Feeling Blues - Relegation Time

[MWN]

I couldn’t agree more with you. It’s a shame people aren’t putting the players first in this process.

I do believe that the ECNL started this though “war” thiugh. Dictating clubs to do things without considering what was right for each individual club let alone the players. Instead, thier tactics only plays into what is best for their brand and ultimatley thier pocket. Naturally US Soccer are now standing up and won’t allow themselves to get walked all over.

Just remember that the DA was created ex players and coaches and some of the best talent this nation has seen, not an old attorney looking to line his pocket.

I don't think this is accurate.

ECNL - 10 year history of growing the girls game and making the league the premiere league in the Nation, while at the same time allowing their players to play high school.

Girls DA - "Hay, hay, hay!!!! We are here" "F' the ECNL, we are now the top league because ... we are US Soccer. Listen up ladies ... no HS soccer and you need to basically dedicate your life and social life to Girls Soccer where if you are really, super lucky and good, you can be a "professional woman's" soccer player making minimum wage." "Did we mention ... F' the ECNL you have to play for us or you won't be looked at for the National Team????"

no ... Girls DA started the war.

 

[Johnbsail]

Agreed that ECNL was the premier league in the nation and they did a great job of providing the girls a platform to compete nationally.

The realitiy is, USA is underperforming massively in comparison to other nations. Look at every other countries development models, they have thier players attending schools at the soccer facilities and training up to 10+ hours a week.

US soccer are just trying to provide the best platform for players that want to be the best. Now some players don’t want to be the best and if playing awful HS Soccer and having more days off is more important, then ECNL is a great platform. For me, and it’s just an opinion, the DA provides a platform that will allow our young athletes to be as good as they can!

When there was no DA I know of 20+ players that chose not to play HS soccer and instead train with boys DA or other revenues. The DA was created for players like them who want to be the best. It’s not for everyone, I understand.

 

[Sidekick]

Agreed that ECNL was the premier league in the nation and they did a great job of providing the girls a platform to compete nationally.

The realitiy is, USA is underperforming massively in comparison to other nations. Look at every other countries development models, they have thier players attending schools at the soccer facilities and training up to 10+ hours a week.

US soccer are just trying to provide the best platform for players that want to be the best. Now some players don’t want to be the best and if playing awful HS Soccer and having more days off is more important, then ECNL is a great platform. For me, and it’s just an opinion, the DA provides a platform that will allow our young athletes to be as good as they can!

When there was no DA I know of 20+ players that chose not to play HS soccer and instead train with boys DA or other revenues. The DA was created for players like them who want to be the best. It’s not for everyone, I understand.

US Soccer is underperforming not because of ECNL and playing HS. It’s underperforming because some players might be amazing when they are the superstar but struggle amongst superstars!! DA doesn’t make them better! The player makes themselves better by individual goals and extra training!! Another thing is that the US coaches keep calling in the same players that are making the same mistakes instead of bringing in fresh faces that don’t have the egos and want to work hard as a team and not for their individual accolades!! US Soccer really needs to change things up. They need to show that there are no guarantees you’ll get an invite back unless you work really hard at being a team!! There are so many players that deserve the call but because they play for the team that’s hundreds of miles away from that top ECNL/DA team, they’ll probably not get a look til in college! If they were to do things right, they’d have open tryouts. Think of all those inner city kids or small town kids that could dominate the game if someone just saw what they could do. I think you’d see some real hidden talent show up and it would really show how much that US soccer cares about the players and NOT the league they came from.

 

[MWN]

Agreed that ECNL was the premier league in the nation and they did a great job of providing the girls a platform to compete nationally.

The realitiy is, USA is underperforming massively in comparison to other nations. Look at every other countries development models, they have thier players attending schools at the soccer facilities and training up to 10+ hours a week.

US soccer are just trying to provide the best platform for players that want to be the best. Now some players don’t want to be the best and if playing awful HS Soccer and having more days off is more important, then ECNL is a great platform. For me, and it’s just an opinion, the DA provides a platform that will allow our young athletes to be as good as they can!

When there was no DA I know of 20+ players that chose not to play HS soccer and instead train with boys DA or other revenues. The DA was created for players like them who want to be the best. It’s not for everyone, I understand.

