If you have had a decent experience and they are expecting your child to return next season, then telling them sooner would be the respectful thing to do.

SoccerRef wrote:

clt-dad wrote:

Now a club might not want to chase getting into MLS-Next that because its not profitable to have one highly selective boys team in a handful of age groups vs. boys and girls, national and regional, and all of the years experience ENCL brings to table.

MLS Next now has two tiers.
They just started the National Academy league, so most of the big clubs will now have two highly selective teams.

I would think most kids who don't make the MLS Next team would try for an ECNL club, before settling on their National Academy League. Not sure how competitive that league will actually be. If MLS could ever merge in the NWSL, then offer both boy and girls soccer, they would grow even faster. Women's pro soccer is a long time dumpster fire here though, so they might not want that risk.

There are different reasons for going ECNL over MLS Next. Logistically, keeping the boys and girls together under one umbrella makes things easier. Also, many clubs' philosophy of allowing high school play won't mesh with MLS Next. There are also fewer MLS Next clubs, so travel is more of an issue.

-Most Virginia ECNL clubs are a 7 month commitment (high school ages), unless you make the playoffs. Then you just practice a little before them in June, but the game schedule is mainly Sept thru beginning of March.
-ODP is good for kids not in ECNL or GA, but I really wouldn't bother with it if you have access to other offseason things like Futsal or indoor. Maybe private training, but not huge fan of that either. Depends on the coach.
-High School soccer won't give you much college visibility unless you win some big accolades like state player of the year or All American. I would still play it, but don't expect much traction from it.

ECNLDD wrote:We are staying with our club, but just curious who is moving, why, and from where to whom? Mostly just curious about ECNL and GA. Seem like there is a lot more movement this year.

Nobody has answered you or anyone else for a week, so I'll bite. We didn't move either. We looked at other ECNL clubs, but none of them offered us any money to play for them. Guess we're stuck paying again like we have for the past 9 years. One day little Jimmy will make the big time. One day.

You're not going to be able to be on two different clubs in same league at the same time. You may be able to jump to a new club though as long as they haven't submitted their rosters yet for state cup. More importantly, I would just use this spring to study up on available clubs in your area and find the right fit for your child. Since all the parents are invested, it sounds like the club really let you down.

The only people I would see caring about this are either MLS Next coaches who don't want their players getting two-footed buy some rec kid or parents whose kids are on the bubble of making varsity. Having some MLS Next kids on the HS team would probably help the overall aesthetic of the game. They might actually try to play soccer instead of the usual kick and run garbage that 95% of HS games devolve into.

There was a DCU scout at one of our ECNL games in the fall. Not sure who he was there to see, but they do come out it seems.

retiredref wrote:When a opponent is allowed to score the same goal twice in one match you have to look at the tactical approach and the management. Why were there no adjustments to the tactics to prevent from from scoring the same goal again? Even worse when considering the same play created a couple other chances just as good which were sent high or wide.

Spain, Belgium, Germany, Uraguay, and Denmark went out before the US or in the same round of 16. Those are all better teams that couldn't figure it out either. It's a tough tournament.

Shoutout to ECNL for running a nice tourney. Thanks for pivoting to alternate fields Sunday for the U15s, which still had good surfaces after the rain the previous day. The Friday night national selection game was a great watch. The crowd, literally on the field, watching the penalty shootout was awesome.

We played the Dutch straight up and lost. It's OK. I have no problem with the way USA played the game. We didn't park the bus at any point. USA dominated possession in the first half and were down 2-0 at that point. It just shows what we need to work on. We've never had a midfield before now. Yes you want to win, but I see great strides in this team. We have no bench. We have to use what we've got, but just a good midfield won't win you every game, especially when they have a clinical striker like Memphis. We don't have one of those. We have striker by committee, which doesn't cut it at this level.

America did not originate their style of play. They just happened to adopt it. Certain players on the American team are not suited to play that style including Pulisic, Musah, and Zimmerman. America also lacks any bench depth which is crucial to tournament play.

Shoutout to the Bethesda showcase event organizers for only having 2 refs per match at our games this past weekend. Made for awful officiating. I really hope we don't enter this tournament again.

The Wales manager delayed their practice time today, because 86F was too hot at 1PM. I scoffed at that, because August practices here are still in the 90s at 5:30PM with 85% more humidity.

My first response would be why the heck would you have committed to a VA team when your heart is in MD? You couldn't make "any" practices or games? Really, any? You didn't hold up your part of the bargain, so pay up and try to persuade your club (that you really didn't support) to help you get your son somewhere that he can play.