Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss Part II

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't see a separate reason for a separate girls' thread. So many issues affect both boys and girls.

I could actually see making a separate thread for NCSL and ODSL just so it'd be free from all the chest-beating about the DA, ECNL, CCL and VPL, but I don't quite care enough to do it. Besides, Angry CCL Guy would probably turn up in that thread anyway.

LOL. Where is that CCL guy anyway? I wonder what he thinks about discussions among CCL leadership of dividing into Northern and Southern conferences. Will that be enough to silence the critics that hate, not the travel, but the travel to play some alleged really bad teams?

Are you part of that CCL leadership ? How do you know what BS they are coming up with now ?

We are in our first few weeks of travel soccer so please forgive my ignorance. We joined a CCL club (made the most sense because of our location), is there something wrong with CCL?

Your kid may not even be playing CCL if he isn't on the first team. If he's on the second team, NCSL provides a better playing experience as there is promotion/relegation goals that you just can't put in through CCL since CCL and CCLII will always be that way. By the way, CCL is Club Champions LEAGUE and the only part that matters is the last one. For the most the type of training and development your child experiences will depend on the coach/trainer. That is what you should focus on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what info I'd love to see here?

How many kids from each club make their high school teams. Then how many go to college, though that is to *some* extent available publicly if people really want to dig through recruiting sites and college rosters.

I'd love to know that.

Our HS has close to 1,000 students in the Freshman class (close to 4K total). With 16-18 making JV and 16-18 making Varsity that is an incredibly small number. Not to mention, many of the kids play for Clubs other than their home Clubs by then.

Around 34 boys soccer players out of 4,000. Chances are slim.

I say that as somebody that won a VA HS State Championship on the Varsity team as a Freshmen, but my HS class size was about 400 students in my grade.

I think you meant to say 34 boys soccer players out of 2000 (boys). Still tough odds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We are in our first few weeks of travel soccer so please forgive my ignorance. We joined a CCL club (made the most sense because of our location), is there something wrong with CCL?

Your kid may not even be playing CCL if he isn't on the first team. If he's on the second team, NCSL provides a better playing experience as there is promotion/relegation goals that you just can't put in through CCL since CCL and CCLII will always be that way. By the way, CCL is Club Champions LEAGUE and the only part that matters is the last one. For the most the type of training and development your child experiences will depend on the coach/trainer. That is what you should focus on.

I believe in U9 and U10, the #1 and #2 teams play in CCL. The third team plays in CCLII. But at U11 and up, the top team plays in CCL and the 2nd team plays in CCLII - 3rd team (at least in Arlington) is in NCSL. Granted, once kids get into DA - boys at U12 and Girls at U14, the CCL may not be the top league since the former #1 team on CCL is now a DA team, so the 2nd Team becomes the top CCL team.

CCL is supposed to be the biggest leagues and their top teams - as I understand it, was formed so teams didn't have to travel as far for real competition since there are many good teams in the DMV area. On a club level, that makes sense. But there will always be some great random teams in NCSL or ODSL that CCL teams may never face who would provide some real competition. The Top teams in CCL are all generally very good, but as a dad of a CCL player, I'd love to see more opportunities to play some of those other great teams that are not CCL based.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the really good kids don't play for their high schools- they keep playing for the good clubs.

I assumed that this was the case. And further that clubs might not even allow kids to do high school soccer. I figured that the level of high school soccer would generally be beneath that of the travel clubs. Am I totally off here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We are in our first few weeks of travel soccer so please forgive my ignorance. We joined a CCL club (made the most sense because of our location), is there something wrong with CCL?

Your kid may not even be playing CCL if he isn't on the first team. If he's on the second team, NCSL provides a better playing experience as there is promotion/relegation goals that you just can't put in through CCL since CCL and CCLII will always be that way. By the way, CCL is Club Champions LEAGUE and the only part that matters is the last one. For the most the type of training and development your child experiences will depend on the coach/trainer. That is what you should focus on.

I believe in U9 and U10, the #1 and #2 teams play in CCL. The third team plays in CCLII. But at U11 and up, the top team plays in CCL and the 2nd team plays in CCLII - 3rd team (at least in Arlington) is in NCSL. Granted, once kids get into DA - boys at U12 and Girls at U14, the CCL may not be the top league since the former #1 team on CCL is now a DA team, so the 2nd Team becomes the top CCL team.

