Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And U.S. Club Soccer has indeed announced a State Cup for Virginia:

FALL 2017 - BOYS & GIRLS 15U-18/19U
The 2017 Virginia State Cup Championship, the inaugural state tournament in Virginia open to 15-U through 19-U boys and girls teams, will be held this fall in LOCATION(S) or CITY(CITIES)

Well, that's good.

http://www.vapremierleague.com/statecup

There are too many of these things...my head starts to hurt just thinking about president's cup, state cup....then you end up with 2-3 national champions. watered down.

Agree, traditional State Cup is already watered down with the exclusion of ECNL and DA teams. There is no real reason or need for another competing tournament unless US Club soccer has found a way to improve the format and include non NPL teams.

State Cup in general is rather pointless other than the opportunity to play against teams never otherwise seen but if this is just for NPL then it defeats the point of both "State Cup" and league play.

Talk about tempest in a teacup!

I'm not for the alphabet soup leagues scenario, but US Club Soccer having it's own state cup shouldn't be confusing for anybody. Each organization is attempting to make $$$ off the various levels of competition, and since the price is lower than US Youth Soccer(USYS) to enter, they are trying to compete in price even though the same NPL VA teams will be facing each other. The competition will allow other teams to join, but most likely those other teams will have to pay a separate fee to register their players with US Club Soccer if they don't already play for a big club. For girls, it would make sense to exclude ECNL, for boys it would make sense to exclude DA, those teams have different goals in mind for their players and it would completely unjust for those teams to enter into a tournament that is suited to pit team against, not necessarily club vs. club. I like the VYSA State Cup format(as oppose to this new US Club Soccer) because it allows all teams that want higher level of competition but don't want to join EDP or can't join NPL/CCL due to it's club status to attain it by going against other clubs 1st teams or their highly competitive 2nd teams(for DA clubs).

With the best teams (ECNL & DA) not involved, none of it means anything anymore, and that's a good thing.

I've seen so many terrible coaches over the years who built their resumes - and recruiting pitch - based on how many state cups "they" won. Never mind that they often played defensive, safety-first, take-no-chances, ugly soccer based on direct play and set piece proficiency, all of which will in fact help you win knock-out tournament games but does practically nothing for player development. But never mind all that, they won trophies so therefore they must be good, so year after year the best players kept flocking to them, winning them more state-cups, further bolstering their BS credentials ....

At this point state cup is just another tournament with a different format. There might as well be 2 or more of them, just like having 2 or more "elite" tournaments on the same weekend.

[Anonymous]

Any feedback on CMSSL ? TIA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And U.S. Club Soccer has indeed announced a State Cup for Virginia:

FALL 2017 - BOYS & GIRLS 15U-18/19U
The 2017 Virginia State Cup Championship, the inaugural state tournament in Virginia open to 15-U through 19-U boys and girls teams, will be held this fall in LOCATION(S) or CITY(CITIES)

Well, that's good.

http://www.vapremierleague.com/statecup

There are too many of these things...my head starts to hurt just thinking about president's cup, state cup....then you end up with 2-3 national champions. watered down.

Agree, traditional State Cup is already watered down with the exclusion of ECNL and DA teams. There is no real reason or need for another competing tournament unless US Club soccer has found a way to improve the format and include non NPL teams.

State Cup in general is rather pointless other than the opportunity to play against teams never otherwise seen but if this is just for NPL then it defeats the point of both "State Cup" and league play.

Talk about tempest in a teacup!

I'm not for the alphabet soup leagues scenario, but US Club Soccer having it's own state cup shouldn't be confusing for anybody. Each organization is attempting to make $$$ off the various levels of competition, and since the price is lower than US Youth Soccer(USYS) to enter, they are trying to compete in price even though the same NPL VA teams will be facing each other. The competition will allow other teams to join, but most likely those other teams will have to pay a separate fee to register their players with US Club Soccer if they don't already play for a big club. For girls, it would make sense to exclude ECNL, for boys it would make sense to exclude DA, those teams have different goals in mind for their players and it would completely unjust for those teams to enter into a tournament that is suited to pit team against, not necessarily club vs. club. I like the VYSA State Cup format(as oppose to this new US Club Soccer) because it allows all teams that want higher level of competition but don't want to join EDP or can't join NPL/CCL due to it's club status to attain it by going against other clubs 1st teams or their highly competitive 2nd teams(for DA clubs).

