GA, ECRL is there a difference??

One thing I haven't seen discussed is amout of travel + distance you'll need to go to play against a high level of competition in GA.

With GA in the Southwest Division the best teams will likely be City and maybe Murrietta? West Coast? Albion players are following Mike W to Sharks and SDSC players generally move to Surf whenever they're able. What this means is you're going to need to travel $$$$ to either Colorado, Texas, or the East Coast for high level of competition. In general top ECNL teams will not scrimmage against GA teams and although it hasn't been officially stated ECNL sponsored tournaments will not generally allow GA teams to play in them. Of course there will always be exceptions. For GA sponsored tournaments top ECNL teams simply wont attend.

If couple more of the big GA clubs (Tophat, etc) move to ECNL (which is very likely to happen) it will be even more difficult to find a high level of competition in GA.
 
Can only comment on a few age groups but blues, strikers were at albion. Eagles, lafc socal were at west coast. Everyone was at surf and they placed most ecrl in lower brackets than most ga teams since that's what the thread is about. Again, van only comment on a few age groups.
 
I've been to GA club tournaments and ECNL club tournaments. At GA club tournaments theres more GA clubs attending. At ECNL tournaments theres more ECNL clubs attending. This has been my view from the highest level + it makes sense. Clubs tend to associate more with the clubs that they're more closely aligned to. Also I'm sure theres all kinds of discounts + other items/agreements (you attend my tournament and I'll attend yours) that occur between clubs that know each other well.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
One thing I haven't seen discussed is amout of travel + distance you'll need to go to play against a high level of competition in GA.

With GA in the Southwest Division the best teams will likely be City and maybe Murrietta? West Coast? Albion players are following Mike W to Sharks and SDSC players generally move to Surf whenever they're able. What this means is you're going to need to travel $$$$ to either Colorado, Texas, or the East Coast for high level of competition. In general top ECNL teams will not scrimmage against GA teams and although it hasn't been officially stated ECNL sponsored tournaments will not generally allow GA teams to play in them. Of course there will always be exceptions. For GA sponsored tournaments top ECNL teams simply wont attend.

If couple more of the big GA clubs (Tophat, etc) move to ECNL (which is very likely to happen) it will be even more difficult to find a high level of competition in GA.
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I don't think there is that much difference in travel between ecnl/ecrl and ga. Sure, you will get better local completion in ecnl/ecrl, but overall the out of town trips are fairly equal for socal clubs. The bigger difference might be the number of games. Compare southwest ecnl/ecrl league schedule to a ga league schedule and you will find the ga teams are playing a lot less games.
 
Sike said:
I don't think there is that much difference in travel between ecnl/ecrl and ga. Sure, you will get better local completion in ecnl/ecrl, but overall the out of town trips are fairly equal for socal clubs. The bigger difference might be the number of games. Compare southwest ecnl/ecrl league schedule to a ga league schedule and you will find the ga teams are playing a lot less games.
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So with GA...
- Lower level of competition than ECNL in the Southwest (more on par with ECRL)
- The same amount of travel as ECNL/RL (this is debatable)
- Less games than Southwest ECNL/RL
- Higher levels of GA competition will require travel to other parts of the country
- There's a good chance GA Clubs will jump to ECNL if given the chance
- Same price as ECNL/RL

The overall benefit of GA from what I can see is if you have a good player + want to control a team it would be fairly easy to do.

Also if you didn't really care about the competition level but like spending $$$$ it would be easy to control a team. (privates, donations, etc)

By "control a team" I mean parents dictate positions played, minutes, who gets on the team, fields to play on, etc.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
The overall benefit of GA from what I can see is if you have a good player + want to control a team it would be fairly easy to do.

Also if you didn't really care about the competition level but like spending $$$$ it would be easy to control a team. (privates, donations, etc)

By "control a team" I mean parents dictate positions played, minutes, who gets on the team, fields to play on, etc.
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Funny. I think this applies to all leagues including ECNL. The name of the league doesn't change this impact.
 
Emma said:
Funny. I think this applies to all leagues including ECNL. The name of the league doesn't change this impact.
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Nowhere close to the same extent......with the overwhelming number of top players in ecnl and the sheer number of kids at tryouts it's rare to see a one girl team or couple families running the show like what happens at the lower levels where dopey coaches have to keep them happy......
 
futboldad1 said:
Nowhere close to the same extent......with the overwhelming number of top players in ecnl and the sheer number of kids at tryouts it's rare to see a one girl team or couple families running the show like what happens at the lower levels where dopey coaches have to keep them happy......
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It's the same extent and it's influence is just as bad because you will see that position being exploited by quality teams easily. What should be a top 1-2 team ends up being middle of the pack because the parents influence their player's position, what minutes their player gets and which player makes the team (the ones they like or their kid likes). Seen it a lot over the years. Both my kids play high level and we've seen and heard through friends at high level teams.

Money is just as green in ECNL and MLS NEXT.
 
My 09 kid had a chance to play on a few ecrl games and honestly I was not impressed with the talent pool. I think there’s some very good discovery teams that can beat most ecrl teams. I am still a believer that ECRL is just a check box for clubs to make money. They should Merge ECNL and GA. The rest of the ecrl and DPL teams should merge with discovery and make it a promo/relegation from discovery down to flight 1.
 
SoccerFan4Life said:
My 09 kid had a chance to play on a few ecrl games and honestly I was not impressed with the talent pool. I think there’s some very good discovery teams that can beat most ecrl teams. I am still a believer that ECRL is just a check box for clubs to make money. They should Merge ECNL and GA. The rest of the ecrl and DPL teams should merge with discovery and make it a promo/relegation from discovery down to flight 1.
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Lol….as a parent who hates the politics I agree with your sentiment amd some points but ECRL and ecnl are very different……ga doesn’t have any top teams in so cal and would only dilute things here…the rest of the country has a couple….

