# Marin FC joins ECNL



## Anon9 (Jun 21, 2019)

https://www.eliteclubsnationalleague.com/2019/06/20/marin-football-club-joins-girls-ecnl-for-the-2019-20-season/


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## Anon9 (Jun 21, 2019)

Any feedback on how they do in tournaments in SoCal?


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## Surf Zombie (Jun 21, 2019)

https://www.eliteclubsnationalleague.com/2019/06/21/pride-soccer-club-joins-girls-ecnl-for-the-2019-20-season/

New CO club added as well.


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## Kicker4Life (Jun 21, 2019)

Anon9 said:


> Any feedback on how they do in tournaments in SoCal?


I’ve never heard of them.  Not sure if they’ve played in SoCal or not.


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## Soccerfan2 (Jun 21, 2019)

Anon9 said:


> Any feedback on how they do in tournaments in SoCal?


They are not particularly strong in NorCal. In my daughter’s age group they played super white in surf last summer and came in 3rd in their group.


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## davin (Jun 21, 2019)

Soccerfan2 said:


> They are not particularly strong in NorCal. In my daughter’s age group they played super white in surf last summer and came in 3rd in their group.


Not sure how you arrived at that conclusion. Marin’s 2004 squad won the 2018 Surf Cup Super Black Championship. Their 2004 and 2002 teams are probably the best teams outside of ECNL or GDA in NorCal. The 2003 team is pretty good too.


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## LASTMAN14 (Jun 21, 2019)

davin said:


> Not sure how you arrived at that conclusion. Marin’s 2004 squad won the 2018 Surf Cup Super Black Championship. Their 2004 and 2002 teams are probably the best teams outside of ECNL or GDA in NorCal. The 2003 team is pretty good too.


This is the team SF2 was referring to.
http://events.gotsport.com/events/schedule.aspx?eventid=65149&FieldID=0&applicationID=4653039&action=Go


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## davin (Jun 21, 2019)

LASTMAN14 said:


> This is the team SF2 was referring to.
> http://events.gotsport.com/events/schedule.aspx?eventid=65149&FieldID=0&applicationID=4653039&action=Go


I knew exactly which Marin team he was referring to. What I'm questioning is his conclusion that Marin(the club) was "not particularly strong in NorCal". That is completely inaccurate. They've been the best club in NorCal, outside of ECNL and GDA, the past few years if you look across all age groups. They're probably better than some NorCal ECNL and GDA clubs right now.


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## wc_baller (Jun 21, 2019)

davin said:


> Not sure how you arrived at that conclusion. Marin’s 2004 squad won the 2018 Surf Cup Super Black Championship. Their 2004 and 2002 teams are probably the best teams outside of ECNL or GDA in NorCal. The 2003 team is pretty good too.


Marin’s 2001 team played in Super Black division of the Surf Cup, finished 2nd in their group, and finished with a 3-1 record overall in the competition. That is one of the best teams in NorCal as well.


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## soccer4us (Jun 23, 2019)

Based on my research it seems like a good non GDA/ECNL Club. Certainly one of the best in Nor Cal results wise.  02 and 04 appear to be their best 2 age groups. Like many new clubs in ECNL, there is a learning curve and it's a different level of competition. I imagine there will be some struggles the first year but they seem deserving of admittance.


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## davin (Jun 23, 2019)

soccer4us said:


> Based on my research it seems like a good non GDA/ECNL Club. Certainly one of the best in Nor Cal results wise.  02 and 04 appear to be their best 2 age groups. Like many new clubs in ECNL, there is a learning curve and it's a different level of competition. I imagine there will be some struggles the first year but they seem deserving of admittance.


Agree that there is an adjustment and learning curve for Marin, like any new ECNL club. But one of the things they got going for them in their favor as they enter the league is that they already play ECNL teams on a regular basis.

In NorCal, all of the ECNL clubs enter their ECNL teams in the NorCal Premier league in additional to the ECNL league to get more games in and in order to supplement development. The top league in NorCal Premier is the Champions League, which teams need to qualify for in order to gain entry, and ECNL teams usually qualify for the Champions League. All of the top NorCal teams, aside from GDA, play in the Champions League, and each of Marin's teams qualified and played in the Champions League this year. I believe all of their teams played in the Champions League the last couple of years, as well. So, they are already have played their ECNL competition for years, albeit in a different type of competition. ECNL teams normally use the Champions League games for development, to try new things, and give substitutes more playing time than they would normally get in ECNL competition. So it will be a little different when Marin starts playing the same teams in ECNL league play, and they will have to up their game.


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## Soccerfan2 (Jun 23, 2019)

davin said:


> Not sure how you arrived at that conclusion. Marin’s 2004 squad won the 2018 Surf Cup Super Black Championship. Their 2004 and 2002 teams are probably the best teams outside of ECNL or GDA in NorCal. The 2003 team is pretty good too.


I was going by what I know of my dd’s age group and one year up. I looked again and 04 team does have a good record - better than I thought and they look to be competitive with ECNL teams. 05 and 03 are not. 

Marin may well be the best non DA/ECNL club in NorCal, that’s a fair point. I just don’t even think the current bottom of ECNL or DA are particularly strong. Not a fan of diluting either league further.


