Don't have stats other than anecdotally we know quite a few people from certain clubs that got tapped from academies and only really have visibility into the West Coast (LA, Salt Lake, Texas, Portland, Seattle...which BTW last I checked the pacific NW does not have MLS Next....they are ECNL). It seems though in LA quite a few come from Strikers. Strikers is then able to rebuild teams because it has the connections, a deep bench (even their E64 teams are good and can and have beaten EA teams), and others are hoping to get a look too from those coaches with connections. Laufa also used to be similar...not sure anymore if Albion is the same. Again anecdotally, it seems like players on periphery teams (like Murrieta, Santa Barbara, Ventura or Nomads) who are capable of driving are looking to get a tradeup to the marquee teams and academies.
MLS Next Alliances
- Thread starter Grace T.
- Start date
Scrub It Kook
SILVER
With tryouts about to be in full swing, has anyone heard how EA2 is factored into this MLSN 2 dynamic? I'm hearing speculation from a EA/MLSN that it may be an entirely new level with teams moving from Flight 1 to EA2, EA2 to EA, EA to MLSN 2, etc.
East County Soccer Dad
SILVER
This makes a lot of sense.
Not sure when we will learn this info though as EA/EA2 seasons go through mid-spring.
Tryouts are only in full swing for the youngers. High schoolers are still in the freeze.
Wow that would be a nightmare. Here's why. EA is really dominate only in Socal and a handful of other states. In the East, NDL was formed by the MLS Next clubs as a second tier. Reason why is the chief think driving it was the MLS Next team rosters are really big and you have players with different rights (Core players who only play MLS Next, Development player playing with banding, Futures players who can join some games, and Reserve players who can only play MLS Next by being tagged a Guest and otherwise don't play or have to play for a lower team). So as a result many MLS Next teams carry more players than can dress for any game. So they formed NDL so they can move players up and down a little more freely. EA has grown a lot in SoCal and some clubs are MLS Next clubs and some aren't.
At the older levels (because the best players are picked off to play MLS Next) with the exception of clubs with a deep bench (like Strikers), it gets difficult for the MLS Next Club to field a competitive team (because players would rather sit on the bench and not play or dress as reserve players than play for the EA team for fear of being permanently sent down and some might be hoping against hope to get the last minute call so don't want to lose their eligibility for the weekend by playing down in EA). As a result, for clubs that have an MLS Next Team (again certain clubs like Strikers excepted) they can have an irregular performing EA team because results depend on who shows up any particular game. That means clubs in regions which do not have MLS Next but are good at recruiting (like SoCal Elite or Albion in Bakersfield) can have good results. So the MLS Next clubs won't want to assign based on merit because that would work to the benefit of those outliers (like SoCal Elite) and that would force them to move some decent players down in order to keep a performing squad. It loses them the control for why they are doing this.
So the politics of this are breaking up EA makes sense from a competition point of view (less lopsided scores with a handful of teams dominating the bracket). But it doesn't accomplish what the MLS Next Teams formed NDL for which is to gain more control over what happens to their futures, banded and reserve players. Then there are some regions like Norcal which are already off and running with an MLS 2. Wow that's a mess.
The potential here for lots of players (including MLS Next players except for the top 11 starters including lead GK at MLS Next teams), to really get F over here if this particular rumor is true. No number 18 on the MLS roster or reserve GK, you are going down to MLS2. No No. 9 gifted striker on the EA team, you are now playing for the 3rd team. Here's the thing too....at the older ages, as the Laufa blow up shows, unless you're strikers, it's really really hard on the boys side to keep more than an a and b team going. The cs are not going to sit around because they have no hope to play for the a and are even not on the b. They'll either quit or go elsewhere rather than play on the 3rd letter league team for a club.
You can either have the flexibility to move players up and down, or you can have your rigid tiers based on performance. You can't have both, particularly if you let in indies into the mix.
Do people in SoCal really think MLS next is superior than ECNL? I am one to judge a club and league by what their website looks like. Pats website, crappy website = crappy club. MLS next website = vomit inducing. EA website = you have no idea which team is playing up a year, don’t even show the coaches name. ECNL website by comparison gives you a lot of information. It lists the whole team roster with photos and the coach’s name.
On the boys side MLS Next is clearly the superior product in SoCal. 1. IIRC ECNL only has 10 boys clubs of varying quality...only a handful of those clubs....like the club known formerly as Real Socal.....can attract a regular batch of quality players....a couple of them (you know who I'm talking about) are disasters. In other areas, like the pacific northwest, ECNL is dominant, but here in SoCal it's MLS Next, 2. Part of the draw is that unlike other regions we have 2 soon to be 3 academies in the mix and some clubs that may as well be academies (Barcelona, Strikers)....only Florida around the country can really say that too. On the girls side, ECNL is way more robust, and 3. part of the reason ECNL is able to function is there really isn't a Valley MLS Next team (hence why Real SoCal has been safe)....but where you see it most clearly is the Ontario area which is a bit of a big fat mess and the clubs out that way always seem to have the most drama.
