Reply to Boys 2008 VA state rankings- lots of changes

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]That Arlington 2008 team is definitely an anomaly for the full Arlington ECNL program.  They lost 1-7 to VDA 2008, and, looking at the other Arlington teams, you do not see any results like that against any other ECNL team.  [/quote]

Actually there are lots of results like that.  It's just that it's usually Arlington dishing it out rather than being the recipient :-).[/quote]

That was kind of an outlier for that team. They've lost to VDA in other matches last Fall, but a much closer scoreline and even those loses were much closer matches than the scorelines suggested (i.e. late goals / blooper goals).

One note about the 2008 team is that they don't have a lot of depth. I think the roster is barely 14 kids and that is with some guest players from the Red side, sometimes playing league games with only 1 or 2 subs, so they often tire out against teams that can sub in 5 or 6 fresh legs late in the game. [/quote]

Let's see what happens next year.  A new coach and one or two new players might be all that is needed to make a big improvement.  The 2005 and 2006 teams went from losing seasons under one coach (now departed) two years ago to winning almost every game this season.  The improvement in the 2006 team was almost immediate after the coaching change; it took a little longer for the 2005 team as they needed to attract a couple of key players as well as improve the coaching.[/quote]

In describing these “improvements” in record, you are comparing wins against BRYC, Loudoun and McLean this year with competition last year against dcu and Bethesda. I would be very surprised if the ex-DA teams did not improve their records dramatically this year. I don’t think coaching has much to do with it. Also, it might not have hurt that a bunch of rising U14s could not go to DCU after the DCU transition to U15 as youngest team.  We will see what happens but don’t pin your hopes on magical coaching or dramatic improvements in recruitment. You can always switch leagues again if worse comes to worst. [/quote]

Not really.  Firstly the DCU thing is a non-issue.  That affected 2007 age group and below.

The 2006 team improved from a losing record in 2018-2019 to something like 9-2-2 last year finishing ahead of DCU [b]while still in the DA pre-covid[/b].

The situation with the 2005 team is harder to judge for the reason you note.  But they certainly improved during 2019/20 while still in the DA as a result of improved coaching but I believe they improvement has accelerated this year with the couple of key players I mentioned above.  I'm making that judgment based on the way they are playing, not just results - and I'm discounting the games against weaker opposition.  I agree that games against BRYC in particular indicate nothing useful.  Loudoun and McLean are both reasonably athletic and well organized defensively so provide an environment where it is possible to at least judge how well the team is playing.  In any event, even if you throw out all those games, they are playing really well and beating ex DA teams handily in showcases and scrimmages as well.  For example NCFC was in the DA last year with a 16-6-4 record finishing ahead of Atlanta in its division.  This year it is in ECNL in a division with lots of ex DA teams which it has continued to beat.  Arlington just beat them 4-1 in the Jeff Cup.  They also just beat DCU 4-2 in a scrimmage where Arlington was clearly the better team.  They've beaten Bethesda twice in a scrimmage and a showcase.  All in all against teams which are either currently in MLS Next, or were in DA last year, they are currently 6-1-2 with the one loss coming in the first pre-season scrimmage against Baltimore.  And I know that the coach, the parents, and the kids themselves all believe they are much better team than they were last year.  And, even though some wins have come against weaker opposition - to go from September to April with only one loss including all tournaments, showcases and scrimmages is pretty impressive.  I do not believe the team would have been able to achieve that last year.

It's also worth noting that the DA didn't deliver universally strong opposition.  More than one DA club was no better than a typical ECNL club.[/quote]

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