Very accurate. If you want your kid to be on the top team individual is absolutely essential. The boys all train together so training with boys on the top team makes you better, usually. I think if the drive is not too much to go earlier. but if you are receiving good training and good coaching stay one more year. Batata like his teams basically .500 winning percentage. Not too good to be cocky and arrogant not too bad to have no confidence.
This is super helpful and much appreciated! My son is currently playing 9v9 and getting ample playing time (there are only 12 on his roster). How many do Sockers or FCU roster on a team for a game/tournament? Timing-wise, does it make a difference to move/tryout at 12U or 13U with the goal of improving his chances for the MLS Next track? Also, if my son's goal is to play college D1 soccer, will he get looks at these organizations' second and/or third teams when he's older? Finally, where does Chicago Magic stack up? I appreciate all the feedback - this is all new to us.
If your kid is playing high level YSSL or NISL you are in a good place. Level 1 or 2. I do not know much about u12 at these clubs. U13 is the first MLSNext level. I would try out at both clubs and even the Fire. They all give preference to their players already in the club, but if good enough you will get offered a spot. Sockers offer less spots for MLSNExt as it gives them more options to rotate players up. I did not see more than 3 or 4 get rotated onto MLSNext team. FCU will offer roster spots on MLSNext to about 20-22 players with only 18 able to play any given game. The Magic being ECNL is a slightly lower level but not a bad option either. When I look back at all the travel for u13 i feel i was crazy to do it, but it all worked out. Whatever you decide will be just fine, just make sure it is the kids dream and not yours and not the kid trying to make you happy living your dream or in 2-3 years they may just want to quit.
Eclipse 2009's going 0-2 in STL this weekend is not something I had on my bingo card. ECNL Midwest looks to be evolving.
Illinois Girls ECNL in general looks to be having a rough go early in the year, with the exception of a few individual teams at individual ages. Most are mid to lower half of their group. Eclipse still seems to be strongest with Inter and Rockford following in that order. Small sample size and the Minnesota teams haven't started their club seasons yet.
Yep - seems to be the case. Right now Eclipse is significantly less strong than it has been previously, showing at 53rd nationally. But it's still the #1 rated club in IL (by game performance).
Looks like Eclipse is visiting Rockford tomorrow night for girls 10's through 06/07's. Will be interesting to see if the gap between the two is shrinking.
Based on what I am seeing, it sure looks like Eclipse is coming back to the pack. This is probably the early stages of parody between the ecnl clubs in the Chicagoland area. The hope is that all 3 do well and show the ecnl that Chicago is ready for another club. At this point it seems like Galaxy is the no brainer.
I agree that the three teams in the Chicago area are likely becoming more evenly matched. While each club might have standout age groups, the overall talent seems to be leveling out. I see a lot of potential for an ECNL team in northern Chicago. Those south of the city already have options like Eclipse and Inter, though I understand the skepticism surrounding Eclipse—believe me, I get it. One challenge in Chicago, as I see it, is that talent doesn’t seem to consolidate effectively at ECNL clubs. Many players or their parents lack the confidence to switch teams for ECNL opportunities. Instead, they tend to stick with their current club, hoping it will eventually qualify for the ECNL, or they wait to see what their existing club can offer for college recruitment. The truth is, if you truly believe you are among the top 11 players for an ECNL team, you should pursue a spot at Inter, Eclipse, or Rockford. In many states, and even here, I know families who drive an hour or more each way just for their child to compete in the ECNL. If more players and parents adopted this mindset, all three ECNL clubs in the area would become significantly stronger.
The problem with that is that they need a North Shore ECNL team - or in the general area. Maybe 1974 gets that and Galaxy gets RL - but I'm not sure if playing RL is worth moving out of GA for Galaxy. I do agree Galaxy is by far the most valuable club right now that makes sense. I just do not see how you have Evo as an RL and then Eclipse and Inter and Galaxy right their.