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## soccer4us (Jun 23, 2019)

That's a fair point. Maybe ECNL's thinking was to bring Marin County and San Fransisco talent together by giving the best club in the area the ECNL status. Of course, never a guarantee all the talent comes together but if so, they should be more competitive long term. Unfortunately, until all the best clubs are one league the bottom end of both will usually struggle in their respective divisions.


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## dk_b (Jun 24, 2019)

I think this is a really good move - for Marin FC and for ECNL.  There is a lot of geographic gap between MVLA (consistently strong) and Santa Rosa United (struggling in recent years).  Being an ECNL club, Marin FC will attract more talent than their current teams have - and they have been consistently strong (some age groups quite strong, some not that strong (not unlike other clubs), decent college placement as well).  There are kids from the East Bay who may not want to make the trek to Mustang or Rage or up to Davis who will consider Marin FC.  There will be an adjustment - their opponents' depth of talent and pace of play will be an adjustment for Marin FC teams and this announcement is coming AFTER tryouts so their rosters are pretty well set (they may have known internally, and their captive players may have known going to tryouts, but this came as a surprise to each parent w/whom I spoke so I don't think the information was that widespread, and certainly not enough to generate a buzz from outside Marin).  I expect that we will see them be pretty competitive pretty quickly - say, 2020-2021.  Davis Legacy has a similar profile and they had one very special team (last year's 01s) who made it all the way to the Final Four in the club's first ECNL season.

And while Marin FC's teams have played some ECNL teams in NPL's champions league, it should be noted that some clubs (MVLA and Mustang) routinely play their teams one year up for NPL so it is hard to gauge how they'd be, head up, against the strongest of NorCal's ECNL teams.


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## eastbaysoccer (Aug 16, 2019)

Ok club.  However they could steal girls away from SRU and MVLA who want to play at a club closer to their home.  I eventually see SRU losing Ecnl membership for a variety of reasons.


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## MWN (Sep 3, 2019)

For the SoCal parents with little understanding of Northern California soccer:

NorCal: US Club Soccer and its leagues are the 800 lb gorilla.  NorCal (US Youth Soccer) is for the most part recreation focused with a handful of team competing in it at the higher levels in CRL.

SoCal: Cal South (US Youth Soccer) is the 800 lb gorilla.  US Club Soccer is for the most part limited to ECNL and some spring leagues in SoCal.

For a NorCal team to be given ECNL status in NorCal is not a leap of faith because all of those clubs and teams basically play at various levels within US Club and those players have been registered with US Club, although ECNL is a separate league.  

@Soccerfan2, it is a mistake to form an opinion of an entire club by the performance of a single team in a single age group in a single tournament.


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## dk_b (Sep 3, 2019)

Small correction:  NorCal (or “NorCal Premier”, officially) is under US Club Soccer (like ECNL and NPL). Cal North (which used to be CYSA) is the USYS affiliated organization (with ODP and CRL).  

Marin FC has been a NorCal (US Club Soccer) club for a long time and has played NPL since that started. I believe it will be a successful ECNL club within 2 years. 

The big shift about 10 years ago converted NorCal from primarily a spring league to an organization with year round programming and more generous roster rules. It did not take long for NorCal to stomp Cal North (my oldest kid played on both sides of this change before he stopped playing at U13G while my girls have been in the NorCal-dominant landscape their entire time, with one moving to ECNL at some point and the others continuing with NPL to this point).


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## oh canada (Sep 4, 2019)

eastbaysoccer said:


> Ok club.  However they could steal girls away from SRU and MVLA who want to play at a club closer to their home.  I eventually see SRU losing Ecnl membership for a variety of reasons.


Agree.  More and more families are recognizing the value of time vs. club.  They are seeing that college coaches watch players, not clubs.  Closer to home, closer to school, closer to work...these are becoming the REAL value propositions.  Not, trophies or club "reputation".  That's old school.  Ask around...it's happening...and your kids will be better for it.


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## dk_b (Sep 4, 2019)

eastbaysoccer said:


> Ok club.  However they could steal girls away from SRU and MVLA who want to play at a club closer to their home.  I eventually see SRU losing Ecnl membership for a variety of reasons.


The reason I think they may struggle this year is that this announcement came way too late to attract anyone from outside their members but I think they will do exactly as you speculate, and more - that location is a very good one for kids who might be competitive but might ditch soccer for something else at 13 or 14 b/c the idea of driving down to MVLA from Southern Marin or up to SRU up 101 is just too much.  Further, I'd expect girls from closer to where I live to look to Marin FC rather than heading down 880 or out 24.  The club has been good enough with its prior footprint that it does not need huge #s of players to come in, just key players in enough volume in the various age groups.


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## Soccerfan2 (Sep 5, 2019)

MWN said:


> For the SoCal parents with little understanding of Northern California soccer:
> 
> NorCal: US Club Soccer and its leagues are the 800 lb gorilla.  NorCal (US Youth Soccer) is for the most part recreation focused with a handful of team competing in it at the higher levels in CRL.
> 
> ...


I agree, but that’s not what I did.
dk_b has a good point that the new ECNL status may draw players that the club didn’t draw before. There are still a lot of options in that area though, so time will tell.


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