Listen shithead. I am going to make this quick because I dont have a lot of time today. There are plenty of people on this forum whose kids have aged out, coaches, refs, parents with kids in college giving advice, etc. Do you not want their advice? Better yet why doesn't everyone stay in their own age forum? 2 of my nieces dad is not able to bring them to many events and their mom works. My son and I fill in often for them. so So STFU.
New ECNL Clubs
- Thread starter Desert Hound
- Start date
Uncle Rico I got you “so So” mad that you’re stuttering and your trying to explain yourself that your not a weirdo on a forum with no kids in youth soccer is the icing on the cake. LOL!!
YOU'RE A WEIRDO!!
Point blank, washed up soccer dad, a has been and you have nooooooooooooo friends. Face it.. you come here to this forum to feel like you’re some soccer god and think the 4 people who tolerate you are your internet friends.. Go find a hobby Buddy maybe like Christian Mangle or even since you always have a negative opinion go to Yelp and just go give reviews all day!!
Let the people on this forum who actually have a need to be here enjoy the information and insight without your useless input!!
SoccerGuru
SILVER ELITE
I will attempt to support your attempt to get this thread back on track. Let's pick two clubs say, SD surf and Slammers, one DA one ECNL. With Real Colorado and Dallas Texans now leaving DA that means Slammers will get the chance to play these teams once maybe twice throughout the entire ecnl career. Let's say they play each of those clubs twice so that's 2 games against a great team and 2 games against an average team. SD surf will now never get to play Real Colorado or Dallas Texans but they will still have 2 games a year against legends, blues, beach, LAGSD, Albion etc. Slammers will get 2 games a year against Nevada heat and eagles who are sometimes good in an age group, but that's it. I am surprised at the reaction from the socal forum about out of state competition switching will cause socal DA teams to switch to ecnl. If a big socal DA club switches to ecnl, then there could be some truth to ecnl becoming the better league but until then, I don't see Real CO and Dallas texans causing a shakeup here and socal DA is without a doubt the most competitive league and where a lot of college coaches will go to find the top recruits. But hey, anything can change.
Don’t forget SW ECNL does do 2 showcases a year and sometimes will travel to other regions to do their showcases so they might play each other more than 3 times in their ECNL lifetime. Plus being these teams are great teams they might see each other during ECNL nationals
IMO I would love to see ECNL and Albion come a agreement. (Probably won’t happen) but that would make league a lot stronger in SD and LV.
Surf Zombie
GOLD
I’m not in So Cal. I have a U13 in her first year of ECNL in MA. She is enjoying it and the league is very strong here in the northeast compared to GDA. Personally I hate this feud between the leagues and think its counter productive on multiple levels. That said, it’s ongoing and it effects my child so I pay attention to it.
My question for those of you in GDA in So Cal is at what point do you start to worry about the quality of the league outside of your own back yard?
No doubt GDA in So Cal is very strong and you all have great competition to play week in and week out. But outside of TX, (and that pendulum looks like it may be about to swing) it’s seems that the ECNL is the stronger league in every other part of the country. If so e combination of Solar- FC Dallas-Top Hat were to jump at this two team deal (as rumored) I’d bet that the stronger So Cal clubs would take notice and things in So Cal would get pretty interesting.
My question for those of you in GDA in So Cal is at what point do you start to worry about the quality of the league outside of your own back yard?
No doubt GDA in So Cal is very strong and you all have great competition to play week in and week out. But outside of TX, (and that pendulum looks like it may be about to swing) it’s seems that the ECNL is the stronger league in every other part of the country. If so e combination of Solar- FC Dallas-Top Hat were to jump at this two team deal (as rumored) I’d bet that the stronger So Cal clubs would take notice and things in So Cal would get pretty interesting.
VegasParent
SILVER ELITE
I would be surprised if US Soccer did nothing to counter this. Change the sub rules, allow high school or something. I don't see them doing something desperate like giving clubs two teams in every age group but I can see them making some changes.
vegasguy
GOLD
If the DA changes the girls side because they are losing their steam (questionable if they are) should they not change the boys side too and the what about the MLS Academies? Can they play HS? MLS should split off in my opinion and form a league with USL. DA do DA and change how ever and ECNL do ECNL how every. In the end DA and ECNL are leagues with goals of getting kids to college excluding the MLS which is looking for and investing in potential assets.
At least outside of SoCal, unless GDA changes the rules barring high school play, I don't see how it survives as the elite platform. More top clubs will continue to defect until the cupboard is bare.
Or, maybe GDA will start to offer two DA teams for the price of one?
