Anonymous wrote:The fact that this is a debate just means that the majority of the posters are parents of u-littles. Anyone who has been around knows the ECNL is the only top league for girls.

If it is then why do you feel compelled to say so?

Anonymous wrote:Did any posters actually watch any of these matches? Mine plays ECNl but there was very strong talent on the GA teams and the ECNL teams we faced in the tournament. Gook luck all!

That was my take too and my daughter also plays on an ECNL team. Losing/winning by 1 goal doesn’t mean much. The competition in the top brackets was good.

And FYI - having interacted with coaches that were in attendance - They come and go from the matches - they do not know or care what the score is during these games. They just want to be able to identify what player is what and observe.

Did any posters actually watch any of these matches? Mine plays ECNl but there was very strong talent on the GA teams and the ECNL teams we faced in the tournament. Gook luck all!

Anonymous wrote:Good Morning Everyone,

I am the OP. I created this because of the high level of debate between leagues. You know the saying, numbers don't lie.

Look, this is one of the very few events that has high numbers of both ECNL and GA teams. Based on statistics, this time around ECNL shows it has a much higher level of competition. I'm not talking about recruitment or anything else. Just outright competition. The stats give a VERY clear answer this year.

For those comments about Arlington and SOCA. I could take SOCA out, yes however Arlington IS currently a GA team so they get grouped as GA.

Recruitment is whole other conversation that has a lot to do with how a player takes action in the process, resources and many other things.

I would be careful about asserting that there is any statistical relevance to your analysis. Here are some fundamental statistical flaws.
1) Comparing 2 subsets of leagues, one from an east cost set and one from a mid Atlantic region cannot be considered equal. You must have equal geographically constrained subsets to be meaningful.
2) Comparing two unequal sized subsets is statistically incorrect. On average, the ecnl to ga team ratio is around 4 to 1. In pragmatic terms, you have set up the analysis so that only 1 in 4 ecnl teams has to win in order to claim that ecnl is ‘better’ than ga. What you can state from your analysis is that when an ecnl team plays 4 games, they are more likely to win at least 1 game than a ga team is likely to win 1 of 1 game.
3) Your lack of confidence/sensitivity calculations is problematic. Given this is really an analysis of how teams who chose to go to the tournament compete for 3 games in 48 hours, you should calculate the above mentioned intervals/percentages. For example, the addition or subtraction of a single goal in anyone of the top brackets completely reorders the outcome. Variability for your analysis is quite extreme and puts a confidence interval well below 50%.
4) Numbers don’t lie, but many people don’t actually understand statistics and probability. This lack of understanding often leads to false and inaccurate conclusions.

The only real takeaway from this tournament is which teams are competitive in the top brackets. If we assume any game with more than a 2 goal differential is not competitive, than we can analyze each bracket for competitiveness. What this shows is that each age group, the bottom one or two teams were more likely than not placed too high. This is the only thing that is VERY clear from the results.

The fact that this is a debate just means that the majority of the posters are parents of u-littles. Anyone who has been around knows the ECNL is the only top league for girls.

Anonymous wrote:I stopped reading this when he said Arlington is GA and SOCA is GA. that alone tells me this individual has no idea what he is talking about.
Just to be clear Arlington is a GA club
SOCA is a CCL club

Run your data in a few months and
Arlington will be an ECNL club
SOCA will be a GA club

Get it right or why bother with all your in depth analysis

Why you would spend this much time on such trivial meaningless info is beyond me

Signed: GA parent

I stopped reading this when he said Arlington is GA and SOCA is GA. that alone tells me this individual has no idea what he is talking about.
Just to be clear Arlington is a GA club
SOCA is a CCL club

Run your data in a few months and
Arlington will be an ECNL club
SOCA will be a GA club

Get it right or why bother with all your in depth analysis

Why you would spend this much time on such trivial meaningless info is beyond me

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread feels like a gotsoccer ranking rant. Are we still this naive about believing leagues matter? Is La Liga better than the Bundesliga, better than the EPL?

