Norcal MLS2 league is coming Fall 2024

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Barca2021

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2nd teams from all MLS clubs will play in Norcal MLS2 + whatever Norcal league they play in; RL,NPL, EA.
Socal, TX, AZ, NV teams in larger west coast expansion of what I assume is NAL. See https://www.socalacademyleague.com/

What are folks hearing from their clubs?
 
www.calnorth.org

Cal North Announces Exclusive Platform Featuring Fourteen Founding MLS NEXT Clubs

Launching in 2024, Cal North X2 platform will amplify the current MLS NEXT Clubs to enhance player development in the Northern California region. Cal North X2 platform is exclusively for existing MLS NEXT clubs to enhance the development pathway for their players in a platform that mirrors the...
www.calnorth.org www.calnorth.org
Barca2021 said:
2nd teams from all MLS clubs will play in Norcal MLS2 + whatever Norcal league they play in; RL,NPL, EA.
Socal, TX, AZ, NV teams in larger west coast expansion of what I assume is NAL. See https://www.socalacademyleague.com/

What are folks hearing from their clubs?
Click to expand...
 
Yes - got the same email. The 2nd teams won't be in EA anymore, they will be in the new MLS2 platform instead. ~15 games/season, ~30 games/year against other MLS2 clubs, plus they will play state cup, and additional tournaments.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
For CalNorth to now launch MLS2, call it the CalNorth X2 program, and have the clubs be interested, is a huge win for them. (This is the entire schedule of what remains in CCSL; it's pretty sparse. Essentially all clubs finally moved over to NorCal Premier - here's their schedule, and this doesn't even include any of the NPL or ECNL-RL teams.)
Click to expand...
It's a lifesaver, for now. I predict in a year or two this X2 becomes NAL and CalNorth just becomes a rec league or folds.
 
Yeah big win for Cal North who were on their dying breaths. This is really like the 3rd tier of MLS Next though...

A lot of people like to equate every MLS Next club as the same but realistically it's already 2 tiers. Today MLS Next is already subdivided into an MLS Next league for the pro team academies in 3 age groups (up from 2 last year) and then an MLS Next league for all the non-pro team clubs. With MLS Next basically granting full pathway now to almost every non-pro team club this year, you can see them preparing to fully split the league into MLS Next 1 only for pro teams across all age groups and then MLS Next 2 for all the other non-pro affiliated clubs. I don't actually think they'll do that from a branding standpoint (just keep MLS Next and have the league groups divided like they are now across the 3 ages).

I always find it funny when parents go chasing an MLS Next badge club vs. an ECNL badge club instead of looking at what's best for their own kid's development. When you take out the pro academies the quality across MLS Next (non-pro teams) and ECNL is basically the same. The top ECNL teams would be in the top of MLS Next teams and vice versa and the crap clubs in MLS Next would be bottom of the barrel in ECNL (and vice versa). This is not the case in many states but at least in NorCal and SoCal it is.
 
CalNorth has published schedules for the MLS X2 teams. First games are scheduled for Aug 11th. There are two related league schedules. The X2 one shows teams from 14 different clubs. It looks like a 13 game season running from 8/11/2024 - 4/13/2025. There are a subset of 7 of these same teams in a schedule called X2+, which is running a 6 game schedule from 9/15/2024 - 11/10/2024, on what look to be non-conflicting days.

CalNorth X2 2024 schedule

CalNorth X2+ 2024 schedule
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
CalNorth has published schedules for the MLS X2 teams. First games are scheduled for Aug 11th. There are two related league schedules. The X2 one shows teams from 14 different clubs. It looks like a 13 game season running from 8/11/2024 - 4/13/2025. There are a subset of 7 of these same teams in a schedule called X2+, which is running a 6 game schedule from 9/15/2024 - 11/10/2024, on what look to be non-conflicting days.

CalNorth X2 2024 schedule

CalNorth X2+ 2024 schedule
Click to expand...
I'm curious about the clubs without MLS teams in the older age groups; Woodside, Ajax, Albion Merced etc. Are they really going to field a team in this league?

According to woodside's Instagram account, only two teams will play X2.
 

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In Woodside's case, here are all the 2011B teams that existed as of this Spring.

An MLS team, an NPL team, and a team playing in Gold. Remains to be seen whether the new MLS II team is one of these, on offshoot of one, or something new entirely.

woodside crush3.png
 
Looks like these games have started to be played. It appears it was a slow start, with most not kicking off as initially planned on 8/11, but most age groups appear to have played at least some games so far.

Cal North X2 2024
 
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