With the best teams (ECNL & DA) not involved, none of it means anything anymore, and that's a good thing.

I've seen so many terrible coaches over the years who built their resumes - and recruiting pitch - based on how many state cups "they" won. Never mind that they often played defensive, safety-first, take-no-chances, ugly soccer based on direct play and set piece proficiency, all of which will in fact help you win knock-out tournament games but does practically nothing for player development. But never mind all that, they won trophies so therefore they must be good, so year after year the best players kept flocking to them, winning them more state-cups, further bolstering their BS credentials ....

At this point state cup is just another tournament with a different format. There might as well be 2 or more of them, just like having 2 or more "elite" tournaments on the same weekend.

So VYSA State Cup will include CCL teams and NCSL teams, the NPL/VPL state cup will include all the VPL teams, those two sets of teams will never play each other (except in scrimmages), and none of them will play any of the ECNL or DA teams. So yeah, the notion of a "state champion" has become meaningless. As has the notion of the "national championship," given that each of these different state competitions feed into different 'national championship' series. Bottom line: if your kid has soccer ambitions beyond high school, get him or her onto a DA or ECNL team immediately, because high school soccer is poor quality and all the other clubs are getting lost in this meaningless mess.

[Anonymous]

^^ with DA pushed back to younger and younger ages and only a few locations---it's unrealistic that people are going to drive their 10-year olds 4-nights per week in 1-hour long rush hour traffic.

DA isn't the answer either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And U.S. Club Soccer has indeed announced a State Cup for Virginia:

FALL 2017 - BOYS & GIRLS 15U-18/19U
The 2017 Virginia State Cup Championship, the inaugural state tournament in Virginia open to 15-U through 19-U boys and girls teams, will be held this fall in LOCATION(S) or CITY(CITIES)

Well, that's good.

http://www.vapremierleague.com/statecup

There are too many of these things...my head starts to hurt just thinking about president's cup, state cup....then you end up with 2-3 national champions. watered down.

Agree, traditional State Cup is already watered down with the exclusion of ECNL and DA teams. There is no real reason or need for another competing tournament unless US Club soccer has found a way to improve the format and include non NPL teams.

State Cup in general is rather pointless other than the opportunity to play against teams never otherwise seen but if this is just for NPL then it defeats the point of both "State Cup" and league play.

Talk about tempest in a teacup!

I'm not for the alphabet soup leagues scenario, but US Club Soccer having it's own state cup shouldn't be confusing for anybody. Each organization is attempting to make $$$ off the various levels of competition, and since the price is lower than US Youth Soccer(USYS) to enter, they are trying to compete in price even though the same NPL VA teams will be facing each other. The competition will allow other teams to join, but most likely those other teams will have to pay a separate fee to register their players with US Club Soccer if they don't already play for a big club. For girls, it would make sense to exclude ECNL, for boys it would make sense to exclude DA, those teams have different goals in mind for their players and it would completely unjust for those teams to enter into a tournament that is suited to pit team against, not necessarily club vs. club. I like the VYSA State Cup format(as oppose to this new US Club Soccer) because it allows all teams that want higher level of competition but don't want to join EDP or can't join NPL/CCL due to it's club status to attain it by going against other clubs 1st teams or their highly competitive 2nd teams(for DA clubs).

With the best teams (ECNL & DA) not involved, none of it means anything anymore, and that's a good thing.

I've seen so many terrible coaches over the years who built their resumes - and recruiting pitch - based on how many state cups "they" won. Never mind that they often played defensive, safety-first, take-no-chances, ugly soccer based on direct play and set piece proficiency, all of which will in fact help you win knock-out tournament games but does practically nothing for player development. But never mind all that, they won trophies so therefore they must be good, so year after year the best players kept flocking to them, winning them more state-cups, further bolstering their BS credentials ....

At this point state cup is just another tournament with a different format. There might as well be 2 or more of them, just like having 2 or more "elite" tournaments on the same weekend.