Dumb comment. Of course top leagues matter. EPL is the richest league, its clubs pay significantly more in wages than the other pro leagues, and EPL has the broadest media reach and best competition top to bottom among its clubs. That’s the reason so many top players leave the La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 or Serie A for EPL clubs. Players moving out of EPL teams to teams in those other leagues are most often wash outs, but rarely a top player does leave for a Real Madrid or Barcelona. So yeah, leagues matter to professional players.

But back to youth soccer, where leagues matter for different reasons, although level of competition is the one constant.

This is a dumb comment. If EPL is the best league how is it they’ve done so poorly in the champions league (something like only 2 wins in the past 10 years)? Maybe only in youth soccer do regional tournaments/showcases matter? Serious question, when Messi washes out of La Liga and goes to man city, does that mean la Liga becomes the best?

The most recent 'all-nation' final was Liverpool/Tottenham. La Liga is the one that is struggling to put forward competitive teams right now in UCL. Prem, Bundesliga, Serie A are right now the strongest leagues.

Good Morning Everyone,

I am the OP. I created this because of the high level of debate between leagues. You know the saying, numbers don't lie.

Look, this is one of the very few events that has high numbers of both ECNL and GA teams. Based on statistics, this time around ECNL shows it has a much higher level of competition. I'm not talking about recruitment or anything else. Just outright competition. The stats give a VERY clear answer this year.

For those comments about Arlington and SOCA. I could take SOCA out, yes however Arlington IS currently a GA team so they get grouped as GA.

Recruitment is whole other conversation that has a lot to do with how a player takes action in the process, resources and many other things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread feels like a gotsoccer ranking rant. Are we still this naive about believing leagues matter? Is La Liga better than the Bundesliga, better than the EPL?

Dumb comment. Of course top leagues matter. EPL is the richest league, its clubs pay significantly more in wages than the other pro leagues, and EPL has the broadest media reach and best competition top to bottom among its clubs. That’s the reason so many top players leave the La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 or Serie A for EPL clubs. Players moving out of EPL teams to teams in those other leagues are most often wash outs, but rarely a top player does leave for a Real Madrid or Barcelona. So yeah, leagues matter to professional players.

But back to youth soccer, where leagues matter for different reasons, although level of competition is the one constant.

This is a dumb comment. If EPL is the best league how is it they’ve done so poorly in the champions league (something like only 2 wins in the past 10 years)? Maybe only in youth soccer do regional tournaments/showcases matter? Serious question, when Messi washes out of La Liga and goes to man city, does that mean la Liga becomes the best?

Anonymous wrote:Why has there been this sudden big push of cheerleading for ECNL? Is there some sort of threat to that league? It seems a little odd that someone looks at one pre-season tournament and is suddenly convinced that there is only one best league. If that is the level of thought going into parents’ decision making, it’s no wonder youth soccer remains a mess in the US.

There is only one best league in the US for girls. That’s undisputed.

Anonymous wrote:Why has there been this sudden big push of cheerleading for ECNL? Is there some sort of threat to that league? It seems a little odd that someone looks at one pre-season tournament and is suddenly convinced that there is only one best league. If that is the level of thought going into parents’ decision making, it’s no wonder youth soccer remains a mess in the US.

Jefferson Cup pre-season tournament? Maybe for your NCSL teams, but for recruiting purposes this is one of the bigger events.

Why has there been this sudden big push of cheerleading for ECNL? Is there some sort of threat to that league? It seems a little odd that someone looks at one pre-season tournament and is suddenly convinced that there is only one best league. If that is the level of thought going into parents’ decision making, it’s no wonder youth soccer remains a mess in the US.

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread feels like a gotsoccer ranking rant. Are we still this naive about believing leagues matter? Is La Liga better than the Bundesliga, better than the EPL?

Dumb comment. Of course top leagues matter. EPL is the richest league, its clubs pay significantly more in wages than the other pro leagues, and EPL has the broadest media reach and best competition top to bottom among its clubs. That’s the reason so many top players leave the La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 or Serie A for EPL clubs. Players moving out of EPL teams to teams in those other leagues are most often wash outs, but rarely a top player does leave for a Real Madrid or Barcelona. So yeah, leagues matter to professional players.

But back to youth soccer, where leagues matter for different reasons, although level of competition is the one constant.