Reply to MLS Academy

Forum Index » Soccer

Reply to "MLS Academy"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The MLS League is only going to be U15 and U17.  U13, U14, U16 and U18 will likely play in ECNL.[/quote]
MLS academy parent here... This isn't entirely true, but has some truth to it. The MLS youth *league* will support U13, U14, U15, U16, U17 and U19. But MLS academies, specifically, will only be required to field teams at U15 and U17. And those teams--MLS academy U15 and U17--will likely play a disproportionate percentage of games against other MLS academy teams. This means:

-U15s and 17s from *non-MLS clubs* in the league will play each other more than they will play the MLS academies ("crossover games")
-MLS academies will play up their best U14 and U16 players, weakening those teams, if they offer them at all
-At U13, 14, 16 and 19, many MLS academies won't field teams...
-However, some will! By default, they will play in the same "MLS elite" league. But some MLS clubs are "joining" ECNL (see ATL and FC Dallas). My guess is that this is for these other age groups, and maybe only a subset of them where there aren't enough local clubs in the "MLS elite" league. They don't want to travel all over creation for ages other than U15 and U17.

So, if I were a local club, like Arlington or VDA, that was DA and signed up for ECNL, I'd probably stick with that decision for at least a year or two. There are tons of unknowns with this new MLS league, especially for non-MLS clubs. And, at least for this year, you are far more likely to get games in against teams within an hour or two drive--which ECNL has more of. Once things shake out and the virus is gone, I'll bet there is plenty of opportunity for top clubs to join later.[/quote]

Excellent reporting. Any word on what DCU is planning on doing regarding a potential move to Loudoun?[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics