Thoughts on LA Surf vs Santa Monica Surf (B07s)

M

mlx

Hi!

My son is thinking on joining a EA or EA2 team for next season. These two clubs are the closest to us (LA Soccer Club trains all the way in Covina or something which sucks). Do you guys have any opinions on those? I know there were some drama on LA Surf a few years back and I've never heard anything negative about SM Surf. Anyway; any information, opinions, experience would help.

Thanks!
 
You've probably seen these already, but just in case. Both EA teams appear good (and close), EA2 team is slightly less strong, but is still showing 10 wins vs 3 losses this year in EA.
 

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mlx said:
But what about culture, coaches, environment, etc?
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The biggest difference is that la surf has mls next so everything is dependent on the needs of the mls next team. Key point is how big the mls next squad is for that year. If it’s big they may be bring down futures players which will impact play time and make wins losses variable (dependent on whether those players are available). And everyone on the ea team is gunning for one of those slots meaning they might have a chip on the shoulder (my son once signed onto an ea team where pretty much all the top ea players and all the futures players walked away when mls next brought in a few outsiders over them just before the start of the fall season…that was fun).

Also isn’t la surf the one club that has two teams in ea? I never understood why that is.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
You've probably seen these already, but just in case. Both EA teams appear good (and close), EA2 team is slightly less strong, but is still showing 10 wins vs 3 losses this year in EA.
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Wins and losses aren’t a great way to predict how the team will do at the second tier for the following year at letter leagues. Problem is there is too much churn. Players looking to make a move up, players getting discouraged and quitting, players chasing a win and hopping, players leaving for higher teams. For the team that blew up, it blew up right after my son signed on before the season. They went from a very strong team, to middle of the pack to bottom of the pack in just 2 years. The churn is particularly strong if there’s an mls next team (strikers perhaps excepted).
 
Yes, anything can happen - and teams can certainly blow up and/or improve quickly in only a year or two - but it's more the exception than the rule. If one is going to bet on the performance for next game, for 10 games from now, or 100 games from now, the rating is going to be much more predictive than any other factor - as it already is taking into account those same factors up until that point.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
Yes, anything can happen - and teams can certainly blow up and/or improve quickly in only a year or two - but it's more the exception than the rule. If one is going to bet on the performance for next game, for 10 games from now, or 100 games from now, the rating is going to be much more predictive than any other factor - as it already is taking into account those same factors up until that point.
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Yes. My only point is bbw on the second tier. Just from (a lot of) anecdotal evidence the churn can be heavier on the second tier of a club than either the first or third, particularly older boys letter league. It’s like a box of chocolate: you can tell who makes the chocolate but until the season starts you still don’t know what you are going to get. Honestly my kids Latino league team is more stable.
 
They have LA Surf Futures and LA Surf La Canada in EA. And LA Surf Soccer Club 2 in EA2 (would that be the LA Surf Hollywood?)
 
Whenever anyone asks about comparing clubs, I usually say that the coach and other kids are much more important. But... LA Surf has a long history (going back to the LA Premiere days) of hiring great coaches and then firing them shortly thereafter. This happens in youth soccer, but it is such a constant pattern there that it has to be more than just probability. I can name 5 off the top of my head. We live 5 minutes away and travel much farther to find a more stable environment.

The only insight I have into SM Surf is that no club we've played against has better on-field communication and less soccer-aware parents.
 
mlx said:
They have LA Surf Futures and LA Surf La Canada in EA. And LA Surf Soccer Club 2 in EA2 (would that be the LA Surf Hollywood?)
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So is futures where they put the mls next futures players (in other words, the second team…which would be funny because the impression I’ve always gotten is la Canada has stronger teams)?
 
Grace T. said:
So is futures where they put the mls next futures players (in other words, the second team…which would be funny because the impression I’ve always gotten is la Canada has stronger teams)?
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I thought LA Surf Futures was for multi-sport kids who want to keep their toe in soccer and are good enough to play EA?
 
mlx said:
Hi!

My son is thinking on joining a EA or EA2 team for next season. These two clubs are the closest to us (LA Soccer Club trains all the way in Covina or something which sucks). Do you guys have any opinions on those? I know there were some drama on LA Surf a few years back and I've never heard anything negative about SM Surf. Anyway; any information, opinions, experience would help.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Club soccer wouldn't exist without any drama....
 
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