Lighten up Francis. It was snowing, in the low 20’s and windy. No need for kids to be playing in those conditions.
USYS shot themselves in the foot with all the garbage leagues they created. Those running the show should be fired and banned for life for just being complete morons. The best they can do now is turn their regional and national platforms over to the GA or ECNL and turn off the lights.
Agree with VolkP19. The teams in the ECNL regional league in chicagoland besides Eclipse are libertyville, chicago inter, evolution, and a host of other teams that used to be apart of premier I of MWC in USYS. Indiana Elite ENCRL has taken or "borrowed" some players from Chicago Fire Juniors South and other clubs so players can be rostered as discovery players and play with their own teams in USYS, so I'm not sure midwest conference is as strong or desirable now a days if there are so many ECNRL teams in the chicagoland area. Looking at U14G for Midwest this spring, there's just Galaxy (which is now GA?), Evolution, and Crystal lake Force (which is a maybe ECNRL?). USYS should dump midwest conference and E64, but not sure where rising teams out of IWSL or state premiership go if not in ECNRL or GA leagues. Even FC United puts their pre-academy red team in MWC premier II for U14G. I can't see right now above that since most girls are playing HS soccer if placed in USYS leagues.
Rockford Raptors have also announced a partnership with Crystal Lake Force. Apparently the Raptors ECNL team will train once a week at Lippold in Crystal Lake in an attempt to draw players from a bit east of Rockford. There's also a rumor that both 1974 and Inter will get a full ECNL badge and the Midwest Conference will then be split into two divisions of 8 teams each.
Consider Inter all but locked in. Evolution has had a lot behind the scenes go on that have left ECNL leaders unimpressed. Haven't heard either way about 1974
Just curious what you are referring to regarding Evolution? *This in no way a defensive question, just curious*
I am hearing it's Libertyville - with a likely announcement this week. If Inter also gets an ECNL badge then you have 4 ECNL clubs right there - good news IMO. Maybe Evo gets into the GA?
I don’t know much about evolution as a club, but considering what ECNL puts up with eclipse I would be hard pressed to think of anything evolution would say that would leave the organization unimpressed . Any insights you can share here on the evolution side?
Probably should used the words off the field. Difficulties in scheduling (Although Rockford is by far worse than them), coaches and directors not on the same page, Evolution has not prioritized ECNL over other of their programming, and there was a crazy situation where Evolution asked a different club to play their Regional League games so Evolution wouldn't have to because someone somewhere thought that would be a good idea. That almost got then kicked out.
If that's the case then yes they could be in deep shit. For clarity, evolution asked another team from another state to play it's RL games it didn't want to because of travel/scheduling. How they even thought they could pull it off since all the players are rostered at the start of the season is beyond me.
So, is it finally safe to say (in the alphabet soup of chicagoland) that at least ECNRL is a "higher" or more competitive program that MWC league at this point? I know there's always discussion on whether GA or ECNL is better around here, and I know the depends on the TEAM and YEAR at this point, but if looking for a more competitive program, can ECNRL move above MWC? I'm including indiana Elite (Indiana Fire I think is too far) as part of Chicagoland ECNRL options,
Does it really matter? But if it does: some of the ECNRL teams play in both ECNRL and MWC leagues already. It does depend how the upcoming ECNL expansion goes as well, if Libertyville and Inter both get invited then what does that make ECNRL? A pretty watered down B league, at least MCW still has clubs top teams registered.
I would love to see ECRL suck out all the Prem 1 and Prem 2 major teams/clubs and leave USYS with a pile of shit in their hands. They certainly deserve it. The sad thing is that USYS will still promote the hell out of it - even after it's filled with B and C teams. The key thing IMO is that ECRL should be team exclusive - not club exclusive. If they cannot manage that then we'll just had a watered down teired 2 level (ECRL/MWC) just like we do at the top woth GA/ECNL.
Problem with that is it hurts those exceptional teams from average clubs that earn their way into MWC/National League or the independent team that does the same. ECNL/GA is club based so excludes those situations .
But that's why I stated that RL should be team exclusive - not club exclusive. Right now it's doing to those teams exactly what you say and that's terrible IMO.
Sorry I missed that. I don’t see the ECNL going that route because the appeal of having all your teams playing in the same location each weekend.
Agreed but if there is a plan to take on the MCW they should at least allow at the RL level, teams to participate. Maybe lets say... Invite all Prem 1 champions to play in the RL. Ignore the club v club division altogether - let that implode on itself.
I think you would get push back from the current clubs that are in RL as the format is much more desirable. If they allowed individual teams, they would need to mandate locations for all the games to make it work.