Surf Cup - DA --- Accepted Teams

DA teams aren't allowed to play non-DA teams. It's a shame because I know a couple of the teams that I see listed on the DA list are about to get blasted when they play at surf. It would nice to have the best play against the best, but it won't happen in today's landscape.

Those ECNL teams in that bracket woo hoo- great flight. MVLA for the win though I am calling it early. They are too good for the ECNL teams you will be up against unless Arsenal retained their girls and Sting brings it. It will be a good gauge for the ECNL teams that are now watered down to see what a strong team is because honestly some of those squads will have never seen the likes of a MVLA.
 
Will be interesting to see how they will host all of these games. They literally have 50 to 60 teams in each age group. Will they do 25 min halves to get all these game in?
 
Those ECNL teams in that bracket woo hoo- great flight. MVLA for the win though I am calling it early. They are too good for the ECNL teams you will be up against unless Arsenal retained their girls and Sting brings it. It will be a good gauge for the ECNL teams that are now watered down to see what a strong team is because honestly some of those squads will have never seen the likes of a MVLA.
I wouldn't crown MVLA champions yet. There are still some good teams listed there that might give them a run.

Santa Rosa United 04 ECNL tied Earthquakes 04 GDA(formerly DeAnza) 2-2 this week in the USCS National Cup West Regional.
San Juan 04 ECNL beat Earthquakes 04 GDA 2-0 in the final of the same tournament. That San Juan team is a really good team, and can give any team in this age group a run for their money.
 
I wouldn't crown MVLA champions yet. There are still some good teams listed there that might give them a run.

Santa Rosa United 04 ECNL tied Earthquakes 04 GDA(formerly DeAnza) 2-2 this week in the USCS National Cup West Regional.
San Juan 04 ECNL beat Earthquakes 04 GDA 2-0 in the final of the same tournament. That San Juan team is a really good team, and can give any team in this age group a run for their money.

I didn't list Deza new team because I thought that they were DA? I would assume the top talent in the Earthquakes would go to the DA side?
 
I didn't list Deza new team because I thought that they were DA? I would assume the top talent in the Earthquakes would go to the DA side?
The San Jose Earthquakes are DA-only. They don't have any other teams besides their DA teams. Most of DeAnza's best players followed Deza to Earthquakes DA. DeAnza lost their ECNL affiliation, and are going to partner with the California Thorns, which is a new club created just for the DA. DeAnza will be pushing their best players to the Thorns with this partnership, but since their best players already followed Deza to the Earthquakes, the Thorns DA will be basically DeAnza's former 2nd team players.
 
Using the "Hotel Registration List" trick, here are the teams that are listed (don't quote this as being official as I have no idea if all these teams were actually accepted and there were SO MANY teams I very easily could have missed/added some incorrect teams):

ECNL Teams:
Arsenal ECNL-Brown
Crossfire Premier ECNL
Crossfire United ECNL
Dallas Sting ECNL
DMCV Sharks ECNL
Surf ECNL
San Juan Spirit ECNL
SoCal Blues Kale ECNL
Strikers ECNL
West Coast ECNL

Non-ECNL/DA Teams:
Anaheim Surf
Arizona Thunder
Arsenal-FC South
AZ Arsenal
Blues FC Navy
CDA Slammer Huie
Celtic FC
Clovis Crossfire
Davis Legacy Red
EPCSL SW Rush
Fullerton Rangers White
Heat FC KR
IE Surf RB
ISC Gunners FC
LA Galaxy Reserve DA
LA Galaxy-SD DA2
Legends-Riverside
Legends-South
LVPSA Girls Red
Marin FC Blue
Murrieta Surf
MVLA-Barcelona
Notts Forrest Red
PACNW Maroon
Palo Alto SC Blue
Pateadores Academy Reserve
Placer United Gold
Rebels Elite
SD Force FC-Ocampo
SDSC Navy
Surf EGSL
Santa Monica United
Santa Rosa United Gold
SGV Surf MB/SB
Star Academy FC
USA Metro Premier
USA Starts Academy
West Coast Soccer Wicked

Lionel, i don't care what anybody says, but you are the mf'n man. I was trying to make a mental note of the teams while scrolling down that never ending list, but I got dizzy and almost passed out. So props to you my man!
 