So VYSA State Cup will include CCL teams and NCSL teams, the NPL/VPL state cup will include all the VPL teams, those two sets of teams will never play each other (except in scrimmages), and none of them will play any of the ECNL or DA teams. So yeah, the notion of a "state champion" has become meaningless. As has the notion of the "national championship," given that each of these different state competitions feed into different 'national championship' series. Bottom line: if your kid has soccer ambitions beyond high school, get him or her onto a DA or ECNL team immediately, because high school soccer is poor quality and all the other clubs are getting lost in this meaningless mess.

How many kids in this area actually play college soccer, anyway?

I keep hearing how this is such a great area for talent, and then I hardly ever see any players signing to play in college, much less making the pros.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ with DA pushed back to younger and younger ages and only a few locations---it's unrealistic that people are going to drive their 10-year olds 4-nights per week in 1-hour long rush hour traffic.

DA isn't the answer either.

Boys DA only goes back to U12 and as far as NoVA goes the clubs are well dispersed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And U.S. Club Soccer has indeed announced a State Cup for Virginia:

FALL 2017 - BOYS & GIRLS 15U-18/19U
The 2017 Virginia State Cup Championship, the inaugural state tournament in Virginia open to 15-U through 19-U boys and girls teams, will be held this fall in LOCATION(S) or CITY(CITIES)

Well, that's good.

http://www.vapremierleague.com/statecup

There are too many of these things...my head starts to hurt just thinking about president's cup, state cup....then you end up with 2-3 national champions. watered down.

Agree, traditional State Cup is already watered down with the exclusion of ECNL and DA teams. There is no real reason or need for another competing tournament unless US Club soccer has found a way to improve the format and include non NPL teams.

State Cup in general is rather pointless other than the opportunity to play against teams never otherwise seen but if this is just for NPL then it defeats the point of both "State Cup" and league play.

Talk about tempest in a teacup!

I'm not for the alphabet soup leagues scenario, but US Club Soccer having it's own state cup shouldn't be confusing for anybody. Each organization is attempting to make $$$ off the various levels of competition, and since the price is lower than US Youth Soccer(USYS) to enter, they are trying to compete in price even though the same NPL VA teams will be facing each other. The competition will allow other teams to join, but most likely those other teams will have to pay a separate fee to register their players with US Club Soccer if they don't already play for a big club. For girls, it would make sense to exclude ECNL, for boys it would make sense to exclude DA, those teams have different goals in mind for their players and it would completely unjust for those teams to enter into a tournament that is suited to pit team against, not necessarily club vs. club. I like the VYSA State Cup format(as oppose to this new US Club Soccer) because it allows all teams that want higher level of competition but don't want to join EDP or can't join NPL/CCL due to it's club status to attain it by going against other clubs 1st teams or their highly competitive 2nd teams(for DA clubs).

With the best teams (ECNL & DA) not involved, none of it means anything anymore, and that's a good thing.

I've seen so many terrible coaches over the years who built their resumes - and recruiting pitch - based on how many state cups "they" won. Never mind that they often played defensive, safety-first, take-no-chances, ugly soccer based on direct play and set piece proficiency, all of which will in fact help you win knock-out tournament games but does practically nothing for player development. But never mind all that, they won trophies so therefore they must be good, so year after year the best players kept flocking to them, winning them more state-cups, further bolstering their BS credentials ....

At this point state cup is just another tournament with a different format. There might as well be 2 or more of them, just like having 2 or more "elite" tournaments on the same weekend.

So VYSA State Cup will include CCL teams and NCSL teams, the NPL/VPL state cup will include all the VPL teams, those two sets of teams will never play each other (except in scrimmages), and none of them will play any of the ECNL or DA teams. So yeah, the notion of a "state champion" has become meaningless. As has the notion of the "national championship," given that each of these different state competitions feed into different 'national championship' series. Bottom line: if your kid has soccer ambitions beyond high school, get him or her onto a DA or ECNL team immediately, because high school soccer is poor quality and all the other clubs are getting lost in this meaningless mess.

