How’s the 2023-24 season going?

Carlsbad7 said:
I agree It's probably very subjective for boys at the highest levels.

However the jump between regular player and top talent is much greater for boys than is is for girls. This is what I meant.

Maybe in the future when there's more $$$ in the Women's game + Academy options things will change.
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This is another vague/false generalization that is not based on anything other than one's subjective opinion. The top girl players are probably already maxed out in terms of how much soccer they can play and be developed. A NWSL academy won't change how good those top players are. Most of those top players already train with NWSL senior teams.
 
rainbow_unicorn said:
This is another vague/false generalization that is not based on anything other than one's subjective opinion. The top girl players are probably already maxed out in terms of how much soccer they can play and be developed. A NWSL academy won't change how good those top players are. Most of those top players already train with NWSL senior teams.
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I'm just relaying what I've seen with my own eyes. Vague or not vague.

You obviously have a different opinion.
 
MyKidsDriver said:
I don’t know. We had a scrimmage next to a baseball diamond where a boy dad dropped his beer ran onto the diamond and started punching an umpire. teams looked about 15u. Boy dad took the crazy award that day.
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Baseball dads are a different breed. They can be brutal, even down to 7-year-olds in little league. When I stated most boy dads aren't as crazy as girl dad's I meant soccer only. And, it's just from my personal experience being on sidelines for MLSN, ECNL boys, and ECNL Girls.
 
Have you ever walked around the fields at silver lakes during the boys tournaments? It’s so crazy, dad’s screaming at 8 year olds, boys trying to fight each other. Parents cussing out the refs. But what really stands out is the dads laying into their sons during the game. It’s pretty bad
 
Carlsbad7 said:
It's hard to describe until you've seen it.

With Boys once they hit puberty its very clear who the top players are.

With girls puberty doesn't have as dramatic of an effect.

This makes the identification of talent much more subjective for girls. Because it's subjective parents get more involved to try and give their daughters the best possible outcome.

It's not that boys parents aren't crazy some are. It's that top talent is so easily identified with boys that people don't question decisions.
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This is my observation as well. I have a boy and a girl.
Boys' parents lose hope early in the process. My son's teammate was accepted into an MLS academy and the dad told me that he is relieved because he is quite sure that his son will finally realize that becoming pro is not realistic. He knows his son is not good enough but it is hard to convince the son if he is a star player on an ECNL team.
Girls, on the other hand, I know personally a handful of parents that have been so angry at coaches, club DOCs, even walking up to high school principals claiming discrimination for not starting a game. They should know that if you have to fight to get regular starts at an ECNL or high schools teams then it is hopeless, just enjoy the game. maybe even join an ECRL team to be the star player.
To be fair, it is difficult to differentiate the "elite" unless you are physically elite like Rodman, Morgan...
 
aong cangkol said:
This is my observation as well. I have a boy and a girl.
Boys' parents lose hope early in the process. My son's teammate was accepted into an MLS academy and the dad told me that he is relieved because he is quite sure that his son will finally realize that becoming pro is not realistic. He knows his son is not good enough but it is hard to convince the son if he is a star player on an ECNL team.
Girls, on the other hand, I know personally a handful of parents that have been so angry at coaches, club DOCs, even walking up to high school principals claiming discrimination for not starting a game. They should know that if you have to fight to get regular starts at an ECNL or high schools teams then it is hopeless, just enjoy the game. maybe even join an ECRL team to be the star player.
To be fair, it is difficult to differentiate the "elite" unless you are physically elite like Rodman, Morgan...
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Losing hope is s bit strong but there is a pragmatism that comes with realizing how wide the funnel is. Even within the academy system it’s all about those few players in each cohort that stand out and typically play up a year or two. Of these, a very small percentage again make it to Europe where the real money is. Meanwhile, many boys work hard, enjoy the game, and have the opportunity to play in college and minor pro leagues in the US and Mexico. Plenty of MLSN and ECNL boys committing to play in college. I would bet that if you look at Big West, for example, not many recruits come directly from MLS academies.
 
SoccerFan6 said:
Baseball dads are a different breed. They can be brutal, even down to 7-year-olds in little league. When I stated most boy dads aren't as crazy as girl dad's I meant soccer only. And, it's just from my personal experience being on sidelines for MLSN, ECNL boys, and ECNL Girls.
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Or holding your kid back a year or two in school so that they have a physical edge (which I hear is not that uncommon in baseball)
 
ColdPizza said:
or Football...
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For what it's worth, our experience with youth football in terms of confirming age/size eligibility is much different than soccer or basketball. In basketball, it's expected that the rules will be skirted, and in a tournament you are almost guaranteed to see players on opposing teams that make you squint your eyes and try and imagine if they are of the right age. In one case, our club coach was also an assistant school coach, and knew that the opposing kid was 2 years / grades too old as he was from the same freaking school, and asked the ref - who proceeded to tell him not to worry about it. In soccer, we've come across a number of instances of age problems, and have had to deal with forged birth certificates more than once.

But in youth football, they only accept original birth certificates, no copies, and the kids have to weigh in the morning of game day - if they are over weight for the division, they can't play. There are zero instances of worrying about proper age qualifications, as there just isn't an easy way to skirt the rules to play a faster/larger/older athlete.

In older ages, at some point it doesn't matter, and you're on the varsity team as long as you are legitimately a student there, which can certainly push kids to aim for as low a grade level as possible.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
In older ages, at some point it doesn't matter, and you're on the varsity team as long as you are legitimately a student there, which can certainly push kids to aim for as low a grade level as possible.
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That is correct, they are held back for the high school timeframe. I believe that 1-2 years older in high school does matter. Huge difference between an 18 and 16-year-old, most of the time.
 
TeamDadJokes said:
I think Legends has only 16 active players on their NL roster. The RL is at 17. There’s been some new additions added this week to their roster so I’m not sure what it looks like right now, but since the midway point they haven’t played with record breaking roster sizes from my direct observations
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Where do you find the active roster, ENCL website?
 
24 on the ecnl roster. 2 were borrowed for L.V tournament b.c of us Id camp . 2 injured 2 left the team. SO 18 roster + one more they're trying to add for playoffs . Word is 2 more commitments for nx season.
 
SuperSoccerStar said:
So now that the dust has settled some on player movement any thoughts on any of the moves that were made?
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Sporting lost all their top talent.

Legends gained some OC and IE talent

Blues NL = Liverpool GA 2.0

Slammers NL added a really top player from sporting that should really boost their offensive production.

Slammers RL stays intact

I think the rest of the NLs pretty much stayed the same as they were at the end of the season.

Summer tournaments and injuries still pending for future shakeups
 
TeamDadJokes said:
Sporting lost all their top talent.

Legends gained some OC and IE talent

Blues NL = Liverpool GA 2.0

Slammers NL added a really top player from sporting that should really boost their offensive production.

Slammers RL stays intact

I think the rest of the NLs pretty much stayed the same as they were at the end of the season.

Summer tournaments and injuries still pending for future shakeups
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I know this is a 2010 thread, but I’m hearing 2009 GA teams in so cal have been pillaged by playoff-bound ECNL clubs over the last month or two. Anyone heard if that’s happening at the 2010 level too?
 
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