Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CCL has anti-recruiting rules. You can't move from one CCL club to another mid year.

No, but a club can take an entire team from a non-CCL club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:McLean is apparently looking to form an alliance with another club in order to strengthen their ECNL program. Has anybody heard who they have been talking to? Geographically, Vienna makes the most sense but prior merger talks between the clubs proved fruitless and right now, the clubs seem to have very different aspirations (community vs. competitive). Mclean can’t feasibly look across the river since Bethesda has that area locked down, Arlington seems the next logical choice. Great Falls and Reston offer no upgrade in talent. Sterling and Herndon are too far away. Annandale is already associated with FC Virginia. Braddock Road would seem a good fit but isn't as close as Arlington.

Anyone know what's going on?

Interesting about McLean. Do you know this for a fact?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean is apparently looking to form an alliance with another club in order to strengthen their ECNL program. Has anybody heard who they have been talking to? Geographically, Vienna makes the most sense but prior merger talks between the clubs proved fruitless and right now, the clubs seem to have very different aspirations (community vs. competitive). Mclean can’t feasibly look across the river since Bethesda has that area locked down, Arlington seems the next logical choice. Great Falls and Reston offer no upgrade in talent. Sterling and Herndon are too far away. Annandale is already associated with FC Virginia. Braddock Road would seem a good fit but isn't as close as Arlington.

Anyone know what's going on?

Interesting about McLean. Do you know this for a fact?

I had heard this as well and heard Arlington. This was last year so maybe didn't work out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean is apparently looking to form an alliance with another club in order to strengthen their ECNL program. Has anybody heard who they have been talking to? Geographically, Vienna makes the most sense but prior merger talks between the clubs proved fruitless and right now, the clubs seem to have very different aspirations (community vs. competitive). Mclean can’t feasibly look across the river since Bethesda has that area locked down, Arlington seems the next logical choice. Great Falls and Reston offer no upgrade in talent. Sterling and Herndon are too far away. Annandale is already associated with FC Virginia. Braddock Road would seem a good fit but isn't as close as Arlington.

Anyone know what's going on?

Vienna has had a lot of strong girls teams, even with a few players going to McLean to join ECNL teams. Maybe not an outright merger, which would be really difficult given the differences in the clubs, but an affiliation like the Annandale-FCV tie?

I'm not sure it makes sense for McLean to partner with VYS as most VYS players up for increased competition and college exposure already leave to play for McLean so why deal with the hassle. I am surprised VYS' best team (Thunder Black) hasn't moved to McLean as they're stronger than McLean's ECNL team and their coach also coaches at McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean is apparently looking to form an alliance with another club in order to strengthen their ECNL program. Has anybody heard who they have been talking to? Geographically, Vienna makes the most sense but prior merger talks between the clubs proved fruitless and right now, the clubs seem to have very different aspirations (community vs. competitive). Mclean can’t feasibly look across the river since Bethesda has that area locked down, Arlington seems the next logical choice. Great Falls and Reston offer no upgrade in talent. Sterling and Herndon are too far away. Annandale is already associated with FC Virginia. Braddock Road would seem a good fit but isn't as close as Arlington.

Anyone know what's going on?

Interesting about McLean. Do you know this for a fact?

I had heard this as well and heard Arlington. This was last year so maybe didn't work out

Arlington is a large club with a deep bench (lots of talent). I don't see how these clubs could merge. It would be way too big and the leagues have limits in the number of teams per club for the age groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean is apparently looking to form an alliance with another club in order to strengthen their ECNL program. Has anybody heard who they have been talking to? Geographically, Vienna makes the most sense but prior merger talks between the clubs proved fruitless and right now, the clubs seem to have very different aspirations (community vs. competitive). Mclean can’t feasibly look across the river since Bethesda has that area locked down, Arlington seems the next logical choice. Great Falls and Reston offer no upgrade in talent. Sterling and Herndon are too far away. Annandale is already associated with FC Virginia. Braddock Road would seem a good fit but isn't as close as Arlington.

Anyone know what's going on?

Interesting about McLean. Do you know this for a fact?

I had heard this as well and heard Arlington. This was last year so maybe didn't work out

Arlington is a large club with a deep bench (lots of talent). I don't see how these clubs could merge. It would be way too big and the leagues have limits in the number of teams per club for the age groups.

It would have to be a Bethesda-Olney situation where they're just merged at the very top level -- ECNL in this case.

[Anonymous]

Noticed that VYS is holding mid-year tryouts for a couple of boys travel academies. I assume that some families left town and some players managed to switch clubs. Does anyone know if there's any other reason why the academies lost kids (apparently) in significant numbers? I don't think VYS typically holds tryouts just for the spring season. This could provide a nice opportunity for someone, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Noticed that VYS is holding mid-year tryouts for a couple of boys travel academies. I assume that some families left town and some players managed to switch clubs. Does anyone know if there's any other reason why the academies lost kids (apparently) in significant numbers? I don't think VYS typically holds tryouts just for the spring season. This could provide a nice opportunity for someone, though.

Only $740 (plus $189 registration fee plus cost of uniform) to play one season of mediocre travel soccer. Sounds too good to pass up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Noticed that VYS is holding mid-year tryouts for a couple of boys travel academies. I assume that some families left town and some players managed to switch clubs. Does anyone know if there's any other reason why the academies lost kids (apparently) in significant numbers? I don't think VYS typically holds tryouts just for the spring season. This could provide a nice opportunity for someone, though.

They never had a full U10B Gold team this past fall. Kids turned down spots when offered for the fall season and they didn't have anyone to fill them.

[Anonymous]

Thank you 16:46 for providing accurate information, which is valuable, rather than reflexive snark, which is pretty much worthless

[Anonymous]

One of those age groups has exactly one spot.

This isn't that unusual. If you check SoccerWire, you sometimes see midyear tryouts here and there.

First time I can recall seeing it for VYS, though I've only been paying attention for 3-4 years.

[Anonymous]

And since we still only ever talk about Vienna in this thread, check out their NSCAA award:

https://twitter.com/vysdevelopment/status/556595437126164481/photo/1

[Anonymous]

VYS: "We've decided to go in a different direction."

[Anonymous]

Very shocked at their decision.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VYS: "We've decided to go in a different direction."

Does anyone have insight into the reason for the decision and what the new direction is?

IMO, Eddie was a guy with strong personal qualities that did not translate into building a strong program. Basically he is a guy you would be thrilled to be coaching your kid's team but that did not make him that effective a technical director for a large club. Biggest shortcoming to me was that the several of the trainers he brought in with him were lackluster.

But I am still kind of surprised at the decision. VYS does not seem trigger happy and you can find some positives in things Eddie did. I am also not sure who else we can find. Eddie seemed to have a good name and connections in DC area soccer.