Reply to Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss Part II

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I find it comical that with three DA's and 2 ECNL's everyone is mediocre.. No one can compete with markets that have less competition.
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Again, idiotic statement on so many levels.

Who does your child play for? Let see if they can compete. Or...do you hide behind your anonymous states?
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I'm not the PP, but I think you totally missed the point.

It's a legit concern that having so many "elite" teams in one area will dilute the talent. If you put all the top players in this area on one team, it'd be awesome. Split them all up, and are they doomed to get blasted by Penn Fusion and PDA all the time?

But if you insist on knowing where everyone's child plays -- mine plays in the NCSL. He's a boy who'll never be close to ECNL or DA level.[/quote]

I didn't miss the point. I have heard it all before. How is it a "legit" concern to have so many "elite" teams in one area (A area of over 3 million people). Who is concerned? You? Your son play tier 5 NCSL. Why do you care? 
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I didn't say tier 5.

I care for two reasons:

1. As someone who sees soccer as much more than a mere vehicle for family vanity, I worry about player development.

2. I have these things called "friends." It's not all about me and my DS.[/quote]

Well then you just contradicted yourself. Because if you cared about development you would want more elite venues for children not less. You are worried more about scored than development.

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I disagree.  The more "elite" teams you have in a given area, the farther away from "elite" they will actually be.

The concern over talent dilution is not just about the match scores, it has to do with the training and playing environment the truly elite players are actually in.

The best get better when playing with and against the best, in matches but more importantly every day at training.   In the context of elite player development, the real question is how many of the best players in this area are comfortable, versus how many feel that they need to push themselves to their limit every day just to stay in the starting 11, or even on the team.  That type of competitive environment at training, day in and day out, lifts the overall level of intensity and focus for everyone.  If the top girls in our area are not in that environment, and top girls in PA and NJ are, then our top girls are not going to develop as well as theirs.

One explanation for that may be that the DA & ECNL clubs in this area have not been as successful in consolidating all of the top talent, and there are still a lot of elite players on non-DA/ECNL teams.  That is definitely a possibility, especially since this is the DA's 1st year so there is still a lot of uncertainty about it, and on top of that you at least one club charging $5000/year (the Spirit, but I've heard some of the ECNL clubs are comparable when all is said and done).

Another explanation is that this area just doesn't have the talent level to support that many truly elite level girls teams.

I don't think we'll really have the answer to that for another year or two, and at the rate things seem to be constantly changing in the youth soccer landscape these days, who knows what it will all look like by then?  [/quote]

The ability for NoVA to support five elite teams per age group I would agree with, but over time the talent will consolidate within the DA. There are reason why kids remained with ECNL and most of it is due to DA uncertainty within the first year. Older kids are not leaving their ECNL spot if they ar ein a good situation. Obviously ECNL kids did not jump from DA over to a ECNL club so there was no talent dilution there.

But there are kids at McLean who are likely on the fence in regards to next year and likely some BRYC kids as well. The cost for both ECNL and DA after all the nickle and dimed added costs will end up about the same. So parents will then have a choice where that money is better spent, ECNL or DA. ECNL may in a year or two prove to be to expensive for the quality of play.

ECNL expaned to U13 in hopes to get the kids in earlier and to keep them but what happens when DA matches that? Or, worse for ECNL, expands like the boys side and adds U12 with more clubs to reduced travel and costs while increasing the player pool at the same time? 
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