SoccerMom05
SILVER ELITE
My daughter plays for 05 team but have watched these girls play for a few years and Am a big fan. I am sure the cheers were loud being that they were the only non DA team to win USSDA bracket.
DA and ECNL
- Thread starter Desert Hound
- Start date
Mystery Train
GOLD
Hey @SocalPapa , did you do a breakdown of the DA vs. non-DA teams from the past couple weeks at Surf Cup and Silverlakes? I glanced at a few random results, it seems that (as many have stated) there's some good teams at the top of each league, and some bad ones in each. DA is no exception, losing some games badly to non-DA league teams, and beating some soundly in other instances. Not sure what the final tally of ECNL vs. DA teams looked like.
I'm here bored at work so I thought I'd do head-to-head results from Silverlakes ECNL vs DA games for each age group. Listed is the group winner, total of H2H games, DA wins, ECNL wins, Ties and total goals scored during the H2H DA and ECNL games in that age group.
2000 - Washington Premiere ECNL, 9 H2H, DA (3), ECNL (4), Ties (2)
Goals: DA - 6 ECNL - 25
2002 - Slammers ECNL, 9 H2H, DA (5), ECNL (4), Ties (0)
Goals: DA - 12 ECNL - 12
2003 - MVLA ECNL, 2 H2H, DA (0), ECNL (2), Ties (0)
Goals: DA - 2 ECNL - 4
2004 - MVLA ECNL, 15 H2H, DA (4), ECNL (7), Ties (4)
Goals: DA - 15 ECNL - 20
2005 - Legends DA, 5 H2H, DA (2), ECNL (2), Ties (1)
Goals: DA - 4 ECNL - 6
Overall the games appeared competitive except for the ones involving the 00/01 PSV team which did not score a goal and allowed a total of 15 goals. With this being a showcase it's hard to do a true breakdown due some teams ended up playing teams from the bottom of the table while others played teams from the top. It will be interesting to see if Silverlakes will continue with these match ups or if other tournaments will also add DA vs ECNL matchups.
MakeAPlay
DA
Thank you for breaking this down for us!
Seems to me like the ECNL teams performed better. Curious since they practice less and play horrible high school soccer. Seems that US Soccer as usual picked a fight that it is losing when it should have collaborated with its biggest developer of high end talent.
SHAMEFUL.
Sheriff Joe
DA
So how does the traveling for ECNL work? Do the girls travel and stay together or do the players travel and stay with the parents?
It depends on the club. Some clubs travel as a team with chaperones, but not all. In my daughter's club, parents travel with their parents, but we also have the options to send our player with another family and share the costs.
LadiesMan217
GOLD
Oops. Haha. Meant "players travel with their parents".So the club made the grand parents travel?
Simisoccerfan
PREMIER
Maybe since it was too late in the night when you did this but you got the 2000 age group wrong. Beach DA beat San Juan ECNL. Eagles DA beat Seattle ECNL. Eagles DA beat San Juan ECNL. Legends DA beat MVLA ECNL. LA Premier DA beat Seattle ECNL. So thats 5 wins for DA not 3. Not sure if you made similar mistakes elsewhere.
I should have indicated I didn't include the wins against San Juan ECNL because its a composite team. An ECNL composite team is not the top team for an ECNL club. It's like a DPL team for a DA club except that an ECNL club will only have 1 composite team competing in the oldest age group. I can go deeper into this but in short the best players for an ECNL club are not playing on the composite team which is why those 2 wins were not included.
And to address any other misunderstandings, I included the 00 Crossfire Premier results as a DA team even though they're a dual club and the 00 standings didn't indicate if it was a DA or ECNL team. But since they only played 1 ECNL team that ended in a tie it didn't have much of an impact on the breakdown.
