I was really disappointed to see the Illinois high school girls final be played this way (O’Falllon vs Naperville North). basically kick ball the entire game.
Had a little time to kill and looked up FCU class of 25 commits and Galaxy class of 26 commits. Not sure too many bottom half of ECNL conference teams could match their recruiting classes. Galaxy: TCU Tennessee Georgia Purdue Marquette (x2) Wisconsin SIUE FCU: Ohio State Duke Northwestern Colorado Minnesota (x2) Utah (x2) DePaul Both had numerous other D1 and high academic D3 commits as well but those were some of the names that stood out to me.
Is it common for clubs to have D1 coaches, coaching their teams? NSU has the University of Milwaukee’s head women’s coach, coaching a team. Both of NSU’s D1 recruits went to UWM. EBU just announced the assistant coach is coaching a team too.
My daughter’s previous coach always said his job was to keep the girls from playing high school soccer so they can play college soccer.
In my opinion it depends. ECNL teams in the mid to lower portion of the conference, do manage to put out a number of good recruits, particularly if they are the leading club in their area. For instance, Minnesota Thunder Academy (MTA) and Gretna do well, as do others. I put in the last published by each club, pretty solid given smaller metro areas. However, I do agree, clubs like Liverpool, Inter, Rockford, SLSG-Green face significant challenges due to the presence of multiple teams with better “brands” in a large metropolitan areas. This competition leads to a wider variance in their college recruitment classes (some years good & others so-so). In Chicago, in my opinion, FCU is widely recognized as top tier club, probably right after Eclipse for girls development, so having many top level recruits should be expected. Time will tell with Galaxy. Their 2008 class was impressive and I suspect they may still have a few solid high school recruiting classes coming. However their pipeline for younger players starting with 2012 seems to be under pressure from ECNL teams like Inter and Eclipse. So I’m not sure it’s sustainable .. —- Minnesota Thunder Academy 2024 Graduates 1 x university of Wisconsin- Milwaukee 1 x Norte Dame 2 x university of Minnesota 1 x university of Akron 1 x University of Wisconsin- Madison 2 x Army West Point 1 x University of North Carolina- Charlotte 1 x Grand Valley State Gretna Class of 2025 1 x Oklahoma State 3 x University of Nebraska- Omaha 2 x University of Nebraska 2 x South Dakota State 1 x Creighton 1 x University of North Alabama
The real question is are you better off with a middling post in this thread or a top post in one of the many threads with only 2 or 3 pages of comments? And another q—do you think this thread should have a second tier sister thread and pro/rel, where the best comments from that thread get promoted to here, and the worst posts here get relegated to the other thread?
USYS Midwest Regionals are not going great for Illinois teams. I guess that is a byproduct of the increased ECNL/GA opportunities in the area.
Yeah, I was following that myself, and typically root for the non GA/ECNL underdog clubs. North Shore FC has a pretty solid 2011 group, but played poorly in the semis and got sent packing. But then somehow managed to win the Midwest National Cup Regionals. 2 of their players are leaving to Eclipse, and their 2012 goalie is joining the FCU group, which made it to the finals against CUP in Cali.
I would argue that it is equally a result of USYS creating multiple leagues that are all over the place - all in the name of $$$.
I think all those teams still compete in the national championship series. It was not too long ago that Eclipse and Sockers were the only clubs with national platforms on the girls side so FC United, Inter, NSA, Galaxy, Team Chicago, etc… were dominating USYS with the players that were slightly below the ECNL level. Now that talent is playing at the other clubs in GA or ECNL or in the regional leagues for those competitions instead of USYS.
Yes but the mess in USYS mean that many "best of the rest" teams are competing in different leagues which means the competition is watered down and not able to compete against other teams from across the nation/region as well.
Good start locally to the series of National Championships https://www.soccerwire.com/news/fc-...ture-first-two-girls-academy-national-titles/
The new GA conference for the area is pretty stacked at now u14. FCU wins the GA national championship Elmbrook wins USYS Regionals and now on to nationals Midwest united (was ECNL now GA) won the ECNL Midwest Division Jags beat and tied CUP who was a national semifinalist Galaxy always dangerous
Some would agree with you. Most wouldn't. At the 2011G level, it looks like GA Midwest East starts out pretty comparable to ECNL Midwest. (GA Midwest West is miles away). But then by the time you get to the 2009G level, you see that much of the talent has already moved over to ECNL and the teams are significantly stronger.
I If you did 2012s, especially taking Midwest away from ECNL and adding them to GA it would stack up pretty well. At one point the number one team in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, KY and Wisconsin were GA or soon to be GA (Michigan could be either Midwest or Jags and WI would be Elmbrook) and number 2 in Missouri. I think the point is that GA is closer (not equal) to ECNL in the Midwest than most parts of the world. And it may be worth noting that there was one ECNL club when the 07/08/09 were youth players deciding to play so it goes to reason that those age groups at Eclipse would be dominate. It is a different landscape the last two years with dilution of talent so the clubs that develop and not aggregate will come up the winners in all likelihood. Let’s see where the 11/12/13s are in 3 years and see if the trend line doesnt revert to the mean.
Here's what it looks like. 2012G is a similar story to 2011G; GA Midwest East is relatively close to ECNL (West isn't). Yes - the question is what will this look like when they are 3 or 4 years older - will it look more like how 2009G looks now, or will it instead look more like how 2012G looks now.
Former Loyola coach Bimbi was named as one of the GA coaches for FCU. Very surprised by this addition. Any idea as to why a D1 coach is coaching GA?
Seems like you answered your own question when you said he was the former Loyola coach. Likely needs a job and doesn’t want relocate. Also FCU probably pays better than a D1 assistant.
I had a question along those lines, too as I saw that North Shore United has UWM's current Head Women's Coach, coaching its U19s. He has an impressive coaching resume - former head coach of the University of California, Berkeley (where he recruited Alex Morgan ) and ASU and had the winningest record at both schools. So I don't think it's just that he needs a job. I've seen some other announcements from other clubs having assistant D1 Coaches also coach club teams. Wondering if this is a recruiting hack. Coaches don't have to use the University's recruiting budget to go to events, and they can scout league games and showcases on the Club's expense.
I think Elite SC did this with Brian McBride. Not so sure he was actually coaching. In a funny twist - his kids started off at Sockers where we saw him often.
His daughter is on the FCU 2011 GA team. Congratulations to all these talented players, but especially proud of a one in particular! Way to go @Lena_Bimbi pic.twitter.com/HvGHBVJKgQ— Barry Bimbi (@barry_bimbi) June 7, 2025