don’t think this was for me and my opinion is simply just an opinion but:
1. No one cared when for nine years all the talent had to drive one hour to an ENCL CLUB
No one questioned the “top clubs” and if you dare stated that their “stars” were either form out of state or out of geography people got miffed. They were the best recruited teams- not necessarily the best coached. Again nothing wrong with it but call a spade a spade
2. ECNL long ignored LA. I would venture to guess based on population density that there should be at or above the same talent of Legends in the LA area
3. The DA club disturbution is above my pay grade. I would say with competition comes better results and frankly having another club in SD or OC was needed to shake up the monopoly. I don’t see anything wrong with it frankly. That gets me to a whole other discussion about relegation but that won’t happen. True the clubs “share the talent” but if you want to really drill down like what @MakeAPlay says essentially any top team has 1-3 impact players. The rest are pretty similar.
4. There are still many many players who travel from the Legends area to OC and SD. Based off the success of the Legends this year I wonder how many will “go back home”. Parents like wins. Some parents are coach driven only

Next and most importantly I think the long term success of previous clubs was a hybrid of recruitment, coaching. Now that players seem to be more inclined to stay closer to home let’s see who two years from now develops, and maintains a consistent style of play. I do not know the answer to that question. The relative success of a program is two years away in my humble opinion.

Finally, each program varies differently. Vastly. I see few similarities between them. I would hope parents would do due diligence.
 
Hired Gun said:
In Maps defense lesser teams but equal amount in each geographic area if you want to go that direction.
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I'm okay with 1 per county. The OC, LA and San Diego county teams have been raiding the various parts of the 909 and 951 area codes for years Recently Legends has been raiding the eastern parts of the 714, 323 and 626 area codes for players clearly loving that they have flipped the script on Arsenal. At this point I don't really care. US Soccer has revealed their intentions once again and will continue to do damage to the women's side of the game.

Find a great coach on a team with other great players that play in the showcases to be seen by the right colleges and most importantly PLAY GREAT SOCCER. Good luck to you and your player.
 
Striker17 said:
3. The DA club disturbution is above my pay grade. I would say with competition comes better results and frankly having another club in SD or OC was needed to shake up the monopoly.
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I just don't think that another club was needed in the OC (it already had 4 at the highest level) and although San Diego has a ton of talent I would argue that there are only 4-8 per age group that are truly elite in the county and that talent would be much better served (as is has been in the past for the most part) by playing on the same team. My player had several of her college teammates on her U18 team and although they didn't play a ton of club games together due to outside soccer commitments, it was a good experience to have other elite players training with her.

I just think that the best players benefit by playing together.
 
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