not really true though. Tophat hasn't played any ECNL team and they are #4. Make it make sense!!!
How’s the 2024-2025 season going?
- Thread starter TeamDadJokes
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I am a big advocate of rankings app but, this is its biggest flaw in my opinion. Speaking from years of experience, teams that are really good can often score goals at will against average teams. It depends greatly on the coach and how he controls the game with what players are in the game. Once the score of a game is say 5-0, a quality coach should start taking out his talented goal scorers and give other players the majority of playing time. He/she has secured the win and now can reward the bench players for their loyalty to the team. However………other coaches run up the score and the rankings app seems to reward that behavior. Then the team runs into a lower ranked team that is properly ranked and gets smacked and people wonder what happened. Well, the team that play low ranked teams and run up the score was greatly over ranked. You see it in the ECNL playoffs time and time again.
oh I lied. they played #154, 222 and 242 in the nation in a tournament in August. But yeah. They are the #4 2010 team in the Nation.
I like the rankings app too and its normally pretty close but when it does things like this your like ummm ok. For all the socal teams the predictor is pretty well on each game.
Here's another one. Galaxy GA. #17 in the nation. Played West Coast GA and lost. Played FRAM GA and tied 1-1. Lost to Kansas GA ranked 347 in the nation but they are #17. Makes zero sense. Sorry but any GA team in the top 30 in the nation right now is nonsense. Yeah its a bummer these teams never come out here to play in tournaments. Seeing what happens to teams like Charlotte ECNL in ECNL playoffs every year I don't blame them.
It would make sense to have a handful of GA teams attend ECNL showcases and a handful of ECNL teams attend GA showcases + rotate the teams.
Since you don't really "win" anything at showcases it would be a good way to shake everything up and make things exciting playing new and different teams.
If all the same recruiters are attending both leagues showcase events and there's multiple showcases events per year whats the difference which one your team attends?
Might also be a good way to avoid some travel costs if the other league is holding their event closer to where you live.
Judging from how ruthless the youth soccer business has become I doubt anything like what I suggested would ever happen. However it is the type of thing that builds bridges which is helpful for when groups like ECNL want to switch back to school grade groupings or when working together to make things easier for recruiters.
That answer is simple, play in big tournaments where ECNL teams attend:
Surf Cup
Susa Columbus Weekend
Jefferson Cup
Supercopa
Dallas Texans Internationals
PDA Girls College Showcase
We could make a long list if we wanted to continue. I mean, even just calling coaches from those ecnl teams and asking, hey, what events are you going to? We’d like to attend.
It's not quite that simple.
Both ECNL and GA mandate that clubs attend league games and events (showcases, playoffs, finales, etc). Parents foot the bill for this in their club fees.
If you want to participate in big tournaments each one costs $$$ on top of the GA ECNL fees. The net affect is that as players get older u15+ top teams don't participate in tournaments as much. This makes it hard for clubs like Top Hat to go head hunting.
To maintain the current ranking Top Hat will be forced to blow out teams in the GA southeast league.
I’m
Didn’t mean to pop your magical bubble! I get it...it’s a delicate matter for you, prancing around on your cloud of glitter and good vibes… But hey, not everything’s sunshine and sprinkles. Sometimes you’ve got to step off that rainbow and see things as they really are, sparkles or not! Don’t worry, though, no one’s trying to steal your glitter wand, my friend! 
Easy there, Mr. Rainbow Unicorn!
Didn’t mean to pop your magical bubble! I get it...it’s a delicate matter for you, prancing around on your cloud of glitter and good vibes… But hey, not everything’s sunshine and sprinkles. Sometimes you’ve got to step off that rainbow and see things as they really are, sparkles or not! Don’t worry, though, no one’s trying to steal your glitter wand, my friend! Are any clubs, coaches, scouts or even colleges taking the ranking app serious or is it just us parents? I really wonder at times.
I believe clubs, coaches, and recruiters all glance at it every now and then to see which teams / clubs are hot and which are not.
It does a nice job for seeding tournaments.
But I doubt anyone important is fooled by a string of 10-0 wins against nobodies. You need to play some top 20 teams if you want to be taken seriously.
I know how it works… the question that was asked was how are these clubs and teams like Top Hat supposed to get cross league play and that’s the answer. But in reality, those parents don’t care and the club is happy because they win whatever they enter and are top of GA. They’re not up for the challenge of putting their belt up or being exposed as being inferior. Why risk going up against a Surf, Koge, Legends, MVLA and get embarrassed?
We see this with some SoCal NPL teams who do the same type of activities. Never enter blues cup, surf cup or any slammers tournaments.
If they wanted the smoke, they’d figure out a way. You’re already in GA. You’re already used to spending money. I don’t think they’d care much for their wallet traveling to Texas, or somewhere on the East coast for any of the tournaments I listed.
You're always free to go Atlanta and play TH if you want.
I don't think they're afraid to play any of the teams in Socal. I also believe they'd win more than they'd lose if they came out to California for something like Surf Cup.
Unfortunately at this point we'll likely never know because cross league events for top teams happen very rarely after u15.
This is new.
theecnl.com
ECNL GIRLS EXPANDS LEAGUE CUP COMPETITION FOR 2024-25 SEASON
The ECNL Girls is thrilled to announce the expansion of the ECNL League Cup competition platform for the 2024-25 season to include many additional conferences across the country for both ECNL Girls and ECNL Girls Regional League teams. Each ECNL League Cup competition adds new and exciting games...
theecnl.com
Don’t need to. We have the best talent and teams in the country here in SoCal. Unfortunately top hat doesn’t have the same luxury
rainbow_unicorn
PREMIER
Just you and other parents. Coaches and scouts don't care about youth soccer rankings...they know which clubs produce good players.
In NorCal, if you look at the top 10 clubs on the girl's side you have:
1 - MVLA (ECNL)
2 - San Juan (ECNL)
3 - Mustangs (ECNL)
4 - Lamorinda (GA)
5 - Placer United (ECNL)
6 - Bay Area Surf (ECNL)
7 - Odyssey (NPL)
8 - South Valley Surf (GA)
9 - Almaden (GA)
10 - Davis Legacy (ECNL)
Club ranking makes it much easier to reason about which clubs are truly emphasizing their entire program. The above really should be the make up of ECNL (or whatever you want to call it) up here in NorCal. It would help make all the players better in the end. Plus it would get ECNL out into the central valley.
1 - MVLA (ECNL)
2 - San Juan (ECNL)
3 - Mustangs (ECNL)
4 - Lamorinda (GA)
5 - Placer United (ECNL)
6 - Bay Area Surf (ECNL)
7 - Odyssey (NPL)
8 - South Valley Surf (GA)
9 - Almaden (GA)
10 - Davis Legacy (ECNL)
Club ranking makes it much easier to reason about which clubs are truly emphasizing their entire program. The above really should be the make up of ECNL (or whatever you want to call it) up here in NorCal. It would help make all the players better in the end. Plus it would get ECNL out into the central valley.
Any storylines from this weekend other than there were some hot ass games played!!
Lots of ties.
HBK scoring 5 goals on Slammers is surprising.
I'm rooting for Eagles this year to do better, but they seem to be lacking another player or two.
Blues tying both Az teams in over 100-degree weather. Fair result?
Now off to SD Showcase!
Anyone know what's happening with Slammers this season? Giving up 5 goals to Koge and 4 to Legends is not normal for this team. I expected them to play more competitively vs the top teams. I had them as the 4th best team in Socal but not sure anymore... Could they beat Eagles or Beach today?