SoccerGuru
SILVER ELITE
That is another point, why is ecnl offering two teams? I get the money aspect for the club but now you are watering down leagues with a secondary team when ecnl should only be the "elite TEAM" which is one. I slowly see ecnl turning into the youth leagues where you have 5 teams from the same club and are playing satelite teams. I think after a few years girls DA becomes the quality league and ecnl becomes the quantity league.
SoccerGuru
SILVER ELITE
You just answered it right there, why would I want the better competition to be outside of my own backyard? So I have to pay more money and travel more? I like the 80/20 rule, and that is exactly what you have in GDA in socal and Texas. For ECNL, it seems like the opposite where in each league there is one maybe two really good clubs but in order to play the best, you would need to travel and sometimes far distances which means more money. I agree and hope that one day ecnl and DA work together, would make a great environment for youth soccer.
I personally would start to worry when 2-3 of Surf, Beach, Legends, Galaxy, Albion, Blues and RSC leave GDA. That would make the leagues close to equal in terms of top teams, at least in the younger GDA age groups which I know best. I’d also been fine with fewer games, less out of state league travel and more local showcases. Maybe add a trip to Jefferson Cup instead and have a winter and a summer showcase in the West region. Fewer games and less travel means more rest and fewer injuries, and less expense.
Desert Hound
DA
If GDA does allow HS and changes their sub rules, they have essentially turned into ECNL. And at that point one has to ask the question what was the point of starting their own league when they then mimic ECNL rules.
My DD has experience in both ECNL and DA.
I however have wondered the following:
- if the stated goal is development, why have restrictive sub rules? With or without restrictive sub rules, the very top players in either league will play a full 90. Why not make it easier for the less than top players to get more minutes in games?
- why change the showcase format in DA to now have the DA Cup? It changes the emphasis from being a showcase to one where many teams are playing to win and as such are not allowing all their players to be seen by college coaches.
Another point re: the relative quality of GDA and ECNL outside of SoCal is that all those college coaches are not coming to watch your regular league games. If the teams you play in regional or national showcases are not very good, how does that help those SoCal GDA players? I believe those coaches want to see good players playing other good players. 8-0 games are not so interesting, so the out-of-area competition may matter less often, but it may matter much more in those select weekends where college coaches are actually scouting. Of course, there are exceptions, and I am not saying that no coaches ever watch regular league games. But we all know that the showcases are important for the scale and geographic range of the exposure they provide. GDA is losing this battle everywhere but SoCal. And that very well may be so because ECNL actually wants and needs to win the battle and US Soccer's interest in this is strictly as an evidentiary matter in its litigation with the USWNT and doesn't actually care if it wins beyond that purpose (which is now achieved whether the GDA sustains or not). If I am betting on fighters, I will take the one trying to survive over the one going through the motions every single time.
GeekKid
SILVER ELITE
I agree 8-0 games are nothing to coaches who are trying to evaluate talent. They would rather see tight contests between higher ranked opponents. In regard to SoCal GDA and outside competition, if you use the SoccerWire rankings and if you run the scenario of the Top 10 SoCal teams (actually only 8 ranked in the top 100) vs The Top 8 Everyone else, here is how it breaks down…
Top Ranked SoCal team
Blues
Beach
Legends
Surf
LA Galaxy
Real SoCal
LA Galaxy SD
Albion
Top Ranked Everyone Else
Solar
Tophat
Real Colorado
FC Dallas
San Jose Earthquakes
St James Virginia
Lonestar
Cincinnati Development Academy
NC Courage
The results for SoCal teams, U15, U16, U17 and U18/19, competing against these top 8 ranked teams for this year’s DA Cup competition so far has SoCal teams with a record of 11-20-6 (W-L-D). Interesting observations: Blues haven’t played a Top 8 opponent outside of SoCal so far this season in the DA Cup competition at any age level. Surf fared the best with a 3-0-0 record, but each win had a one goal differential.
Were diluted in SoCal. For example, before DA we had I think 8 top teams for 04. Now we have two leagues with around 23 04' teams, who all claim "premier" "Best of the others" and so on. If we go back to say, 10 teams of top talent in socal, then we will beat everyone again
SoccerGuru
SILVER ELITE
Sorry I am honestly not trying to be a troll here but what point are you trying to make?
Soccer4evr
BRONZE
Why are you spreading false information?
SOCCERMINION
SILVER ELITE
The only good thing coming out of all this DA and ECNL dilution, is i get to appreciate the old days when my DD played ENCL when it was all the best players, and she got to play Surf Cup when it was only the "Best of the Best" I doubt we will ever see those times again.....