I'm not sure why this is a big deal. CCL, VPL, EDP, and NCSL players are not really on a college track for the most part. For this massive group of players, the litany of leagues, tournaments, and now various flavors of state cup are all about providing various forms of competition for these players..... and obviously they also provide a pretty significant revenue opportunity for the various clubs and people involved. This is just another instance of US Soccer trying to gain more control over their own soccer environment. This is a natural progression. Who cares if you can't tell who the champion of Virginia really is... its meaningless anyway since the top girls won't be involved. Its just a means of getting more girls to continue to enjoy the game in a competitive environment and experience what its like to win something. I don't think anyone is deluding themselves that winning any given tournament or state cup in any bracket means they are on a fast track to soccer fame. Bring it on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ with DA pushed back to younger and younger ages and only a few locations---it's unrealistic that people are going to drive their 10-year olds 4-nights per week in 1-hour long rush hour traffic.

DA isn't the answer either.

Boys DA only goes back to U12 and as far as NoVA goes the clubs are well dispersed.

Which is 10 and 11-year olds...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And U.S. Club Soccer has indeed announced a State Cup for Virginia:

FALL 2017 - BOYS & GIRLS 15U-18/19U
The 2017 Virginia State Cup Championship, the inaugural state tournament in Virginia open to 15-U through 19-U boys and girls teams, will be held this fall in LOCATION(S) or CITY(CITIES)

Well, that's good.

http://www.vapremierleague.com/statecup

There are too many of these things...my head starts to hurt just thinking about president's cup, state cup....then you end up with 2-3 national champions. watered down.

Agree, traditional State Cup is already watered down with the exclusion of ECNL and DA teams. There is no real reason or need for another competing tournament unless US Club soccer has found a way to improve the format and include non NPL teams.

State Cup in general is rather pointless other than the opportunity to play against teams never otherwise seen but if this is just for NPL then it defeats the point of both "State Cup" and league play.

Talk about tempest in a teacup!

I'm not for the alphabet soup leagues scenario, but US Club Soccer having it's own state cup shouldn't be confusing for anybody. Each organization is attempting to make $$$ off the various levels of competition, and since the price is lower than US Youth Soccer(USYS) to enter, they are trying to compete in price even though the same NPL VA teams will be facing each other. The competition will allow other teams to join, but most likely those other teams will have to pay a separate fee to register their players with US Club Soccer if they don't already play for a big club. For girls, it would make sense to exclude ECNL, for boys it would make sense to exclude DA, those teams have different goals in mind for their players and it would completely unjust for those teams to enter into a tournament that is suited to pit team against, not necessarily club vs. club. I like the VYSA State Cup format(as oppose to this new US Club Soccer) because it allows all teams that want higher level of competition but don't want to join EDP or can't join NPL/CCL due to it's club status to attain it by going against other clubs 1st teams or their highly competitive 2nd teams(for DA clubs).

With the best teams (ECNL & DA) not involved, none of it means anything anymore, and that's a good thing.

I've seen so many terrible coaches over the years who built their resumes - and recruiting pitch - based on how many state cups "they" won. Never mind that they often played defensive, safety-first, take-no-chances, ugly soccer based on direct play and set piece proficiency, all of which will in fact help you win knock-out tournament games but does practically nothing for player development. But never mind all that, they won trophies so therefore they must be good, so year after year the best players kept flocking to them, winning them more state-cups, further bolstering their BS credentials ....

At this point state cup is just another tournament with a different format. There might as well be 2 or more of them, just like having 2 or more "elite" tournaments on the same weekend.

So VYSA State Cup will include CCL teams and NCSL teams, the NPL/VPL state cup will include all the VPL teams, those two sets of teams will never play each other (except in scrimmages), and none of them will play any of the ECNL or DA teams. So yeah, the notion of a "state champion" has become meaningless. As has the notion of the "national championship," given that each of these different state competitions feed into different 'national championship' series. Bottom line: if your kid has soccer ambitions beyond high school, get him or her onto a DA or ECNL team immediately, because high school soccer is poor quality and all the other clubs are getting lost in this meaningless mess.

I'm not sure why this is a big deal. CCL, VPL, EDP, and NCSL players are not really on a college track for the most part. For this massive group of players, the litany of leagues, tournaments, and now various flavors of state cup are all about providing various forms of competition for these players..... and obviously they also provide a pretty significant revenue opportunity for the various clubs and people involved. This is just another instance of US Soccer trying to gain more control over their own soccer environment. This is a natural progression. Who cares if you can't tell who the champion of Virginia really is... its meaningless anyway since the top girls won't be involved. Its just a means of getting more girls to continue to enjoy the game in a competitive environment and experience what its like to win something. I don't think anyone is deluding themselves that winning any given tournament or state cup in any bracket means they are on a fast track to soccer fame. Bring it on.

