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Post by aliensource on Aug 20, 2017 11:00:41 GMT -5
ECNL teams should be called RPL2 or ATHENA A++ or someting. It seem most of the talent has moved to DA and Im curious if this watered down version will be able to hang on. It seems most of the clubs that have DA & ECNL are now the red headed step kids and all the the real reasons to desire to be on one of those teams and the resources have been taken by the DA teams. What can ECNL do to maintain quality programs?
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Post by atv on Aug 20, 2017 11:07:21 GMT -5
Sounds like you have a kid playing DA or you or a kid playing something so you feel the need to trash all the other teams. There are good teams and players playing at every level. Don't kid yourself
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Post by diceshooter on Aug 20, 2017 12:23:56 GMT -5
Where can someone find the schedule online?
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Post by fan on Aug 20, 2017 17:08:36 GMT -5
Here's the girls ECNL schedule. www.eliteclubsnationalleague.com/southeast-schedules/I suspect there will be a mix of very strong teams and weaker teams. There are a lot of excellent players who have no interest in the restrictions of DA. Next year I bet there will be a lot of movement from some ECNL teams to others once it's more clear which teams retained or added the best talent. Are DA rosters posted anywhere? Most ECNL clubs have their rosters posted on the ECNL site but I haven't seen DA rosters.
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Post by spectator on Aug 20, 2017 20:41:24 GMT -5
ECNL teams should be called RPL2 or ATHENA A++ or someting. It seem most of the talent has moved to DA and Im curious if this watered down version will be able to hang on. It seems most of the clubs that have DA & ECNL are now the red headed step kids and all the the real reasons to desire to be on one of those teams and the resources have been taken by the DA teams. What can ECNL do to maintain quality programs? You wanna provide a little more color around that blanket statement to make this a viable discussion? My thoughts The issue from day one in Georgia regarding ECNL is that we have too many clubs. Four ECNL clubs and on the girls side, two are significantly stronger than in most (not all) age groups. NASA/Top Hat and Concorde . If ECNL had just stopped with those two clubs in this metro area, those teams and the ensuing SRPL teams at those and other clubs would be much stronger. Same thing happened with Girls DA - too many clubs - and two of them already having ECNL Concorde and NTH. At those clubs, ECNL is now #2 and SRPL is #3. 20/20 hindsight and what I would have done if I were in charge: ENCL Clubs - only TH and Concorde - sorry AFU and GSA - you're too geographically close and small to make it work across all age groups. The pool is diluted from day one with the fact both clubs are in Gwinnett County. DA Clubs - only UFA - MAYBE a club south of Atlanta to pull from that geo, but definitely no more than two in the state. DA is supposed to be the road to the national team/majors - it's not a God given right for any kid in metro Atlanta. Same with ECNL. Y'all want 'Elite' - that means limited - make it really elite! AND make it so any elite player could try out for both - DA first and if that didn't work out, move on to ECNL. It makes for stronger teams in both leagues, Also, remember this - Some girls didn't want to play DA because of the restrictions with High School. Some girls didn't want to play ECNL because of the travel, cost, or they just wanted to stay with their current RPL teams Some girls didn't want to play NL or SRPL for the same reasons above - cost and travel These are kids - 13-18 year old kids who also want to have a life. Parents pushing them to play soccer 24/7/365 is only going to burn them out of risk injury. I will concede that this year especially in the older age brackets, anything below SRPL isn't nearly what it used to be. Suddenly mid pack Athena A teams are playing first division RPL and teams that were in Athena C last year are playing Athena A because, frankly, there's no one left playing. Not sure what DA looks like at the U18 and up age group but friends we have with daughters on 'Composite' U19 ECNL teams are saying it's a total waste of money - limited teams = limited games and it's not like coaches are clamoring to look at high school seniors at the events. At the end of the day, the birth year mandate started this slow decline into mediocrity - the DA trickle down will accelerate it at least for a few years then hopefully it will work itself out. I would like to see ECNL evaluate each club and make decisions/changes if the clubs are under performing. They tried to grow too fast by saturating the market - they need to scale it back and make it truly elite - otherwise, yes, it will falter and eventually become what Super Y has become - completely obsolete.
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Post by dad on Aug 20, 2017 21:12:46 GMT -5
ECNL is a shell of what it used to be. My daughter plays for a small club that has been extreamly competitive if not dominant against ecnl teams this Fall. Last year we got smeared by same club a lot to a little. They still played quality soccer but had no offensive finishing ability. I am sure the top goal scorers went on to DA. Best thing for GA soccer would be to kill ECNL and go back to SRPL for top teams and the rest back to Athena. With DA ECNL just dilutes the talent. One positive is that it might allow girls that might just be roll players when with more talented girls take a leadership roll on the ECNLand actually develope their game and not just "kick the ball to the really good girl". Every dark cloud has a silver lining.
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Post by infoguy on Aug 21, 2017 7:06:09 GMT -5
All these leagues available for our kids, I'm generally OK with it.
