Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington should be applying for boys ecnl

That would be a smart move, but I am not sure Arlington would do it.

Boys ECNL is afterthought for girl ECNL. It does not even match up with NPL, or EDP.
The top clubs would never considerate Boys ECNL. Even Alexandria does not want to join Boys ECNL.
Only lower level or smaller clubs (or whoever kicked out from Boys DA) join boys ECNL. .. such as...

It is silly to argue that ECNL won't be challenging enough for Arlington's top teams. Braddock Road ECNL boys, for example, beat Arlington Academy 7-1 in the OBGC cup. Also, Arlington only has boys DA in U13 through U15 and after U15 the boys end up without strong league competition.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington should be applying for boys ecnl

That would be a smart move, but I am not sure Arlington would do it.

Boys ECNL is afterthought for girl ECNL. It does not even match up with NPL, or EDP.
The top clubs would never considerate Boys ECNL. Even Alexandria does not want to join Boys ECNL.
Only lower level or smaller clubs (or whoever kicked out from Boys DA) join boys ECNL. .. such as...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington should be applying for boys ecnl

That would be a smart move, but I am not sure Arlington would do it.

Anonymous wrote:Arlington should be applying for boys ecnl

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is a well-established club, close in, with access to good facilities and affluent families. They’ll keep doing better and better on both girl and boy DAs especially with most of the alternatives being outside the beltway.

Sigh. And this is the state of youth soccer in the dmv. Location and inertia drive the product more strongly than technical excellence.

Yup.

I don’t think this is the state of youth soccer. It is the mindset of certain soccer parents. I also think it will prove wrong. Most top talent on the boys side is located in the outer areas of DC. It is not obvious whether those parents would be more willing to drive to Arlington than elsewhere. We are talking about trying to capture kids who are good enough to be at DCU but who wont drive to Loudoun. Most Arlington kids are in the latter category but not the former. How many Arlington residents play for DCU DA today? So if the Decision to expand is based on DCU move to Loudoun, I am not sure it follows that Arlington is where you would expand the DA. Maybe we don’t need expansion at all?

I’m not following you here. If DCU has players that travel to DC from Maryland or close in VA, Loudoun may be prohibitively far. Those players may go to Bethesda, but Arlington could be another option. It would fill a hole the DCU leaves behind when they move. That’s pretty logical to me.
And actually on the girls side - the three teams that are in year 2 for DA are doing pretty well. They have definitely improved their records.

No offense, but I don’t think you know how difficult it is to get from hyattsville or parts of dc to Arlington any time of day. If the kids are good enough to go to DCU, I would shoot for Baltimore Armour, not Arlington. Better DA and talent pool and closer to those areas. I just don’t think they need expansion at this juncture. There is not enough elite boys talent in the area to merit it right now.

And as another pointed out, from Arlington it is a straight shot on toll road 31 miles to Loudoun. HOV-2. You can make it in 35 min even in rush hour.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is a well-established club, close in, with access to good facilities and affluent families. They’ll keep doing better and better on both girl and boy DAs especially with most of the alternatives being outside the beltway.

Sigh. And this is the state of youth soccer in the dmv. Location and inertia drive the product more strongly than technical excellence.

Yup.

I don’t think this is the state of youth soccer. It is the mindset of certain soccer parents. I also think it will prove wrong. Most top talent on the boys side is located in the outer areas of DC. It is not obvious whether those parents would be more willing to drive to Arlington than elsewhere. We are talking about trying to capture kids who are good enough to be at DCU but who wont drive to Loudoun. Most Arlington kids are in the latter category but not the former. How many Arlington residents play for DCU DA today? So if the Decision to expand is based on DCU move to Loudoun, I am not sure it follows that Arlington is where you would expand the DA. Maybe we don’t need expansion at all?

I’m not following you here. If DCU has players that travel to DC from Maryland or close in VA, Loudoun may be prohibitively far. Those players may go to Bethesda, but Arlington could be another option. It would fill a hole the DCU leaves behind when they move. That’s pretty logical to me.
And actually on the girls side - the three teams that are in year 2 for DA are doing pretty well. They have definitely improved their records.

No offense, but I don’t think you know how difficult it is to get from hyattsville or parts of dc to Arlington any time of day. If the kids are good enough to go to DCU, I would shoot for Baltimore Armour, not Arlington. Better DA and talent pool and closer to those areas. I just don’t think they need expansion at this juncture. There is not enough elite boys talent in the area to merit it right now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is a well-established club, close in, with access to good facilities and affluent families. They’ll keep doing better and better on both girl and boy DAs especially with most of the alternatives being outside the beltway.

