New Additions to Leagues Check Up (ECNL & GA)
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Anonymous
Again Real Colorado top team will be in MLSNext for the 25/26 season. Their next best team that competes in ECNL have moved conferences from the mountain conference to the Texas conference because it allows for more months of play throughout the season. Again Real Colorado will be participating in MLSNext at all age groups for the 25/26 season. |
Anonymous
If I am reading this correctly, they are moving their top team from MLSN to ECNL texas , while keeping their next team in ECNL mountain. https://www.soccerwire.com/news/real-colorado-and-colorado-rapids-youth-join-ecnl-boys-texas-conference/ And if you go to the club website , there is no more mention of MLSN , only ECNL |
Anonymous
You are both right. The MLS Academy remains the TOP youth team named "Real Colorado". The youth organization with the same name switched to ENCL. The end. |
Anonymous
I know "Colorado Rapids" has its MLS academy. But I didn't know "Real Colorado" has one ... |
Anonymous
Thanks, that's what I meant. |
Anonymous
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Once again, I dont really have a dog in the fight but there seem to be three things that could significantly impact ECNL at this point.
1. If GA formed actual Academies like what MLS now Homegrown has done. If there were 10-12 true Academy programs in main metro areas, that would siphon off significant talent since most of those rosters on the boys side get into the 30 range 2. If GA stayed BY and then gave a bit of a choice to kids based on their birthdates. Yes some Q3/4 GA kids might migrate to ECNL as well but it potentially impacts the Q1/2 ECNL kids more. 3. If GA actually imposed more of a development curriculum as standard for anyone with a badge. The critics of ECNL suggest they simply recruit away the top kids and never actually develop them. If this is true, and GA could actually develop kids they may, over time, start to catch up to the ECNL kids. I guess you could add a number 4. MLSN continues to help leverage ECNL girls to GA with the boys system. There might be more but this is the basic list I came up with. To me the interesting thing is the money aspect of all of this. It was only a year or two ago that GA needed a decent sized loan from USSF but there is no transparency into ECNL finances. They could be in trouble as well and you wouldnt know until it was too late, sort of like the DA, which seemed like a combination of funding and really poor management from the governing body. |
Anonymous
Can you elaborate on #3? Are you saying that girls Academy programs don’t recruit or add players? ECNL only does this? Where are the players coming from, if not other ECNL programs? Are you saying that girls academy and small town clubs develop all of these players and then ECNL recruits them away? Does the league encourage this or is it just certain clubs? do most ECNL clubs not have teams younger than 13? This is a serious post. I see this brought up all the time and I don’t understand it. |
Anonymous
if their goal is to play college soccer and especially at D1 level, yes |
Anonymous
The criticism of ECNL, right or wrong, suggests that many clubs aggregate top talent from surrounding clubs that actually develop them at the younger ages. The top talent is drawn to the badge and playing with other top talent. Once at the top clubs the focus is more on strategy vs skill development. In my area, the U12 teams (pre badge) are usually solid but not the top teams in the area. For the u13 (badge) virtually all of these teams have 50%+ new kids if not more. Again there may be great development clubs in ECNL as well. I am just suggesting the GA could gain an advantage of truly developing the kids through U19. There are a couple of GA clubs, that I know well, that struggle at the younger ages but then perform very well at the high school ages. This suggests more of a development approach as they dont really recruit in new kids that much from original U13 teams. Please dont take this as gospel just some anecdotal musings. |
Anonymous
But GA (at least where I'm at) does the exact same thing as you listed as an issue with ECNL. I guess more anecdotal musings. |
Anonymous
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At the very senior levels of soccer, on both the men’s and women side, there are two general styles of play, physical and athletic vs more technical and precision based.
An example of this would be the US women vs the Japanese women. None of the Japanese would win a foot race against the US but they are very very technically sound. Spanish women right now play more of a technical game and they are playing at a very high level right now. But so are the American women. Neither is fundamentally better or worse just different and the teams play to strengths. In my opinion, we are developing more of the traditional American style of play in the GA and ECNL vs a Spanish or Asian style, which probably plays to our strengths but leaves some pretty good technicians on the sidelines. |
Anonymous
I guess that is the point where GA could differentiate by becoming a true “academy” in the European sense vs the American marketing sense. In my area, the badges (both ECNL and GA) do very little skill development, e.g. cone drills, volley drills, juggling skill, weak foot development, long ball training, etc. They also do very little film study or speed and agility work. The clubs expect kids to do this as supplemental work outside of club. Maybe some clubs do all of this but true academies should have this as part of the club curriculum, in my opinion. |
Anonymous
What you'll see over time is that the mega girls ECNL people try in every way posdible to create fomo in other parents. Very rarely are the over the top comments true. But they're doing it to appeal to weak people that want to be part of a group. Its a form of recruitment. They target the fomo people because theyre the ones most likely themselves to go all out to maintain being accepted. Theyre also the ones who start making over the top comments themselves which makes the cycle repeat itself. GA parents are throwing a serious monkey wrench in what theyre doing. In the end it does not matter. Theres so many people along the way (coaches, docs, recruiters, etc. etc etc) who's job it is to identify talent. The best of the best of the best will get noticed. You can grease the skids with $$$ but once you go down that road it never stops. |
Anonymous
And therein lies the problem -- too much power for 1 league because it's not everywhere OR everywhere in adequate size. That actually hurts development of the whole ecosystem. ECNL should welcome competition instead of punching down like it does. It could be its undoing. |
Anonymous
If you were a girls D1 coach would you limit roster selections to a single league? The answer is no. It would make sense to work closely with a few clubs that have a reputation for developing and identifying high levels of talent. You also have to keep in mind that there is a "good old boys" network between certain clubs and colleges. Who knows who and who are you willing to pay money to. If you want to play that game. ECNL has been around longer and because of this has stronger ties. But its going to cost you if this is the way you want to get your kids foot in the door. What do you think the camps, rounds of golf with coaches, private lessons, etc are all paying for? |