Girls Development Academy

outside! said:
And you continually fail to understand that circumstances changed in the 8 years between ECNL forming and GDA starting. In 2008/09, Surf was THE dominant club in San Diego county. In 2017 they were no longer clearly dominant due to internal problems and the growth of other clubs.
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On the girls side, Surf was "dominant". Their boys side teams were pretty much run of the mill, regularly getting beaten by Nomads boys and more or less even with longstanding clubs like Crusaders, Albion, Vaqueros, and Hotspurs. Surf and Nomads got the original boys San Diego County PDA slots because of soccer politics.
 
Simisoccerfan said:
Its way to early to declare anything yet. This is just the opening round of this battle. It appears that ECNL gave some sort of ultimatum to the dual clubs. Those with strong ties to ECNL decided to end their involvement in DA. FC Stars, Hawks and other teams have members in the ECNL leadership and on the various ECNL boards. PDA is not a dual club but I bet they get a lot of money from ECNL for the New Jersey event. What is surprising is that they even flirted with the DA in the first place. On the flip side the rumors indicate that the dual teams with a boys DA program are dropping DA.

So what does this mean for SoCal? If West Coast (OC Surf) and Surf drop ECNL then ECNL is down to only 5 teams in SoCal. All of these teams south or east of LA County. Even if LAFC Slammers and the Blues went only DA there would still be 11 SoCal DA teams. ECNL would need to recruit some additional clubs in LA quickly to make their league play attractive. Otherwise you add a lot of travel.
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Surf and Blues are not leaving ECNL and Slammers is leaving GDA. Those are the 3 most successful clubs in SoCal bar none. This debate is not a new one. If the old forum still existed you could simply pull up these same arguments from 6 years ago and they go on and on ad nauseum.

Like I said long ago this GDA idea was another half baked US Soccer initiative.
 
espola said:
On the girls side, Surf was "dominant". Their boys side teams were pretty much run of the mill, regularly getting beaten by Nomads boys and more or less even with longstanding clubs like Crusaders, Albion, Vaqueros, and Hotspurs. Surf and Nomads got the original boys San Diego County PDA slots because of soccer politics.
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Not to hijack the thread, but ask anybody involved with the Boys DA "now", not 7-8 years ago, and they will tell you that Surf's Boys DA is no longer run of the mill. They are competing with all the top teams in the Boys DA. Surf girls, well, they're Surf girls. They will always be one of the best.
 
Slammers is a big one if they are out.

It's pretty simple. ECNL was geared towards 100% of the players who ambition of playing college soccer. DA is geared towards .0005% playing on YNT. It's not some special formula. ECNL has common sense. US soccer well....enough said.
 
Simisoccerfan said:
PDA is not a dual club but I bet they get a lot of money from ECNL for the New Jersey event.
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Someone else corrected me on this point earlier. Sky Blue - PDA is actually a dual GDA/ECNL club. Apparently there are 3 clubs who have different names for their GDA and ECNL teams: NYCFC is World Class, Fury NY is Albertson Fury, and Sky Blue - PDA is PDA. I haven't confirmed independently.
 
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MakeAPlay said:
Surf and Blues are not leaving ECNL and Slammers is leaving GDA. Those are the 3 most successful clubs in SoCal bar none. This debate is not a new one. If the old forum still existed you could simply pull up these same arguments from 6 years ago and they go on and on ad nauseum.

Like I said long ago this GDA idea was another half baked US Soccer initiative.
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Did I miss the news on Slammers leaving girls DA? Is this true?
 
MakeAPlay said:
Surf and Blues are not leaving ECNL and Slammers is leaving GDA. Those are the 3 most successful clubs in SoCal bar none. This debate is not a new one. If the old forum still existed you could simply pull up these same arguments from 6 years ago and they go on and on ad nauseum.

Like I said long ago this GDA idea was another half baked US Soccer initiative.
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I did not imply that Blues were leaving ECNL. In fact I was speculating that they would leave DA if they were forced to choose. The opposite for Surf due to their DA ties on the boys side and the DA Oceanside deal. Note that Surf is not listed on the All In list yet.
 
MakeAPlay said:
You misunderstand the reason why Legends and Carlsbad weren't invited to join the ECNL. They had no track record of success in 2008/09 when the ECNL was formed. Every significant accolade that those clubs have earned was gained after the ECNL clubs stopped participating in USYS events.
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Thanks. And currently, do you feel that all the SoCal clubs on that list are more worthy than a Legends, Beach, LAGSD?
 
Right now ECNL is making a move but so far they are failing to serve the 11 Million plus people that live in LA and Ventura Counties. That's a population greater than 45 states. Yes there are a few crazy parents that will make that drive to the OC and a few special kids that have deals where they don't need to practice with the team. But that is a glaring omission that I wish ECNL would correct. It would be nice to have ECNL as an option.
 
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