SW Division Updates

Emma said:
It's probably not necessary to have a GA v ECNL tourney because both leagues do not limit the outside tournament competitions their teams can attend. Surf Cup and Albion Cup have GA v. ECNL games. There are probably many tournaments across the country having ECNL v GA games. The southwest is tough for the GAL girls because their competition is not great and they have to travel far for good competition when there are plenty of great teams in their backyard. Maybe southwest GAL can play GAL showcases and more tournaments but use their local leagues to play league games instead of traveling for league games.
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I don't know what the specifics looks like. As @Desert Hound mentioned, some deliberate bracketing in a major showcase would likely work and scratch the itch for inter league play. It would be great to see top teams from each league play each other from time to time. Plenty of bragging rights to be had on both sides.

I would guess the GAs approach to SOCAL SW is fueled with a little bit of patience. They have a good base (WC, City, Albion). Surf is essentially straddling the fence with SDSC in the GA. It will take time. Population of CA is big enough to fuel two leagues. Migration will occur. Not enough to challenge the likes of Surf, Beach, Legends, LAFC, etc, but enough to provide a level of competition that is acceptable to parents and is useful to college coaches. The GA leadership team is plenty experienced. I'm sure their goal isn't to topple ECNL in CA, it's to become a respected alternative/option for the athlete population that isn't in ECNL. Some of that talent should/could be in ECNL but aren't for many reasons.

I don't know who would argue that the best teams in CA aren't in ECNL. That's a given, especially this year. Youth soccer is tribal, I get it. It's in the best interest of the leagues for parents to be tribal.
 
what-happened said:
I don't know what the specifics looks like. As @Desert Hound mentioned, some deliberate bracketing in a major showcase would likely work and scratch the itch for inter league play. It would be great to see top teams from each league play each other from time to time. Plenty of bragging rights to be had on both sides.

I would guess the GAs approach to SOCAL SW is fueled with a little bit of patience. They have a good base (WC, City, Albion). Surf is essentially straddling the fence with SDSC in the GA. It will take time. Population of CA is big enough to fuel two leagues. Migration will occur. Not enough to challenge the likes of Surf, Beach, Legends, LAFC, etc, but enough to provide a level of competition that is acceptable to parents and is useful to college coaches. The GA leadership team is plenty experienced. I'm sure their goal isn't to topple ECNL in CA, it's to become a respected alternative/option for the athlete population that isn't in ECNL. Some of that talent should/could be in ECNL but aren't for many reasons.

I don't know who would argue that the best teams in CA aren't in ECNL. That's a given, especially this year. Youth soccer is tribal, I get it. It's in the best interest of the leagues for parents to be tribal.
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Like Surf Zombie, my only concern about GAL in the southwest is the travel. I can see parents willing to travel some for the top league but the southwest clubs look limited in their membership numbers, which would then require them to travel far for more games unless they are willing to play the local leagues like ECNL in northern California.

GAL should lead the way and build a strong local based league with national exposure in showcases. Sell it as buying local, reducing our environment footprint, and building local communities. Hopefully everyone will follow this model and reduce our footprints and traffic along the way. Eventually we can get rid of ECNL too. If there are only 3 annual national showcases where all the soccer coaches need to attend, it will be much better system then jumping between multiple different league showcases and championships.
 
Emma said:
Like Surf Zombie, my only concern about GAL in the southwest is the travel. I can see parents willing to travel some for the top league but the southwest clubs look limited in their membership numbers, which would then require them to travel far for more games unless they are willing to play the local leagues like ECNL in northern California.

GAL should lead the way and build a strong local based league with national exposure in showcases. Sell it as buying local, reducing our environment footprint, and building local communities. Hopefully everyone will follow this model and reduce our footprints and traffic along the way. Eventually we can get rid of ECNL too. If there are only 3 annual national showcases where all the soccer coaches need to attend, it will be much better system then jumping between multiple different league showcases and championships.
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Might want to check the original topic for this thread ie ECNL Southwest Division Updates...

Also, don't you think that GA would have already brought on local teams to allow less travel if they could? This is the issue there's only so much to go around and GA get the scraps ECNL doesn't want/need. Assuming nothing changes over time GA is not in a winning position.
 
2021/2022 GA SW Conference Estimate of Total Games Played Per Team:
- 6 teams in SW league = 12 SW league games
- home and away weekends with NW and Frontier = 8 games
- Winter Showcase (in Norco) = 3 games
- Spring Showcase (location ?) = 3 games
- Summer Showcase (guessing Oceanside) = 3 + games

Total Games played: 29 games with three airplane trips. Maybe not ideal but not much different compared to DA or ECNL
 
Couple of random questions

I’m back into the club scene with my daughter after 20-25 years ( me and my family’s plying days ). It’s just slightly different now lol

1. why isn’t City Sc- Carlsbad in ECNL

2.My sister played for Surf way back in the day , and I remember they had battles against a Mission Viejo club that was great in girls soccer . Did So Cal blues used to be called something different 20-25 years ago?
 
Brav520 said:
Couple of random questions

I’m back into the club scene with my daughter after 20-25 years ( me and my family’s plying days ). It’s just slightly different now lol

1. why isn’t City Sc- Carlsbad in ECNL

2.My sister played for Surf way back in the day , and I remember they had battles against a Mission Viejo club that was great in girls soccer . Did So Cal blues used to be called something different 20-25 years ago?
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You are going to get many answers to #1 above. The answer lies in the combination of the answers you get.

#2 Mission Viejo Soccer Club was the shiznet in the day. 80 something through early 2000. Some of the successful coaches of today were on staff then. Julie Foudy played there, I am pretty sure.
 
Desert Hound said:
So this is just going out now in terms of how the SW will be split.

Slammers
Real So Cal
Eagles
Heat
Beach
LA Breakers
Arsenal FC
Legends FC
RSL/Royals

And

AZ Arsenal
Phx Rising
Surf
Blues
LAFC
Rebels
del Mar Sharks
Strikers
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Any more news on this split??? Our coach mentioned it but didn't give too many details... figured someone on here would know... seems odd Slammers would be put in with the Riverside/LA teams and not with OC but what do I know?? (clearly not much)
 
If this is true this is stupid. LAFC, Surf and Blues in same bracket? This can’t be right. Over all age groups, these are the three best teams (generally speaking). Why put all three in same group? Giving a pass to beach and legends if they don’t have to play these teams
 
Wasabi said:
If this is true this is stupid. LAFC, Surf and Blues in same bracket? This can’t be right. Over all age groups, these are the three best teams (generally speaking). Why put all three in same group? Giving a pass to beach and legends if they don’t have to play these teams
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It’s basically geography up to the formerly LAFC and Slammers. Doesn’t make sense to put Surf in the North so what would you suggest? Swap Slammers and the team formerly known as LAFC?
 
Everyone plays each other once. Then you break it up in the spring so top teams play each other for top playoff spots. Lower half plays each other in 2nd half. The way they divided it doesn’t make sense. Of course that probably wouldn’t work because ecnl plays as a club.

Basing it on geography is an excuse. this is ecnl and everyone is aware there is travel.

The southwest conference chairperson is from the Heat. I see his team is in the other bracket
 
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