Discovery League- "We've created a monster!!!"

dad4 said:
So, the top 9v9 players in socal would all play rec?

That would pretty much ruin the game for normal rec players. Why bother learning to dribble? Just kick the ball to mini-Marta. She’ll score. But next week we play the team with mini-Becky. The whole team will enjoy watching those two play.
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Nope more competitive 9v9 can play for vs other "Top" teams but locally or in the same county/region. it's called recreation since that's what it is.

Rec can have different flights but without the 6 hours to travel to play another so called top team. Plenty of travel tournaments for that and many years at 11v11.
 
lafalafa said:
Nope more competitive 9v9 can play for vs other "Top" teams but locally or in the same county/region. it's called recreation since that's what it is.

Rec can have different flights but without the 6 hours to travel to play another so called top team. Plenty of travel tournaments for that and many years at 11v11.
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I like the plan to keep it local. Even 11v11, 6 hours for a league game is crazy.

You use the word “rec” differently than I do. To me, it means local leagues with no tryouts. Also a good thing, but completely different from what you mean.
 
If you played in Discovery this year (and your team was in the top half of the standings), will you try to have your kid play discovery again next year?
(Assuming no major changes to the structure around game locations, etc. And assuming your kid is not going to move "up" to ECNL).
 
timbuck said:
If you played in Discovery this year (and your team was in the top half of the standings), will you try to have your kid play discovery again next year?
(Assuming no major changes to the structure around game locations, etc. And assuming your kid is not going to move "up" to ECNL).
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Candidly, after all of the driving and no home games, I would look to get my kid on an ECRL team (if not able to make an ECNL team). That way half of our games are in Orange County. 4.5-5 hours (2 hour game, arrive an hour early, and drive both ways) for every game on a Saturday and/or Sunday is ridiculous.

I think the intent of the division is very good. But the execution creates burnout for players and parents (especially the older players who have other things they want to do on the weekends).
 
GT45 said:
Candidly, after all of the driving and no home games, I would look to get my kid on an ECRL team (if not able to make an ECNL team). That way half of our games are in Orange County. 4.5-5 hours (2 hour game, arrive an hour early, and drive both ways) for every game on a Saturday and/or Sunday is ridiculous.

I think the intent of the division is very good. But the execution creates burnout for players and parents (especially the older players who have other things they want to do on the weekends).
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Why not "just" flight 1?
 
timbuck said:
If you played in Discovery this year (and your team was in the top half of the standings), will you try to have your kid play discovery again next year?
(Assuming no major changes to the structure around game locations, etc. And assuming your kid is not going to move "up" to ECNL).
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Yes, possibly for both kids. For us drive to Silverlakes is not too bad and facilities are good.
Not interested in the drive required for ECNL/ECRL (assuming kids would be good enough, which they are probably not)

EDIT: much different story if we get sent to Oceanside. That would be a no no
 
timbuck said:
If you played in Discovery this year (and your team was in the top half of the standings), will you try to have your kid play discovery again next year?
(Assuming no major changes to the structure around game locations, etc. And assuming your kid is not going to move "up" to ECNL).
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ECRL for the 09 boys is equivalent to flight 2. It’s pretty awful…it’s either Discovery or ECNL. I am sure next year you will see the best ECNL players migrate MLS next.
 
Venantsyo said:
Yes, possibly for both kids. For us drive to Silverlakes is not too bad and facilities are good.
Not interested in the drive required for ECNL/ECRL (assuming kids would be good enough, which they are probably not)

EDIT: much different story if we get sent to Oceanside. That would be a no no
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we play ECRL and have gone out of the area 2x
 
Survey says travel sports are just getting more expensive.

The transportation costs alone are getting to be too much and when you work weekends forget about it.

More local play in the long run will save $$, time, and be better for many things. Not having fans, friends, family members at games cheering the players is kind of a bummer for everyone.

Should just reconsider, instead of 400 teams traveling distance ever weekend to play at complexes make that just 100 or so. Top 12 teams each age group or something like that, everyone else home and away local. The self flighting thing is kind of joke, earned it in some other way either through a play in tournament or some other standardized way.

The rat system chasing cheese (dubs) is just a marketing ploy, talk with your club management and demand change.
 
We are SoCal Flight 2 team and scrimmage a Discovery team all the time. Matches are dead even. Found our happy place in Fight 2. Good competition and limited travel. Just quit drinking the acronym Kool Aid.
 
timbuck said:
If you played in Discovery this year (and your team was in the top half of the standings), will you try to have your kid play discovery again next year?
(Assuming no major changes to the structure around game locations, etc. And assuming your kid is not going to move "up" to ECNL).
Click to expand...

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.
 
chipmonk said:
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.
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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.
 
chipmonk said:
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.
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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)
 
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paytoplay said:
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.
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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.
 
chipmonk said:
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.
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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?
 
paytoplay said:
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?
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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.
 
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