ECNL moving to school year part 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody complained the other day of this forum taken up by MLSNext related comments.

However it's obvious that ECNL will be impacted in some way by MLSNext's decisions. ECNL and MLSNext are competitors for talent and money.

Also other leagues, for instance in my state this year so many teams have moved from USCS NPL to MLSNext Academy division and ECNL-R.

Now, for next years there is a project of ECNL being expanded dramatically. What MLSNext decides will impact the rest of the leagues.

It will be interesting to see how the youth soccer landscape will be in two or three years.

For boys its pretty clear that they choose MLS Next over other leagues.

Now that MLS is moving more into the p2p world with MLSN2.ECNL hats are starting to sweat because they can see the writing on the wall.

Aug-Dec birthdays will have ECNL and the rest of the market share that MLSN won’t be able to service. Pushing for SY knowing MLSN would stay BY was a great chess move on their part

What will happen is MLS will keep getting bigger and once they have p2p they will ignore ECNL. If ECNL wants to play MLSN2 teams they'll need to play up.

You are dreaming, and I am an MLSN dad. There will always be space in the marketplace for multiple competitive leagues, especially with 2 different age groups. The bigger MLSN gets the more watered down and it will lose its essence (mainly scamming the parents)

It's interesting that you think MLS2 is scamming parents with p2p but ECNL who is providing the same p2p league is not scamming parents.

Its the clubs that are approaching MLS saying that they want to be involved but they want their teams to be p2p.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CURRENT ECNL TEAM

14 Q1/Q2 (9 starters)
4 Q3/Q4 (2 starters)

NEXT YEAR ECNL TEAM

4 Drop down from team above
2 Top RL youngers from team above
8 Current team olders
1 Current team younger stays up (USYNT ID Regional)
3 girls from different team transferring in


So I am anticipating ~50% turnover on a team where a normal year would be closer to 10-20%

If you are a Q1/Q2 non starter then better start looking at a different club where you might fit a need or get comfortable with RL

20% turnover per year? Seems more like a youngers team or an olders team thats not winning.

dont know if you think 20 is high or low. Every team in our club turns over 4-5 kids a year it seems. And we are a top club in the country

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CURRENT ECNL TEAM

14 Q1/Q2 (9 starters)
4 Q3/Q4 (2 starters)

NEXT YEAR ECNL TEAM

4 Drop down from team above
2 Top RL youngers from team above
8 Current team olders
1 Current team younger stays up (USYNT ID Regional)
3 girls from different team transferring in


So I am anticipating ~50% turnover on a team where a normal year would be closer to 10-20%

If you are a Q1/Q2 non starter then better start looking at a different club where you might fit a need or get comfortable with RL

20% turnover per year? Seems more like a youngers team or an olders team thats not winning.

dont know if you think 20 is high or low. Every team in our club turns over 4-5 kids a year it seems. And we are a top club in the country

Top team in the country as well and turnover is 2-3 every 2 years. Also a lot of it depends on the coach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CURRENT ECNL TEAM

14 Q1/Q2 (9 starters)
4 Q3/Q4 (2 starters)

NEXT YEAR ECNL TEAM

4 Drop down from team above
2 Top RL youngers from team above
8 Current team olders
1 Current team younger stays up (USYNT ID Regional)
3 girls from different team transferring in


So I am anticipating ~50% turnover on a team where a normal year would be closer to 10-20%

If you are a Q1/Q2 non starter then better start looking at a different club where you might fit a need or get comfortable with RL

We have 12 Q3/Q4 in the older group from NL, RL and RL2 based on the ECNL website. I watched RL practice and they are obviously bigger and faster than younger NL. I would expect 9 out of 12 make the younger NL team. Minus 3 Q3/Q4 drop to the younger from our team, that is about 6 players being removed. We already have 22 players, so can not increase the roster size. That is about 30% change plus outsiders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody complained the other day of this forum taken up by MLSNext related comments.

However it's obvious that ECNL will be impacted in some way by MLSNext's decisions. ECNL and MLSNext are competitors for talent and money.

Also other leagues, for instance in my state this year so many teams have moved from USCS NPL to MLSNext Academy division and ECNL-R.

Now, for next years there is a project of ECNL being expanded dramatically. What MLSNext decides will impact the rest of the leagues.

It will be interesting to see how the youth soccer landscape will be in two or three years.

For boys its pretty clear that they choose MLS Next over other leagues.

Now that MLS is moving more into the p2p world with MLSN2.ECNL hats are starting to sweat because they can see the writing on the wall.

Aug-Dec birthdays will have ECNL and the rest of the market share that MLSN won’t be able to service. Pushing for SY knowing MLSN would stay BY was a great chess move on their part

What will happen is MLS will keep getting bigger and once they have p2p they will ignore ECNL. If ECNL wants to play MLSN2 teams they'll need to play up.

You are dreaming, and I am an MLSN dad. There will always be space in the marketplace for multiple competitive leagues, especially with 2 different age groups. The bigger MLSN gets the more watered down and it will lose its essence (mainly scamming the parents)

It's interesting that you think MLS2 is scamming parents with p2p but ECNL who is providing the same p2p league is not scamming parents.

Its the clubs that are approaching MLS saying that they want to be involved but they want their teams to be p2p.

It’s all a scam on some level, ECNL included. But MLSN is the ultimate pyramid scheme as even the academies don’t churn out professional players let alone p2p clubs. Watch a MLSN tier 1 at any age group then YouTube a European match of the same age group and it is light years different.

[Anonymous]

You guys forgot about players at other clubs....your hitting 50% without them....