We are talking girls, not boys. The US is not "underperforming massively" on the girls level because Girls around the world have very little opportunity AND in the US, college soccer is where development continues after the youth game. Indeed, many girls from all over the world come to the US to continue to train and get an education. Things are changing abroad with fully funded development academies for girls that are either nationally sponsored or sponsored in association with a "profitable" men's team/league.

The US women will slowly lose their dominance, not because of youth development, but because of post-youth development.

The boy's side is a completely different analysis given the physiological differences between boys and girls and the availability of a profitable professional option in the US, but mainly outside the US. Its a huge mistake to look at the boys development model both physiologically and economically and say ... this will work for the girls, which is really what US Soccer did with the Girls DA.

 

[Just A Dad]

Agreed that ECNL was the premier league in the nation and they did a great job of providing the girls a platform to compete nationally.

The realitiy is, USA is underperforming massively in comparison to other nations. Look at every other countries development models, they have thier players attending schools at the soccer facilities and training up to 10+ hours a week.

US soccer are just trying to provide the best platform for players that want to be the best. Now some players don’t want to be the best and if playing awful HS Soccer and having more days off is more important, then ECNL is a great platform. For me, and it’s just an opinion, the DA provides a platform that will allow our young athletes to be as good as they can!

When there was no DA I know of 20+ players that chose not to play HS soccer and instead train with boys DA or other revenues. The DA was created for players like them who want to be the best. It’s not for everyone, I understand.

So wouldnt those 20+ players who didnt play high school benefit more training with boys during the high school season? why start a league for so few who still have an avenue to train and in most cases train with bettter talent for a few months if they are training with boys DA. I think USA has plenty of soccer talent on the womens side the problem is US soccer doesnt pick the best players all the time. The only thing DA did was make US Soccer lazier when it comes to scouting talent across the USA.

 

[outside!]

If ECNL had not been colluding with member clubs to limit competition in SoCal, GDA would not have had the opportunity to become dominant in SoCal. ECNL seems to be offering a better product at this moment in time, but it still has the same corrupt management in place. Not that DA is any better.

I bet if SoCal were to withdraw from both leagues and act like it's own country, it could field girls "National" teams that would be better than the current youth national teams.

 

[Mancity17]

We are talking girls, not boys. The US is not "underperforming massively" on the girls level because Girls around the world have very little opportunity AND in the US, college soccer is where development continues after the youth game. Indeed, many girls from all over the world come to the US to continue to train and get an education. Things are changing abroad with fully funded development academies for girls that are either nationally sponsored or sponsored in association with a "profitable" men's team/league.

The US women will slowly lose their dominance, not because of youth development, but because of post-youth development.

The boy's side is a completely different analysis given the physiological differences between boys and girls and the availability of a profitable professional option in the US, but mainly outside the US. Its a huge mistake to look at the boys development model both physiologically and economically and say ... this will work for the girls, which is really what US Soccer did with the Girls DA.

We have never been better than other countries on the women's side in terms of development. We have more youth participation for girls than the next 5 countries combined. We have title IX as well. It is the same situation with Socal vs other cities in the southwest, more kids equals better teams not better development.

 

[wc_baller]

When there was no DA I know of 20+ players that chose not to play HS soccer and instead train with boys DA or other revenues. The DA was created for players like them who want to be the best. It’s not for everyone, I understand.

This is exactly why support for GDA is trending downwards across the country. Clubs are choosing to leave because there aren't many of those types of players around who would sacrifice so much for so little potential gain. Paying top dollar, giving up extracurricular activities, missing school and social events for the potential of making a few thousand bucks a year as a professional soccer player. Looks like much of the country is saying no thanks to that.

 

[Mancity17]

If ECNL had not been colluding with member clubs to limit competition in SoCal, GDA would not have had the opportunity to become dominant in SoCal. ECNL seems to be offering a better product at this moment in time, but it still has the same corrupt management in place. Not that DA is any better.

I bet if SoCal were to withdraw from both leagues and act like it's own country, it could field girls "National" teams that would be better than the current youth national teams.

So the girls in socal are discriminated against? If you look at the best players ever for US women's soccer over the last 30 years you won't find many socal players on the list. Denver Colorado produces more high level players than socal on the women's side and the population is 10% of socal. I would take that bet all day.

