Are the Force really deserving of anything? They seem to be setting the bar at dominating the Presidents Cup.
I'm thinking more in terms of stablizing the area. There are many clubs and most are really not great. - Inferno - Force - Defenders - FCX In the recent past we also had... - Sockers - Alliance - Stamford Bridge - Vipers - Lightning - Heat When Sockers came out this way - acquiring Magic North, the goal was to settle the area with quality soccer. The age changed forced Vipers and Lightning to merge as NW United. Business reasons saw Alliance/Stamford Bridge come down to one - which later disapeared when one owner left for Force and the remaining owner could not keep it together. Some kids went to Force - others to Inferno. Covid killed Sockers. Defenders have been going out of business for 20 years and now funnel all u13 and up to Force. Heat became part of Force and now FCX have some sort of strange relationship at the IWSL, YSSL level with Raptors. Inferno also has a relationship with Raptors - as does Force. I'm thinking quantity and resources - not necessarily quality - although Force has had some stong teams above Presidents Cup play and some teams that played Presidents Cup but also did well in Prem 2 and other tourneys. All that said - for current players in the area - Rockford, FCU, Sockers and Eclipse are just far too far away. And since it seems that we are handing out RL badges like it's no ones business, it would seem that Force would be a good option that would hep to build the largets program out this way already. One which has resources and some decent teams.
It is my understanding that a club must be able to field ECNL RL teams as well as a ECNL National teams.
I am curious to see how Chicago Inter will do with fielding ECNL RL teams. Every time my daughters team played against any of their teams they had shorter rosters. It's amazing they do what they do with the number of players they have honestly.
It seemed it was hard for a lot of teams in the Midwest to field RL teams. Eclipse didn’t have one so girls from Oakbrook and North played for RL. Liverpool had 8 ECNL girls on the field. You can always tell because the players have tape over their badge. RL competition is terrible. With that being said, with more teams moving to GA/ECNL, USYS is going to be terrible.
I didn't understand what you meant when I first read this, but now that I've been poking around more, I get it, and it makes no sense. RICHMOND, Va. (April 14, 2023) – The ECNL Boys is thrilled to announce the addition of 37 new clubs to the ECNL Boys Regional League, as well as the formation of five new ECNL Regional Leagues across the country for the 2023-24 season. The creation of the ECNL Regional League – Far West, ECNL Regional League – Mid-America, ECNL Regional League – Midwest, ECNL Regional League – Mountain, and ECNL Regional League – North Atlantic are part of a multi-year strategy to create a robust ECNL national competition pyramid. ECNL Regional League – Midwest: The formation of the ECNL Regional League – Midwest will serve the deep player pools of member clubs in the ECNL Midwest Conference. Clubs: Chicago Magic (Highland Park, IL); FC Pride (Indianapolis, IN); FC Wisconsin (Germantown, WI); Indiana Elite (Crown Point, IN); Rockford Raptors (Rockford, IL) Then, less than a month later... The ECNL Boys is excited to announce the formation of two new ECNL Regional Leagues, as well as the addition of multiple new clubs across the country for the 2023-24 season. This fall will mark the inaugural season for the ECNL Boys Regional League – Chicago Metro, a first-team platform operating in parallel to the recently announced ECNL Boys Regional League – Midwest. Additionally, a new North Division of the ECNL Boys Regional League – Heartland will begin in the middle of America, and a major new pathway will be created in California through the establishment of the ECNL Boys Regional League – NorCal. ECNL Regional League – Chicago Metro The ECNL Regional League Chicago Metro is being formed with five clubs eyeing a pathway toward consideration for ECNL Boys in the future. The league will initially include clubs in Indiana and Illinois, but will expand rapidly. The first teams from Chicago City SC, Chicago Inter [(Lockport/New Lenox, IL)], FC 1974 Libertyville, FORCE [(Crystal Lake, IL)], and Hoosier FC [Noblesville, IN)] will launch the ECNL Regional League Chicago Metro with additional clubs to be announced in the coming weeks. Why split the states into two groups? Indiana: 3 teams Illinois: 6 teams Wisconsin: 1 team If they combined these ten teams into one league it would be a simple 18 game season.
My kid... queen of slide tackling, can't even control herself on turf! I only post this for the sole purpose that my old soccer mate said this... "That one's gonna stick to the bed sheet!" Brought back memories.
I'm surprised this thread is not more active. Major players fleeing from both eclipse and fcu as "new options" and some already existing options finally look more appealing than the old guard. Lots of movement (as was expected). Heard that FCU gave the GA an earful about letting Galaxy into the mix. Also heard their pleas fell on deaf ears.
