Someone explain the difference between CCL and CCl 2 to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are deciding between CCL 2 and NCSL girls team clubs. Thoughts? P

If you are asking about level of play, that is tough to determine without knowing which division of NCSL. NCSL has divisions that straddle the level at CCL2. I would not advocate making a decision based entirely on the league although they both have different travel radii which may be important to you. There are other factors more important than that. The quality of the coach, the playing environment, relationships, opportunities for growth, etc would be more important to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are deciding between CCL 2 and NCSL girls team clubs. Thoughts? P

If you are asking about level of play, that is tough to determine without knowing which division of NCSL. NCSL has divisions that straddle the level at CCL2. I would not advocate making a decision based entirely on the league although they both have different travel radii which may be important to you. There are other factors more important than that. The quality of the coach, the playing environment, relationships, opportunities for growth, etc would be more important to us.

Thank you PP. I’m the OP. This is for girls u11. We like both the coaches and both the clubs that is why it’s coming down to the league now. Travel is a consideration and I have been told cc2 travel is a lot farther than ncsl (we live in Rockville). I guess I thought the league could sway us one way or another. Although the travel point you bring up is important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are deciding between CCL 2 and NCSL girls team clubs. Thoughts? P

If you are asking about level of play, that is tough to determine without knowing which division of NCSL. NCSL has divisions that straddle the level at CCL2. I would not advocate making a decision based entirely on the league although they both have different travel radii which may be important to you. There are other factors more important than that. The quality of the coach, the playing environment, relationships, opportunities for growth, etc would be more important to us.

Thank you PP. I’m the OP. This is for girls u11. We like both the coaches and both the clubs that is why it’s coming down to the league now. Travel is a consideration and I have been told cc2 travel is a lot farther than ncsl (we live in Rockville). I guess I thought the league could sway us one way or another. Although the travel point you bring up is important.

PP here. If you're looking for a tiebreaker of sorts maybe consider this. My DD played in NCSL for a couple of years, and although a few years back (it was WAGS then), I thought the pro/rel setup resulted in generally pretty uniform competition. You might look at the standings in CCL2 to see how it compares to likely NCSL divisions. Might be one way to differentiate.

[Anonymous]

it depends what division of NCSL you are talking about. What division is the team playing in?

[Anonymous]

whereas CCL does not have divisions. and you play the same teams every year. CCL has no promotion / relegation. NCSL does have this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weren't clubs originally required to enter two teams in CCL, one in CCL1 and the other CCL2? Obviously that is no longer the case and I wonder if it is because CCL2 was so imbalanced? Arlington's second team will always be strong but some smaller club with a strong first team won't necessarily have a good second team.

My experience with CCL2 on the boys side is pretty bad as well. MUCH better competition in NCSL.

At U9 and U10, there is only CCL (no CCL2) - but a CCL club's B team is the equivalent of CCL 2 which starts at U11.

I pretty much agree with you that CCL2 is really bad for strong B teams like Arlington, but the other teams in CCL2 are not as strong, so it is more balanced from that perspective.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but NCSL for U9 and U10 is not ranked, so it is as much of a crap-shoot of having a competitive game or a blow-out at the younger ages. Once they start moving teams to real divisions at U1, NCSL would be much better for strong CCL2 teams.

NCSL for U9 and U10 is not a total crapshoot. This may be a relatively recent change, but in the last couple of years the league asks coaches to rate their team on a scale of 1-5 (1 being the strongest, 5 being developmental). There are obviously other criteria that go into the groupings, geography being a major one, but there is a decent attempt on the part of the NCSL to even out the competition.

[Anonymous]

NCSL definitely has less travel and more even competition. For CCL, you could be driving down to Beach, Richmond or C'Ville, even when the other team is not good or so good you will get trounced. There is also a better college recruiting through CCL but I'm not sure if CCL2 includes that. The best teams in CCL are better than the best teams in NCSL imo. My DD has played in CCL1 (but before many teams were moved to CCL2) and NCSL Div 1, and thought CCL was better competition overall. Us parents thought NCSL was great for the lack of driving but overall the teams weren't as good (including DD's team). The focus of NCSL is more for fun, few of these girls are going to play serious college soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NCSL definitely has less travel and more even competition. For CCL, you could be driving down to Beach, Richmond or C'Ville, even when the other team is not good or so good you will get trounced. There is also a better college recruiting through CCL but I'm not sure if CCL2 includes that. The best teams in CCL are better than the best teams in NCSL imo. My DD has played in CCL1 (but before many teams were moved to CCL2) and NCSL Div 1, and thought CCL was better competition overall. Us parents thought NCSL was great for the lack of driving but overall the teams weren't as good (including DD's team). The focus of NCSL is more for fun, few of these girls are going to play serious college soccer.

In my experience CCL2 had less driving than CCL. We only played va beach at a scrimmage fest (like a tournament) in Richmond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NCSL definitely has less travel and more even competition. For CCL, you could be driving down to Beach, Richmond or C'Ville, even when the other team is not good or so good you will get trounced. There is also a better college recruiting through CCL but I'm not sure if CCL2 includes that. The best teams in CCL are better than the best teams in NCSL imo. My DD has played in CCL1 (but before many teams were moved to CCL2) and NCSL Div 1, and thought CCL was better competition overall. Us parents thought NCSL was great for the lack of driving but overall the teams weren't as good (including DD's team). The focus of NCSL is more for fun, few of these girls are going to play serious college soccer.

