Christian10711
BRONZE
Hey guys who do you guys think will get promoted next year to mls next 2 or mls next in ea? Any ideas?
EA southwest
- Thread starter Christian10711
- Start date
In the southwest????....no one (unless they finally make nice with David Oh or some big new spender comes in and throws a ton of money at them). The biggest player in the market is Albion and they don't need more Albions (the Albion team with the biggest shot, Bakersfield, was excluded no doubt in part because everyone hates the drive). Between the birth year and the new clubs (Juventus, Oaks, Bulls, LASC, Reds and Ventura Fusion on the 2nd level) the Los Angeles area is still struggling to get all those new clubs up and running (the belief is San Diego is a smaller market and between ECNL and MLSN is pretty well full served so I guess another possibility would be an ECNL team that hopes over). There are still ads in the soccer boards for some of the new clubs and even Force is advertising which means they haven't all filled up the MLS2 slots they need to with the highest caliber players. The soccer boards are still at this late date advertising EA and EA2 teams looking for not just players, but key players like strikers & goalkeepers. The most likely candidates are promotions from MLS2 to MLS are Juventus (they seem to have some kind of connection to do that rise so quick) and Laguna (which has been a long time grinder) (doubt it will be Albion Riverside just given Albion was forced to exclude some teams and it sits in Force's shadow). So in short, it's unlikely unless they relent on Socal Elite, there's some new entrant with a lot of money and/or influence, or an ECNL club hops.
The regular southwest MLSN didn't do so good in the qualifications for the Round of 32 finals. Strikers was the only club that made 4/4. IIRC Barsca had 3/4. The only other teams I remember seeing is TFA got 1 and Albion San Diego got 1. The Galaxy did not make 4/4 and I'm not sure that LAFC did either. The biggest eye opening is how far Albion LA has fallen....I'd regularly expect to see at least 1 or 2 teams there when it was Laufa. Fusion's failure to place also is an indication of where that program, which is supposed to be a pro program, stands.
pitchplease
SILVER ELITE
4 clubs total got all their age groups in. Barca did get all 4 teams in. so did Strikers. Fc Dallas and Sacramento Republic are the other two.
KiloOne
BRONZE
Chula Vista has one team in as well. Barca was 4/4.
Christian10711
BRONZE
I completely agree that SoCal elite was robbed of getting mls next 2 and I think they will definitelty promote them next season along with maybe the rangers(who could have got ecnl with almost all age groups in playoffs), Ac Brea who is another great option as they are a established team, and probably sand and surf.
Socal Elite will likely have to fix its relationship with Socal League first.
Given the admission of the Reds on top of strikers, and given that Strikers is the one club that is regularly producing at all levels, I doubt they'll let in any OC teams in. Brea is in TFA's area, another club still producing results. Didn't Sand & Surf just partner with City plus it has the same OC issue? Brea and Sand & Surf also just got EA so unlikely after just 1 year particularly since if SoCal Elite sticks together it and strikers are likely to pound all the EA competition.
No...if they let someone else it it's likely a surprise that makes little sense with connections (see Bulls, Juventus, Reds), or it's an ECNL club they poach. I think the days of geographic coverage (like Santa Barbara/Ventura/Murrieta) in Socal are probably over.
Christian10711
BRONZE
What about the Rangers?
Christian10711
BRONZE
The rangers also have a GA team
I don’t know. What’s going on there? The website lists them as both ecrl and ea and the coaches are both overlapping on the lists. I doubt ecrl will be happy if they leave the second team there so are they moving to ea or they trying to do both (in which case the ea team is unlikely to be very good given the talent drain in the area)? If they are doing all ea maybe…doubtful next year esp if mlsn joins the age shuffle and given they don’t seem to have the connections to grab ecnl…but maybe???
4/4 for strikers and barca is very impressive. It’s no wonder they dominate at every level.
Christian10711
BRONZE
They are completely shifting over to ea and from what I heard a few parents are not happy because they brought in a bunch of new coaches and last year the directors promised the parents ecnl.
Ouch. It's at best a lateral move from ECRL to EA (the official youth pyramid has MLS2 and ECNL both at level 2 but ECNL is still probably 1.5). If they are losing players due to coaching changes and no ECNL, they are probably losing some of the best players. And pickings are slim of good players for the EA program.....lot's of programs advertising on the boards including for key positions at striker, CB and goalkeeper....even saw Force advertising for MLS/MLS2 (which really means MLS2)....not a good sign for so many teams already into June. The quality of EA is going to be even more spread out than it already is.