Ask your coach to play some ecnl teams over winter break….the gap is huge and increases as our kids get older…..my dd was DA but her and 99% of her buddies moved over to ecnl when it collapsed last year so any weaker players got pushed out from ecnl rosters
 
futboldad1 said:
Lol….as a parent who hates the politics I agree with your sentiment amd some points but ECRL and ecnl are very different……ga doesn’t have any top teams in so cal and would only dilute things here…the rest of the country has a couple….

Ask your coach to play some ecnl teams over winter break….the gap is huge and increases as our kids get older…..my dd was DA but her and 99% of her buddies moved over to ecnl when it collapsed last year so any weaker players got pushed out from ecnl rosters
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In Southwest divisions, I agree that the top of ECNL is significantly better than you will find in any other league and the gap is significant. However, there are plenty of bad teams/players still in Southwest ECNL. Top 2-3 teams in Southwest ECRL are better than the bottom 2-3 teams in southwest ECNL and can compete with the middle of the pack in ECNL. As of this year, I would say that the top of ECRL here is better than the top of GA, and I continue to wonder how long GA will survive.
 
Sike said:
As of this year, I would say that the top of ECRL here is better than the top of GA, and I continue to wonder how long GA will survive.
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How do we go about testing the theory that ECRL is better than GA teams in CA? I would guess it's a question many parents would like to know when deciding on where to play. Will ECRL give them the same exposure as the GA? I know travel is a concern for the GA in the SW. There are only so many roster slots available in the powerhouse CA ECNL clubs. I suppose the GA needs to expand more in CA to alleviate travel.

Do you think that the GA's days are numbered in CA or nationa wide? They seem pretty healthy nation wide and do provide a good product. I don't know if anyone is claiming that the GA is "better" than ECNL. Maybe they are but that would be foolish. The GA has proven itself so far to be a well run league with deep connections to college coaches and YNT staff. These are check the block items for many parents.

I suppose this will be debated until either the GA doesn't survive or becomes established as good alternative to ECNL that provides opportunity for players that don't have access to ECNL. Seems like a win for DDs everywhere.
 
There are a few ECNL-RL teams participating in the SoCalLeague State Cup this year. We'll get to test the theory if ECNL-RL and Discovery are close..
4+ goal wins means it's not close.
A 1 goal differential (even if ECNL-RL team wins) means it's pretty close.
 
SoccerFan4Life said:
My 09 kid had a chance to play on a few ecrl games and honestly I was not impressed with the talent pool. I think there’s some very good discovery teams that can beat most ecrl teams. I am still a believer that ECRL is just a check box for clubs to make money. They should Merge ECNL and GA. The rest of the ecrl and DPL teams should merge with discovery and make it a promo/relegation from discovery down to flight 1.
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09's are pretty young still. College is not on their radar yet. Their is a significant difference at the older ages, and as ECRL becomes more established (it is only year 2), it will become even stronger.
 
what-happened said:
I suppose this will be debated until either the GA doesn't survive or becomes established as good alternative to ECNL that provides opportunity for players that don't have access to ECNL. Seems like a win for DDs everywhere.
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The debate is not going to end. As my kid gets ready to age out we have seen ECNL only (leaving out the other leagues) to ECNL and DA to ECNL and GA and now ENCL/GA/ECNLR. Some clubs will get stronger, some will get weaker, some will disappear all together, some will rebrand multiple times (Lighting/Wave - Carlsbad United - LAGSD - City SC, just to name one). Coaches will move, some kids will follow. DOCs will be on a rotating basis (rhymes with Murph). Leagues will come and go. How about another age change back to school year instead of birth year? The only constant has been change.

Find a coach that believes in your kid. Is supportive. Understands mistakes happen as it is part of the process, commits to playing quality soccer in spite of the results and is a good human being (Alex Walker @ City for example), and enjoy the ride as it ends a lot quicker than you think. IMO.
 
MyDaughtersAKeeper said:
The debate is not going to end. As my kid gets ready to age out we have seen ECNL only (leaving out the other leagues) to ECNL and DA to ECNL and GA and now ENCL/GA/ECNLR. Some clubs will get stronger, some will get weaker, some will disappear all together, some will rebrand multiple times (Lighting/Wave - Carlsbad United - LAGSD - City SC, just to name one). Coaches will move, some kids will follow. DOCs will be on a rotating basis (rhymes with Murph). Leagues will come and go. How about another age change back to school year instead of birth year? The only constant has been change.

Find a coach that believes in your kid. Is supportive. Understands mistakes happen as it is part of the process, commits to playing quality soccer in spite of the results and is a good human being (Alex Walker @ City for example), and enjoy the ride as it ends a lot quicker than you think. IMO.
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Leagues are more important to parents. Everything you mention is 100% true. In the grand scheme of things there is room for two "top" leagues, the evidence is right in front of us. Which one is better? Depends on who you ask, what's important to them, and where you live.
 
what-happened said:
Leagues are more important to parents. Everything you mention is 100% true. In the grand scheme of things there is room for two "top" leagues, the evidence is right in front of us. Which one is better? Depends on who you ask, what's important to them, and where you live.
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I would argue that many parents don't know what they're getting into regarding the different leagues and why or if one is shinier than another.
 
I see quite a few players that are dual (or even triple) rostered on ECNL, ECRL and SoCal League teams. And a couple dual rostered on DPL and SoCal League teams
 
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