What's funny about all this is that mission statements for ECNL and GDA are virtually identical. Here is the original ECNL mission statement, although I am sure ECNL updated it more recently: "The Elite Clubs National League, Inc. (“ECNL”) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit member-based organization founded in 2009 to enhance the developmental experience of the female youth soccer players in the United States through: (i) improving the competitive environment through creation of a true nationally-based competitive league with multiple flights; (ii) improving the process for identifying elite female soccer players for the U.S. Soccer youth national teams through a systematic scouting and identification program based on national competition; and (iii) improving the daily training environment at female youth soccer clubs through developing best practices and training and organizational guidelines for its member clubs."
Other than the "multiple flights," which ECNL dropped early on, this is spot on with GDA's mission statement. It's almost like US soccer just copied it. Yet, posters latch on to the YNT path as if US soccer is too myopic, when that is exactly what ECNL claimed to be doing (with no mention of college soccer). The only thing that ECNL really failed to fulfill is improving daily training (iii), which GDA is at least attempting to do. GDA may fail too, but at least it's making an attempt to improve daily training.
? This is an 04 thread and I'm very familiar with the records for this age group. If you make claims on a public forum, especially untrue about another region, expect responses from ppl that live there.