MakeAPlay
DA
@Lambchop stick your head in the sand like a dumb ostrich if you want to. I have the benefit of wisdom and experience in these matters. The GDA isn’t producing good product and it is clear. The U20 team just lost their opening game and eventually we are going to continue to decline as long as US Soccer keeps up with the silliness of the half ass GDA and the nepotism in hiring coaches and selecting players with average technical skills. Japan and Spain are both slower less athletic teams but with technical players at every position and they are doing much better than we are and we had a 20 year headstart, more resources AND Title IX. Keep drinking the kool aid. It will smack you in the face eventually!
shales1002
GOLD
Our club travels together via Chartered Bus. We send a couple of chaperones per team.
shales1002
GOLD
MakeAPlay
DA
If GDA teams are so special why don’t they win every time? My player’s team has committed only one GDA player. One. A top 5 team that only has one GDA commit in the entire country. Let that sink in. Colleges recruit players not teams and since they have to win in order to keep their jobs they are typically the better evaluators of talent unlike US Soccer where on the women’s side clearly neither winning nor development matter.
So I double checked (as I am sure you did as well) to confirm there were no other mistakes in the breakdown. The final tally for all age groups combined...
Wins: ECNL (19) DA (14) and 7 ties
Goals: ECNL (67) DA (39) +28 GD for ECNL teams
Removing the results from the 00 PSV team still leaves the ECNL teams with a +13 GD. Now if you add the results from Surf Cup to the tally where SoCal Academy competed in the DA bracket...
Wins: Non-DA (23) DA (14) and 7 ties
Goals: Non-DA (76) DA (42) +34 GD for Non-DA teams
Legends DA showed well at Silverlakes going 4-1-1 vs ECNL teams with a +3 GD overall (8 GF, 5 GA).
I know you're a strong supporter of GDA, rightfully so since your DD is with a DA club, but these results may force US soccer to ensure competition vs non-DA teams doesn't happen. Yes I know it's a small sample size but a +34 GD is huge and a lot bigger than I expected for either side. And this is with none of the top ECNL teams competing at Silverlakes. If Strikers 03 or Blues 01 or 02 teams were competing the GD would have increased significantly.
I didn't do this tally to knock GDA as I'm a supporter of the creation of the league. But it should truly be for the elite players and not just another national league. 98% of the girls in GDA have little to no chance at making a YNT. That is not saying they're not good players but steel sharpens steel as the saying goes and watching the U20 team lose today was disappointing.
Mystery Train
GOLD
^^^This x 1000
Simisoccerfan
PREMIER
I am a supporter but no I did not check the remainder of your results. Since GDA has only been in place for one year and almost all of the U20 team had played ECNL I am not sure how you can say this one loss is some sort of statement for the DA. Certainly some may say it says something about the whole of US Soccer but I would wait till more games are played.
Virtually none of the girls on the U20 team played in GDA. It's existed for one year. How is that even relevant?
Check out the player rankings and college commitments in SoCal from 03 and younger. It's very heavily skewed in favor of GDA - although the recent Slammers transition back to ECNL only makes that a bit more complicated of analysis. At the older ages, kids already committed definitely stuck around ECNL to play HS soccer. But it will interesting to see if the youngers move out of DA once HS starts.
Desert Hound
DA
That is the way to do it. We rent a couple of Greyhound size buses and all the teams travel together plus a few chaperones per team. Saves money, the girls love it, and the parents who go actually like it. Why? Because they can basically hang out for the weekend without worrying about running their DD around. Go watch a game, say hi to the DD and then head out with the other adults, etc.
Soccerfan2
GOLD
GDA is not quite one year old and will be evolving for quite some time. Might be a little early to draw conclusions about which is better, right? Without question top players are split between GDA and ECNL right now. The older age groups obviously stuck with ECNL for the first year. Youngers will be (and already are) different. Speaking for the 05 age group which I know well, slightly more of the top players are going DA so far. While the merits of the two systems can be debated, nobody could reasonably argue that DA players aren’t getting outstanding exposure.