Does Arlington ECNL Girls have a style of play?

[Anonymous]

We are moving to Virginia for my wife’s work, DD currently plays on ECNL (2010). After finding this site it looks like Arlington might be a stable ECNL in the area, but have questions about style.

In looking at the ECNL results, the Arlington teams basically do not score. The 2011’s look to be an exception on scoring, but the rest neither score nor give up many goals. Looking at the 05/06, they look like a decent team, they have given up the second fewest goals (13), but they have barely scored any (15). 2008 and 09 look the same. Other teams in the division that are at the same place in the standings have scored twice as many.

Is this intentional? Does the club teach players to park the bus? Is it build out of the back but they don’t have the strikers?
DD wants a club that has low drama and can help her get better, and she knows that she may not make any of the teams in the area, but as a parent we are hopeful and just trying to gather as much info as possible.

PS I understand that there are lots of good clubs in the area and there is a lot written about the others on this site, not trying to start a fight!

[Anonymous]

What area will you be moving to?

[Anonymous]

What team are you coming from?

[Anonymous]

Many teams have trouble scoring. I think it speaks to the individualistic style of play and very poor technical training. This area just isn’t great for soccer.

[Anonymous]

In general, Arlington builds out of the back at the younger ages and just doesn't focus on finishing they way they need to. I'm not sure what PP means about "individualistic style" of soccer, because most of the Arlington teams work quite a bit on passing -- they just can score.

[Anonymous]

That should say "can't" score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In general, Arlington builds out of the back at the younger ages and just doesn't focus on finishing they way they need to. I'm not sure what PP means about "individualistic style" of soccer, because most of the Arlington teams work quite a bit on passing -- they just can score.

This is Alexandria too. It was Barca when my kids were there too.

It's a big frustration for everyone that nobody can finish these days.

It's funny---when I was a kid everyone wanted to be a goal-scoring striker. You had some amazing strikers with creativity and finishing ability. It is next to impossible to find a good "9" these days.

I have a kid U18/19 MLSNext and if the one '9' is injured, nobody else can finish--but at least they have one 9. On my other kid's ECNL team, the forwards could not finish on a wide open goal.

Beautiful building and zero finishing. Gone are beautiful long shots (which you still see in FIFA games).

My older son was a goal scoring machine--total nose for the goal...which was pretty much beat out of him. Then it became so he would never take a gddamn shot. He'd always pass it---even when the shot was the correct thing for that moment/space, etc.

[Anonymous]

c'mon DCUM you can be better. The OP asked a very specific question about a specific club and their style of play. One person answered the question (kudos). One person wants to give commuting advice. One person wants to know the OPs personal history (probably so they can judge their daughter). And one person inaccurately tears down the entire region's soccer landscape. Good lord.

[Anonymous]

The attacking third takes the most time to develop if you're in a system that is pushing a style where you build out the back and through the middle. Skipping the midfield and playing kickball trying to get balls in behind the back line and praying an athletic player gets on the end of one is hard to do consistently at higher levels.

[Anonymous]

Clubs may have an intended playing style but the results of an individual team comes down to the players who happen to be on that team. Very little has to do with coaching style and if you swap some players between two ECNL teams around here, the supposed playing styles of the teams will change as well as the results.

Not sure where you are coming from, but in NoVa ECNL players and coaches change clubs a LOT. Few stick with the same club long enough to allow playing style to make an impact.

This year has seen even more movement of players and coaches because clubs have merged, new ones have started, and really shaken things up on the girls side. Best advice is to try out many teams in your area, there are 4 ECNL and 3 GA teams in Nova, and see what clicks

[Anonymous]

Where do Arlington’s female ECNL teams train?

[Anonymous]

OP

So it sounds like Arlington doesn’t play some kind of Neanderthal soccer, and the coaching/training is reasonable, but that there’s no real club style. That’s completely fine. Selfishly, Arlington is probably the closest club for where we are looking for housing, so I was hoping for a decent answer (yes, we understand DD has to try out, and there’s no certainty for any of the ECNL/GA clubs in the area).

IF there are other insights about Arlington play style that would be helpful for a girl trying out, I am all ears.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In general, Arlington builds out of the back at the younger ages and just doesn't focus on finishing they way they need to. I'm not sure what PP means about "individualistic style" of soccer, because most of the Arlington teams work quite a bit on passing -- they just can score.

This is Alexandria too. It was Barca when my kids were there too.

It's a big frustration for everyone that nobody can finish these days.

It's funny---when I was a kid everyone wanted to be a goal-scoring striker. You had some amazing strikers with creativity and finishing ability. It is next to impossible to find a good "9" these days.

I have a kid U18/19 MLSNext and if the one '9' is injured, nobody else can finish--but at least they have one 9. On my other kid's ECNL team, the forwards could not finish on a wide open goal.

Beautiful building and zero finishing. Gone are beautiful long shots (which you still see in FIFA games).

My older son was a goal scoring machine--total nose for the goal...which was pretty much beat out of him. Then it became so he would never take a gddamn shot. He'd always pass it---even when the shot was the correct thing for that moment/space, etc.

Happens when a coach wants to play the easy pass. Players have in mind the coach voice “easy pass easy pass” and miss shooting on time.

[Anonymous]

They try to do build out of the back and keep possession of the ball. That said it might not look that way sometimes as they have had movements on the rosters throughout the last couple of years except the 2011 that mostly have been together since U9.

What position does your daughter play? You might want to contact Arlington and see if she can come to practice. In general 2010 has good defense but they do lack effective attackers. They are getting several new players for next year so who know what they will look like then. But definitely contact the coach and check out their practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:c'mon DCUM you can be better. The OP asked a very specific question about a specific club and their style of play. One person answered the question (kudos). One person wants to give commuting advice. One person wants to know the OPs personal history (probably so they can judge their daughter). And one person inaccurately tears down the entire region's soccer landscape. Good lord.

And one person wasted a post complaining about the first 6 posts.