ENCL Nationals - Girls

[Anonymous]

Almost every team from Arlington is good/great at younger ages. Team performance drops like stones at older ages.

We will see what Arl 2011 looks like in a few years. Getting excited about and studying the approach of 7th graders is a bit premature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the 07 union team had lots of fancy college commits. Can someone explain how they don’t go further?

The truth is starting to show for clubs like Union, NVA, VDA and others. Getting to National Playoffs is really the minimum, I mean these huge clubs are attracting the top players in the DMV. These kids put so much of their time and money into personal training and getting better. Just from watching the matches, the technical and athletic level is really not that big of a difference, its the team development aspect that is the biggest factor.

Union 07s are a perfect example- extremely talented group of players...if its just a one off year then sure, but they have gotten bounced two years in a row now. For all clubs- Union, NVA, VDA etc....I would be taking a real hard look at the coaches, I mean these kids are all top D1 players....its really coming down to coaching. Regardless of what your "play style" is...its not being executed well and DMV is consistently losing in Nationals every single year. It's time for a big wake up call for clubs IMO, there needs to be a real look into what is actually being coached and where the gaps are, because the individual players are 100% not the problem. This isn't all teams and no single club in focus, just the DMV area as a whole....the coaching is really letting these girls down if they truly want to compete at Nationals.

You are exactly correct.

But it's not all the coaches fault. DMV parents watch local wins very closely and will jump ship in a heartbeat. What ends up happening is coach's teach players to play the way that gives parents what they want, wins. This means from a young age players are taught to play direct and coaches and clubs recruit the biggest and fastest players they can find.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective big and fast individual players that play direct is what college coaches are also looking for. Because the college game has infinite subs it makes more sense for college coaches to look for big fast and aggressive. This is because it's easier and faster to create a winning team this way.

Clubs like San Diego Surf teach players to play a combination of possession and direct. They teach defined set pieces from a young age for offense, mids, and defense. What ends up happening is they switch between possession (to wear direct teams out) and direct (once teams are worn out). The defined set pieces let Surf work the ball up the field and score at will especially after the other team is worn out from playing direct and chasing the ball when Surf is playing possession.

If you want to win on a national level coaches and parents need to change their thinking and focus on playing more like Surf. The problem with this is that DMV girls ECNL mentalities won't allow it to happen. Ironically it would be easier to implement a San Diego Surf style development program with a GA club in DMV. This is because there would be less expectations for local wins which would allow coaches to train in a more possession/direct style vs direct only.

Why a GA club instead of ECNL?

Girls ECNL on the east coast attracts the parents that want to be the best. If you don't know soccer and don't understand what's required to win on the national stage wins are how you prove you're kid is the best.

This puts coaches in a difficult position if their DOC or Club either doesn't understand what's required to win on the national stage or doesn't care (ie just wants the money) they get forced into playing direct for local wins. This is occurring even if coach's know its not going to work when they play against the CA and TX teams.

[Anonymous]

BTW I'm typing all this from CA with a u14 kid that's been playing competitive soccer since she was 5. Yes, there's competitive soccer at age 5 in Socal.

I like commenting here just to argue with the idiots who think the know everything but get blown out every year in playoffs and west coast tournaments.

I'm telling you how Surf wins all the time. It's not magic. It's a refined core program that they follow from when the players are u6 all the way to when they're u16. Nobody takes shortcuts players, coaches, or parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To many good posts above to quote them. If DMV wants to win on the big stage Coaching, practice and recruiting requirements have to change. Maybe even more consolidation of ecnl teams and some year round training.

So you got families that are ok with their kids winning or losing locally & getting picked up by local schools vs family that want max exposure and winning on a grand stage. Equals failure if nothing changes.

Everyone locally should have been mimicking the arl 2011s approach to competition and studying the teams out west approach to the games….


Smh thats a lotta money for no results in the playoffs

What is the arl 2011 approach?

Most likely to play direct only and have bigger faster players. Which won't work against better teams and won't work as better teams get older.

Disagree that its all direct play. And they dont have big players.

[Anonymous]

Letting the cat out the bag here, Death Star plans revealed. Stay in ECNL please, fodder is needed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Letting the cat out the bag here, Death Star plans revealed. Stay in ECNL please, fodder is needed

Bingo...

Keep paying so other parents kids can look like superstars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To many good posts above to quote them. If DMV wants to win on the big stage Coaching, practice and recruiting requirements have to change. Maybe even more consolidation of ecnl teams and some year round training.

So you got families that are ok with their kids winning or losing locally & getting picked up by local schools vs family that want max exposure and winning on a grand stage. Equals failure if nothing changes.

