Losing team in a top league is a loser move, sorry disagree.

I’ve been involved with ECNL and GA teams for many years.

Rule of thumb for a new player not on roster is they must be better than top 5 or 6 players if roster is full. If offered, player than has to earn playing time/starting position.

As for the roster adjustment, the player who lost playing time did just that. What will happen is the very bottom player is offered RL. Maybe even bottom two. If they don’t want to move, they will just continue on to not see much playing time. Or they could just go to another club.

This is very similar to top leagues/teams in other sports. There are certainly outliers and poor ethics. I always like to point a finger at McLean/Union who always carry too many players instead of moving players around.

I am a coach who believes the best experience is game experience. I will always tell players to go where they get the most playing time against the best competition, even if it means being on a losing team in the top league. Anything else is just a club trying to make profit off of unsuspecting families.

+1

Anonymous wrote:If this is the case and my player is on the lower end of the team or lost the starting spot it makes me less likely to make a mid season jump. Also, I am paying for them to learn soccer not kick and run bootball down field so it’s. win win for everyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, coach here again. I asked this because I coach Girls RL and how the process is done is more of a black box to me. I wanted to get your parents perspective on how this works and how it's communicated to you.

The messaging that I get is that "we are looking for the best players no matter what".

You can have someone starting in midfield, and then out of nowhere, another player transfers into the club from Bethesda or somewhere else, and now the started becomes a sub.

Then the sub has to go play in RL because the player above them got bumped down.

Some ECNL rosters look so big that you could put a starting 11 of them on an RL roster, PLUS the existing RL roster already has 20+ so someone has to be sitting out and not playing. Clubs do not seem to want this to be widely now, but if an ECNL team has 25-30 and the RL team has 20-25, a lot of players have to be sitting and not playing.

Was just trying to get an idea of your experience as parents since I am in the dark about a lot of this.

If this is what's happening at your club it's not good. It sounds like you're running starters most of the game.

If you're playing and coaching a high level possession style offense and training all players the same and to the same level it makes the most sense to run 2 lines. Then midway through the half you switch lines. The reason this is important is because it forces players to focus on possession and distributes minutes as evenly possible to as many players as possible. When more players get minutes you end up with players that are all interchangeable on a team. Do this long enough and your club will be known for playing a certain style.

This is how you maintain large rosters, and keep everyone happy. Also because of possession and 2 lines you should be able to out cardio other teams and then capitalize when they get tired.

Quick thoughts:

1. This “rosters are POLITICAL” stuff is weird’ what does that word mean to you? You mean parents are calling coaches and lobbying for their kids? Maaaaybe? But I have had two DD go though clubs though ECNL and one off to play College. Very rarely have I seen a kid who was clearly not better. In one case, there was a kid who wasn’t ready for the game speed, but she was absolutely committed - parents grumbled on the sidelines about the minutes, but by the end of the year, that kid was showing well. Coaches have favorites, but that’s not “politics”.

2. Having been through the ups and downs, I personally think rosters of more than 20 are unacceptable until it’s the 18/19 ECNL group, where kids are committed and may not be available to play as much. If you are joining a club with 30 girls ostensibly on the ECNL roster, and your kid is not head and shoulders above the midway line, You may be better off on another team. The emotional drain on your kid not getting called up to the ECNL roster is brutal. If your kid doesn’t have that chip on her shoulder, it’s gonna be tough. IMPORTANTLY, that does not mean she isn’t, can’t, won’t be good enough to play at that level. We imbue some sort of BS magic to the idea of struggle when told “no”. For some players, they need coaches that imbue a sense of belief, rather than confrontation. It’s utter bull to think that there is one coaching style for every player.

3. ECNL-RL can be really good play and be very good for your kid; but be honest with yourself about what it means. Unless your kid is absolutely at the upper limit of her RL team, ECNL is going to be a big jump. I know we as parents are told there is no difference between the bottom 3 on ECNL and top 3 on RL, but my experience is a bit different. The top RL players are often good, but they usually have clear weaknesses if they don’t get hauled up from RL pretty quickly. ECNL coaches are a mixed bag, but they usually can scout talent/skill.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of them? It’s the spring, tis the season of bloated rosters, promises being made, lies being spread, and testing the waters elsewhere. Unless you’re a fracturing failing team like Pipeline or FCV your roster is looking a little different every day

Just looked at the local ECNL rosters for our area and it looks like NVA 06/07 only roster 18. sooo.

That's because people don't like the coach (PL). Families continuously leaving over the years since he took over.

Anonymous wrote:All of them? It’s the spring, tis the season of bloated rosters, promises being made, lies being spread, and testing the waters elsewhere. Unless you’re a fracturing failing team like Pipeline or FCV your roster is looking a little different every day

Just looked at the local ECNL rosters for our area and it looks like NVA 06/07 only roster 18. sooo.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, coach here again. I asked this because I coach Girls RL and how the process is done is more of a black box to me. I wanted to get your parents perspective on how this works and how it's communicated to you.

The messaging that I get is that "we are looking for the best players no matter what".