Sigh. And this is the state of youth soccer in the dmv. Location and inertia drive the product more strongly than technical excellence.

Yup.

I don’t think this is the state of youth soccer. It is the mindset of certain soccer parents. I also think it will prove wrong. Most top talent on the boys side is located in the outer areas of DC. It is not obvious whether those parents would be more willing to drive to Arlington than elsewhere. We are talking about trying to capture kids who are good enough to be at DCU but who wont drive to Loudoun. Most Arlington kids are in the latter category but not the former. How many Arlington residents play for DCU DA today? So if the Decision to expand is based on DCU move to Loudoun, I am not sure it follows that Arlington is where you would expand the DA. Maybe we don’t need expansion at all?

I’m not following you here. If DCU has players that travel to DC from Maryland or close in VA, Loudoun may be prohibitively far. Those players may go to Bethesda, but Arlington could be another option. It would fill a hole the DCU leaves behind when they move. That’s pretty logical to me.
And actually on the girls side - the three teams that are in year 2 for DA are doing pretty well. They have definitely improved their records.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is a well-established club, close in, with access to good facilities and affluent families. They’ll keep doing better and better on both girl and boy DAs especially with most of the alternatives being outside the beltway.

Sigh. And this is the state of youth soccer in the dmv. Location and inertia drive the product more strongly than technical excellence.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is a well-established club, close in, with access to good facilities and affluent families. They’ll keep doing better and better on both girl and boy DAs especially with most of the alternatives being outside the beltway.

Sigh. And this is the state of youth soccer in the dmv. Location and inertia drive the product more strongly than technical excellence.

Yup.

I don’t think this is the state of youth soccer. It is the mindset of certain soccer parents. I also think it will prove wrong. Most top talent on the boys side is located in the outer areas of DC. It is not obvious whether those parents would be more willing to drive to Arlington than elsewhere. We are talking about trying to capture kids who are good enough to be at DCU but who wont drive to Loudoun. Most Arlington kids are in the latter category but not the former. How many Arlington residents play for DCU DA today? So if the Decision to expand is based on DCU move to Loudoun, I am not sure it follows that Arlington is where you would expand the DA. Maybe we don’t need expansion at all?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully Arlington will be able to expand since DC..ah..Loudoun United is a non-starter.

Perhaps acquire a better reputation for developing players first? The younger boys teams have tended to fizzle when the days of 7 v 7 kick-and-run end.

I think DC United is fielding some pretty strong teams at the moment but I anticipate that once they make the move to Loundoun, their player pool will decrease significantly. That will be a major boost to the Bethesda, Arlington, VDA, and even Baltimore Armour.

LOL. Strong teams?

The U14s are mediocre at best: 5-4-4, +1 GD (19GF to 18GA)

After that it's all down hill.

While the above is accurate, it’s a bit misleading in that DCU typically pushes, say, their best 03 players up to the U19 DA squad...and same for earlier age groups (with many of their best players moving up to expedite development).


U15s: 2nd to last in the DA Cup (http://www.ussoccerda.com/sam/standings/ss/schedule.php?v=3&divisionID=NDQwMzM5), winless in the GA Cup
Overall record: 3-6-2, GD= -17 (18GF to 35GA)

U17s: Tied for last in the DA Cup (http://www.ussoccerda.com/sam/standings/ss/schedule.php?v=3&divisionID=NDQwMjk5), also winless in the GA Cup
Overall record: 2-8-1, GD = -8 (11GF to 19GA)

U19s: Tied for 2nd to last in the DA Cup (http://www.ussoccerda.com/sam/standings/ss/schedule.php?v=3&divisionID=NDM5MjM5)
Overall record: 3-7-1, GD -16 (17 GF to 33 GA)

Combined record of U15-U19 after 33 games: 8 wins, 21 losses, 4 draws, with a goal difference of -41.

Yeah, they're pretty awesome alright.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is a well-established club, close in, with access to good facilities and affluent families. They’ll keep doing better and better on both girl and boy DAs especially with most of the alternatives being outside the beltway.

Sigh. And this is the state of youth soccer in the dmv. Location and inertia drive the product more strongly than technical excellence.

Yup.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is a well-established club, close in, with access to good facilities and affluent families. They’ll keep doing better and better on both girl and boy DAs especially with most of the alternatives being outside the beltway.

Sigh. And this is the state of youth soccer in the dmv. Location and inertia drive the product more strongly than technical excellence.

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is a well-established club, close in, with access to good facilities and affluent families. They’ll keep doing better and better on both girl and boy DAs especially with most of the alternatives being outside the beltway.