Then you haven't heard the parents talk...

[Anonymous]

I think people are under estimating the start of Boys ECNL.

6 of the 10 teams that made it to the USYS national championship finals Came from Boys ECNL soccer clubs.

Here is the list of member clubs. If you know soccer in this country you can't help but be impressed by all the massive clubs that have jumped in for its inaugural season.

http://www.boysecnl.com/member-clubs/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ with DA pushed back to younger and younger ages and only a few locations---it's unrealistic that people are going to drive their 10-year olds 4-nights per week in 1-hour long rush hour traffic.

DA isn't the answer either.

Boys DA only goes back to U12 and as far as NoVA goes the clubs are well dispersed.

Which is 10 and 11-year olds...

Umm no, they would be 11 and 12 year olds. A 10 year old would be considered a playup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ with DA pushed back to younger and younger ages and only a few locations---it's unrealistic that people are going to drive their 10-year olds 4-nights per week in 1-hour long rush hour traffic.

DA isn't the answer either.

Boys DA only goes back to U12 and as far as NoVA goes the clubs are well dispersed.

Which is 10 and 11-year olds...

Umm no, they would be 11 and 12 year olds. A 10 year old would be considered a playup.

There are still four months left in the year, so there are a lot of 2006s who are still 10 (including mine). DA practices are limited to 3x a week. We have a 15 minute drive to our training ground. Just wanted to provide some facts, which sometimes are lacking on this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ with DA pushed back to younger and younger ages and only a few locations---it's unrealistic that people are going to drive their 10-year olds 4-nights per week in 1-hour long rush hour traffic.

DA isn't the answer either.

Boys DA only goes back to U12 and as far as NoVA goes the clubs are well dispersed.

Which is 10 and 11-year olds...

Umm no, they would be 11 and 12 year olds. A 10 year old would be considered a playup.

There are still four months left in the year, so there are a lot of 2006s who are still 10 (including mine). DA practices are limited to 3x a week. We have a 15 minute drive to our training ground. Just wanted to provide some facts, which sometimes are lacking on this board.

It's great you have only a 15 minute drive. For our 11-year old (u13), the closest is a 50-minute drive when there is no traffic (almost never).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ with DA pushed back to younger and younger ages and only a few locations---it's unrealistic that people are going to drive their 10-year olds 4-nights per week in 1-hour long rush hour traffic.

DA isn't the answer either.

Boys DA only goes back to U12 and as far as NoVA goes the clubs are well dispersed.

Which is 10 and 11-year olds...

Umm no, they would be 11 and 12 year olds. A 10 year old would be considered a playup.

There are still four months left in the year, so there are a lot of 2006s who are still 10 (including mine).[b] DA practices are limited to 3x a week. We have a 15 minute drive to our training ground. Just wanted to provide some facts, which sometimes are lacking on this board.

It's great you have only a 15 minute drive. For our 11-year old (u13), the closest is a 50-minute drive when there is no traffic (almost never).

I think a lot of people have grasped the birth change. I find them most often to be the ones running the programs. They keep thinking of U13s as at least 12, etc. I also have an 11-year old beginning U13 (and he will be 11 the entire fall season).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ with DA pushed back to younger and younger ages and only a few locations---it's unrealistic that people are going to drive their 10-year olds 4-nights per week in 1-hour long rush hour traffic.

DA isn't the answer either.

Boys DA only goes back to U12 and as far as NoVA goes the clubs are well dispersed.

Which is 10 and 11-year olds...

Umm no, they would be 11 and 12 year olds. A 10 year old would be considered a playup.

There are still four months left in the year, so there are a lot of 2006s who are still 10 (including mine). DA practices are limited to 3x a week. We have a 15 minute drive to our training ground. Just wanted to provide some facts, which sometimes are lacking on this board.

There are not a lot of Sept-Dec birthdays on a DA team. Sorry but it just isn't a problem that is truly that great. And here is the other thing, exercise your free fricking will. If any program is to much a strain then just don't do it. Your kid is 10 years old for crying out loud.