# Two Weekend-Games is Dangerous & Dumb



## oh canada (Mar 28, 2022)

Didn't like a lot about the DA, but the one-game weekends was one of the things they got right. 

There's no good reason to play Sat-Sun games almost every weekend during league season. Pros don't play back-to-back, colleges complain that a Thurs-Sat (or Fri-Sun) schedule doesn't give the players enough rest, and high schools don't even play on consecutive days. 

Either reduce the number of games overall or lengthen the season, ECNL. At the very least, if you must have a 2-game weekend, the next weekend should be game-free.


----------



## timbuck (Mar 28, 2022)

Not just ECNL-  Should be for all leagues/players.


----------



## socalkdg (Mar 28, 2022)

Or coaches could use some of that bench they have with 18 player rosters.   Limit minutes to 120 over the weekend and use everyone.


----------



## crush (Mar 28, 2022)

The best thing a player can do is tell the coach the games they can play in when the back to back show their ugly face or a dangerous team is coming up on the schedule.  Safety first is my motto.  I agree Canada, one game a week at the GDA was what they got right and one of the many reasons we signed my dd up in that league.  Two games back to back is dangerous at best for any soccer player.


----------



## oh canada (Mar 29, 2022)

socalkdg said:


> Or coaches could use some of that bench they have with 18 player rosters.   Limit minutes to 120 over the weekend and use everyone.


like the thought. I'd just say that 120 mins is still too much for a weekend. Keep it to 80mins total and you'd get my vote.

Lynn Williams now out for the season, Marta, Tierna Davidson, too. Just too many games being played at all levels. At least pros getting paid (a little). Our kids need the leagues to prioritize players not their business goals. 

GA free business advice:  If GA switched to one game a week, that would be a HUGE selling point for me if I had a younger kid, but we've only got one more year left in ECNL.


----------



## Kicker 2.0 (Mar 29, 2022)

Quick point of order…..GDA did have 2 games in a weekend, just never more than 2 games in 3 days.


----------



## azsnowrider (Mar 29, 2022)

oh canada said:


> like the thought. I'd just say that 120 mins is still too much for a weekend. Keep it to 80mins total and you'd get my vote.
> 
> Lynn Williams now out for the season, Marta, Tierna Davidson, too. Just too many games being played at all levels. At least pros getting paid (a little). Our kids need the leagues to prioritize players not their business goals.
> 
> GA free business advice:  If GA switched to one game a week, that would be a HUGE selling point for me if I had a younger kid, but we've only got one more year left in ECNL.


Are you cool with more travel then? You might be making one to two more trips to AZ then. It is easier travel wise and scheduling to knock out 2 games over a weekend. AZ travels more than CA does so that would mean the AZ travel doubles. Parents gripe enough about travel as it is now you want to add to it? As Kicker pointed out the DA had many 2 game weekends. I'm not disagreeing with it, but there would be added consequences. As another poster mentioned the best thing to do is limit minutes which will never happen.


----------



## crush (Mar 29, 2022)

I was sold fully funded, "A" Licensed coaching, one game a week, no play ups unless US Soccer says so and no high school soccer for anyone, period and end of story.  Pats were the only one's who obeyed I believe.  They were straight up.  It's sad they had to get poached for a year and then invited to the big dance this next season.  So sad for the coaches and the players caught in-between.  I believe all these selling points NEVER happened for my kid.  Girls past 13 years of age should not be playing back to back.  Why do the girls have to play back to back again?  $$$$$$?????  Anyway, it's great to be back with all of you.  Good luck to your player and if theirs anything I have learned through all this is this:  The mental pressure to be the best student with the highest GPA, be the best and brightest SAT student and be the best soccer player is not for the faint of heart.  I don't wish that life on anyone but to the girls who can pull this off, congrats.


----------



## dad4 (Mar 29, 2022)

azsnowrider said:


> Are you cool with more travel then? You might be making one to two more trips to AZ then. It is easier travel wise and scheduling to knock out 2 games over a weekend. AZ travels more than CA does so that would mean the AZ travel doubles. Parents gripe enough about travel as it is now you want to add to it? As Kicker pointed out the DA had many 2 game weekends. I'm not disagreeing with it, but there would be added consequences. As another poster mentioned the best thing to do is limit minutes which will never happen.


You assume we still schedule every ECNL team, regardless of quality.  

There is no reason for it.   Stop asking people to travel all over for blowouts.

You have rankings.  Use them.  Schedule better games, and fewer of them.


