That's even worse! Why would they change what makes their lives easier and more profitable I guess though?
'23-'24 SoCal and National Forecast and Updates
- Thread starter MARsSPEED
- Start date
ECNL doesn't care about you, me, or anyone's daughters. We and they are not ECNL's customers. The clubs are the customers. Once you accept that, you will understand their thinking.
The parents are the club's customer. What does the paying customer want? ECNL brings what the paying customer wants and that's access.
I don't get why the club would like their customers paying $10k for travel expense when they could be offering more training/games instead, but I'm sure it has to do with building more teams. The thing is if inflation stays sticky and interest rates keep going up regardless of stagnant economic activity, household budgets will get tighter and tighter to where many people won't be able to afford club soccer let alone huge travel expense for a potential 7 games. Not very smart to bankrupt the ultimate customers. We are on the verge of a bad economic period as stagflation already kreeping in. Why ECNL or The Clubs would want their customers spending a lot of unneccessary money on airplanes, hotels, rental cars, and restaurants is beyond me, but pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered.
9 just for Championship League Playoffs. There was no Showcase A/B for 2009 southwest this year. Looks like 2 southwest teams got North American Cup playoff spots this year. I know every age group has different cups and stuff but 9 from what I'm told would go to playoffs for each age group (well expect the oldest group which has the totally different playoff.
Imagine my surprise that you pick the two SoCal teams just like every year before…but nothing wrong with pulling for your home division. I am doing the same BUT am not going to cut my nose to spite my face. Surf/PDA/Solar are the top teams. Surf and PDA are the “hot” teams going into Finals.
Anyway, just had a look at the NJ forums with people complaining that Surf adds a bunch LV Surf players every year for playoffs and also flies another player in from Texas. No idea if this is true but I am hoping it is false.
I think Solar may fly in one player at a different age group but I have never heard of any other club doing something like this.
Girls Youth Soccer is just as toxic as AAU Basketball. Whether it’s USYNT roster, the stupid playoff structure that exploits families, and many other points. We are now witnessing parents paying $$$ to coaches for starting roster spots, playing up a year, etc. Families like ours who do everything by the book, have to hope for the best moving on to the next level. In a team that isn’t a Playoff competitor, it’s no longer about how good a player is, it’s about who can stuff the pockets of coaches and DC.
I will say our club is located in one of the wealthiest areas of the US, but I know of multiple clubs suffering the same fate in Virginia.
I’d much rather pay for Playoffs/Finals, unless the situation is the same on top of what I just said.
I will say our club is located in one of the wealthiest areas of the US, but I know of multiple clubs suffering the same fate in Virginia.
I’d much rather pay for Playoffs/Finals, unless the situation is the same on top of what I just said.
You’re really knowledgeable so I’m surprised you’re not already aware of how SoCal teams work for playoffs. They’re probably talking about the 07 Texas girls who are rostered at Legends.
Orangeteam
SILVER ELITE
I think there is a kid in michigan who is rosterd on Solar. Her other club isn't ECNL
I think two kids who used to play for Solar who still live in Tx but play on Legends.
The kids on LV Surf are full time rostered on Surf. To be clear, LV Surf isn't an ECNL club and that doesnt break any rules.
There are 4 kids, maybe 5 on the KC 2009 team that all played 2008 full time. One I think was rostered at KC but was at IMG (maybe 2)
Deanza has 2008s have a handful of GA kids who play for Silicon Valley.
Any 2009 full time rostered on an older team can play with their age group. If a kid played with their 2008 team in Seattle they can play with their 2009 team in Virginia if their 2008 team didn't make the final 8. Hawks I think dropped 3 kids down last year into the 2008 team off the 2007 team for the final 8.
If the kids are rostered at the club and have a team assigned to them they are good to play. I dont' think anyone is random flying in ringers
Someone showed me the New Jersey post, both the one being refered to and the '10s vs. Florida with the fist fight. Oh boy..
I think two kids who used to play for Solar who still live in Tx but play on Legends.
The kids on LV Surf are full time rostered on Surf. To be clear, LV Surf isn't an ECNL club and that doesnt break any rules.
There are 4 kids, maybe 5 on the KC 2009 team that all played 2008 full time. One I think was rostered at KC but was at IMG (maybe 2)
Deanza has 2008s have a handful of GA kids who play for Silicon Valley.
Any 2009 full time rostered on an older team can play with their age group. If a kid played with their 2008 team in Seattle they can play with their 2009 team in Virginia if their 2008 team didn't make the final 8. Hawks I think dropped 3 kids down last year into the 2008 team off the 2007 team for the final 8.
If the kids are rostered at the club and have a team assigned to them they are good to play. I dont' think anyone is random flying in ringers
Someone showed me the New Jersey post, both the one being refered to and the '10s vs. Florida with the fist fight. Oh boy..