You can have someone starting in midfield, and then out of nowhere, another player transfers into the club from Bethesda or somewhere else, and now the started becomes a sub.

Then the sub has to go play in RL because the player above them got bumped down.

Some ECNL rosters look so big that you could put a starting 11 of them on an RL roster, PLUS the existing RL roster already has 20+ so someone has to be sitting out and not playing. Clubs do not seem to want this to be widely now, but if an ECNL team has 25-30 and the RL team has 20-25, a lot of players have to be sitting and not playing.

Was just trying to get an idea of your experience as parents since I am in the dark about a lot of this.

If this is what's happening at your club it's not good. It sounds like you're running starters most of the game.

If you're playing and coaching a high level possession style offense and training all players the same and to the same level it makes the most sense to run 2 lines. Then midway through the half you switch lines. The reason this is important is because it forces players to focus on possession and distributes minutes as evenly possible to as many players as possible. When more players get minutes you end up with players that are all interchangeable on a team. Do this long enough and your club will be known for playing a certain style.

This is how you maintain large rosters, and keep everyone happy. Also because of possession and 2 lines you should be able to out cardio other teams and then capitalize when they get tired.

Does any club do it that way? Playing half the game seems like a good way to run off your best players

Anonymous wrote:What I am reading here is a lot of nonsense- like just about everything else in America, ECNL rosters are 80% POLITICAL- nuff' said...

yes same with MLS next clubs

What I am reading here is a lot of nonsense- like just about everything else in America, ECNL rosters are 80% POLITICAL- nuff' said...

All of them? It’s the spring, tis the season of bloated rosters, promises being made, lies being spread, and testing the waters elsewhere. Unless you’re a fracturing failing team like Pipeline or FCV your roster is looking a little different every day

Which clubs roster more than 18? Specifically for the 14U girls age group.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If this is what's happening at your club it's not good. It sounds like you're running starters most of the game.

If you're playing and coaching a high level possession style offense and training all players the same and to the same level it makes the most sense to run 2 lines. Then midway through the half you switch lines. The reason this is important is because it forces players to focus on possession and distributes minutes as evenly possible to as many players as possible. When more players get minutes you end up with players that are all interchangeable on a team. Do this long enough and your club will be known for playing a certain style.

This is how you maintain large rosters, and keep everyone happy. Also because of possession and 2 lines you should be able to out cardio other teams and then capitalize when they get tired.

We're talking about rosters larger than 18. So someone is staying home. What ECNL game have you ever watched where play time is even? There are starters on both teams who don't come out. So, there are between 4-6 sub positions and even those aren't 50% game minute positions.

This league from what I've seen is only about wins. Players 1-5 are vastly different level vs 16-20 or 21-25. Even teams at the bottom of the table do the same thing. If you're losing every game anyway, why not roster 18 or less and play half a game for everyone? I think even those teams want to show other teams that the better players will play full game minutes. Advertising to the rotational players of the better teams in the league that you can come here and play more minutes. I know a girl from a top team, who rode the bench go to a lower level team and she's now one who plays full game minutes.

It all depends on the coach and how invested they are in developing a possession style of play.

Watch the big California clubs,. They play all players and rotate lines. During the game they'll use possession to wear down opponents who waste their stamina chasing the ball around. If coaches aren't subbing in all their players they'll get 2x as tired. Then once the other team is worn out they switch to direct play and score goals at will.

Starters that play the entire game is very clear sign of a coach / team that only plays direct. This type of team slaughters B teams but loses against top A teams.

Anonymous wrote:Talk with your management? Seems weird you're asking an anonymous message board full of keyboard warriors.

but our keyboards are greased n ready for action

One of the forward players don't get subbed out, 2 of the 3 midfielders don't get subbed out, the 2 center backs don't get subbed out. 22 girls on our team.

5 sub positions with 11 players for those positions. Impossible to get even minutes.

18 - 2 keepers - 5 full time players = 11 spots.

Anonymous wrote:
If this is what's happening at your club it's not good. It sounds like you're running starters most of the game.

If you're playing and coaching a high level possession style offense and training all players the same and to the same level it makes the most sense to run 2 lines. Then midway through the half you switch lines. The reason this is important is because it forces players to focus on possession and distributes minutes as evenly possible to as many players as possible. When more players get minutes you end up with players that are all interchangeable on a team. Do this long enough and your club will be known for playing a certain style.

This is how you maintain large rosters, and keep everyone happy. Also because of possession and 2 lines you should be able to out cardio other teams and then capitalize when they get tired.

We're talking about rosters larger than 18. So someone is staying home. What ECNL game have you ever watched where play time is even? There are starters on both teams who don't come out. So, there are between 4-6 sub positions and even those aren't 50% game minute positions.

This league from what I've seen is only about wins. Players 1-5 are vastly different level vs 16-20 or 21-25. Even teams at the bottom of the table do the same thing. If you're losing every game anyway, why not roster 18 or less and play half a game for everyone? I think even those teams want to show other teams that the better players will play full game minutes. Advertising to the rotational players of the better teams in the league that you can come here and play more minutes. I know a girl from a top team, who rode the bench go to a lower level team and she's now one who plays full game minutes.