I see on the boards at least a couple of the mls2 teams went to tfa oc instead of tfa downtown (where the mls teams is). Tfa oc already had the ea teams for the olders and ea2 teams for the Youngers. That means they’ll be even more pressure down in the oc to find players. Further the entire point of the system was like some ecnl clubs do to integrate training and allow a place for players to move up and down. so hard to see how that happens if clubs break up the two tiers into 2 branches. But I guess the biggest thing this indicates is how much the fee inflation in recent years has put working class families under stress. It means both Laufa/albion and partially tfa have been forced to leave the downtown working class triangle for the richer areas south.
TheMountie
BRONZE
How is it that a city as large as Anaheim doesn’t have a single team in EA, ECNL, RL, or MLS Next? Does the city have strict field permit regulations that make it difficult for top-tier clubs to operate there?
The only teams I’m aware of that train in Anaheim over at Magnolia High's terrible fields are CSL or lower-flight SoCal League teams like Worldwide, Anaheim FC..
It’s surprising that clubs like TFA, Legends, Pats, or Strikers don’t have a presence in Anaheim. The closest options seem to be Strikers Orange or Legends Orange County, but I’m not even sure where they train.
The only teams I’m aware of that train in Anaheim over at Magnolia High's terrible fields are CSL or lower-flight SoCal League teams like Worldwide, Anaheim FC..
It’s surprising that clubs like TFA, Legends, Pats, or Strikers don’t have a presence in Anaheim. The closest options seem to be Strikers Orange or Legends Orange County, but I’m not even sure where they train.
I've heard it multiple times, but can someone explain the love/logic for Socal Elite at this point? Their teams u15 and below are pretty bad in ea2. Those are the prime ages for recruiting up the pyramid. Their 3 oldest age groups seems strong, but not stronger than other clubs that also have decent younger teams.
Anaheim FC used to be a really decent club with some really great teams. Don't know why they were frozen out of letter leagues but field space does have a lot to do with it. It's one of the reason all the downtown clubs and valley clubs were frozen out (the valley clubs just died and it seems the downtown clubs are in the process of doing so). TFA and Albion both have an OC presence now nearby. When MLSN and EA were selecting the first clubs, field quality and geography were the two big deals...teams that had access to OC Great Park just had it easier. Same with Santa Monica with its access to places like Tommy's Field, Laufa with access to some to high schools like Sotomayor and John Marshall, LASC to Cathedral, and the Bulls with the new Gols facility. TFA seems to be the one LA squad they gave a lot of leeway to because of its record and because it was in the downtown triangle (I've seen their MLSN teams at times practicing in public parks).
SoCal Elite went through a time period (and that is the legacy of the older stronger teams you mentioned) where they were tearing up SoCal League just before the letter league explosion took place after the unwind of the DA. Besides strikers, they were THE trophy chasing team. They did it through aggressive recruitment policies at a time when SoCal League was getting chippy about poaching and teams getting destroyed by recruitment going into state cup so they started to impose penalties and sanctions. SoCal League threw them out (IIRC no one here has posted exactly what the offense was), but they still got EA the year they got thrown out (but not MLSN and that action probably stopped them from getting it/having any chance of getting it). If what you say is true, the lack of a Socal League feeder system probably is hurting and their effective demotion from the second tier is probably going to hurt them some more.
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BOCA OC...trains in Anaheim promoted to EA and DPLO . Gabbed a bunch of TFA OC kids. And expanded beyond...should be interesting.
Very interesting. Though that's weird. TFA is advertising at least some of its MLS2 teams out of the OC. Does that mean Boca grabbed kids who didn't make the MLS2 team, TFA just shifted a lot of its MLSN kids down to drive to the OC, or TFA only made a partial move?
I think this thread is illustrating 4 trends going on with boys soccer right now in Socal:
1. Clubs are because of the rising fees moving their focus from poorer areas to the richer areas. Laufa/Albion for example moved its focus from downtown Los Angeles/Griffith Park to Long Beach and then now southward to Torrance, the OC and even sending MLSN teams to Santa Monica. If anybody has the Chula Vista/Nomads story, I would love to hear it because that's been another shift.
2. The big mega Clubs are increasingly relying on satellites for expansion. you have the Bulls for example spread out from the Val to LA West Side, LASC now in the San Gabriel Valley, Albion having acquired 4 clubs.
3. If Clubs are advertising this late into June for EA2, EA and even MLS2 teams, the reorg on those middle levels is a pretty substantial shakeup. Who is left in Socal League? It seems increasingly a place for just youngers. Is E64 gone on the boys side? What about the other non-ECNL letter leagues?
4. MLS2 at least anecdotally right now isn't shaping up to be the big integration that it was supposed to be with the first tier. Seems like it might be headed just for being the new EA, except with all the teams/players scrambled.
yeah I think a bit disjointed but plenty from the OC area.