[Anonymous]

P2P MLS1 is a total scam. Zero pro possibility and close to zero D1 possibility. And it comes with stupid pro rules to fake it so it looks like one of the Academies. My kid, a Q4 with college recruiting potential, would rather play in MLS2 so that he can play high school soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:P2P MLS1 is a total scam. Zero pro possibility and close to zero D1 possibility. And it comes with stupid pro rules to fake it so it looks like one of the Academies. My kid, a Q4 with college recruiting potential, would rather play in MLS2 so that he can play high school soccer.

Agree.

My kid is October U14, the best choice for him will be either ECNL or MLSN2 (as long as they move to SY), of course plus High School soccer.

Professional soccer players are usually virtually illiterate, salaries are so low in the USA, and once they retire they don't know what to do with their lives.

I prefer for my son to study something interesting (and practice soccer at college at same time).

For college prospective, for an October kid the best system is SY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CURRENT ECNL TEAM

14 Q1/Q2 (9 starters)
4 Q3/Q4 (2 starters)

NEXT YEAR ECNL TEAM

4 Drop down from team above
2 Top RL youngers from team above
8 Current team olders
1 Current team younger stays up (USYNT ID Regional)
3 girls from different team transferring in


So I am anticipating ~50% turnover on a team where a normal year would be closer to 10-20%

If you are a Q1/Q2 non starter then better start looking at a different club where you might fit a need or get comfortable with RL

Bench players won't want to leave because they lose any possibility for visibility. Maybe for GA, not RL. Sort of the double-edged sword when you stress college recruiting so much. Who knows maybe those bench players will raise their games and stay on, especially if Q3/Q4 think they got in the bag just because they'll be older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:P2P MLS1 is a total scam. Zero pro possibility and close to zero D1 possibility. And it comes with stupid pro rules to fake it so it looks like one of the Academies. My kid, a Q4 with college recruiting potential, would rather play in MLS2 so that he can play high school soccer.

Agree.

My kid is October U14, the best choice for him will be either ECNL or MLSN2 (as long as they move to SY), of course plus High School soccer.

Professional soccer players are usually virtually illiterate, salaries are so low in the USA, and once they retire they don't know what to do with their lives.

I prefer for my son to study something interesting (and practice soccer at college at same time).

For college prospective, for an October kid the best system is SY.

HS Soccer is super important to him. He wants to play with his school buddies, and playing for his school in CIF is more meaningful than playing for a random P2P MLS1. He is looking for a good D3 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CURRENT ECNL TEAM

14 Q1/Q2 (9 starters)
4 Q3/Q4 (2 starters)

NEXT YEAR ECNL TEAM

4 Drop down from team above
2 Top RL youngers from team above
8 Current team olders
1 Current team younger stays up (USYNT ID Regional)
3 girls from different team transferring in


So I am anticipating ~50% turnover on a team where a normal year would be closer to 10-20%

If you are a Q1/Q2 non starter then better start looking at a different club where you might fit a need or get comfortable with RL

Bench players won't want to leave because they lose any possibility for visibility. Maybe for GA, not RL. Sort of the double-edged sword when you stress college recruiting so much. Who knows maybe those bench players will raise their games and stay on, especially if Q3/Q4 think they got in the bag just because they'll be older.

The problem is now you have 5 months older players eligible to compete for a younger ECNL or GA team, then some players will no longer have a spot. My guess is 30% of the current ECNL/GA players will have to play for a 2nd team next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CURRENT ECNL TEAM

14 Q1/Q2 (9 starters)
4 Q3/Q4 (2 starters)

NEXT YEAR ECNL TEAM

4 Drop down from team above
2 Top RL youngers from team above
8 Current team olders
1 Current team younger stays up (USYNT ID Regional)
3 girls from different team transferring in


So I am anticipating ~50% turnover on a team where a normal year would be closer to 10-20%

If you are a Q1/Q2 non starter then better start looking at a different club where you might fit a need or get comfortable with RL

Bench players won't want to leave because they lose any possibility for visibility. Maybe for GA, not RL. Sort of the double-edged sword when you stress college recruiting so much. Who knows maybe those bench players will raise their games and stay on, especially if Q3/Q4 think they got in the bag just because they'll be older.

The problem is now you have 5 months older players eligible to compete for a younger ECNL or GA team, then some players will no longer have a spot. My guess is 30% of the current ECNL/GA players will have to play for a 2nd team next year.

The assumptions being tested are weather the age difference on second teams trumps perhaps higher coaching and level from playing on the top younger team. It's very much in the eye of the beholder at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My u13 son went to his school friends u12 game this weekend and was shocked at the difference. The game was 1st divsion game for pre a MLSNAD team vs Pre ECNL team. My son got the Veo link and sent it to me and I agree. There is a drastic difference in kids at these ages...WO.

We are going to try seveal tryouts this spring and will do some practices with other programs to see where the best fit is. We just cant get over the technical difference in the level of play one year makes its completely shocking.

The difference really is massive. The teams a year below that we watched are all top third in their league, including a team battling for the league title.

The 2011 teams truly look like little kids compared to the 2010s.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone else heard that ECNL is breaking up age groups into 3 tiers starting next year?

My sons club coach was saying they will have pre ECNL U10-12, U13-15 competition tier with showcases playing for a cup of some kind.
U16-19 will be actual showcases for recruitment purposes scores would not count towards anything almost like a scrimmage basically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be ready NWSL in talks with GA on a potential merger. Don’t know all the details but I’m told this could pull some top ECNL girls clubs over to the GA over next few years.

Surf is talking with SD wave about being their official youth club. Would that mean San Diego Surf would be GA? Any chance that starts pulling more clubs over?

I feel like if the 10 top clubs left ECNL that still wouldn’t be enough to get others to jump ship. Would just mean we would have two tough girls leagues.