In my experience CCL2 had less driving than CCL. We only played va beach at a scrimmage fest (like a tournament) in Richmond.

This is the OP. Thank you! I might need to start a thread on comparing travel! The CCL website is really awful and it’s been hard to figure out the past schedules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NCSL definitely has less travel and more even competition. For CCL, you could be driving down to Beach, Richmond or C'Ville, even when the other team is not good or so good you will get trounced. There is also a better college recruiting through CCL but I'm not sure if CCL2 includes that. The best teams in CCL are better than the best teams in NCSL imo. My DD has played in CCL1 (but before many teams were moved to CCL2) and NCSL Div 1, and thought CCL was better competition overall. Us parents thought NCSL was great for the lack of driving but overall the teams weren't as good (including DD's team). The focus of NCSL is more for fun, few of these girls are going to play serious college soccer.

In my experience CCL2 had less driving than CCL. We only played va beach at a scrimmage fest (like a tournament) in Richmond.

This is the OP. Thank you! I might need to start a thread on comparing travel! The CCL website is really awful and it’s been hard to figure out the past schedules.

I agree the CCL website is terrible, this current design is actually better than the last one but still bad.

Our experience in CCL 2 has been good and we are at one of the big clubs. PP indicated the real competition is from other big clubs and that has certainly been true. It would be nice to bring in some A teams from smaller clubs but CCL is big on the club-to-club model which means all age groups play the other club on the same day. It’s unclear what the partnership between CCL and NCSL will bring, possibly a late season playoff or something.

[Anonymous]

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Anecdotal, but I reffed a game in which a team that had been CCL2 the year before was playing in ODSL. They were run off the field.

Granted, some ODSL teams are quite good. But I was not impressed with what I saw.

Just merge all this stuff. CCL and VPL can have their own tournaments, but roll up the leagues into one pyramid. Put the best teams, not the flashiest names, up against each other.

I totally agree!

[Anonymous]

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Anecdotal, but I reffed a game in which a team that had been CCL2 the year before was playing in ODSL. They were run off the field.

Granted, some ODSL teams are quite good. But I was not impressed with what I saw.

Just merge all this stuff. CCL and VPL can have their own tournaments, but roll up the leagues into one pyramid. Put the best teams, not the flashiest names, up against each other.

For that to happen I think the state associations would have to become stronger and have more authority over the leagues. Ultimately it would probably mean the US Soccer Federation exerting more control. When I think of the bone-headed stuff the Federation has done in the past few years this might be actually something I could get behind.

It wouldn't be good for the business of running a soccer club. What keeps the money flowing now is parents having an unrealistic notion of how good their player is. I think a lot of parents would reevaluate their priorities if they knew their kid was the fifth best player on the 35th best team in the state. Ultimately it would be good for the sport to have fewer kids burning out.

[Anonymous]

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Anecdotal, but I reffed a game in which a team that had been CCL2 the year before was playing in ODSL. They were run off the field.

Granted, some ODSL teams are quite good. But I was not impressed with what I saw.

Just merge all this stuff. CCL and VPL can have their own tournaments, but roll up the leagues into one pyramid. Put the best teams, not the flashiest names, up against each other.

For that to happen I think the state associations would have to become stronger and have more authority over the leagues. Ultimately it would probably mean the US Soccer Federation exerting more control. When I think of the bone-headed stuff the Federation has done in the past few years this might be actually something I could get behind.

It wouldn't be good for the business of running a soccer club. What keeps the money flowing now is parents having an unrealistic notion of how good their player is. I think a lot of parents would reevaluate their priorities if they knew their kid was the fifth best player on the 35th best team in the state. Ultimately it would be good for the sport to have fewer kids burning out.

And the Federation probably wouldn't do it because they'd incur even more lawsuits than they're already facing.

The only think the Federation cares about is to eliminate any competition for MLS/SUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Anecdotal, but I reffed a game in which a team that had been CCL2 the year before was playing in ODSL. They were run off the field.

Granted, some ODSL teams are quite good. But I was not impressed with what I saw.

Just merge all this stuff. CCL and VPL can have their own tournaments, but roll up the leagues into one pyramid. Put the best teams, not the flashiest names, up against each other.

For that to happen I think the state associations would have to become stronger and have more authority over the leagues. Ultimately it would probably mean the US Soccer Federation exerting more control. When I think of the bone-headed stuff the Federation has done in the past few years this might be actually something I could get behind.

It wouldn't be good for the business of running a soccer club. What keeps the money flowing now is parents having an unrealistic notion of how good their player is. I think a lot of parents would reevaluate their priorities if they knew their kid was the fifth best player on the 35th best team in the state. Ultimately it would be good for the sport to have fewer kids burning out.

And the Federation probably wouldn't do it because they'd incur even more lawsuits than they're already facing.

The only think the Federation cares about is to eliminate any competition for MLS/SUM.

The state associations just focus on odp and coaching licenses. No say on the leagues and what they do. I agree that it would be great to see them enforce one league all across the state and the best play against the best regardless of club name. Can even be broken into regions to limit travel and then the winner of each regional D1 meets for a playoff semifinal with that being the STATE CUP.