Bruh, that is so not fair and total BS if true. Surf's goal is to have a franchise in each State so they can get License fees, piece of the soccer uniform cut, travel agency cut and now it seems also to add last minute roster spots for playoffs for top players from each State. Is this rumor mill bro or conformed?
Now witnessing? Oh no, this is how PAY FOR PLAY is played in youth soccer brother. You need to learn how to play better. I know one mama bear that slept with Doc to ensure her dd playing time. I also know a few who paid a little extra to grease the DOC for his recommendation for YNT. Get the popcorn out brother, more HOT news coming.
I hope from Texas at least. Back in the day when Arsenal was is in Socal, the coach would go to Texas with "Guest" players for big Copa Tournament. The regulars sat on the bench as the guest players made coach look good as champ. Texas was pissed but I guess they learned from him how to win. Good luck everyone.
SW has 17 of the 48 in final eight teams or 35%. SW should be represented by at least 35% or more in the pool.
My goodness, I just spent 30 minutes typing a response and deleted everything. Not worth it.
Very angry with Girls Youth Soccer right now. Going to skip inserting foot into mouth this time.
Orangeteam
SILVER ELITE
The 44 team structure today leaves alot of teams upset on both sides.
There were too many blowout 5+ to 0 games. The number of games overall that came in at this score means the set up is lopsided.
There are conference winners running dead last every year in this type of playoff set up.
ECNL did a trial a few years ago with only taking conference winners with the youngest group which i think was the 08 in the Florida
They were going to run the whole even start to finals in Florida.
All the teams invited hated that b/c it was single elimination. I think the final 4 was 2 teams from Cal, 1 from Texas and 1 from Georgia or maybe SC. it's about what we see in every other event.
No structure is going to work if they don’t fix the seeding.
2010s had two of the best teams in the country meet in group. They beat the other teams by a combined score of 24-3.
Similar stories in other years.
Where is the fun in that?
It happens in every age group even the 2009s where the top three seeds all faced teams ranked in the top ten per the rankings app.
#1 PDA faced #8 AZ Arsenal
#2 MVLA faced #4 Surf
#3 Solar faced #7 San Juan
The better teams moved on in each of these groups but it certainly wasn't an easy path for the top seeds like it would be in professional sports. There was potential for a group to have four top ten teams in the same group which would've been outrageous (i.e. Solar drawing Penn Fusion, FC Dallas and Surf)
There's a strong argument to be had against making conference champs #1 seeds, especially with historical weakness in Ohio Valley, Northwest, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, but ECNL likely feels that there needs to be some incentive and reward for teams to win their conference.
Outside of using straight analytical data like the rankings app uses, there's no easy way to seed teams in ECNL which means the present system is almost certainly here to stay.
I'd also argue that the current ECNL system seems to work well and the teams who make the semis across all ages every year seems to be representative of the best teams over the course of the season so ECNL doesn't feel any pressure to change how they seed outside of shifting some qualification slots from underperforming conferences to overperforming conferences (which is happening)
At the very least, they need to have proper size fields for the amount of teams coming and good refs. If we're calling this a crowning, should there not be good refs? Having to find so many refs in one place is going to limit the quality of skill no matter what and where imo and it's going to be very bad in areas that are not as populated with soccer events.
Next, and kind of my issue, it's hard to get your whole team around competing for nattys knowing it's going to cost $10k for just traveling to these events. Some teams have that wealth, but not all, so there is an advantage to some teams as their team culture and discipline focuses on nattys.
Now throw in potential guest scholarships and end of season shenanigans and I guarantee many teams will bring in new players and those disciplined teams will be following a strategy where the coaches have looked at film and are truly planned to win nattys. Hey, good for them, I'm not hating, but I'm pointing out that not all teams are geared to go all the way to nattys and much of the time the soccer is diluted and tight. To me, this should be the cheapest form of competition not the most expensive as it's going to be even tighter and more diluted from the expensive/time stealing pressure.
First priority imo is to have one playoff with a limited amount of teams and get it wrapped up. The first round of playoffs gives those teams with spy resources too much of a look at the other team's games which also takes the competitive spirit out imo. One round of 16 to final game is perfect imo. However each region can promote a proper ratio of teams for this playoff is best imo for us soccer, parents, and players. Of course, who cares about them!???
Realizing Solar and Dallas couldn't be in the same group, the same point could be made with MVLA getting a group of Penn Fusion, FC Dallas and Surf or PDA in a group with KC Athletics, FC Dallas and Surf.
There will always be low seeds who are top teams and high seeds that are paper tigers, but it's hard to subjectively seed those teams beyond results. We know SW is best, but our top two seeded teams didn't even make the round of 16 while we have two #4 seeds in the quarters. Would it have been fair to seed Surf and Koge above Beach and AZ Arsenal?