I think it becomes an issue when a club has all leagues. If your club applies for ECNL/ENPL, and the top team plays in that league, then the club shouldn't retain a spot in SRPL (unless you have the players at that level to field a team). I heard that DA doesn't favor the clubs that already have ECNL/ENPL, when considering which clubs to add to the league. Makes sense, they want that club's non-diluted best.
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Post by TheMadOx on Aug 21, 2017 7:57:19 GMT -5
I would hope that the ECNL league will draw the line and force these clubs that have DA and ECNL to choose. (I'm sure it will be DA) Concorde and TH are great girl clubs, but they can not sustain the high quality for both leagues over the long term. Maybe they will prove me wrong.
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Post by Keeper on Aug 21, 2017 9:22:07 GMT -5
Odd statement since I heard a lot of top boys move from DA to Ecnl this summer so they could play high school ball. But like one person said they whole system is watered down. Too many "Elite" players is making the top brackets of DA, ecnl, and SRPL like kindergarten where every who shows up gets a participation award. Atlanta is definitely not large enough to produce that many national team prospects.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2017 10:07:40 GMT -5
Its interesting - even watered down I think most of the boys DA teams from atlanta even the u13s/u14 teams will be better then most of the teams in the division. Besides CASL (or what ever there new name is North Carolina FC), most are inferior to the atlanta teams. The Charlotte and Fusion teams from this weekend in the u12 age group did not look very good at all. Granted it was 120 degrees on turf. Even DC uniteds u12s looked very bad.
But watching many of the u12 games in Charlotte this weekend, you can already see the teams that will rely on athleticism up top. What has happened to being up 8 or 9 goals, and just keeping the ball vs trying to score more goals. Thats what I like to see and thats when you see if a team is well coached. Just ping it around, and almost embarrass the opposition with them chasing down 8 goals.
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Post by 04gparent on Aug 21, 2017 10:33:30 GMT -5
Just curious, how can we say it is trully watered down without any games being played so far? ECNL starts league play this weekend and DA in September? IMO the state of GA can not fix what is broken at the highest levels of soccer. This issue will not be fixed (if you think its broken) until US Soccer and US Clob Soccer kiss and make up. Of course I believe this will never happen and thus we all have to wait and see what happens...
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Post by spectator on Aug 21, 2017 14:41:38 GMT -5
Just curious, how can we say it is trully watered down without any games being played so far? ECNL starts league play this weekend and DA in September? IMO the state of GA can not fix what is broken at the highest levels of soccer. This issue will not be fixed (if you think its broken) until US Soccer and US Clob Soccer kiss and make up. Of course I believe this will never happen and thus we all have to wait and see what happens... Looking at the rosters of some teams and the fact that roster continuity wasn't enforced this year with the creation of Girls DA, yes, it's watered down. If you buy into the former hierarchy of levels ECNL -players who left for DA were replaced by SRPL players SRPL players who moved to ECNL were replaced by RPL or Athena A players RPL players who moved to SRPL were replaced by Athena Players Athena A teams are now filled with Athena B and below players. I know of one RPL team that lost 12 players but retained their spot and girls from Athena B and C teams made that team. Maybe they're good enough but speaking from experience, the speed of play gets faster and faster the higher up the food chain you go - or at least it used to - so if the players don't come up to the level, the level goes down to the players.
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Post by aliensource on Aug 21, 2017 16:16:45 GMT -5
@rec. We chose to play ECNL instead of chasing DA. and so far the competition is a little iffy from what I can see. I'm not trashing the teams I'm paying attention to whats happening and wondering how this US/ ECNL soccer thing will shake out and how harmful it will be to ECNL events on the whole. Sure EC NL has had a great relationship with college recruiters but will they continue to hold the EC NL in high regard after this year ? @mls/nwsl. It seems color and context was provided by many who see what Im driving at. 04gparent . Just hearing scores and comments from parents on the sidelines from their networks of friends has been the way I was guaging it...As an example GaRush 04s beating GSA ECNL. That never would have even been close last year...even in pre-season.
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Post by atv on Aug 21, 2017 16:41:34 GMT -5
@rec. We chose to play ECNL instead of chasing DA. and so far the competition is a little iffy from what I can see. I'm not trashing the teams I'm paying attention to whats happening and wondering how this US/ ECNL soccer thing will shake out and how harmful it will be to ECNL events on the whole. Sure EC NL has had a great relationship with college recruiters but will they continue to hold the EC NL in high regard after this year ? @mls/nwsl. It seems color and context was provided by many who see what Im driving at. 04gparent . Just hearing scores and comments from parents on the sidelines from their networks of friends has been the way I was guaging it...As an example GaRush 04s beating GSA ECNL. That never would have even been close last year...even in pre-season.
