MLS Next Flex Tournament at Soccerplex

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MLS Academy teams /players (ie Philly/DCU) is a very different beast than MLS Next teams (Bethesda, Alexandria, Achilles etc). Academy are the best of the best. They don’t pay to play. Next does.

Top ECNL teams are competitive with Next and have proven so in head to head competitions. Neither is competitive against Academy—There are some exceptions of course

Just like ECNL, MLS has expanded their pyramid scheme into Next and even Next 2- whatever that means.
The weak/bottom of the bracket ECNL teams cant compete with the strong Next teams and vice versa as one might imagine.

"Next-2" is a marketing creation of a few clubs
They'll say and brand anything to get more money

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a local Referee who see all leagues and teams from a neutral angle

I saw some U15 MLS Academy players this weekend at forward, defenders and wingers with speed, size, skill and power that cannot be stopped or beaten 1v1 by most

But how many can play 1-touch and not rely upon trying to physically beat someone 1v1 every time since they won't always be running at the opposition?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a local Referee who see all leagues and teams from a neutral angle

I saw some U15 MLS Academy players this weekend at forward, defenders and wingers with speed, size, skill and power that cannot be stopped or beaten 1v1 by most

But how many can play 1-touch and not rely upon trying to physically beat someone 1v1 every time since they won't always be running at the opposition?

Doubt any player can be at a MLS club academy and not be able to do 1 and 2 touch combination plays

[Anonymous]

You'd be surprised

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You'd be surprised

I would be shocked and astonished to say the least

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Took my 2008 DS and a couple of his teammates to watch a couple U15's and U16's games at the MLS Next Flex tournament going on now at the Soccerplex in Germantown

They are good players on a decent ECNL team

They all honestly and humbly agreed, none of them could hang in the games we saw based on the speed of play, technical skills and physicality

It was eye opening for me to see the differences between kids of the same age

Not every MLS next team was there. The teams that didn't make it are not far off from top ECNL teams. Also, some ECNL boys teams can compete with the best MLS next teams.

Pipeline. QED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You'd be surprised

I would be shocked and astonished to say the least

Booting it doesn't count as 1-touch.