Everyone locally should have been mimicking the arl 2011s approach to competition and studying the teams out west approach to the games….


Smh thats a lotta money for no results in the playoffs

What is the arl 2011 approach?

Most likely to play direct only and have bigger faster players. Which won't work against better teams and won't work as better teams get older.

Disagree that its all direct play. And they dont have big players.

Ok, maybe they're the one East Coast team that doesn't look like a bunch of linebackers that can't connect 3 passes.

I'm not trying to put you down specifically. Just pointing out what I've seen that was consistant from the different teams my kid played against.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BTW I'm typing all this from CA with a u14 kid that's been playing competitive soccer since she was 5. Yes, there's competitive soccer at age 5 in Socal.

I like commenting here just to argue with the idiots who think the know everything but get blown out every year in playoffs and west coast tournaments.

I'm telling you how Surf wins all the time. It's not magic. It's a refined core program that they follow from when the players are u6 all the way to when they're u16. Nobody takes shortcuts players, coaches, or parents.

Since you are such an expert you would also know that the current u14 team has 2-3 at most “surf” players who have grown through the “core program”. Surf like every brand name club takes players every year from u13 forward for their NL teams. The 2010 team is nearly the entire SDSC 9v9 team which was not a surf entity when the girls left for SD Surf. It’s not Magic I agree but it’s simpler than swinging from the nuts of one club, it’s about weather, money, and legacy of pro soccer players available for personal training.

Oh and “The core program” is lots of touches with the ball with expert coaches, with competition from age 5 on, and year round training on grass and sand just for shits and giggles. Kinda perfect and certainly replicable. Who’s in just need a EJ7 type indoor facility to use year round?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BTW I'm typing all this from CA with a u14 kid that's been playing competitive soccer since she was 5. Yes, there's competitive soccer at age 5 in Socal.

I like commenting here just to argue with the idiots who think the know everything but get blown out every year in playoffs and west coast tournaments.

I'm telling you how Surf wins all the time. It's not magic. It's a refined core program that they follow from when the players are u6 all the way to when they're u16. Nobody takes shortcuts players, coaches, or parents.

I would love to hear what your definition of competitive is at 5 years old. I'm guessing it's more an internal club league for 5 and 6 year olds and then they play in a local league starting at 7 or 8

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW I'm typing all this from CA with a u14 kid that's been playing competitive soccer since she was 5. Yes, there's competitive soccer at age 5 in Socal.

I like commenting here just to argue with the idiots who think the know everything but get blown out every year in playoffs and west coast tournaments.

I'm telling you how Surf wins all the time. It's not magic. It's a refined core program that they follow from when the players are u6 all the way to when they're u16. Nobody takes shortcuts players, coaches, or parents.

I would love to hear what your definition of competitive is at 5 years old. I'm guessing it's more an internal club league for 5 and 6 year olds and then they play in a local league starting at 7 or 8

You're correct. In California SOCAL conpetitive league starts around U7 but most clubs run their own U6 "competitive" internal league at U6 and earlier to grab some money before.There's different rec programs that start at 3 years old. These generally funnel into bigger clubs as they get older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW I'm typing all this from CA with a u14 kid that's been playing competitive soccer since she was 5. Yes, there's competitive soccer at age 5 in Socal.

I like commenting here just to argue with the idiots who think the know everything but get blown out every year in playoffs and west coast tournaments.

I'm telling you how Surf wins all the time. It's not magic. It's a refined core program that they follow from when the players are u6 all the way to when they're u16. Nobody takes shortcuts players, coaches, or parents.

Since you are such an expert you would also know that the current u14 team has 2-3 at most “surf” players who have grown through the “core program”. Surf like every brand name club takes players every year from u13 forward for their NL teams. The 2010 team is nearly the entire SDSC 9v9 team which was not a surf entity when the girls left for SD Surf. It’s not Magic I agree but it’s simpler than swinging from the nuts of one club, it’s about weather, money, and legacy of pro soccer players available for personal training.

Oh and “The core program” is lots of touches with the ball with expert coaches, with competition from age 5 on, and year round training on grass and sand just for shits and giggles. Kinda perfect and certainly replicable. Who’s in just need a EJ7 type indoor facility to use year round?

Someone knows

I agree that what Surf has put together is replicable. I don't agree that you can do it in NVA. (Currently)

Soccer isn't American Football. You can't just recruit bigger and faster players and expect to win. Until this mentality changes in players, coaches, parents, docs, and clubs owners you won't win on the National stage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To many good posts above to quote them. If DMV wants to win on the big stage Coaching, practice and recruiting requirements have to change. Maybe even more consolidation of ecnl teams and some year round training.

