Preseason DA Rankings 04

[timbuck]

This was my exact point if you look back in the thread. I think they will be ok long term. But there is a reason they have 200 teams and are the worst in the league right now. Their teams are everywhere, and nowhere, when it comes to building elite teams.

I wonder how they'll adjust for next year.
They have 2 Flight 1 teams in the G05 age group. They have both struggled. One of them was the Flight 2 champ from last year that moved up to Flight 1. The other mostly came from West Coast Swanson Flight 2 last year.
Will be interesting to see how DA plays out for this age group next year. Not just at Pats, but across the board.

 

[Kicker4Life]

Did they get accepted into ECNL?

And that’s supposed to be a measuring stick for the Club? The SoCal clubs that were accepted initially were able to vote to add a new club, how many were accepted over Beach? And why would they add another club when they made it a habit of pulling talented kids from LB, Cerritos and the SouthBay?

ECNL could have secured their legacy by adding one, maybe 2 clubs North of Newport and South of Thousand Oaks, but they didn’t...now we have the fractured landscape that we have today.

 

[MakeAPlay]

And that’s supposed to be a measuring stick for the Club? The SoCal clubs that were accepted initially were able to vote to add a new club, how many were accepted over Beach? And why would they add another club when they made it a habit of pulling talented kids from LB, Cerritos and the SouthBay?

ECNL could have secured their legacy by adding one, maybe 2 clubs North of Newport and South of Thousand Oaks, but they didn’t...now we have the fractured landscape that we have today.

So you are saying that ECNL should have just watered itself down and made the level of overall competition go down sooner? The real problem is US Soccer as was illustrated quite emphatically on Tuesday. If they hadn't gotten involved the dilution of the SoCal talent pool wouldn't have happened. 6 years ago I thought that 8 teams were too many to be considered elite but I was okay with it due to the geographical limitations. The amount of teams now is ludicrous especially considering that in the entire region there are only about 25-40 elite players AT MOST in any particular age group.

Look I get it you are a Beach homer and fortunately for you Mauricio, Jeff and Rob are fantastic coaches. However, Beach as a club did nothing that would have earned them ECNL admission PRIOR to the ECNL teams forgoing participating in National Cup and USYS competition. If any club should feel screwed it should be Laguna Hills Eclipse because they were the one SoCal club that had won a USYS National championship on the girls side that did not get into ECNL.

It is what it is but there is no denying the the talent pool is much more dilute now than it has ever been. At least more people can call their kids elite and drive around with Slammers, Beach, Legends or Surf stickers on their cars and pretend.

 

[timbuck]

So you are saying that ECNL should have just watered itself down and made the level of overall competition go down sooner? The real problem is US Soccer as was illustrated quite emphatically on Tuesday. If they hadn't gotten involved the dilution of the SoCal talent pool wouldn't have happened. 6 years ago I thought that 8 teams were too many to be considered elite but I was okay with it due to the geographical limitations. The amount of teams now is ludicrous especially considering that in the entire region there are only about 25-40 elite players AT MOST in any particular age group.

Look I get it you are a Beach homer and fortunately for you Mauricio, Jeff and Rob are fantastic coaches. However, Beach as a club did nothing that would have earned them ECNL admission PRIOR to the ECNL teams forgoing participating in National Cup and USYS competition. If any club should feel screwed it should be Laguna Hills Eclipse because they were the one SoCal club that had won a USYS National championship on the girls side that did not get into ECNL.

It is what it is but there is no denying the the talent pool is much more dilute now than it has ever been. At least more people can call their kids elite and drive around with Slammers, Beach, Legends or Surf stickers on their cars and pretend.

Eclipse got double screwed. They merged with Strikers to get ECNL status. And then 3 years later all of their coaches bailed and now they have 4 teams left in SCDSL. (2 teams in 2003. 1 2007 and 1 2008. ). Strikers still has their ECNL teams, but I don't think they are the old Eclipse. I think it's Irvine Strikers.