----------



## oh canada (Mar 29, 2022)

azsnowrider said:


> Are you cool with more travel then? You might be making one to two more trips to AZ then. It is easier travel wise and scheduling to knock out 2 games over a weekend. AZ travels more than CA does so that would mean the AZ travel doubles. Parents gripe enough about travel as it is now you want to add to it? As Kicker pointed out the DA had many 2 game weekends. I'm not disagreeing with it, but there would be added consequences. As another poster mentioned the best thing to do is limit minutes which will never happen.


I would be fine with the 2-game weekends for the trips to AZ. That makes sense for the SoCal teams and amounts to only one league weekend a year for us in SoCal. And, for those weekends when AZ teams play my kid's club, I can understand those also could be a 2-game weekend to reduce travel/cost for out of state families. But there's no reason why my kid's team needs to play two OC, LA, or SD clubs in the same weekend.

Now, that's not gonna help the AZ/NV clubs to reduce their 2-game weekends as much as SoCal clubs (you could still schedule your local games against each other 1/week), but I see that as the price to pay for wanting to play more competition outside your state.  Let's be frank, SoCal has enough quality teams now in ECNL SW division to only play SoCal teams. It sounds elitist, but please read with 100% objectivity. It's true. So are the 15+ SoCal teams playing a schedule to accommodate the 4 out of state clubs? They shouldn't and ECNL should lead on this important issue and create a more player-friendly schedule. Someone copy/paste to Lavers


----------



## whatithink (Mar 29, 2022)

From what I see in AZ the clubs couldn't care less about player welfare. Freeing up top level players (MLS aside as they have actual restrictions) would just allow the clubs to load up lower level teams to boost their performance & rankings. The premise for my statement is every tournament organized by every club in AZ regularly schedules teams to play 3 games in < 24 hours and 4 games in <36 hours. Their lip service toplayer welfare is quickly discarded when it comes to $ for tournaments.


----------



## azsnowrider (Mar 29, 2022)

oh canada said:


> I would be fine with the 2-game weekends for the trips to AZ. That makes sense for the SoCal teams and amounts to only one league weekend a year for us in SoCal. And, for those weekends when AZ teams play my kid's club, I can understand those also could be a 2-game weekend to reduce travel/cost for out of state families. But there's no reason why my kid's team needs to play two OC, LA, or SD clubs in the same weekend.
> 
> Now, that's not gonna help the AZ/NV clubs to reduce their 2-game weekends as much as SoCal clubs (you could still schedule your local games against each other 1/week), but I see that as the price to pay for wanting to play more competition outside your state.  Let's be frank, SoCal has enough quality teams now in ECNL SW division to only play SoCal teams. It sounds elitist, but please read with 100% objectivity. It's true. So are the 15+ SoCal teams playing a schedule to accommodate the 4 out of state clubs? They shouldn't and ECNL should lead on this important issue and create a more player-friendly schedule. Someone copy/paste to Lavers


I don't think it is elitist one bit, Its true and we know it. Many of us prefer to play SoCal though, its an easy drive for the most part and AZ spends a lot of time in SoCal vacationing anyways. But, if you look across the country soccer is bigger than just SoCal, and everyone has a travel problem. Many conferences are worse off than So Cal and AZ, and In reality we have it good compared to others. I know your joking but Lavers won't do crap about it, If they give into So Cal then whos next Texas, Florida? I'm sure you have, but look at the map, lots of places have it worse. Colorado, Utah, Washington, go look at the Midwest, aye aye horrible...  As I mentioned before I don't disagree with the 1 game a weekend premise, but its not reality when our kids play travel soccer. Enjoy the ride your almost done


----------



## GT45 (Mar 29, 2022)

oh canada said:


> Lynn Williams now out for the season, Marta, Tierna Davidson, too. Just too many games being played at all levels. At least pros getting paid (a little). Our kids need the leagues to prioritize players not their business goals.


Have you actually looked into these injuries? They are not because of too many games.  Tierna got hurt in training. Lynn injured her hamstring in the first game of the season.   Marta landing wrong after jumping 15 minutes into her second game. These two games were 7 days apart. These injuries are not evidence to support your argument of too many games in a short time.


----------



## GT45 (Mar 29, 2022)

"So are the 15+ SoCal teams playing a schedule to accommodate the 4 out of state clubs? They shouldn't and ECNL should lead on this important issue and create a more player-friendly schedule."

ECNL is a national league. So it is not on them to create a So Cal league for you. SoCal Soccer league is available to you if you do not want to travel.


