How’s the 2025-2026 season going?

Based on the elite 8 that made it VA for the 2010 I would argue So cal is still a very strong location. 2 out of 8 teams made it to VA, thats 25% of the teams being from one location and two teams were from Nor Cal... So 50% of the elite 8 teams were from CA. I would say thats still pretty dominate. I think its great there is competion all over the country, as it should be. Its okay to not win a national cahmpionship, life will continue on regardless. I do agree that some kids are pushed way too early and focus so much on private trainers early on and get burned. Its very sad. Even in So cal we have late bloomers and things will change for teenage girls.

In so cal the talent is spread out amongst more teams were lets say the Hawks has the one strong team in the state. Its great, love the competition.
 
SuperSoccerStar said:
another problem is having some kids on a team dedicated like that and the rest not.
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Experiencing this now. Girls are in high school and other activities are now of interest, boys, etc. Girls putting high school sports above/over the club sport, all the good stuff.
Some girls seem to be out there because the parents want them there as they show no interest and just line pocket books.
 
The wild first half of ECNL league is almost over. Been a wild ride so far. I'm wondering if we are going to see a lot of movement over the break like we did last year for this age group. With everyone who wants to play at the next level actively recruiting I just don't see much movement happening like last season. What's everyone think?
 
Carlsbad7 said:
As you know ranking is subjective. It's like trying to explain to someone why 50 shades of blue is somehow different than 60 shades of blue. What I've seen is really good grades opens all kinds of doors. You have to remember that the top teams probably have hundreds of players they can pick from for every roster spot. Anything that helps you to stand out is helpful. Good grades, SAT scores, coach connections, willingness to travel for college ID camps, the youth club you played for, ability to drop a huge donation on the school, black native American left handed gay agriculture major, famous. Whatever gets your foot in the door. I would also suggest not being so uptight about the obviously corrupt individuals with their hands out. They might have a connection that moves your kid to the front of the line. Sad and disgusting to participate in that type of thing but it happens and might end up being cheaper and easier in the long run.
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The most important reasons that good/great grades and test scores are important in college recruiting is money available for a schools scholarships. Schools can tap the academic scholarship bucket of $ to add to their sport scholarship bucket of $. Also, the second reason is just the ability to go to get into a higher academic school
 
Go Pro, its way easier😉 No crying in D1 either, even if coach is abusive

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I thought it may be a glitch that would be resolved in a day or two, but instead it is still showing Real Colorado as #1 on Monday. Looking closer at their results, they have been phenomenal right up through the end of November, even beating Koge, Concorde Fire and SLSG in Phoenix. In league prior to that they were dominant and unbeatable. But in their last 5 games, they have only gone 2-3, with all 3 losses showing as an underperform against their rating. The losses certainly hurt the raw rating, but seems not enough yet to change their ranking. They still have a 0.2 goal lead over Koge and a 0.3 goal lead over MVLA. Their next league game is 1/31, with 5 games scheduled over a 2 week stretch. Depending on whether they continue the slump, or instead return to mid-november form, their rating/ranking will be reflected appropriately.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
I thought it may be a glitch that would be resolved in a day or two, but instead it is still showing Real Colorado as #1 on Monday. Looking closer at their results, they have been phenomenal right up through the end of November, even beating Koge, Concorde Fire and SLSG in Phoenix. In league prior to that they were dominant and unbeatable. But in their last 5 games, they have only gone 2-3, with all 3 losses showing as an underperform against their rating. The losses certainly hurt the raw rating, but seems not enough yet to change their ranking. They still have a 0.2 goal lead over Koge and a 0.3 goal lead over MVLA. Their next league game is 1/31, with 5 games scheduled over a 2 week stretch. Depending on whether they continue the slump, or instead return to mid-november form, their rating/ranking will be reflected appropriately.
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What I wish is that the rankings would discount the showcase games. Done properly, they aren’t coached to win but as the name implies showcase the players, ALL the players. Rankings should be based on coaching to win the games. Perhaps the ranking service could weigh the showcase games at half the normal weighting for league games and playoff games.
 
Surfer_dad said:
What I wish is that the rankings would discount the showcase games. Done properly, they aren’t coached to win but as the name implies showcase the players, ALL the players. Rankings should be based on coaching to win the games. Perhaps the ranking service could weigh the showcase games at half the normal weighting for league games and playoff games.
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I agree with this 100%. There should be zero incentive to win showcase games, outside of individual player effort and desire to win those games. Coaches should do their best to showcase all their players and that's it.
 
Surfer_dad said:
What I wish is that the rankings would discount the showcase games. Done properly, they aren’t coached to win but as the name implies showcase the players, ALL the players. Rankings should be based on coaching to win the games. Perhaps the ranking service could weigh the showcase games at half the normal weighting for league games and playoff games.
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agreed, our coach only played the uncommitted players in a recent showcase yet the results still show and are used towards rankings.
 
