Right, but for now, they'd have to team up with someone to get GA. They aren't strong enough on their own so it would take a while to build up without a merger of some sort. |
I would say college is the best outcome for 99.9% of kids. Going pro is a pipe dream for all but a very select few. |
It doesnt matter if you go pro or not. You train to be pro with other players training to be pro. If things dont work out no big deal you can fall back on playing in college. You people make it sound like just because players are on the pro pathway that they cant switch to playing in college. It's not MLSN = Pro only It is MLSN = Pro or College. |
Which is also true of every competitive league….MLSN doesn’t have the monopoly on pro and ECNL doesn’t have the monopoly on college. However- they do tend to major (ie- look at where they put their money to get an indication of their major). The goal of N is to get their kids to an academy / pro - do many go to college- of course! The ECNL goal is to place players in college. Do many go pro or to academies from ECNL - yes of course. |
MLS controls MLSN. An ECNL player will need to play on a MLS Academy team before playing professionally in MLS. This is because theres contracts and money involved and because pro teams are going to favor their own funnels. |
The same thing would happen to an ECNL player if somehow they went to play in a foreign pro league. They'd put them in their Academy program first to figure out if they're worth continuing to work with. That's the "issue" with ECNL or any non Academy league. You're stuck on the outside looking in. |
The problem with trying to go pro after graduating from and playing in college is that players are between 22 and 24 years old at that point. Can they realistically compete against an 18 year old that's been in an Academy setting for 2-3 years? Maybe but clubs will also be looking at shelf life for the player. At 18 you have 6-8 years. At 24 you have 2-4 years.
This is why MLSN is better than ECNL and why all the boys go that direction. You can always change course off the pro pathway to play in college. Its much more difficult to start on the collge pathway and try to go pro. |
And then you get all the ECNL people that say MLS Acadamies still recruit from ECNL. Sure, that's true but not at the same scale as MLSN clubs. If your plan is to play in a league to get recruited in MLSN why not just play in MLSN from the beginning?
These are the reasons ECNL is having a difficult time on the boys side. If NWSL copied MLS aligning with GA to create Acadamies girls would be exactly the same. |
Nobody is teaming up with GFR. There is no team out there - that is in need of partners - that would interest either GA or ECNL. |
And this is why other teams in area are trying hard to make the switch. The boys want more and the girls will be fine and get same exposure with GA |
agree for the younger females but not rising freshman and up |
Agreed and GFR can't stand alone at this point on a National platform. |
"As a college coach who would you choose?" The smarter one that can get into college and didn't waste too much time missing school for cross country events. |
So you’re telling me that Alexandria and SYC have different training methods and an approach than Vda and Arlington? They’re all youth clubs. |
You chose the smarter one that was able to keep up grades while traveling cross country to do MLSN events. You act like College soccer doesnt do travel during the season. Did you think College stops because of an away game. |