 

[MakeAPlay]

Eclipse got double screwed. They merged with Strikers to get ECNL status. And then 3 years later all of their coaches bailed and now they have 4 teams left in SCDSL. (2 teams in 2003. 1 2007 and 1 2008. ). Strikers still has their ECNL teams, but I don't think they are the old Eclipse. I think it's Irvine Strikers.

It was a bad situation but to be quite honest and that is what you get when the DOC doesn't care about girls soccer and he hires somebody from the outside to care about it and that person is a dinosaur...

 

[Hired Gun]

So you are saying that ECNL should have just watered itself down and made the level of overall competition go down sooner? The real problem is US Soccer as was illustrated quite emphatically on Tuesday. If they hadn't gotten involved the dilution of the SoCal talent pool wouldn't have happened. 6 years ago I thought that 8 teams were too many to be considered elite but I was okay with it due to the geographical limitations. The amount of teams now is ludicrous especially considering that in the entire region there are only about 25-40 elite players AT MOST in any particular age group.

Look I get it you are a Beach homer and fortunately for you Mauricio, Jeff and Rob are fantastic coaches. However, Beach as a club did nothing that would have earned them ECNL admission PRIOR to the ECNL teams forgoing participating in National Cup and USYS competition. If any club should feel screwed it should be Laguna Hills Eclipse because they were the one SoCal club that had won a USYS National championship on the girls side that did not get into ECNL.

It is what it is but there is no denying the the talent pool is much more dilute now than it has ever been. At least more people can call their kids elite and drive around with Slammers, Beach, Legends or Surf stickers on their cars and pretend.

Not a Beach homer but you need to look at logistics as well. Having several ECNL teams in South OC just a few minutes away from each other made no sense... Long Beach/ South Bay area needed an ECNL team along with better logistics in LA County as well. ECNL should have had 2 SD county teams, 2 OC County teams and 3 LA County teams for this region.

 

[Hired Gun]

Not a Beach homer but you need to look at logistics as well. Having several ECNL teams in South OC just a few minutes away from each other made no sense... Long Beach/ South Bay area needed an ECNL team along with better logistics in LA County as well. ECNL should have had 2 SD county teams, 2 OC County teams and 3 LA County teams for this region.

2 in the IE as well...

 

[MakeAPlay]

Not a Beach homer but you need to look at logistics as well. Having several ECNL teams in South OC just a few minutes away from each other made no sense... Long Beach/ South Bay area needed an ECNL team along with better logistics in LA County as well. ECNL should have had 2 SD county teams, 2 OC County teams and 3 LA County teams for this region.

8 teams is waaaaay to many in SoCal. There should at most be 3-4 teams. 3 being optimum. 1 in
San Diego. 1 in Orange County and 1 in LA (I don't care where but Westside would probably be best due to ease of commute from all areas). Maybe 1 in either the IE or Ventura/Northeast San
Fernando Valley.

Of course that is if we are interested in having the elite players play together. In the current format with double digit teams, each team might have 1-4 truly elite players and everyone else are just average to great ROLE PLAYERS. The perfect example of this is that 04 or 03 Slammers team with the forward that just runs through the defenses of the other allegedly elite GDA teams. That simply wouldn't happen if each team had 8-12 elite players on it instead of only a couple.

 

[MakeAPlay]

Not a Beach homer but you need to look at logistics as well. Having several ECNL teams in South OC just a few minutes away from each other made no sense... Long Beach/ South Bay area needed an ECNL team along with better logistics in LA County as well. ECNL should have had 2 SD county teams, 2 OC County teams and 3 LA County teams for this region.

I'm not really big on the logistics. My brother's traveled pretty far back in the day to play travel basketball. If someone wants to play locally they can play for a rec team or one of your standard run of the mill let's have lot's of fun clubs. If a kid is elite the travel should be expected.

I hate to say it but those that think that all of the best competition in club soccer on the girls side is in SoCal really needs to travel to Texas, New Jersey, Florida, Chicago, Michigan, Atlanta and Denver for some enlightenment....

