Anonymous wrote:Folks are too focused on the "leagues" and not the sport. We are a former NCSL family that is now happily in a CCL club. I don't benchmark a club by what league they choose to be in, I look at my kids and watch their passion for the sport grow and skills improve. For those who claim that CCL isn't "as" competitive, I'd urge you to look at the VA State Cup teams and results. Proof's in the pudding. 1st world problems!

Anonymous wrote:Folks are too focused on the "leagues" and not the sport. We are a former NCSL family that is now happily in a CCL club. I don't benchmark a club by what league they choose to be in, I look at my kids and watch their passion for the sport grow and skills improve. For those who claim that CCL isn't "as" competitive, I'd urge you to look at the VA State Cup teams and results. Proof's in the pudding. 1st world problems!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks are too focused on the "leagues" and not the sport. We are a former NCSL family that is now happily in a CCL club. I don't benchmark a club by what league they choose to be in, I look at my kids and watch their passion for the sport grow and skills improve. For those who claim that CCL isn't "as" competitive, I'd urge you to look at the VA State Cup teams and results. Proof's in the pudding. 1st world problems!

Once again, let's define "competitive" here.

Does CCL have good teams that are "competitive" in State Cup? Absolutely. Loudoun, Braddock Road and Arlington alone will ensure a lot of trophies in "CCL" hands.

That's not the issue. The issue is that CCL **games** are often not competitive.

NCSL Division 5 is often "competitive" -- in the sense that the games are relatively even. No, you won't find a State Cup winner among them. But the games are worth playing.

Too many CCL games are just long drives to Roanoke for easy wins. That's the issue.

Anonymous wrote:Regarding whether State Cup is meaningful, that was raised by a poster in response to someone stating that NCSL is better than CCL. The fact that DA/ECNL teams aren't in State Cup isn't relevant to that point. CCL and NCSL teams both compete in State Cup and the CCL teams do better, providing support for the statement that the top teams in CCL are better than the top teams in NCSL.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks are too focused on the "leagues" and not the sport. We are a former NCSL family that is now happily in a CCL club. I don't benchmark a club by what league they choose to be in, I look at my kids and watch their passion for the sport grow and skills improve. For those who claim that CCL isn't "as" competitive, I'd urge you to look at the VA State Cup teams and results. Proof's in the pudding. 1st world problems!

Once again, let's define "competitive" here.

Does CCL have good teams that are "competitive" in State Cup? Absolutely. Loudoun, Braddock Road and Arlington alone will ensure a lot of trophies in "CCL" hands.

That's not the issue. The issue is that CCL **games** are often not competitive.

NCSL Division 5 is often "competitive" -- in the sense that the games are relatively even. No, you won't find a State Cup winner among them. But the games are worth playing.

Too many CCL games are just long drives to Roanoke for easy wins. That's the issue.

For those complaining about too many unevenly matched CCL games, I tend to agree that CCL does have a wide range of team quality in any given age group. However, for most of the CCL teams in our area at U13 and above, the team will also play in (1) National League/Region One League (2) State Cup, and (3) major tournaments.

So while there may be some lopsided CCL games, CCL games are just not very important and are viewed as developmental opportunities to play kids up or give certain kids more playing time than they get in regional play or state cup semi and finals.

I understand for younger teams who don't play in state cup or regional/national leagues that many uneven games in their primary league play could be frustrating. But at the older ages, what happens in CCL is really largely unimportant to other three types of high level competitions that those older teams play in. So as I see it, it is simply not a big deal to have a few uneven matches in CCL at the older ages when you are getting 25 or 30 tough matches a year in other competitions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regarding whether State Cup is meaningful, that was raised by a poster in response to someone stating that NCSL is better than CCL. The fact that DA/ECNL teams aren't in State Cup isn't relevant to that point. CCL and NCSL teams both compete in State Cup and the CCL teams do better, providing support for the statement that the top teams in CCL are better than the top teams in NCSL.

I don't recall anyone on here claiming that the top teams in NCSL are better than the top teams in CCL. The complaints about CCL on this thread mostly fall into two categories:

Many CCL games are blowouts in one direction or another, and it's annoying to have to travel several hours for a non competitive game.
CCL has had a negative effect on the area soccer market because the proliferation of leagues contributes to the talent dilution problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks are too focused on the "leagues" and not the sport. We are a former NCSL family that is now happily in a CCL club. I don't benchmark a club by what league they choose to be in, I look at my kids and watch their passion for the sport grow and skills improve. For those who claim that CCL isn't "as" competitive, I'd urge you to look at the VA State Cup teams and results. Proof's in the pudding. 1st world problems!

