A Travel Soccer for Dummies glossery
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Anonymous
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I didn't see this in the pinned thread - what are all of the acronyms?
RL MLS GA ENCL NCSL Obviously I can figure out what certain ones stand for - google can tell me that ENCL is Elite Club National League - but what does it MEAN to be ENCL v. NCSL, etc. |
Anonymous
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These are different leagues for soccer. So all the teams in X league play each other in regular play and then in some tournaments.
That's different that broader tournaments where everyone plays everyone. |
Anonymous
These are ALL different leagues? Wow. And I assume some are better than others? Does each club belong to one league? |
Anonymous
Yes, which is what makes soccer in this area frustrating. You wind up driving 2 hours for a league game....and passing by the fields of 30 clubs along the way. |
Anonymous
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Many leagues have different levels.
ECNL top/ ECRL second league GA top /GA Aspire second league Etx. Some have multiple levels to suit a wider range of teams. USYS Has one or two top brackets, then moves down to EDP with a whole bunch more. |
Anonymous
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Making it more confusing is that there are multiple governing bodies (who issue the cards) for these leagues. This matters because your kid can play on multiple teams (or guest play occasionally) if the governing bodies are different, but not if they are the same.
Doing your taxes is easier than navigating this stuff. |
Anonymous
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OP, if you read this forum, there's a lot of jockeying and chest puffing about which league is better than the next. You can see how this happens once you appreciate the insanity of the whole thing.
But if your kid is on a nice team with kids they like and a coach that seems to be doing the right thing, don't stress yourself out about it. |
Anonymous
Oh boy. This is a big topic! Tier 1 Boys League: U13-U19 MLS Tier 2 Boys League: U13-U19 ECNL Tier 1 Girls League: U13-U19 ECNL & GA Tier 2 Girls League: U13-U19 ECNL RL & GA Aspire For U9-U12 Teams play in multiple leagues, with the biggest centralized one being NCSL For U13-U19 Teams still play in NCSL and multiple other leagues, but their Tiered 1 & 2 teams peel off to only play on the top Tier leagues mentioned above. NCSL Is a local league to the DMV Tier 1 & Tier 2 are both regional and national level leagues |
Anonymous
Also, now there's NAL??? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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AND to make it more fun, once you get to high school, Virgina and points south league games are played games in the fall while DC/MD league games are played in the spring because of opposite calendars for high school soccer.
So then you need to consider how that all works for your kid and school schedule. It's truly insane. |
Anonymous
| If you’re going to place ECNL in a tier below MLSN for the boys you really should do the same to GA on the girls side. By any objective measure ECNL is the better league on the girls side. Just like MLSN:HG is better than ECNL for the boys. |
Anonymous
---->>>>>
See how the insanity begins? 
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Anonymous
It’s not insanity and it’s not up for debate. |
Anonymous
Was only a matter of time until this gem popped up |