MLS Next Alliances

Jamisfoes said:
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.
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I can't help but to chuckle at how much importance you put on a website. I couldn't care less what the website looks like. It's literally the last thing I care about.
 
sigmabody said:
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.
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I bet there will be one Socal MLS/GA club switch to ECNL this coming fall.
 
CAZZZ said:
I bet there will be one Socal MLS/GA club switch to ECNL this coming fall.
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Which one do you think? Inquiring minds are dying to know.

It would have to be driven on the girls side and ecnl in general is very fussy who they let in (for example eagles which has ecnl girl but only ecrl boys). Further the lower level boys side for ecnl is a bit of a wreck as it is. Reds, Red Bulls, lasc just got it so that’s unlikely and their game plan is totally plugged into a vision of a new girls system. It’s not the academies. It’s not Albion La-Santa Monica given that recent move. Tfas girl program isn’t strong enough. Murrietta isn’t strong enough period and Fcgs force went through some drama. La surf isn’t going to give up its two ea slots. Won’t be Albion sd for the same reason with all its affiliates. Fusion would make sense but again the girls side and it won’t because of the pro team.

It would have to be one of the teams on the periphery like Santa Barbara or more likely a strong ea team like Albion Bakersfield, riverside or SoCal elite assuming they have a good girls side (don’t really know).
 
I am curious to why West Coast is GA girls, ECNL boys? Is there some sort of bad blood between West Coast and ECNL? Seems like their girls program is good enough for ECNL.
 
DeaconSoccer12 said:
I am curious to why West Coast is GA girls, ECNL boys? Is there some sort of bad blood between West Coast and ECNL? Seems like their girls program is good enough for ECNL.
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They're one of like 15 (I'm exaggerating) clubs that practice at Great Park. Everyone in OC is just poaching players from each other. It doesn't really matter if they play in ECNL or GA because there's so much movement between teams. I'm sure from a West Coast perspective it's likely easier to be in GA and not have to be recruiting as much. Which keeps the checks flowing in. For the boys you'd want to be in MLSN (Strikers). ECNL in that area isnt as strong.

The thing with girls Socal ECNL is that there are 3-4 super clubs and everyone else. The superclubs are usually contenders for winning Nationals or whatever tournament they play in. A club like West Coast might not want to deal with playing that type of team + risking blowouts. It's just easier + likely makes more money for West Coast to shoot low and keep the checks rolling in.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
They're one of like 15 (I'm exaggerating) clubs that practice at Great Park. Everyone in OC is just poaching players from each other. It doesn't really matter if they play in ECNL or GA because there's so much movement between teams. I'm sure from a West Coast perspective it's likely easier to be in GA and not have to be recruiting as much. Which keeps the checks flowing in. For the boys you'd want to be in MLSN (Strikers). ECNL in that area isnt as strong.

The thing with girls Socal ECNL is that there are 3-4 super clubs and everyone else. The superclubs are usually contenders for winning Nationals or whatever tournament they play in. A club like West Coast might not want to deal with playing that type of team + risking blowouts. It's just easier + likely makes more money for West Coast to shoot low and keep the checks rolling in.
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That makes sense. I chatted with one of the directors at West Coast girls last week and it seems they also are trying to maintain true development and learning to play possession even at the expense of some wins (I know everyone says that). I know they have a good reputation with college recruiters for that. I'm sure they lose many of their best players to the superclubs though who want to the ecnl recruiting exposure.

The Great Park is nuts. We were there last week to look at a team and I was amazed at the number of teams practicing.
 
DeaconSoccer12 said:
I am curious to why West Coast is GA girls, ECNL boys? Is there some sort of bad blood between West Coast and ECNL? Seems like their girls program is good enough for ECNL.
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West Coast GA program is dropping drastically. Current standings of their age groups:

U19 - 8th/11
U17 - 1st/11
U16 - 3rd/11
U15 - 8th/11
U14 - 11th/11
U13 - 11th/11
 
chipmonk said:
It’s a little early to tell, but so far it seems to mean that top EA teams might be invited to MLS events and get more opportunities to play against the academy teams.

I’ve heard that the true MLS academies are very frustrated with the level and travel of the other MLS Next teams and this structure is supposed to help them get better competition. I mean, in socal, some of the EA2 teams are better than the MLS next teams.
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The top ea teams tend to be top either because: 1) the mls reserve bench drops down and the team has access to those players in league (so the team overall still has weaker players than the mls core team hypothetically), 2) they are strikers or 3) they are a club without an mls next team so put their best players in ea and are in an area that doesn’t tend to get poached but are locked out of mls next (Albion SoCal elite). It won’t help the mls academies get better competition (with the exception of the top 3-5 mls next teams they regularly win easily against the rest even playing the benchers). It will however get some of the locked out ea clubs an opportunity for better competition.
 
justasoccerfam said:
West Coast GA program is dropping drastically. Current standings of their age groups:

U19 - 8th/11
U17 - 1st/11
U16 - 3rd/11
U15 - 8th/11
U14 - 11th/11
U13 - 11th/11
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Ah ok, didnt realize that. My daughter is a 2014 and they have 2 strong teams. But I know their 2013s are a total mess and the best 2014 team is going to play up as I believe the 2013 GA or DPL team next season. That team came over all together from AC Brea though. They definitely can't compete with Blues recruiting wise in South OC at the younger ages.
 
Grace T. said:
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.
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The speculation was more player movement but with a new level to create a team for. Meaning, MLSN2 would be some lower end MLS players along with the stronger EA players. The danger becomes when trickling that down the levels it's inevitable that there will be some Flight 2/3 teams playing in the EA2 just to fill out a squad.
 
my understanding its not a level or league but a two showcase thru the year .
I don't expect there to be a MLS Next 2 league .
There's already enough bad teams in Next as is ......
 
NewUser27 said:
my understanding its not a level or league but a two showcase thru the year .
I don't expect there to be a MLS Next 2 league .
There's already enough bad teams in Next as is…..
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I think there’s totally gonna be MLSN 2…
MLSN will continue to expand until they gobble up even down to the rec level…
I don’t think that’s necessarily the worst thing… having one unifying league or body would help some things… hurt some other things

I would completely agree with you that there are some bad teams in MLSN whose clubs just fielded a team because they had to field a team for that age group…

I think an interesting thing would be if mid season, they move top MLSN2 teams up to MLSN and move down bottom MLSN teams to MLSN2.

It would only work if they force them to do it during mid season… won’t work after the season cause too many kids will move teams…
 
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