"The reality is that the number of young people playing soccer as registered players under the umbrella of U.S. Soccer has stagnated. People may debate and disagree over the specific numbers, but we should all be able to agree that the ranks of our registered players shouldn’t be stagnant—they should be growing.

Think about it—we have 3 to 4 million kids in our ranks. The fact is millions more are playing— it’s just that they are not registered players under our umbrella.

This is perhaps our single greatest opportunity—and our single greatest challenge—reaching out and bringing these players into our ranks. And we all know the barriers that are standing in the way of our growth—they’re no secret.

The landscape is too fragmented and fractured. Competition is good, but sometimes youth soccer becomes more about winning trophies and making money when it should be about having fun and developing players.

In a country as big and diverse as ours, we’re never going to have a single, unified national youth program like many smaller countries—we’ll always have different programs in different places.

But there does need to be a level playing field—competition has to be fair. And we have to forge a more unified landscape where—instead of programs competing with each other for players— we work together to recruit those millions of kids as registered players.
Player development is not a single-lane road. Not every player will or should go to an academy, and not every state has DAs. We need options for all players at all levels, including ODP."

- Carlos Cordiero, US Soccer President, July 2018

Anonymous wrote:True but DA still uses the "US Scouts at Every DA Game" marketing to convince players to come to DA.

To try to convince. Works on some and not on others. Same as when ecnl used to use it.

True but DA still uses the "US Scouts at Every DA Game" marketing to convince players to come to DA.

No. Why would they. And why would most players concern themselves with it regardless. Using nt players as a marketing strategy has not proved to be terribly successful. Ecnl used to use that market strategy and dropped it the second gda came along.

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Anonymous wrote:MA is only 11.

New England clubs

ECNL:
FC Stars (East and West) (MA)
Scorpions (MA)
CFC (CT)
FSA (CT)

DA:
NEFC (MA)
Seacoast (NH)

Looks like New England is stronger at ECNL too. FC Stars is the clear top dog. Did US Soccer try to get the NT players on FC Stars to move to DA?

Stars had DA last year, but dropped it this year. They have 3 girls currently on NT rosters, I believe (2 U17, 1 U15), and at least 2 others that were in the pool this year. None opted to leave Stars when they dropped DA. I don't see why they would.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MA is only 11.

New England clubs

ECNL:
FC Stars (East and West) (MA)
Scorpions (MA)
CFC (CT)
FSA (CT)

DA:
NEFC (MA)
Seacoast (NH)

Looks like New England is stronger at ECNL too. FC Stars is the clear top dog. Did US Soccer try to get the NT players on FC Stars to move to DA?

If they did or did not is of no consequence to 95 percent of youth players. Ussf was hoping more players would care about that then did care about that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MA is only 11.

New England clubs

ECNL:
FC Stars (East and West) (MA)
Scorpions (MA)
CFC (CT)
FSA (CT)

DA:
NEFC (MA)
Seacoast (NH)

Looks like New England is stronger at ECNL too. FC Stars is the clear top dog. Did US Soccer try to get the NT players on FC Stars to move to DA?

Anonymous wrote:Anyway you slice it there are way too many so called "high level" roster spots for the number of high level players with the cash to play in such a league. Situation is not good at all.

New England may be better then some areas but the entire sport at youth level has enter loco land.

Anyway you slice it there are way too many so called "high level" roster spots for the number of high level players with the cash to play in such a league. Situation is not good at all.

Anonymous wrote:MA is only 11.

New England clubs

ECNL:
FC Stars (East and West) (MA)
Scorpions (MA)
CFC (CT)
FSA (CT)

DA:
NEFC (MA)
Seacoast (NH)

Anonymous wrote:NE conference is 15 teams.

NE conference is "North East", not New England. North East conference includes NY, NJ, PA and MD--in addition to the New England teams

MA is only 11.

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Anonymous wrote:A cynic would argue that politics are the reason why some of those clubs moved back to ECNL. And they would be correct.

Perhaps - but it happened. Including the very best of the bunch such as LAFC Slammers - their 18/19 DA National Champion.

Now ECNL can offer the best competition on the national stage, attract top D1 scouts, and offer college friendly programming such as sub rules and showcases with multiple games per day.

I get why DA parents are upset. They thought they would have the clear top tier but instead they may be in the second tier.

Second tier does not include 95% of the NT players, but nice try. I get it, there are lots of nostalgic ECNLers who don’t want to lose their grip on the reins of power. The problem is you’ve been around for 10 years and all of the fault you want to pin on the DA actual falls back to ECNL when focusing on the u20 and u17 GNTs. Born and bred in ECNL land.

A few clubs don’t make or break DA either, especially those who left last year. Curious, how can the slammers be 2019 “DA champion” when they left after the 17/18 season?

Answer: you are full of it.

I live in MA. Every girl on the YNT's (U15. U17) from our State plays for FC Stars, who left DA after one season. The club's top players did not want to give up HS soccer. For the year they had both ECNL and GDA teams, many of the best players opted for ECNL.