If the Chicagoland area was treated by ECNL like every other part of the country we might have 5-6 full ECNL clubs now. The strategic monopoly by RD and Eclipse has definitely benefitted Eclipse at the expense of ECNL expansion in the Chicago area. I just want to challenge the notion that the best players need to play in the ECNL to get recruited. The 07 FC United and 08 Galaxy team are great examples that college coaches don't give a crap what platform you are in, just that you can help them win games and keep their jobs. I think the majority of the 07 FC United team is committed and it seems like a new kid from the Galaxy 08 team is committing everyday. Based on social media posts the Galaxy 08 team is outpacing the ECNL clubs in the area in regards to commitments by a long shot.
This is the best year Galaxy has had from a recruitment perspective. It will be interesting to see if this success holds with the other age groups going forward. However, the statistics still show that across the leagues 75% of college commitments come from ECNL and 25% from GA. With the top GA teams moving to ECNL I suspect the overall percentage will stay about the same. Clearly Illinois could be an outlier in this because soccer is so messed up here.
I agree that the best players don’t have to play in the ECNL to get recognized and get top level offers. Nationals, Top Hat, and Galaxy 2008 team all show what you can do outside the ECNL assuming that you assemble the talent each year. My comment was only meant to say, if certain players and their families feel it necessary to compete in the ECNL they have options. In terms of ECNL in one metro, it’s hard because Chicago is a very large city, but we don’t have the soccer talent of a Houston or Dallas. Then population density in Southern California is much different. If the ECNL would add a team in northern Chicago that would give the region four including Rockford. New club covering the north, Eclispe I guess more central, then Inter south suburbs. Likely more than enough with Galaxy, Sockers and FCU all in the GA fighting for talent as well.
I am guessing if you pull club their club listing in the ECNL directory it has a northern address. However, good luck figuring out where their home fields and practice location is…
It seems like this would only cause the ECNL to be watered down which I can't imagine is what ECNL wants. None of the Chicagoland clubs are dominating in ECNL, are they? So why would it make sense to add another team?
It's still too early in both ECNL NL and ECNL RL to see how the Chicagoland teams will do in my opinion. - None of the Chicago NL teams look overly strong across the board at the moment. - At the RL level Evolution seems to be hitting rockbottom as they only have 1 win total in the league with all of their teams combined but they have not played many games this early on. - FC 1974 near the top but again, not many games to really base things on. ECNL added Heartland Cup (???) this season and they do have 3 teams that qualified with big numbers. One would think that if they got ECNL NL a lot of the FC United players may start to look that way. ECNL would be wise to try to leverage that as there is a lot of talent there. - Galaxy doesn't really make sense to add another club in the area even though they seem to have a lot of talent. It's too bad the GA put them in that conference. Does it come down to coaching? There has to be plenty of good coaches in the area at all of these clubs?
ECNL doesn't care about watered down talent. They care are their revenue. They would add 10 teams in the Chicagoland is there are enough customers.
Really wish they would take non-NL badged clubs out of the RL. A club’s top team competing in a league of second teams just doesn’t make sense to me. I will say though that the pecking order of the Heartland RL clubs have shifted pretty dramatically in one offseason. At least with the 08’s.
It seems that ECNL / ECNL-RL have gone in the other direction, even further, in some other geographies. ECNL-RL has officially been marketed as the top level of NPL, with promotion/relegation at the team level from NPL to RL. It doesn't matter whether the club is in ECNL or not, and the club doesn't have to support any number of age groups - it's done solely for that individual team. (one example)
2006/07 - Eclipse 1-0 Raptors 2008 - Eclipse 2-5 Raptors 2009 - Eclipse 1-2 Raptors 2010 - Eclipse 7-0 Raptors
Thx - by existing team ratings, Eclipse would still be predicted to win all 4. Seeing as instead they lost 2 of them, it sure supports the thinking that the pack is getting closer.
The 09 Rockford team seems to be well on their way to competing with anyone out there. The 08 Eclipse team is a total mystery, they have really good talent, a few already committed to D1 and probably a few more to come, not sure what's up there.