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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=greypanther][quote=CleansheetDad][quote=westsidesoccer][quote=CleansheetDad][quote=westsidesoccer]

Thank you.  This is very interesting.  I am shocked to see almost no difference between ECNL and National PRO on the boys side relative to MLS Next.  Though not too surprised.  As a player parent, I don't see any point in discussing leagues across genders, or, more generally, across pretty diverse regions and all age groups.  The fact that ECNL offers top play for young women is completely irrelevant to my son.
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You may think it is irrelevant to your son that ECNL allows for top play for both girls and boys, but you would by wrong. Clubs must have both their boys and girls teams in the ECNL National league to be a member. This is one reason why Arlington is in ECNL and not in MLSNext. This allows ECNL to give a more sustainable model for clubs to market themselves and to make money. Boys and girls teams support each other. They allow clubs to pay coaches and give more scholarships to both sides. If you have a club that can only REALLY market itself for high level play to the boy segment of the population, then the club will need to have a large number of lower level teams with players that pay full amounts to support the MLSNext team expenses, along with the scholarships for that team. And I do feel sorry for those parents who have been sold on development for their children, when in fact all they are is a paying parent.

As a player parent, who has seen alphabet leagues rise and fall, or come and go (the old DA league comes to mind), I think MLSNext is just the old DA league with a new name. This affects the boys on the second teams when a league folds and then your club is trying to find a league to play in the next season. Many of these teams that are going into the National Academy League are currently in EDP, before that they were in CCL, and before that they were in NCLS. There really isn't much difference and ultimately, in a couple of years these same teams will be in another league so the MLSNext clubs can try to market themselves.

Go Luck to the teams that are joining the new league. Don't get too comfortable or buy anything with NAL on it as it will be obsolete in about 2 years time.[/quote]

Yes, well, I and many others have experience with the alphabet soup of leagues and league-chest-beating as well, and despite all of the dire predictions in 2020/2021 about how SYC, Achilles and Alexandria would never have anything beyond U-14, or how they would never be able to play MLS club academies, or how ECNL would ultimately prevail, I don't think the last three years have borne that out at all.  There is a talent gap and it continues to widen across the country.  That goal difference will continue to expand.  And kids will still go to SYC and Alexandria in droves at younger ages.  Can we just give the league crap a rest?

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I never said that SYC, Achilles and/or Alexandria would never be able to play any MLS clubs. Of course they would, could and do. There is lots of talent in the DC/Baltimore area. ECNL National and MLSNext clubs from this area are comparable in talent, are very good, are very competitive against clubs from outside this area, and will continue to be. Very similar talent on these level of teams.

What I'm trying to say, and maybe not doing a good job of it, is that I have heard several parents refer to MLSNext clubs forming 2nd MLSNext teams for SYC, Achilles and Alexandria, which they are not. These are the same second tier teams for SYC, Achilles and Alexandria that currently play in EDP. I have noticed that NAL did not say anything about MLSNext in their announcements. Overall, these are not MLSNext or ECNL National level players that will be in this league.  [/quote]

But there does seem to be a gap. At U13, edp starts at div 3.  Our mls next club second team performs at a much higher level than the teams in this edp division 3.  Where do they play? [/quote]

[b]Didn't an EDP U13 team just win the Maryland State Cup beating MLS Next and ECNL teams along the way?
Youth Development isn't about label[/b]s.[/quote]

Please show me the MLSNext teams in this bracket: https://system.gotsport.com/org_event/events/21516/schedules?group=176377  (I am not even sure if any are ECNL).

Kudos to Laurel, as it is hard to win any tournament of this nature.  You can only play who is on your schedule, but they had a pretty easy ride (on paper), beating FC Charles (bottom of EDP), FC Frederick (bottom of EDP), Bethesda's second team (EDP), and Go Premier (EDP second division).  So the answer to your question in bold above is "no, that didn't happen."

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