Once again, let's define "competitive" here.

Does CCL have good teams that are "competitive" in State Cup? Absolutely. Loudoun, Braddock Road and Arlington alone will ensure a lot of trophies in "CCL" hands.

That's not the issue. The issue is that CCL **games** are often not competitive.

NCSL Division 5 is often "competitive" -- in the sense that the games are relatively even. No, you won't find a State Cup winner among them. But the games are worth playing.

Too many CCL games are just long drives to Roanoke for easy wins. That's the issue.

For those complaining about too many unevenly matched CCL games, I tend to agree that CCL does have a wide range of team quality in any given age group. However, for most of the CCL teams in our area at U13 and above, the team will also play in (1) National League/Region One League (2) State Cup, and (3) major tournaments.

So while there may be some lopsided CCL games, CCL games are just not very important and are viewed as developmental opportunities to play kids up or give certain kids more playing time than they get in regional play or state cup semi and finals.

I understand for younger teams who don't play in state cup or regional/national leagues that many uneven games in their primary league play could be frustrating. But at the older ages, what happens in CCL is really largely unimportant to other three types of high level competitions that those older teams play in. So as I see it, it is simply not a big deal to have a few uneven matches in CCL at the older ages when you are getting 25 or 30 tough matches a year in other competitions.

But do you ever question why you're driving to Roanoke for a blowout when you could be playing a half-decent game against Herndon instead?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks are too focused on the "leagues" and not the sport. We are a former NCSL family that is now happily in a CCL club. I don't benchmark a club by what league they choose to be in, I look at my kids and watch their passion for the sport grow and skills improve. For those who claim that CCL isn't "as" competitive, I'd urge you to look at the VA State Cup teams and results. Proof's in the pudding. 1st world problems!

Once again, let's define "competitive" here.

Does CCL have good teams that are "competitive" in State Cup? Absolutely. Loudoun, Braddock Road and Arlington alone will ensure a lot of trophies in "CCL" hands.

That's not the issue. The issue is that CCL **games** are often not competitive.

NCSL Division 5 is often "competitive" -- in the sense that the games are relatively even. No, you won't find a State Cup winner among them. But the games are worth playing.

Too many CCL games are just long drives to Roanoke for easy wins. That's the issue.

For those complaining about too many unevenly matched CCL games, I tend to agree that CCL does have a wide range of team quality in any given age group. However, for most of the CCL teams in our area at U13 and above, the team will also play in (1) National League/Region One League (2) State Cup, and (3) major tournaments.

So while there may be some lopsided CCL games, CCL games are just not very important and are viewed as developmental opportunities to play kids up or give certain kids more playing time than they get in regional play or state cup semi and finals.

I understand for younger teams who don't play in state cup or regional/national leagues that many uneven games in their primary league play could be frustrating. But at the older ages, what happens in CCL is really largely unimportant to other three types of high level competitions that those older teams play in. So as I see it, it is simply not a big deal to have a few uneven matches in CCL at the older ages when you are getting 25 or 30 tough matches a year in other competitions.

But do you ever question why you're driving to Roanoke for a blowout when you could be playing a half-decent game against Herndon instead?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regarding whether State Cup is meaningful, that was raised by a poster in response to someone stating that NCSL is better than CCL. The fact that DA/ECNL teams aren't in State Cup isn't relevant to that point. CCL and NCSL teams both compete in State Cup and the CCL teams do better, providing support for the statement that the top teams in CCL are better than the top teams in NCSL.

I don't recall anyone on here claiming that the top teams in NCSL are better than the top teams in CCL. The complaints about CCL on this thread mostly fall into two categories:

Many CCL games are blowouts in one direction or another, and it's annoying to have to travel several hours for a non competitive game.
CCL has had a negative effect on the area soccer market because the proliferation of leagues contributes to the talent dilution problem.

And they don't pro/rel. if you dont have to earn your spot through performance in a Division, competition won't be there.

Anonymous wrote:And they don't pro/rel. if you dont have to earn your spot through performance in a Division, competition won't be there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And they don't pro/rel. if you dont have to earn your spot through performance in a Division, competition won't be there.

Kind of a catch-22. I think the pro/rel system of NCSL/WAGS is one of the big things clubs were trying to get away from when they went to CCL. Too many teams and coaches focused on that at the expense of player development.

I see both sides of the argument. I mostly like the division system in NCSL and WAGS and see value in it, but its hard to deny the downside.