CCL is supposed to be the biggest leagues and their top teams - as I understand it, was formed so teams didn't have to travel as far for real competition since there are many good teams in the DMV area. On a club level, that makes sense. But there will always be some great random teams in NCSL or ODSL that CCL teams may never face who would provide some real competition. The Top teams in CCL are all generally very good, but as a dad of a CCL player, I'd love to see more opportunities to play some of those other great teams that are not CCL based.

I found CCL and CCL2 offered ZERO competition for my boys at the U9-U12 ages. There were only 2 strong teams tops and we constantly played the same teams.

NCSL has a lot more variety and I find it to be much more competitive in the younger years. The teams are from all over and are all sizes. As a VA team we played many very, very strong Maryland teams and many small Clubs that were outstanding but not well-known.

In fact, my kids teams in CCL were always on the winning side of blowouts and had a false sense of greatness. The few times they went to tournaments and got stuck in a top division with some of the team I mentioned-- they got their asses handed to them. I recall a Columbia tournament where we lost big in every game---yet had sailed through the CCL season with 7-0, 11-2, etc. wins.

That has been my experience take it or leave it.

[Anonymous]

^^^
This is pretty funny. I stopped reading after "great random teams in NCSL or ODSL". There are zero great teams in ODSL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the really good kids don't play for their high schools- they keep playing for the good clubs.

I assumed that this was the case. And further that clubs might not even allow kids to do high school soccer. I figured that the level of high school soccer would generally be beneath that of the travel clubs. Am I totally off here?

if they are playing for one of the clubs- the contract says they can't play for their high school soocer team (they can play other high school sports). I am sure there are some really competitive high school teams but they do not have players who are on a travel team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^
This is pretty funny. I stopped reading after "great random teams in NCSL or ODSL". There are zero great teams in ODSL.

I don't know about great, but don't overlook the ODSL teams that can't meet NCSL requirements (and thus can't join NCSL) yet have talented rosters. In most cases it's a team that a parent coaches because his son or daughter just happens to be that age, and the players are skilled because they've grown up with the game in family settings. Great? Probably not, but they'll can certainly blow teams out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^
This is pretty funny. I stopped reading after "great random teams in NCSL or ODSL". There are zero great teams in ODSL.

I don't know about great, but don't overlook the ODSL teams that can't meet NCSL requirements (and thus can't join NCSL) yet have talented rosters. In most cases it's a team that a parent coaches because his son or daughter just happens to be that age, and the players are skilled because they've grown up with the game in family settings. Great? Probably not, but they'll can certainly blow teams out.

Agree to an extent. Let's say it more clearly: ODSL has some ass-kicking teams of poor Hispanic kids being coached by their crazy dads. Greatness isn't out of reach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^
This is pretty funny. I stopped reading after "great random teams in NCSL or ODSL". There are zero great teams in ODSL.

I don't know about great, but don't overlook the ODSL teams that can't meet NCSL requirements (and thus can't join NCSL) yet have talented rosters. In most cases it's a team that a parent coaches because his son or daughter just happens to be that age, and the players are skilled because they've grown up with the game in family settings. Great? Probably not, but they'll can certainly blow teams out.

The blowouts are more related to the variance in quality of the other teams in ODSL. There are many poor ODSL teams that go a long ways to making other teams look great by comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We are in our first few weeks of travel soccer so please forgive my ignorance. We joined a CCL club (made the most sense because of our location), is there something wrong with CCL?

Your kid may not even be playing CCL if he isn't on the first team. If he's on the second team, NCSL provides a better playing experience as there is promotion/relegation goals that you just can't put in through CCL since CCL and CCLII will always be that way. By the way, CCL is Club Champions LEAGUE and the only part that matters is the last one. For the most the type of training and development your child experiences will depend on the coach/trainer. That is what you should focus on.

I believe in U9 and U10, the #1 and #2 teams play in CCL. The third team plays in CCLII. But at U11 and up, the top team plays in CCL and the 2nd team plays in CCLII - 3rd team (at least in Arlington) is in NCSL. Granted, once kids get into DA - boys at U12 and Girls at U14, the CCL may not be the top league since the former #1 team on CCL is now a DA team, so the 2nd Team becomes the top CCL team.

CCL is supposed to be the biggest leagues and their top teams - as I understand it, was formed so teams didn't have to travel as far for real competition since there are many good teams in the DMV area. On a club level, that makes sense. But there will always be some great random teams in NCSL or ODSL that CCL teams may never face who would provide some real competition. The Top teams in CCL are all generally very good, but as a dad of a CCL player, I'd love to see more opportunities to play some of those other great teams that are not CCL based.