All I’m saying is I like what ECNL does with their web page. Shows that they took the time and effort to get it right. If MLS next wants to be the top league, please spend some time to get the website right so people can find scores easily and don’t just remove results without telling people why.
What makes Striker the exception and affords them to be as strong as an academy team? Is it because of the geographic exclusivity they have enjoyed for so long until this year? Or something else the club does that makes them good?
I dunno. Part of what keeps them going is their coaches have a lot of connections to the academy team (from anecdotes they send out more players to the academies and not just in la than say La surf). Their teams also win and they do well. Beyond that how’d they get so strong in the beginning guys? Anyone know how they made their bones?? I’m curious now too???
They were on an island without MLS next competition for a long time. The closest rival I think was TFA. But this year, SoCal Reds is granted full MLS next path. I think this is going to adversely affect Strikers quite a bit. I mean why would the players stay with strikers when they can go to SoCal Reds and be MLS next regular?
Not sure what happened in 80s and 90s to set up the competitive advantage, but in the past 10 years, it being located in Irvine + having access to DA (now MLSN) and being the only OC club to have that (until Reds recently) I'm sure have propelled them to the position it has now in American youth soccer landscape.
Having monopoly in all of OC... that's some real advantage right there...
I think so too. It's hard to go to LA when you're in South OC. The drive is brutal. So even if you don't like the coach, if you wanted to play MLSN, you suck it up and play for Strikers.
But now, there are two choices in OC and not saying either is better... but 2 is better than 1 from the consumer/player's perspective...
Strikers’s website looks to be up to date with no broken links or soccer camp information from two years ago. No wonder they are the leading club in OC.
My gist from talking to parents there is that it's actually not the case... that they don't really support their players leaving for MLS academies...
And from u12-u15 age groups, I haven't seen many move to academies vs some of the LA teams where they're sending 2-3 every year...
I've been told that they had an opportunity to forge a partnership with Galaxy or LAFC but decided not to... and have some partnership with Real Salt Lake instead...
Maybe it's true... or maybe it's not... maybe they have good intentions... lot of kids that do leave for academies don't end up playing and end up coming back or going back to other clubs... So maybe they're just trying to dissuade kids from leaving Strikers only to be a fringe academy player... Who knows.
LOL @Jamisfoes assessment of good or bad club/company is how nice the website is...ANNNND I can't argue with that haha
When I'm trying to evaluate bids at work and the vendor has a crappy website, it certainly doesn't help them in moving to the next round...
Keeping the website up to date before the tryout is so basic. If you go to Pats, you can’t find information about their ecnl tryout. You go to Westcoast website, you have a coach’s name on the wrong team. These two clubs happen to be near the bottom of the ecnl table for a lot of age groups. So yes, how a club keeps up their website tells you a lot about the club.
Pats and West Coast were also DA but moved to ECNL after the collapse.
No direct information personally, but a couple of anecdotes:
MLSN is clearly superior to ECNL on the boys side, just based on the team ratings. ECNL teams also play in the "normal" leagues, whereas that's rare for MLSN (likewise for most tournaments). I have no idea if that was always the case, but that's the current state.
Re MSLN2, our club's DOC told parents that the league and clubs is still being worked out (with our club applying to have teams in it); I assume that's the current state. From the press release, it sounded like it would replace EA (and some other organizations). With ECRL being more/less on par with NPL (as far as I can tell), if MLSN2 becomes the "next tier" about F1/NPL on the boy's side, I'm not sure where that would leave ECNL in the long term.
Also, fwiw: the players from my son's club who "moved up" out of the club (which only has teams in Socal/NPL, no EA/ECNL/etc.) went NPL -> academy (in MLSN). So our local city club wise, that's certainly perceived as the "next level up".
But like I said: not an insider in any sense, just a parent with that limited perspective.
MLSN is clearly superior to ECNL on the boys side, just based on the team ratings. ECNL teams also play in the "normal" leagues, whereas that's rare for MLSN (likewise for most tournaments). I have no idea if that was always the case, but that's the current state.
Re MSLN2, our club's DOC told parents that the league and clubs is still being worked out (with our club applying to have teams in it); I assume that's the current state. From the press release, it sounded like it would replace EA (and some other organizations). With ECRL being more/less on par with NPL (as far as I can tell), if MLSN2 becomes the "next tier" about F1/NPL on the boy's side, I'm not sure where that would leave ECNL in the long term.
Also, fwiw: the players from my son's club who "moved up" out of the club (which only has teams in Socal/NPL, no EA/ECNL/etc.) went NPL -> academy (in MLSN). So our local city club wise, that's certainly perceived as the "next level up".
But like I said: not an insider in any sense, just a parent with that limited perspective.