So you got families that are ok with their kids winning or losing locally & getting picked up by local schools vs family that want max exposure and winning on a grand stage. Equals failure if nothing changes.

Everyone locally should have been mimicking the arl 2011s approach to competition and studying the teams out west approach to the games….


Smh thats a lotta money for no results in the playoffs

There really is no reason for parents, coaches, and clubs in DMV to make these changes. The local system is achieving the goal of getting their daughters to the colleges they want. It is not a failure because the teams out west are better in national playoffs. The DMV is not any different than other parts of the country, mid-west, northeast, and it's fine the way it is. Not every region can be a super region that draws players from all over. You have super regions in every sport, every industry that draws in the best talent. LA is the entertainment capital, NY has banking, FL and TX have youth football, CA and TX have soccer.

some of these girls have bigger aspirations than va tech and local schools. Overall these clubs are doing a great job getting girls college nods locally and in some cases nationally. I am curious if anyone has taken samples from all the clubs to see dmvs overall placement track record compared to other regions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To many good posts above to quote them. If DMV wants to win on the big stage Coaching, practice and recruiting requirements have to change. Maybe even more consolidation of ecnl teams and some year round training.

So you got families that are ok with their kids winning or losing locally & getting picked up by local schools vs family that want max exposure and winning on a grand stage. Equals failure if nothing changes.

Everyone locally should have been mimicking the arl 2011s approach to competition and studying the teams out west approach to the games….


Smh thats a lotta money for no results in the playoffs

There really is no reason for parents, coaches, and clubs in DMV to make these changes. The local system is achieving the goal of getting their daughters to the colleges they want. It is not a failure because the teams out west are better in national playoffs. The DMV is not any different than other parts of the country, mid-west, northeast, and it's fine the way it is. Not every region can be a super region that draws players from all over. You have super regions in every sport, every industry that draws in the best talent. LA is the entertainment capital, NY has banking, FL and TX have youth football, CA and TX have soccer.

This is a perfect example of why DMV won't win nationally.

This parent is argueing that the way DMV ECNL teams play is getting players committed to colleges so why change what's working.

What's sad is they're correct. College women's soccer has unlimited subs. What this means is if coaches just find the biggest fastest most aggressive players they'll likely do ok in the season. You don't need skilled players that can play possession because opponents will never get tired with unlimited subs. What all this means is the type of players DMV ECNL clubs produce is what awful NCAA College women's coaches are looking for.

If you want to be competitive in ECNL (or GA) nationally or any league that limits the number of substitutions, teams need to play some form of possession soccer.

Next season Mens D1 NCAA college soccer will switch from unlimited subs to how ECNL or pro soccer plays. Hopefully Women's college soccer will make the same change soon because it would be a game changer for youth soccer because suddenly skilled players would be recruited over simply big and fast.

[Anonymous]

Wonder how recruiting gets affected if the rumor of NCAA roster size restrictions comes into play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To many good posts above to quote them. If DMV wants to win on the big stage Coaching, practice and recruiting requirements have to change. Maybe even more consolidation of ecnl teams and some year round training.

So you got families that are ok with their kids winning or losing locally & getting picked up by local schools vs family that want max exposure and winning on a grand stage. Equals failure if nothing changes.

Everyone locally should have been mimicking the arl 2011s approach to competition and studying the teams out west approach to the games….


Smh thats a lotta money for no results in the playoffs

There really is no reason for parents, coaches, and clubs in DMV to make these changes. The local system is achieving the goal of getting their daughters to the colleges they want. It is not a failure because the teams out west are better in national playoffs. The DMV is not any different than other parts of the country, mid-west, northeast, and it's fine the way it is. Not every region can be a super region that draws players from all over. You have super regions in every sport, every industry that draws in the best talent. LA is the entertainment capital, NY has banking, FL and TX have youth football, CA and TX have soccer.

some of these girls have bigger aspirations than va tech and local schools. Overall these clubs are doing a great job getting girls college nods locally and in some cases nationally. I am curious if anyone has taken samples from all the clubs to see dmvs overall placement track record compared to other regions.

The girls with bigger aspirations, who actually have the talent potential, should move to CA and TX. That is already happening. It's why these places are turning out such good players and teams.

If you want to make it big in the movies you move to LA, you don't try to get your region to become better at movies. It's why country singers move to Nashville. It's why aspiring olympic athletes in gymnastics move to be near the top coaches. High school basketball players move to attend the top prep schools. If someone is truly in the top 1% then they need to be willing to move to where the best are concentrated in one place.