Correction--forgot about an outstanding player on U15 YNT who plays for South Shore Select--they don't have ECNL or GDA.

Lucky kid. There are GDA players that are missing three full days of high school this week for the a show case. 3 full days. Some ECNL player had to miss a full day last week. Better but still not great. is that really useful to these girls? No it is not.

How do you determine what's "useful" for the kids in this scenario? I have a son who plays DA, and I like the fact that he only has to miss school twice a year, for the two showcases. Would I prefer he miss no school? Yes. Do I think it's useful that he was scouted by scores of college coaches at the DA showcases/playoffs last year? Yes, especially given that he is now committed to a great school with an athletic scholarship. He has several friends who play on YNT teams who were called in after showcases as well.

You can't play any high level sport and expect to miss no school. Also, getting ahead on and/or making up the work is good practice for what you'll need to do if you end up playing in college.

I'd also add that kids in the NT pool (including the girl I referenced from SSS), certainly miss school for NT camps. My point was simply that she isn't playing DA or ECNL and was still identified. All of the argument about which league is the true top tier is foolish at this point. There are top players in both leagues (and top players that don't play in either league).

Silly to compare an NT players and the other thousands in these leagues. You need to watch more of these games - this is not "high level" and is certainly not worthy of missing school IMO. But suit yourself.

Ummm... not sure where I was advocating missing school in my response above. Just making the point that a non-ECNL/DA player who is in the NT pool does have to miss some school. Also--I don't see any games in the DC area because I am from MA. I do find it interesting that there are so many ECNL and DA teams in that region, though. On the girls side, there are only 4 ECNL clubs and 3 DA clubs in all of New England.

But they field multiple teams per age group so what is the difference?

Only FC Stars, which has 2 ECNL teams (East and West). You may be thinking of PDA, but last time I checked, NJ is not in New England.

So that would make 8 teams per age group across 6 states.

NE conference is 15 teams.

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Anonymous wrote:A cynic would argue that politics are the reason why some of those clubs moved back to ECNL. And they would be correct.

Perhaps - but it happened. Including the very best of the bunch such as LAFC Slammers - their 18/19 DA National Champion.

Now ECNL can offer the best competition on the national stage, attract top D1 scouts, and offer college friendly programming such as sub rules and showcases with multiple games per day.

I get why DA parents are upset. They thought they would have the clear top tier but instead they may be in the second tier.

Second tier does not include 95% of the NT players, but nice try. I get it, there are lots of nostalgic ECNLers who don’t want to lose their grip on the reins of power. The problem is you’ve been around for 10 years and all of the fault you want to pin on the DA actual falls back to ECNL when focusing on the u20 and u17 GNTs. Born and bred in ECNL land.

A few clubs don’t make or break DA either, especially those who left last year. Curious, how can the slammers be 2019 “DA champion” when they left after the 17/18 season?

Answer: you are full of it.

I live in MA. Every girl on the YNT's (U15. U17) from our State plays for FC Stars, who left DA after one season. The club's top players did not want to give up HS soccer. For the year they had both ECNL and GDA teams, many of the best players opted for ECNL.

Correction--forgot about an outstanding player on U15 YNT who plays for South Shore Select--they don't have ECNL or GDA.

Lucky kid. There are GDA players that are missing three full days of high school this week for the a show case. 3 full days. Some ECNL player had to miss a full day last week. Better but still not great. is that really useful to these girls? No it is not.

How do you determine what's "useful" for the kids in this scenario? I have a son who plays DA, and I like the fact that he only has to miss school twice a year, for the two showcases. Would I prefer he miss no school? Yes. Do I think it's useful that he was scouted by scores of college coaches at the DA showcases/playoffs last year? Yes, especially given that he is now committed to a great school with an athletic scholarship. He has several friends who play on YNT teams who were called in after showcases as well.

You can't play any high level sport and expect to miss no school. Also, getting ahead on and/or making up the work is good practice for what you'll need to do if you end up playing in college.

I'd also add that kids in the NT pool (including the girl I referenced from SSS), certainly miss school for NT camps. My point was simply that she isn't playing DA or ECNL and was still identified. All of the argument about which league is the true top tier is foolish at this point. There are top players in both leagues (and top players that don't play in either league).

Silly to compare an NT players and the other thousands in these leagues. You need to watch more of these games - this is not "high level" and is certainly not worthy of missing school IMO. But suit yourself.

Ummm... not sure where I was advocating missing school in my response above. Just making the point that a non-ECNL/DA player who is in the NT pool does have to miss some school. Also--I don't see any games in the DC area because I am from MA. I do find it interesting that there are so many ECNL and DA teams in that region, though. On the girls side, there are only 4 ECNL clubs and 3 DA clubs in all of New England.

But they field multiple teams per age group so what is the difference?

Only FC Stars, which has 2 ECNL teams (East and West). You may be thinking of PDA, but last time I checked, NJ is not in New England.