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soccerx3kidsss wrote:Stay far away from Mclean (VA UNION now) ECNL program. So-so-sooooo disorganized. Poor management at every level. Toxic teams and club as a whole. They make promises they have no intention of keeping. The coaching staff is like a mafia. You can tell weird shady crap is happening behind the scenes. We left mid-way through the year it was so bad and it was the best decision we ever made. Our player started loving the sport again. They love to brag and take credit for players they poached from other clubs but never actually developed. They just try and manufacture teams and will cut your player as soon as something they think better comes along. They have a small handful of coaches that are coaching a million teams at once. They will do as good of a job as you'd expect them to do when working 12 jobs at once. It's just SO disorganized. It's just not the environment you need at any age. Soccer should be fun. Find a place that's fun, where they play and learn, and where your coach cares about you on a deeper level than just knowing your first name. They really love boasting about how amazing they think are though. Makes me laugh.
Sounds like a bitter McLean parent who thought their kid was Ronaldo and didn't make a VA Union ECNL roster for next season. Hope people can read through that.
Another consideration you may want to consider is that Bethesda ECNL is part of the North Atlantic Conference and VA Union, Loudoun, Arlington are all part of the Mid-Atlantic Conference. Bethesda will do more traveling as there are only 3 ECNL clubs in the state of MD, the rest are in PA and NJ. The VA teams have to make trips out to NC and SC once a season but have 4 teams in Northern VA and Richmond United is 1 ½ - 2 hours away.
Bethesda is top in the area, looking at YSR they've had close games with SYC their last 4 match ups show a 0-3 loss, a 6-2 win, a 1-1 tie and a 2-0 win. They had their ID sessions in December so spots most likely are limited, but if your daughter is good, I'm sure they'll find a spot.
SYC, a notch below will make up the majority of the VA Union ECNL team's core as McLean is as someone else mentioned not as strong. The 2009 VA union team has a roster size of 16 so, not that large for 11v11 in my opinion. SYC is also the only team in this list that has been playing 11v11 in EDP's 2009 age group this fall.
Loudoun is also very good, but looks like OP has eliminated them so won't go into detail there.
Arlington's 2010's are weaker than their 09's and 11's and will need some outside players added to be competitive in ECNL next year. Their DOC also is leaving and was very good.
FCV should not even be a consideration, their 2010's have been beaten by Vienna, VSA and Arlington in ECNL-RL (they play as Villarreal). They'll also probably lose their best players to Loudoun ECNL next season.
BRYC's 09's had a GD last season of -56 I believe with 0 goals scored. The 2010 age group is also not very strong either, with a long list of losses and only wins against what appear to be 2nd and 3rd teams. Unless they merge with FCV or Vienna as has been mentioned in another thread which would make them stronger they should also not be considered.
Bethesda is top in the area, looking at YSR they've had close games with SYC their last 4 match ups show a 0-3 loss, a 6-2 win, a 1-1 tie and a 2-0 win. They had their ID sessions in December so spots most likely are limited, but if your daughter is good, I'm sure they'll find a spot.
SYC, a notch below will make up the majority of the VA Union ECNL team's core as McLean is as someone else mentioned not as strong. The 2009 VA union team has a roster size of 16 so, not that large for 11v11 in my opinion. SYC is also the only team in this list that has been playing 11v11 in EDP's 2009 age group this fall.
Loudoun is also very good, but looks like OP has eliminated them so won't go into detail there.
Arlington's 2010's are weaker than their 09's and 11's and will need some outside players added to be competitive in ECNL next year. Their DOC also is leaving and was very good.
FCV should not even be a consideration, their 2010's have been beaten by Vienna, VSA and Arlington in ECNL-RL (they play as Villarreal). They'll also probably lose their best players to Loudoun ECNL next season.
BRYC's 09's had a GD last season of -56 I believe with 0 goals scored. The 2010 age group is also not very strong either, with a long list of losses and only wins against what appear to be 2nd and 3rd teams. Unless they merge with FCV or Vienna as has been mentioned in another thread which would make them stronger they should also not be considered.