 

[Hired Gun]

I'm not really big on the logistics. My brother's traveled pretty far back in the day to play travel basketball. If someone wants to play locally they can play for a rec team or one of your standard run of the mill let's have lot's of fun clubs. If a kid is elite the travel should be expected.

I hate to say it but those that think that all of the best competition in club soccer on the girls side is in SoCal really needs to travel to Texas, New Jersey, Florida, Chicago, Michigan, Atlanta and Denver for some enlightenment....

This was in regards to ECNL teams back in the day with a solid pathway to college - D1, D2 etc. Going with 2 teams per county then tying in a couple from Nevada and Arizona would round out the group. As far as truly the best to "Academy" I agree with your points.

 

[El Clasico]

I hate to say it but those that think that all of the best competition in club soccer on the girls side is in SoCal really needs to travel to Texas, New Jersey, Florida, Chicago, Michigan, Atlanta and Denver for some enlightenment....

CORRECT! What's more is that we are losing more ground to those regions every year. Boys and Girls. Seems, that if your primary business model, is to increase in size and profit, some things fall by the wayside, like Development. I expect to see the trend accelerate now that SoCal has decided to dilute the player pools further by sprinkling one or two elite players per team.

 

[timbuck]

It was a bad situation but to be quite honest and that is what you get when the DOC doesn't care about girls soccer and he hires somebody from the outside to care about it and that person is a dinosaur...

Is that Don or Abner?

 

[MakeAPlay]

Is that Don or Abner?

I'm going to leave that unsaid but anybody familiar with the organization should know what I am talking about.

 

[Nutmeg]

W

Serious? How do they know RSC parents are posting unless they are watching?

Wonder what else RSC parents were told. Is their also a dress code or an approved website list. And don’t forget to sign the parent binding non disclosure agreement also. The balls on some coach’s and clubs these days is staggering. Who is paying who around here. Keeping things in house is fine I guess, don’t air your dirty laundry, I get it. But holy hell sometimes club soccer scares me. I’d ask a RSC parent to respond but....maybe they can use emojis instead. Or better yet maybe the RSC police State who’s monitoring can respond.
Also RSC posts always seemed pretty tame to me. Just posting scores and stuff. Wish some othe clubs made that rule for their parents.

 

[Kicker4Life]

So you are saying that ECNL should have just watered itself down and made the level of overall competition go down sooner? The real problem is US Soccer as was illustrated quite emphatically on Tuesday. If they hadn't gotten involved the dilution of the SoCal talent pool wouldn't have happened. 6 years ago I thought that 8 teams were too many to be considered elite but I was okay with it due to the geographical limitations. The amount of teams now is ludicrous especially considering that in the entire region there are only about 25-40 elite players AT MOST in any particular age group.

Look I get it you are a Beach homer and fortunately for you Mauricio, Jeff and Rob are fantastic coaches. However, Beach as a club did nothing that would have earned them ECNL admission PRIOR to the ECNL teams forgoing participating in National Cup and USYS competition. If any club should feel screwed it should be Laguna Hills Eclipse because they were the one SoCal club that had won a USYS National championship on the girls side that did not get into ECNL.

It is what it is but there is no denying the the talent pool is much more dilute now than it has ever been. At least more people can call their kids elite and drive around with Slammers, Beach, Legends or Surf stickers on their cars and pretend.

Yes, I am a bit of a Beach “homer” but it’s for all the right reasons.

You say “watering down”...a bit harsh in the overall context, but that’s your style, unbridled! I would argue however that there is a club of 2 in ECNL that hasn’t done enough to deserve retaining ECNL status.

Considering some of the ECNL “unicorns” are from the SouthBay area, one could also argue there is enough talent in the region (even if it were not Beach, but by your own self admission they have a very strong argument from a Coaching staff standpoint) to warrant someone having ECNL status. In LA County.

Let’s not make this an ECNL vs DA discussion. I honestly don’t give 2 $hits about the label. For me (and you can ask @NoGoal) it is about my DD and the Coaching she is getting. No matter what league you call it.

