Socal named as Operator for National 1 League

[sigmabody]

Good luck to the club, hope they do well. MLSN has it's own politics to navigate.

I take solace in the fact that within 3 years, my son will be out of the club soccer regardless, and I probably won't be around if/when they need to deal with that. My goal is to have him have fun, get good training/practice, and help him try to achieve his potential (as long as he remains interested in and happy playing soccer). I feel like (at least in my case), we should be able to get an appropriate level of college coach exposure (relative to his skill level), even with playing EA2; for me, it's more just about getting level competition level, and limiting travel for little value. My personal perspective, anyway.

 

[shankbone]

Yeah sorry - this wasn't meant to be a declaration of fact. I know this age group pretty well and this is just my anecdotal feel for one particular sex, year and season.
Point was more about the leagues blending into each other - the top teams from mid leagues can easily compete in a league (or two) above.
And that there is massive disparity within the leagues leading to uneven play. Who wants to to drive two hours for a 10-0 (or 0-10) game?

The disparity is pretty bad, Just looking at the ECNL silo:
The top 2013 Girls ECNL-RL team is around +50 GD vs worst at -90(!) (16 games)
NPL has teams ranging from +70 to -50 in GD across 18 games.
ECNL RL Socal from +70 to -80 (18 games).

Yes, this is the best and worst team in each league. But there are clearly many teams in each league playing in the wrong level of competition and they really should have some form of relegation/promotion.

There won't be relegation/promotion! Its too big a ship to steer with having each age group - fields/refs/logistics. I guess a entire club's teams could be relegated?

But good points about the disparity. Here's a couple of more
Top 2013 Girls ECNL team is +32 GD and worst is -38 GD (13 games)
Top 2013 Girls NL team is +59 GD and worst is -11
The 2013 Girls DPL is crazier but they do a ratio in the standings to hide it.

 

[Code]

Elite players are not produced by name change. You can name it MLS "Academy", but it is still a B-team league, and now it requires extensive travel and a mandatory out-of-state showcase. Now, soccer parents have to pay more and travel farther to compete against 2nd-tier teams, which are easily found in the local league.

Thanks for the elaboration on the point of my post. Keep up the good work, .

 

[Code]

ECRL used to be equal to or even above GA, but now GA has moved ahead as the second-tier league. ECRL is 3rd now, and I don't want to disparage it because there are strong teams there, but it's pretty clear. We had some epic debates about this in years past!

Agreed.

 

[Code]

Sporting told their families the girls playing NPL last year would all be in N1. They also said N1 is higher than DPL and it's the same as aspire and ECRL? I am confused.

You have to be keen when someone says ECRL, because of the new ECRL SoCal league they rolled out. Which is not even close to ECRL. N1, NPL, DPL, E64, ECRL SoCal are all basically the same tier, and all these teams should be playing in the same local league, no need to travel out of you region to play competitive teams. But, Leagues and Clubs want to make money. ECNL=GA, maybe a slight edge toward ECNL. ECRL=GA Aspire, with a strong edge toward ECRL, for now.

 

[Code]

Yeah sorry - this wasn't meant to be a declaration of fact. I know this age group pretty well and this is just my anecdotal feel for one particular sex, year and season.
Point was more about the leagues blending into each other - the top teams from mid leagues can easily compete in a league (or two) above.
And that there is massive disparity within the leagues leading to uneven play. Who wants to to drive two hours for a 10-0 (or 0-10) game?

The disparity is pretty bad, Just looking at the ECNL silo:
The top 2013 Girls ECNL-RL team is around +50 GD vs worst at -90(!) (16 games)
NPL has teams ranging from +70 to -50 in GD across 18 games.
ECNL RL Socal from +70 to -80 (18 games).

Yes, this is the best and worst team in each league. But there are clearly many teams in each league playing in the wrong level of competition and they really should have some form of relegation/promotion.

The lack of promotion/relegation in any of these leagues is the reason there are so many different leagues. Everyone can just claim "Elite", but no one has to prove it.

 

[Code]

A better way to do things is to have.

Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier 4

All letter leagues do is funnel money to themselves, make players commute farther for equivalent level of competition, and force parents to pay more for their kids to kick a ball on a field.

^this . The only way we get there is by informing the new parents getting into youth sports. We have to stop supporting (joining and paying money) these clubs participating in all these side leagues.

 

[Code]

There won't be relegation/promotion! Its too big a ship to steer with having each age group - fields/refs/logistics. I guess a entire club's teams could be relegated?

But good points about the disparity. Here's a couple of more
Top 2013 Girls ECNL team is +32 GD and worst is -38 GD (13 games)
Top 2013 Girls NL team is +59 GD and worst is -11
The 2013 Girls DPL is crazier but they do a ratio in the standings to hide it.

Promotion/Relegation can work. SOCAL league had it up and running well 6-8 years ago. But the clubs who had a lot of teams being relegated, or being fined for not providing quality fields and refs on game day got upset. This is when all the copycat letter leagues started popping up; the poor performing clubs started banding together to make alternate "elite" league options. Then the big dogs started making additional tiered leagues to grab a piece of that pie(EA, Aspire, ECRL SoCal). It all worked because parents won't tell the clubs no.