Rumor? MLS Next teams no longer for Non-MLS clubs?

Honestly, where do you get your ranking information from? Why would MLS Next clubs care about ECNL soccer? They feed different segments of the soccer world. Starting with HS soccer, one allows, one prevents. Locally, Tophat does not have ECNL on the girls side but does on the boys side. Tophat plays in this other new league called Girls Academy League (GAL for short). Not sure if you've heard of them. Also, because of their newness, the GAL is working with the MLS Next to help through a strategic relationship to "deliver a true pyramid for female youth players in the US." Does not say anything about taking a position on GAL. I await some poll or ranking that puts things in a different light...

Nationally (not locally) MLS Next has the top boys teams. This is because MLS affiliated Academies participate in the league and they specifically created MLSN as a way to train potential homegrowns and recruit potential homegrowns. 

Nationally (not locally) ECNL is considered 2nd tier for boys. The reason for this is MLS Academies. (Clubs participating in MLSN that aren't academies are often at the same level as ECNL boys teams)

For boys the primary draw of MLSN over ECNL is that with with MLSN (because players are amateur) you have the choice of playing professionally or playing in college. ECNL boys players have the choice of playing in college or getting onto an MLSN team and maybe get noticed to play professionally.

In General, MLSN could care less about ECNL boys or girls. However recently ECNL has been trying to force clubs to not do MLS Next if they want their girls to play in ECNL. If this trend continues it's going to force MLSN into being less hands off with ENCL. This is where GA enters as an alternative to girls ECNL for MLSN clubs that also want to have girls teams. 

So it sounds like we agree that MLSN Academies are the top tier.

The only disagreement is if non MLSN academy teams or ECNL boys teams come next. 

My experience is which comes next varies by geography. You also have to keep in mind that MLS Academies are recruiting from non MLS Acadamy teams that participate in MLSN. With boys in MLSN talent doesn't stay on a specific team or club it quickly gets moved up the chain to Academies. ECNL is setup for players to stay with their specific team. This is potentially good for the club or team they represent but bad for the individual because they don't get a chance at seeing if they can play at the highest level.

I agree. But the way they'll do it is to either ask them to run practice sessions with an Academy team. Or they'll push them to join a non Academy MLSN team then start bringing them in for sessions and games with the Academy team. 

Lots of kids have gone straight from their ECNL or other clubs directly to AU. I doubt AU even knows or cares where they are currently playing when they invite them to tryout. I seriously would be surprised if people who work at AU even know what the local club affiliations are or care. They find these kids through RDS and other scouting. Nobody at AU is pushing a kid to move from their ECNL squad to an MLS Next one. That's pure foolishness.

That’s incorrect. When AU was playing in both ECNL and MLS Next, they would play up a year in ECNL. This created a firestorm that we need not revisit.

How many oflocal youth players have made the AU first team and then moved on to better places? George Bello. Who else?

Ask the question....

How many AU Academy kids played for the 1st team or any other MLS team?

The track record of the AU academy hasn't produced. AU seems to sign older players from outside the academy structure. Bello was truly already developed before joining the AU academy.

I really believe there is an inherent bias towards American players.

American youth development is believed inferior by a lot of internationals even though there is a very, very large percentage of international born and trained coaches in the youth development ranks. Probably the overwhelming majority of top teams in ECNL, MLS Next, etc. are coached by coaches that were born, lived, and trained internationally.

On the mens college front definitely there is a very strong bias. International coaches preferentially recruit and play internationals over Americans while American college coaches are more likely to recruit and play a larger number of American kids. Truth.

Same inherent bias likely exists in the pro ranks.

Also, just look at some of the best US players internationally. Christian Pulisic arguably the best US player right now was barely seeing the field before transferring to AC Milan where by most peoples account he has done very well. However, in this article titled most overrated fowards in Europe he leads the list: www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/christian-pulisic-jarrod-bowen-dusan-vlahovic-and-europes-most-overrated-forwards-this-season/

Is he the most overrated forward in Europe. No, to be fair, probably not. But yes he is American.

Bottom line, if we want better development in the US this starts with a culture of emphasizing, promoting, and celebrating good American players and coaches. Instead in feels like they are often unfairly treated as inferior way too often.

To be fair to Pulisic’s Chelsea time, he played a lot in spurts. His problem there was a combination of two issues. One is a problem he has regardless of where he goes and that is a propensity towards muscle injuries. He was out a lot at Chelsea. (53 games in 4 years I read in one article). Miss 6 weeks or longer in a row and it is easy for another player to take your spot. The second issue is a Chelsea specific issue and that is a revolving door in the manager’s office. Let’s just say for a moment that he had gone to Liverpool instead of Chelsea. Klopp liked him a lot. There was interest there. Anyway. Klopp has been there the whole time. Time to develop and work with the player. It would have been hard to get on the pitch with Salah and Mane there at the time but there are many matches and Klopp would have rotated some and he would have had opportunities but let’s not go off the topic. Point being while at Chelsea he was under 4 managers (3 people 4 times). None were successful beyond one season.

But the overall point is a good one regarding our development considering the coaches are largely internationals. They must feel that we poison them with our values. To be fair watching youth soccer I am not sure I disagree. Many international coaches here do value size and speed over skill and soccer IQ. The pressure to win is top down from the parents who pay the clubs.

The USWNT trains against U17 boys, do you think that’s because their skill and soccer IQ is equivalent?

Holy thread-jack, Batman. This has wandered way off topic. I’m often guilty of doing the this.. But I do question the point of recent responses and wonder if they merit starting a new topic.

Whoa whoa. We may be speaking two different things here. You are talking speed of play. Executing decisions is soccer IQ and speed of thought. I am not being derogatory about speed. In case you did not notice I was defending Pulisic who is a pretty quick player (though not big). Also full disclosure I am exactly old school American soccer dream player fast, aggressive and tall. So don’t get me wrong and think I hate fast players.
We just prioritize speed and size in the very young players and do not pay attention and reassess often enough. The youth system has a tendency to have a major problem with confirmation bias. We determine who will be the best soccer players when they are 10-12 years old and forget to keep looking at the players as they age. We are reluctant to promote kids from lower teams and drop players from the top teams. The reality is we probably shouldn’t have set teams like this anyhow. I also think it is insane to have kids have the same coach from U13 until U19 too. For one they don’t get another coach’s view of the game and secondly another coach isn’t looking at the player pool and promoting other players and looking at them with fresh eyes.
And we definitely do not value technical skill in our youth players enough. Most of our best USMNT players either started out in Europe or had parents who were pros. If it wasn’t for that we would be struggling still because our clubs aren’t teaching these kids or their parents what to do.