I’m just happy to see the passion my DD has for the game right now. Makes it all worth it.

 

[Lightning Red]

Surf vs Cbad on Sun.

 

[Lightning Red]

Surf vs Cbad this weekend.

 

[Kicker4Life]

Surf vs Cbad this weekend.

Should be a good game to watch!

 

[MakeAPlay]

Yes, I am a bit of a Beach “homer” but it’s for all the right reasons.

You say “watering down”...a bit harsh in the overall context, but that’s your style, unbridled! I would argue however that there is a club of 2 in ECNL that hasn’t done enough to deserve retaining ECNL status.

Considering some of the ECNL “unicorns” are from the SouthBay area, one could also argue there is enough talent in the region (even if it were not Beach, but by your own self admission they have a very strong argument from a Coaching staff standpoint) to warrant someone having ECNL status. In LA County.

Let’s not make this an ECNL vs DA discussion. I honestly don’t give 2 $hits about the label. For me (and you can ask @NoGoal) it is about my DD and the Coaching she is getting. No matter what league you call it.

I’m just happy to see the passion my DD has for the game right now. Makes it all worth it.

I am only responding to it being implied that Beach got screwed by not being allowed into ECNL. I have no beef with what GDA is supposed to be. My problem is with how disingenuous the whole process was. It was a power grab plain and simple and is not an attempt to elevate the game on the girls side. Why else would they simply poach most of the same clubs?

I have to ask how you can deny that the competition is watered down when you are going from 8 teams in a region in a closed "elite" league to 11 or 12 in the same region in an "elite" closed league? The argument that the old Legends/Beach/Carlsbad/Albion/LA Premier/Southbay Force people used to make was that a closed competition circuit was bad and now suddenly it's great! It's just pure unadulterated hypocrisy. I am all about the GDA's stated mission. Unfortunately their words don't match their actions.

Smart of you to focus on your player. Good luck to you and her.

 

[GoWest]

I am only responding to it being implied that Beach got screwed by not being allowed into ECNL. I have no beef with what GDA is supposed to be. My problem is with how disingenuous the whole process was. It was a power grab plain and simple and is not an attempt to elevate the game on the girls side. Why else would they simply poach most of the same clubs?

I have to ask how you can deny that the competition is watered down when you are going from 8 teams in a region in a closed "elite" league to 11 or 12 in the same region in an "elite" closed league? The argument that the old Legends/Beach/Carlsbad/Albion/LA Premier/Southbay Force people used to make was that a closed competition circuit was bad and now suddenly it's great! It's just pure unadulterated hypocrisy. I am all about the GDA's stated mission. Unfortunately their words don't match their actions.

Smart of you to focus on your player. Good luck to you and her.

One of the best posts regarding US Soccer / GDA I have read on here. You drilled it down and really hit the heart of the matter. Boom!

 

[Kicker4Life]

I am only responding to it being implied that Beach got screwed by not being allowed into ECNL. I have no beef with what GDA is supposed to be. My problem is with how disingenuous the whole process was. It was a power grab plain and simple and is not an attempt to elevate the game on the girls side. Why else would they simply poach most of the same clubs?

I have to ask how you can deny that the competition is watered down when you are going from 8 teams in a region in a closed "elite" league to 11 or 12 in the same region in an "elite" closed league? The argument that the old Legends/Beach/Carlsbad/Albion/LA Premier/Southbay Force people used to make was that a closed competition circuit was bad and now suddenly it's great! It's just pure unadulterated hypocrisy. I am all about the GDA's stated mission. Unfortunately their words don't match their actions.

Smart of you to focus on your player. Good luck to you and her.

May be some miss communication as my point wasn’t that 12/13 teams in DA isn’t watering down competition ( I agree with you there). Only that if ECNL had trimmed a Club that wasn’t performing and added a Club in a Geographically underserved area, that the competition wouldn’t be watered down.

Thanks for the well wishes. Best to your DD and their quest for the Title!