Reply to MLSNext Pro League announced

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[quote=Anonymous]To bring this thread back to the topic, which is actually kind of interesting... This new MLS "reserve" league (they don't want to call it that, but it's basically accurate) solves a problem for both MLS teams and the USL. MLS teams, like top division pro teams in the rest of the world, need a "second team". They need a mezzanine between their youth academy and their first team; they need a place to play younger players with first team contracts who can't get gametime; and they occasionally need a place for older first team players to get time after injury. The USL (including the majority of teams, which are independently-owned, and trying to actually win for its own sake) doesn't want the USL to be the place for all that. So they limit how many academy players can play, for example.

This new league decouples these two missions -- a second division that is a legit competition in its own right; and a reserve team league for the first division clubs.

This is actually pretty interesting if you are a legit pro prospect from an MLS academy. But that's only a handful of players per year in a market like DC. They will also probably hold actual tryouts and sign some players to "3rd division" contracts (i.e. not first team contracts), but these will be low-$ and one-year. So it's maybe a new way for players to become a "pro" -- maybe some non-college and some post-college.

But much of this thread has been taken up debating MLS Next vs ECNL and what this new league means in that context. The short answer is: not very much. As much as MLS has pitched this as a stepping stone between MLS Next and MLS first teams, it's really a stepping stone between MLS ACADEMIES and MLS first teams -- not the non-MLS clubs that are in the MLS Next league and occasionally play against MLS academy teams. If you are a youth player who wants to be a pro, the best route in the US is through MLS academies. And you can be recruited to an MLS academy from an MLS Next team or an ECNL team. But you need to be one of the best dozen players in your age group in the metro area, more or less. If you are, by U14 or so, people know who you are. Now, some MLS academies do a better job than others identifying the right dozen players and recruiting them. But the ones they miss aren't because they played ECNL instead of MLS Next.[/quote]

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