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[quote=Anonymous][quote=RantingSoccerDad]

Thanks for the info.

I would expect MLS Next to be better in future years. This is not a good year to organize a national youth competition on short notice. [/quote]

Yes indeed.

[quote]
I'm actually working on a club directory project that will include a comparison of MLS and ECNL, along with GA and ECNL. On the boys side, I'd say it's about 50-50. For girls, ECNL is clearly stronger.[/quote]

Agree on the girls side, although locally FCV and Arlington are both on a par with the ECNL clubs.

On the boys side, the MLS clubs themselves basically guarantee that the overall level of competition is higher in MLS Next, but as a platform it's struggling to deliver a reliable weekly soccer game.  As you suggest, this should improve next year.  And ECNL is definitely stronger than it was before although this varies geograhically.  For example, north of DC few teams left DA to join ECNL:  Bethesda, Baltimore, PDA, PA Classics, Lehigh Valley, FC Delco, Cedar Stars all stayed with MLS Next.  I suspect this had to do with how well the local MLS team was able to articulate its own plans and give the surrounding clubs a good sense that it would support them.  Unsurprisingly DC United failed to convince anyone that it had a clue what it was doing, so Richmond, VDA and Arlington left.  Quite a few clubs moved to ECNL in the Carolinas, and in Georgia Atlanta United itself joined ECNL (although it is also in MLS Next - not quite sure how that works), so the mid Atlantic and South East ECNL regions got significantly stronger.

Also worth noting that a few weeks ago there were rumors DC United were going to try and play their U16 boys in ECNL although that seems to have gone nowhere.

[quote] (And it's really weird that MLS threw its weight behind the GA. Why?)[/quote]

I haven't counted, but I suspect that a disproportionate number of the ex-DA clubs now in MLS Next had their girls teams in DA as well, and they are now in GA.  These clubs need a platform for their girls, and it appears that the MLS has concluded that their half baked idea for an MLS-only league won't work and are probably realizing that they actually need MLS Next to be successful and those clubs to thrive.  Therefore they need to make sure that those clubs have a solid girls platform as well - otherwise they might face a steady trickle of further defections to ECNL.  This is pure speculation on my part - I have no inside knowledge whatsoever - but it makes sense to me :-).[/quote]

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