I found CCL and CCL2 offered ZERO competition for my boys at the U9-U12 ages. There were only 2 strong teams tops and we constantly played the same teams.

NCSL has a lot more variety and I find it to be much more competitive in the younger years. The teams are from all over and are all sizes. As a VA team we played many very, very strong Maryland teams and many small Clubs that were outstanding but not well-known.

In fact, my kids teams in CCL were always on the winning side of blowouts and had a false sense of greatness. The few times they went to tournaments and got stuck in a top division with some of the team I mentioned-- they got their asses handed to them. I recall a Columbia tournament where we lost big in every game---yet had sailed through the CCL season with 7-0, 11-2, etc. wins.

That has been my experience take it or leave it.

This. And, from talking to neighbors with U9 and U10 boys, it is still the same lack of competition in ccl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We are in our first few weeks of travel soccer so please forgive my ignorance. We joined a CCL club (made the most sense because of our location), is there something wrong with CCL?

Your kid may not even be playing CCL if he isn't on the first team. If he's on the second team, NCSL provides a better playing experience as there is promotion/relegation goals that you just can't put in through CCL since CCL and CCLII will always be that way. By the way, CCL is Club Champions LEAGUE and the only part that matters is the last one. For the most the type of training and development your child experiences will depend on the coach/trainer. That is what you should focus on.

I believe in U9 and U10, the #1 and #2 teams play in CCL. The third team plays in CCLII. But at U11 and up, the top team plays in CCL and the 2nd team plays in CCLII - 3rd team (at least in Arlington) is in NCSL. Granted, once kids get into DA - boys at U12 and Girls at U14, the CCL may not be the top league since the former #1 team on CCL is now a DA team, so the 2nd Team becomes the top CCL team.

CCL is supposed to be the biggest leagues and their top teams - as I understand it, was formed so teams didn't have to travel as far for real competition since there are many good teams in the DMV area. On a club level, that makes sense. But there will always be some great random teams in NCSL or ODSL that CCL teams may never face who would provide some real competition. The Top teams in CCL are all generally very good, but as a dad of a CCL player, I'd love to see more opportunities to play some of those other great teams that are not CCL based.

I found CCL and CCL2 offered ZERO competition for my boys at the U9-U12 ages. There were only 2 strong teams tops and we constantly played the same teams.

NCSL has a lot more variety and I find it to be much more competitive in the younger years. The teams are from all over and are all sizes. As a VA team we played many very, very strong Maryland teams and many small Clubs that were outstanding but not well-known.

In fact, my kids teams in CCL were always on the winning side of blowouts and had a false sense of greatness. The few times they went to tournaments and got stuck in a top division with some of the team I mentioned-- they got their asses handed to them. I recall a Columbia tournament where we lost big in every game---yet had sailed through the CCL season with 7-0, 11-2, etc. wins.

That has been my experience take it or leave it.

This. And, from talking to neighbors with U9 and U10 boys, it is still the same lack of competition in ccl.

Gee, your kids must really be the Bees Knees at 9 and 10 to face no competition week after week.

[Anonymous]

^^you obviously misunderstood the post. The poster states the opposite "false sense of greatness" and "got their asses handed to them" outside of CCL.

Try to keep up. I know many parents that want their kids to lose and learn vs win all of the time. Also, a lot of these "winners" are doing it by purely physical means and not playing proper soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^
This is pretty funny. I stopped reading after "great random teams in NCSL or ODSL". There are zero great teams in ODSL.

I don't know about great, but don't overlook the ODSL teams that can't meet NCSL requirements (and thus can't join NCSL) yet have talented rosters. In most cases it's a team that a parent coaches because his son or daughter just happens to be that age, and the players are skilled because they've grown up with the game in family settings. Great? Probably not, but they'll can certainly blow teams out.

Agree to an extent. Let's say it more clearly: ODSL has some ass-kicking teams of poor Hispanic kids being coached by their crazy dads. Greatness isn't out of reach.

Most ignorant statement of all ignorant statements. Congrats

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^you obviously misunderstood the post. The poster states the opposite "false sense of greatness" and "got their asses handed to them" outside of CCL.

Try to keep up. I know many parents that want their kids to lose and learn vs win all of the time. Also, a lot of these "winners" are doing it by purely physical means and not playing proper soccer.

I agree. The only team I have seen dominating U-little CCL games the last few years was Arlington, mostly owing to their kick-and-run approach and athleticism.