----------



## oh canada (Mar 29, 2022)

GT45 said:


> "So are the 15+ SoCal teams playing a schedule to accommodate the 4 out of state clubs? They shouldn't and ECNL should lead on this important issue and create a more player-friendly schedule."
> 
> ECNL is a national league. So it is not on them to create a So Cal league for you. SoCal Soccer league is available to you if you do not want to travel.


Please don't waste my time pointing out obvious facts. Yes, it's a national league, but we already do things differently here in SW division vs. the rest of the country. Take high school soccer seasons, for example. We have it in the winter here. Most of the rest of the country does not. I hope I don't have to give you the obvious reason why not. 

Push the playoffs into July if you have to, but there is already plenty of time in SoCal to have mostly 1-game per weekend schedules (except for the AZ trips). And, since our teams are not playing other conference teams anyway, it really doesn't matter if the 20-something games we play are on a different schedule than when the northeast teams play their 20-something games. As long as we all finish by the playoffs and don't schedule games on National Showcase weekends.

Last, this isn't an anti-travel thread. Read it again if you must.


----------



## oh canada (Mar 29, 2022)

azsnowrider said:


> I don't think it is elitist one bit, Its true and we know it. Many of us prefer to play SoCal though, its an easy drive for the most part and AZ spends a lot of time in SoCal vacationing anyways. But, if you look across the country soccer is bigger than just SoCal, and everyone has a travel problem. Many conferences are worse off than So Cal and AZ, and In reality we have it good compared to others. I know your joking but Lavers won't do crap about it, If they give into So Cal then whos next Texas, Florida? I'm sure you have, but look at the map, lots of places have it worse. Colorado, Utah, Washington, go look at the Midwest, aye aye horrible...  As I mentioned before I don't disagree with the 1 game a weekend premise, but its not reality when our kids play travel soccer. Enjoy the ride your almost done


Appreciate your thoughts. Take a look at what I wrote in reply to the post above. I don't think it matters what the other conferences do or the travel they have to endure. Our clubs are not playing those clubs except in Showcases and playoffs. And we already handle high school differently, so Southwest conference should be allowed to schedule its games how they want - pretty sure the Southwest club directors already get together regularly to discuss a variety of issues, this should be #1 for next year.


----------



## oh canada (Mar 29, 2022)

GT45 said:


> Have you actually looked into these injuries? They are not because of too many games.  Tierna got hurt in training. Lynn injured her hamstring in the first game of the season.   Marta landing wrong after jumping 15 minutes into her second game. These two games were 7 days apart. These injuries are not evidence to support your argument of too many games in a short time.


Keep reading. And people are speculating that the National team calendar and the NWSL preseason cup may be too much too soon for these players. Regardless, these players are not even playing games on consecutive days and there's thought it's too much. That's the main point of this thread.


----------



## GT45 (Mar 30, 2022)

oh canada said:


> Please don't waste my time pointing out obvious facts. Yes, it's a national league, but we already do things differently here in SW division vs. the rest of the country. Take high school soccer seasons, for example. We have it in the winter here. Most of the rest of the country does not. I hope I don't have to give you the obvious reason why not.
> 
> Push the playoffs into July if you have to, but there is already plenty of time in SoCal to have mostly 1-game per weekend schedules (except for the AZ trips). And, since our teams are not playing other conference teams anyway, it really doesn't matter if the 20-something games we play are on a different schedule than when the northeast teams play their 20-something games. As long as we all finish by the playoffs and don't schedule games on National Showcase weekends.
> 
> Last, this isn't an anti-travel thread. Read it again if you must.


Yuu have just advocated to push the playoffs later to suit the your So Cal clubs desires. Again, it is a national league. So Cal playing HS soccer in the winter doesn't make them unique. Some states play in the fall, some in the spring, some in the winter. Every ECNL club/state works around HS soccer. So Cal clubs already have it easier than any other state or region. They do the LEAST amount of travel of any ECNL clubs.


----------



## GT45 (Mar 30, 2022)

oh canada said:


> Keep reading. And people are speculating that the National team calendar and the NWSL preseason cup may be too much too soon for these players. Regardless, these players are not even playing games on consecutive days and there's thought it's too much. That's the main point of this thread.


Injuries happen because of bad luck in many cases. These injuries were not because the players were being overworked. I have looked into each one of them. My post stands as accurate.


----------



## Kicker 2.0 (Mar 30, 2022)

One or Two weekends a month with 2 games so not over working then as long as the club gives them Monday off and Tuesday light work the days after.  

You have subs for a reason.


----------