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Post by fridge on Aug 21, 2017 16:44:01 GMT -5
In girls DA, of say the top 20 girls in each DA age group, TH and CF got no less than 18 of those top 20 girls to play DA. (Perhaps even 20 of 20 if you take out the 99s who are committed and a few more may not have wanted to deal w/ DA). Even so, TH and CF still have good players at ECNL especially at the younger age groups like 00 and 02 ages given these teams had 18 or so good players, but only 8 or so could make DA. 99s and 01s likely took a much bigger hit to their ECNL teams.
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Post by atv on Aug 21, 2017 16:47:10 GMT -5
It's interesting the sky is falling when an ECNL team loses a preseason game by a goal to a very good team they probably should have beat. At the end of the day you still have to play the game. No medals just for showing up😂
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Post by soccerparent02 on Aug 21, 2017 17:59:09 GMT -5
ECNL teams got DA players in boys frankly because they find the rule they can't play high school ridiculous. ECNL kids get more games and as much exposure. DA may need to revisit this archaic rule. Only DA worth signing your life over to in Atlanta may be AU although not every age there is strong either.
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Post by aliensource on Aug 22, 2017 9:43:31 GMT -5
@rec Check back and don't project feelings because of the lack of emojis. The post isn't about the sky falling...or the "intel" on one weekends of matches , it is about what will ECNL do to maintain it's relevance with the DA firmly in place. The dual roll of ECNL and DA seems to go against the purpose for both. Here's a nifty lil' email quote going out to the Concorde friends, "per Nancy Blasingame Concorde has decided that DA games will be taped and ECNL games will be up to individual teams." (to pay for themselves) It's the same thing with Keeper coaching. No more trainer for ECNL they are busy with the DA now. GB is currently listed on the board of the ECNL is he mentioning to the board meetings the shift in priority at his club? Could be the first sign that another ECNL focused club in town will get an influx of talent in years to come. SaveSave
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Post by alacrity174 on Aug 22, 2017 10:28:27 GMT -5
@rec Check back and don't project feelings because of the lack of emojis. The post isn't about the sky falling...or the "intel" on one weekends of matches , it is about what will ECNL do to maintain it's relevance with the DA firmly in place. The dual roll of ECNL and DA seems to go against the purpose for both. Here's a nifty lil' email quote going out to the Concorde friends, "per Nancy Blasingame Concorde has decided that DA games will be taped and ECNL games will be up to individual teams." (to pay for themselves) It's the same thing with Keeper coaching. No more trainer for ECNL they are busy with the DA now. GB is currently listed on the board of the ECNL is he mentioning to the board meetings the shift in priority at his club? Could be the first sign that another ECNL focused club in town will get an influx of talent in years to come. SaveSaveIt's a DA requirement that all games be recorded, if Concord used to do this for ECNL girls last season I guess they decided to spend the cash on DA only this year. GB will always look out for his top teams.
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Post by aliensource on Aug 25, 2017 8:17:27 GMT -5
alacrity174 Video is not an ECNL requirement. ***GB is not on the board, I confused him with Troy Garner... how I do not know. I think what I have discovered is Georgia is to blame for our weird youth soccer landscape. Reading around different blogs on the webbernets I think some state soccer orgs mandated to not cross the streams. If I remember Arizona may be one of those places.
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Post by infoguy on Aug 28, 2017 7:17:36 GMT -5
alacrity174 Video is not an ECNL requirement. ***GB is not on the board, I confused him with Troy Garner... how I do not know. I think what I have discovered is Georgia is to blame for our weird youth soccer landscape. Reading around different blogs on the webbernets I think some state soccer orgs mandated to not cross the streams. If I remember Arizona may be one of those places. Do you mean for clubs not to have every league? Like CF has RPL, ECNL and DA...
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Post by Soccerhouse on Aug 28, 2017 11:57:03 GMT -5
alacrity174 Video is not an ECNL requirement. ***GB is not on the board, I confused him with Troy Garner... how I do not know. I think what I have discovered is Georgia is to blame for our weird youth soccer landscape. Reading around different blogs on the webbernets I think some state soccer orgs mandated to not cross the streams. If I remember Arizona may be one of those places. It is my understanding, GA soccer represents the clubs and does what the clubs want them to do. I'm not sure if they are necessarily to blame given so many things have happened that are bigger now than state organizations. Could the entire region have come together and took some stands probably, but obviously much harder to do than said. Unfortunately, state soccer and regionals/nationals is still the only true promotion/relegation system we have in youth soccer vs teams/clubs just earning spots annually regardless of what they put out on the field. Promotion and relegation at the youth level is truly the best in my opinion. So much is on the line in a given week. A team might be fighting to get from Classic III to Classic II or trying to earn that guaranteed regional spot on a random RPL weekend. It is the true spirit of competition vs just the right of passage. I always bring up the old dreaded u13 girls age group that had every single top team play, the fall season was usually a great battle of all the local teams playing each other. That is what it should be. Yes, the top team usually is far better than everyone else, but their really was typically a fairly balanced schedule from week to week. That is no more, and I won't even comment know on the current u13/14 boys age groups given DA and boys ecnl.
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