I feel the same way. Maybe with High School season ending this thread will start getting good again. Always the best entertainment
So many rumors. I actually heard the opposite: FCU was for galaxy to limit travel for their families but with Socker's girls program being a complete mess at the current time, they were upset that Galaxy might pull from them based on location. Have heard Eclipse North (B Team) girls are all finding new homes but the top Eclipse teams aren't losing anyone of consequence since those teams are so strong to begin with. On the girls side Libertyville and Evolution are both betting the farms that they will be the next invite in a year, but I also heard ECNL isn't likely going to appoint another club for a few years if that as the market already has 3 and they are encouraging regional clubs to form an alliance with the national league clubs to share players. Lots of rumors swirling and likely half are just BS..
That is interesting about FCU and Galaxy considering they will be in different conferences and won't likely be competing against one another unless it is a "friendly". The Mid-America conference next year will be Cincinnati CUP, FC United, Indy Premier, Lexington, Michigan Jags, Nationals Blue, Nationals Grey, and Sockers. The all-new MidWest Conference will be Central Illinois United, Galaxy, Tonka, Salvo, SC Wave, VSA, Omaha, and Kansas Rush. FCU fought this realignment tooth and nail. They received the concession that the new Mid-America would have four guaranteed playoff spots, so FCU is banking that with CUP and Nationals Blue most likely to have the top spots, they will be able to snag one of the next two on a fairly regular basis. Four teams in Illinois split among two conferences. As for the "top eclipse teams". the 2007's are losing probably their best player to a move out of state and the GA.
Wow, FCU is right to be made about that divisional change. A founding member is really getting a lousy draw facing Cup and Nationals multiple times per year, while a new member Galaxy is probably landing the pole position in that new division as that collection of teams is just not very intimidating. Very strange decision given that the geography isn’t all that different between the two - maybe an extra hour on average. Eclipse 2007 looks to be a weaker team on a relative basis compared to other ages, so I’m sure that loss will hurt, but relocation certainly a valid reason for anyone to make a move. The younger ages groups have largely remained intact as far as starters go.
I hadn't heard or seen that about the conference realignment in the GA. If I was a parent who didn't have to play Nationals or Cup I'd be a bit salty, as they are the perennial powers that give the GA it's strength and the reason to play vs top competition. The Midwest conference looks not great on paper with four of the eight teams directly from Conference Prem 1, another two being from RL, and two being original GA teams. I wonder why the split? Also, I had my first negative encounter with Eclipse this weekend. Not the fault of parents, but 3 of our RL teams had to make up games from fall that were cancelled. Instead of bringing their respective RL teams, they brought their top ECNL teams to get some warm-up minutes for their girls with playoffs right around the corner. Obviously it was a murder, people we're not happy.
My understanding is that they did not have dedicated RL teams. They sent ECNL players from the North or the select to almost every game and in some cases the full select team.
I think this depended on how many kids they had in each age group, but there are definitely some regional-only players. Who knows for sure but some of that experience could be from less serious players losing interest at the end of a long season/ players being unavailable as school was finished/ or a less important game in general. Friends at several clubs were complaining that game attendance really fell off at the end, and they were looking for any available bodies to play games. Regardless of why it happened I think we can agree that lopsided games aren’t good for anyone, so I understand the frustration.
I'm curious about this, because people were pretty positive that they had girls for their age group RL teams, but not enough to fill a full team. In which case some ECNL girls would help out. Which is very common amongst many teams in the league. Hell, it's what our club does, groups of 4-5 girls help with each RL game to make sure they have numbers. It's kind of a wink and a nod acknowledgement that a number of girls will help out fill the team, but not the whole ECNL team.
This is fairly accurate. Graduations, schools ending, vacations, highschool playoffs.... There are a number of reasons as to why some girls couldn't make it, on both sides. The main gripe was that a couple our RL teams are pretty terrible, and eclipse brought ECNL teams that are legitimately going to playoffs with the prospect of contending nationally to play. It was just a bad look, and for the '10 and '08 girls couldn't have been that productive.
I think eclipse definitely had players that were assigned to the RL level but I do not think they had enough kids for a full team of RL only players. The North team was pretty much RL level talent wise.
Received it from a parent with a player in the GA outside of Chicago. Unlike FCU, some GA programs do share information with parents rather than waiting for news to show up on twitter.
So different names crowned as state champions. I am sure the younger teams will get picked by the MLS Next clubs. U13 - Ponys FC U14 - Chicago Rogue U15- Galaxy U16- Galaxy U17 - Chicago Rogue U18- Raiders U19- Central Illinois United
Remember when Raiders had some solid teams on the boys side. What the hell is Chicago Rogue - need to look that one up...