ECNL RL SoCal

[Syrix]

Not "a great many". There are certainly some NPL and Flight 1 teams that punch above their weight. But they are the minority. On average, any of the RL Socal teams, let alone the RL teams, would be expected to beat a typical NPL, let alone Flight 1 team. The gap from top to bottom team within a bracket (5-7 goals), is still going to be wider than the average difference between brackets as a whole (1-2 goals between adjacent brackets).

Can agree to disagree. RL SoCal is legit on par with Flt 2-3. DPL and USYS NL2 are desperately worse than that. Paying for the alphabet. ECRL is better in the top tier clubs, but the bottom feeder ECNL clubs’ RL teams are also Flt 1-2 grade in most cases. Scouts aren’t recruiting from RL unless they’ve heard about or connected with a prospect and find a convenient way to observe. Zero kids are getting recruited from RL SoCal. That “pathway” is a money grab.
RL can be a pathway to NL teams, especially if a kid wants to be on a team where they get more minutes and there’s a good training culture. Many ECNL kids in the 15-22 roster spots would benefit from playing down.
Somewhere along the way all the leagues discovered the average soccer customer is extraordinarily naive, and created 2nd or 3rd tier alphabet leagues to feed their cash cow.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

Can agree to disagree. RL SoCal is legit on par with Flt 2-3. DPL and USYS NL2 are desperately worse than that. Paying for the alphabet. ECRL is better in the top tier clubs, but the bottom feeder ECNL clubs’ RL teams are also Flt 1-2 grade in most cases. Scouts aren’t recruiting from RL unless they’ve heard about or connected with a prospect and find a convenient way to observe. Zero kids are getting recruited from RL SoCal. That “pathway” is a money grab.
RL can be a pathway to NL teams, especially if a kid wants to be on a team where they get more minutes and there’s a good training culture. Many ECNL kids in the 15-22 roster spots would benefit from playing down.

Anyone can review the brackets and see for themselves the relative strength of teams. Declaring the brackets "legit on par" without actually looking at their SR ratings is a bit premature (and turns out to be wrong). Here are 5 links for the 2012G brackets in SoCal.

ECNL-RL

ECNL-RL Socal

SoCal NPL

Flight 1

Flight 2

Just look at SR for any of the teams in brackets listed above. One of the top teams in any of the brackets, is likely to beat any team in any of the brackets lower than them - this works for all 5 levels listed. Average or lower teams in any of the brackets, are unlikely to beat any team in any of the brackets higher than them, unless they are competing with the bottom feeders. Can one of the teams in Flight 2 compete with one of the teams in RL SoCal? Sure - maybe 1 or 2 of them - but most can't. Same for Flight 1.

Somewhere along the way all the leagues discovered the average soccer customer is extraordinarily naive, and created 2nd or 3rd tier alphabet leagues to feed their cash cow.

Sure - but none of that changes the fact that despite the need (or lack of) to have all of these different brackets, the teams that compete in them vary by competitiveness, and can be easily ranked by the likelihood of them beating each other.

 

[wiseoldsoccerdad]

Based on what you have said, I'll assume you are in OC and planning on having your daughter attend SM. They have fairly large V, JV, and F/S rosters. Your daughter should have a good opportunity to make the F/S team. I know girls on the F/S team from this year. Given that is arguably the best Varsity team in the state (we will see Saturday if they are CIF-SS champs this year or not) you would think the level would be super high but I think most above average players make the F/S team. I would focus on your daughter getting better on her own number 1. Then about club I think there are two things you need to consider. You know these things anyway if your daughter is already at U14. First, many of these teams fall apart every year so their current roster is almost meaningless. You will need to gauge whether it looks like that roster will stay intact without really knowing the parents. Go to games or practices and talk to them. And things literally can change on a daily/weekly basis. Teams fall apart in an instant based on a rumor at times. The more lower level girls are on the team the worse for development in my opinion. Look at whether the girls are serious or screwing around at practice. Do they generally appear to have a good first touch? Are they calm and under control when receiving the ball? Are they focused on the drills and the coaching? Second, the coach. To me the number one thing is to go to practices and a game or two and watch how the coach coaches, the level of detail he provides and corrections for mistakes, and how he deals with the girls during games. Let's assume you are talking about Blues for that age. I don't know much about the RL2 team but I'd be willing to bet the DPL team is as good as them and Gerzon Blanco seems to be a very good coach. I have seen them play a number of times and they are a quality 2012 (U14) team. So, that might be another team you look into. There might be a question about what happens with that or any other team you are looking at from the standpoint of the age changes and which players stay or move down to their age, and which team a current coach continues to coach. Go to some practices of whatever teams you are looking at. Do not rely on tryouts alone. See if your daughter gets along with the girls. Let her make the decision. She may feel like she has outgrown her current team or she might feel like she has a lot of really good friends there and wants to keep playing with them. I would not worry about NL-RL So Cal v. NPL v. DPL.