 

[MarkM]

So the girls in socal are discriminated against? If you look at the best players ever for US women's soccer over the last 30 years you won't find many socal players on the list. Denver Colorado produces more high level players than socal on the women's side and the population is 10% of socal. I would take that bet all day.

Colorado has as many players on the team as San Dimas, CA. I think San Dimas has a population that is 0.5% of Colorado's population. Several other states and No Cal have many more players on the team than Colorado.

 

[outside!]

So the girls in socal are discriminated against? If you look at the best players ever for US women's soccer over the last 30 years you won't find many socal players on the list. Denver Colorado produces more high level players than socal on the women's side and the population is 10% of socal. I would take that bet all day.

To be honest, past history means just about nothing in this context. It all comes down to numbers. The population of SoCal is bigger than all of Colorado. SoCal has a high concentration of female players in a relatively small area. Due to this we could form our own "Elite" league that would minimize travel and have enough teams for meaningful competition. It would also allow the formation of an "All Star" team that could train together frequently to enable them to play as a "team", while the players could still live at home. Other areas of the US could do this also.

 

[Paul Spacey]

So much time dedicated to arguing over which league is best.

US Soccer “at war” with ECNL or whatever other ‘elite’ league started in the past few months (there must be another one on the horizon soon, surely).

Leagues and organizations fighting to force clubs to exclusively play with them.

Just a few things off the top of my head that give you some idea why the US is still so far behind the European and South American countries in terms of developing players.

Business, money and ego first; player development just an afterthought.

 

[Mancity17]

Colorado has as many players on the team as San Dimas, CA. I think San Dimas has a population that is 0.5% of Colorado's population. Several other states and No Cal have many more players on the team than Colorado.

Two of the last 4 young players of the year in women's soccer came from one club in Colorado. I mentioned the very best players in my post. Again look at the top 10 best US women's players and you will not find socal players too much. Socal is good because of population nothing else.

 

[futboldad1]

Two of the last 4 young players of the year in women's soccer came from one club in Colorado. I mentioned the very best players in my post. Again look at the top 10 best US women's players and you will not find socal players too much. Socal is good because of population nothing else.

Isn't that chicken and egg though? SoCal has the best competition (your words) so why travel out of state to play?

 

[LASTMAN14]

Two of the last 4 young players of the year in women's soccer came from one club in Colorado. I mentioned the very best players in my post. Again look at the top 10 best US women's players and you will not find socal players too much. Socal is good because of population nothing else.

I was intrigued by this conversation on Colorados impact on the top 10. There is a list of the top 11 players of all time thus far. Six are from CA and none from CO.

 

[Mancity17]

Lol I never said they were from Colorado. I said they weren't from Socal... Mia Hamm, Carli Lloyd, Wambach etc.

 

[MWN]

In defense of Colorado, I think they have some of the top downhill skiers.

 

[LASTMAN14]

Lol I never said they were from Colorado. I said they weren't from Socal... Mia Hamm, Carli Lloyd, Wambach etc.

None the less half are from CA. It was easy to misinterpret your comments, but you are correct. I did re-read your statement. I also took a look at the most current roster. Six or 1/5th of the team originated from CA.

 

[Just A Dad]

To be honest, past history means just about nothing in this context. It all comes down to numbers. The population of SoCal is bigger than all of Colorado. SoCal has a high concentration of female players in a relatively small area. Due to this we could form our own "Elite" league that would minimize travel and have enough teams for meaningful competition. It would also allow the formation of an "All Star" team that could train together frequently to enable them to play as a "team", while the players could still live at home. Other areas of the US could do this also.

Kinda like what ODP should be. US soccer should have fixed ODP by taking out the club influence and coaches and started there before starting a whole new league

 

[Mancity17]

None the less half are from CA. It was easy to misinterpret your comments, but you are correct. I did re-read your statement. I also took a look at the most current roster. Six or 1/5th of the team originated from CA.

I am just using Denver as an example when someone says socal can beat the national team. It is just not true and an insult to the rest of the country. Socal has an advantage due to population density which make the socal people think they are somehow better at development or some special population. Per capital Denver blows away socal.