The San Jose Earthquakes are DA-only. They don't have any other teams besides their DA teams. Most of DeAnza's best players followed Deza to Earthquakes DA. DeAnza lost their ECNL affiliation, and are going to partner with the California Thorns, which is a new club created just for the DA. DeAnza will be pushing their best players to the Thorns with this partnership, but since their best players already followed Deza to the Earthquakes, the Thorns DA will be basically DeAnza's former 2nd team players.

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?
 
The San Jose Earthquakes are DA-only. They don't have any other teams besides their DA teams. Most of DeAnza's best players followed Deza to Earthquakes DA. DeAnza lost their ECNL affiliation, and are going to partner with the California Thorns, which is a new club created just for the DA. DeAnza will be pushing their best players to the Thorns with this partnership, but since their best players already followed Deza to the Earthquakes, the Thorns DA will be basically DeAnza's former 2nd team players.
Deza was not able to persuade the current DeAnza Force 05 team to come along this year with him to Quakes. They appreciate their current coach and we're committed to playing for him.
 
I get that it is about development now and believe me no one wants to see the Pats Academy teams development stunted because they had to play same lesser ECNL team like MVLA that plays a garbage style of soccer (insert sarcastic eye rolling emoji)

This age group has the arguably two best teams in California (Surf and MVLA) that played each other in the finals of Surf Cup last year and they are not going to play each other this year because they wear different patches on their uniform. What a crazy world we live in now!
 
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.
 
I get that it is about development now and believe me no one wants to see the Pats Academy teams development stunted because they had to play same lesser ECNL team like MVLA that plays a garbage style of soccer (insert sarcastic eye rolling emoji)

This age group has the arguably two best teams in California (Surf and MVLA) that played each other in the finals of Surf Cup last year and they are not going to play each other this year because they wear different patches on their uniform. What a crazy world we live in now!

At some tourneys you still have mixing - don't you worry plenty of time between now and Sept to participate in worthless tourneys so an ECNL team can say "that team was not even good we beat them at the Unicorn Festival"

It's like a retread of the ECNL vs non ECNL team argument with an added arm. The cycle never ends
 
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?

They are well coached and have some talented athletes, reminded me of the SD Surf squad from last year. NorCal has a lot of options but San Juan is in the Sac area where the other teams are Bay Area.

One team missing from all these conversations and I don't know the story is the Mustangs, what are they doing?
 
DA teams aren't allowed to play non-DA teams
I think part of the US Soccer GDA idea is to "breed" exclusivity. I dont like it anymore than the next person but seems they want the GDA to have the 'we choose you, you don't choose us' atmosphere?
 
They are well coached and have some talented athletes, reminded me of the SD Surf squad from last year. NorCal has a lot of options but San Juan is in the Sac area where the other teams are Bay Area.

One team missing from all these conversations and I don't know the story is the Mustangs, what are they doing?
Mustang is ECNL-only.
 
At some tourneys you still have mixing - don't you worry plenty of time between now and Sept to participate in worthless tourneys so an ECNL team can say "that team was not even good we beat them at the Unicorn Festival"

It's like a retread of the ECNL vs non ECNL team argument with an added arm. The cycle never ends

I really want to hear your opinion/reasoning for why MVLA shouldn't be allowed to play in the same group as the Surf given that there is still "mixing"? Would you be OK with this if tomorrow MVLA announced that they were now DA?

I am seriously not trying to troll you on this topic. We both know how good of soccer MVLA plays--I just want to make sure I am not missing something obvious here.
 
No and I am sorry it came across the way! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify. I think it's as silly as you do. They are one of my favorite teams- the heart and grit they have is tremendous
 
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