All the rating is ever going to do is predict how well a team is expected to do in their very next recorded game. Can you imagine trying to determine the relative value of each game programmatically, at scale, before deciding how highly to weight that particular game? What is a showcase game compared to a local tournament compared to a national final compared to a pre-season game? What about a late-season league game where everyone decent sits to keep them healthy for playoffs?

The rating is always going to be a calculation based on the past (up to) 20 recorded games in the past year. A game is a game if the score is published and the team can be identified. What some teams do, even at the ECNL level, is just have events with a whole bunch of friendlies and don't record the scores electronically. I can't imagine it's done specifically to avoid hurting anyone's SR score, but it is definitely an accompanying side effect.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
All the rating is ever going to do is predict how well a team is expected to do in their very next recorded game. Can you imagine trying to determine the relative value of each game programmatically, at scale, before deciding how highly to weight that particular game? What is a showcase game compared to a local tournament compared to a national final compared to a pre-season game? What about a late-season league game where everyone decent sits to keep them healthy for playoffs?

The rating is always going to be a calculation based on the past (up to) 20 recorded games in the past year. A game is a game if the score is published and the team can be identified. What some teams do, even at the ECNL level, is just have events with a whole bunch of friendlies and don't record the scores electronically. I can't imagine it's done specifically to avoid hurting anyone's SR score, but it is definitely an accompanying side effect.
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I agree, it would be a ridiculous amount of work to start defining that some games are worth less than others.

The bigger question is why do leagues post showcase results if they dont apply to league status? Even if showcase results do apply as a part of league status why not keep the details internal and only post winner/loser not showing the number of goals scored.
 
Don't worry, you'll care a lot less about team rankings in a few months as you focus on recruitment for your player. And then next year people won't care at all.
Carlsbad7 said:
I agree, it would be a ridiculous amount of work to start defining that some games are worth less than others.

The bigger question is why do leagues post showcase results if they dont apply to league status? Even if showcase results do apply as a part of league status why not keep the details internal and only post winner/loser not showing the number of goals scored.
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Because parents will complain if they don't post scores
 
rainbow_unicorn said:
Don't worry, you'll care a lot less about team rankings in a few months as you focus on recruitment for your player. And then next year people won't care at all.

Because parents will complain if they don't post scores
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I could care less now 😉

Just pointing out another way clubs and leagues create their own problems. If showcase results do determine something like playoff seed just list results as 1-0 or 0-1 no matter the number of goals scored.
 
I beg to differ. FIFA agrees with me:

FIFA rankings do not weigh friendlies the same as major tournament or qualifier games
; friendlies have a much lower point value (weight), while World Cup finals and qualifiers carry the most weight, reflecting match importance, opponent strength, and confederation competitiveness in the updated Elo-based system. Victories in big tournaments earn significantly more points than friendlies, and losses can be more damaging, encouraging strategic play beyond just avoiding friendlies, notes
 
FIFA isn't rating tens of thousands of teams electronically, in real time, on a budget that is much closer to $0 than to any reasonable sum. They are rating professional teams - whose supporters are financially providing FIFA with the means for everything they do, from rating teams to organizing events, to awarding peace prizes.

Thinking that an app that rates youth sports teams by scraping thousands of results pages and running them through an algorithm, is anywhere close to "the same thing", is like someone saying their moped should perform like Lando Norris's McLaren. Come on, they both have motors, don't they?
 
Additionally - there is already a youth ranking system that does what some are asking for here (rating games differently based on perceived value), and it is terrible. GotSport assigns various point values based on their belief of how important a league or tournament is (i.e. is it GotSport sponsored), and teams receive different amounts of points depending on how they finish. It turns out that they are terrible at actually having these ratings be indicative, and for most teams, it's not much better than a coin-flip whether a higher-rated team in GotSport will beat a lower-rated team. Only at the very top does it get a little better (with teams that win many tournaments), but even then it is miles behind SR in terms of predictivity.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
FIFA isn't rating tens of thousands of teams electronically, in real time, on a budget that is much closer to $0 than to any reasonable sum. They are rating professional teams - whose supporters are financially providing FIFA with the means for everything they do, from rating teams to organizing events, to awarding peace prizes.

Thinking that an app that rates youth sports teams by scraping thousands of results pages and running them through an algorithm, is anywhere close to "the same thing", is like someone saying their moped should perform like Lando Norris's McLaren. Come on, they both have motors, don't they?
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If you can’t afford to, just say that is the reason. The logic of weighing showcase games differently is solid and it woul make the system better. At least at the ECNL level, it wouldn’t be that hard (at least on the surface) because the showcases are clearly known. I am not saying your system isn’t good, I just am saying it would be better. Your system is the best out there currently and that is why I pay for it.
 
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