Crazy how the Thorns just popped up- what's the local take on that?
Also why would San Juan field such a great ECNL team? Is it the coach? It seems like now NorCal has lots of options?
San Juan is ECNL-only, and usually has good teams at each age group. Their 04 team is a little under the radar, but very good. They won the Blues Cup last summer against some very good competition.
Yeah, there a lot of options in NorCal, which is a good thing, but the downside to that is that the top teams will be very diluted. If you look at the peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose, there are now 4 GDA teams(Quakes, PSV, Burlingame, Thorns) and 1 ECNL team(MVLA). Last year, this same area had 2 ECNL teams(MVLA and DeAnza). I personally don't think there are that many elite players in the area to go around. But I'm a nobody, and what do I know?
As far as the Thorns are concerned, they came on the scene marketed as a girls only club whose leadership were all women. As it turns out, after reality hit, it looks like most of their coaches are men that are coming over from the DeAnza partnership. I heard their tryouts had low numbers, so there doesn't seem like a whole lot of interest. They are in the same basic area as the Quakes(San Jose/SouthBay), so those two clubs are in direct competition for the local talent, and I think the Quakes win out on that one, at least for the next couple of years.
In general in NorCal, there hasn't been a whole lot of buy in for DA, other than former DeAnza families who played for Deza. Much different landscape here in Norcal than SoCal.