graciesdad
BRONZE
Yep
Discovery League- "We've created a monster!!!"
- Thread starter timbuck
- Start date
I have a DS and DD players I can see what you're saying on the girls side but no way on boys.
Yes. It’s the best balance local practices, good game competition with 1 hour travel to silverlakes being worth it for the field quality vs random and usually not so local, 2nd rate fields. Fight 1 travel for games doesn’t seem much better in a lot of cases even when averaging in 1/2 home games.
I’d love to see a real pyramid with equal opportunity regardless of club name replace the mess, but US sports just aren’t structured that way.
I think GA has the advantage over Discovery in ideal field quality and playing conditions. Perusing GAL and DPL venues I see mostly HS and College Stadiums, Great Park, Surf Park, along with 1/2 home games and the location not being extreme-heat silverlakes, but rather many coastal areas. Add to that the video monitoring that comes with the league and higher average competitive level.
US sports (at least in regards to soccer) cannot afford that.
I never thought I'd wish for games to be played in Norco. The drive to Oceanside or Del Mar has been awful on Saturday and Sunday this year.
It really the entire day. If you have multiple kids playing soccer (or other activities) there is really no chance you can catch more than 1 game per day, unless you have a night game.
If Discovery games were full of college scouts (i think this was one of the things discovery was promoting), then it could be worth the sacrifice. But that has not been our experience this year (Our discovery player isn't looking to play in college- so a moot point for us- But for her teammates we'd be great helping to support them)
It really the entire day. If you have multiple kids playing soccer (or other activities) there is really no chance you can catch more than 1 game per day, unless you have a night game.
If Discovery games were full of college scouts (i think this was one of the things discovery was promoting), then it could be worth the sacrifice. But that has not been our experience this year (Our discovery player isn't looking to play in college- so a moot point for us- But for her teammates we'd be great helping to support them)
Last edited:
DPL is significantly lower competitive level vs. the top 8 Discovery (at least in our age group). GAL wouldn’t be local practices. It would be nice not to have to do our own video, sure. Not trying to change anyone else’s mind, the weights and balances are pretty nuanced.
I do have another kid in CSL and travels the equivalent (maybe more) as what we would see in DPL/GAL/Flight 1
Besides, driving to Norco and singing some classic rock is the perfect way to make sure she wants to move out on her own when the time comes.
Age group and location are important to the discussion. For the Orange County teams for girls 06, for example, what are the top discovery programs? This year, Liverpool left discovery for DPL. Strikers, Slammers and Blues play in ECNL/RL. If you’re in OC and go to a Blues discovery team, that’s third or fourth best team in the club at the age group. Looking at discovery SoCal standings and youthsportsrankings it’s hard to see any top OC-based discovery teams. In fact, looks like a lot of LA teams feasting on some lower level teams. If you are in OC, competitive level seems to go ECNL—ECRL—GA—DPL—Discovery. I guess we’ll see after the season if they relegate and sort out discovery, will there even be any OC teams?
07. Not in OC. Socal State Cup has the top 2 ECRL teams in with the NPL / Flight 1 teams + a few more ECRL teams. It looks like only one of the ECRL teams is bringing in ECNL players (8 rostered!). I expect the top ECRL teams to have competitive matches with the top Disco teams. The 3rd place DPL team wouldn't have been promoted from Flight 1 before they switched to DPL. You'd probably have a really good league if you took the top 2 from ECRL, GA, DPL, Discovery in the 07s, but since that won't happen it's probably a toss up between the top 8 between ECRL and Discovery.
For travel purposes, ECRL would be 1/2 home games, 1/4 long drives, 1/4 way too long drives with roughly similar level of play. Since you like YSR, the average ranking gives +.02 to Discovery (the median ECRL ranking is +.16). So roughly similar level of play.
DPL is -.95
ECNL is +2.6
If you take just the top 6 of ECRL, Discovery, GA it's ECRL +.4 over Discovery which is +.4 over GA.