The point is that none of the technical leadership of the ECNL are women. All of those roles are administrative with the possible exception of the commish but she follows the direction of the executive board which are all men. The DA is literally the opposite. It has women all technical positions of the girls DA from national technical director, national and regional club development managers, to national and regional scouting directors. It only has men in administrative and operational roles. But once again you have to see thru ECNL's marketing BS to figure this out.
I'd give SoCal ECNL one good club plus one team: Slammers and SoCal Blues U19 team. Compared to the multitude in the DA: SD Surf, Legends, Beach, and a couple of teams from Real SoCal, LA Galaxy, the other SC Blues teams, LA Galaxy SD...
Call it BS if you want. It's the truth. You have Slammers and there 2nd team and if you want to go in Norcal you have solid ECNL teams like Mustangs, San Juan, Santa Rose just to a a few. MLVA, Davis and Marin are ok too. Its not about DA or ECNL , just naming top team in the region man. I hate Cool Aid!
I just asked a question. Obviously, many kool aid drinkers on this forum. I'll stay over in Socal 90% of the time. I wanted to see what all the "Big Soccer" forum was about.
Please name some good ECNL clubs in Socal besides LAFC Slammers and Blues please? Better yet, name some good teams?
Start with 03's, 04's and 05's in Socal Please. Hell you can take a stab in Northern California if you're up for it.
I came here asking a question and you told me not to piss people off. What flavor are you hooked on dude? Follow me over here too. Weirdo!!!
Nocal but moved down to Socal 3 years ago. My opinion was I saw better ECNL teams in Norcal and better GDA teams in Socal.
Easy man! I was just joking with you about pissing people off. People don't care for you on the other forums maybe because you speak your mind. I respect that. I respect you and MacDre's opinion.LOL
I like that better than "name me some good teams." Lot's of "good teams" in socal and all over the country. Right now, Socal is watered down product of good teams with some world class players and some Elite players sprinkled in there. My dd old old team, before stupid age change was #1 in Socal....lol! ECNL only had 8 or 9 teams in SW. Scores were like 1-0 1-1 or 1-2. I can't speak much about 05s at all. No interest in that age group. 04s, yes, right down my ally. 03s, not much info except to say my dd old team is #1 in Socal imo. The better teams 1-5 are in that 03 G D A league. Beach, Legends and Blues very strong. 04 Socal is tough to call. The bottom 04 GDA are weak at best. Three teams give up hat tricks to all the star forwards in socal every weekend. 0-9, 0-8, 0-7. These goats are licking their chops. Four goals a game? You see, Socal play no "hard" defense like they do in Jersey. The other teams give up 3.5 goals a game. The top two two defensive socal gda teams are Pats and Surf. All the other GDA teams not very good at defense. I wonder why? ECNL is not like that all all. My dd and I have witnessed both leagues first hand. The better of the best players players which=better club I guess is at the GDA slightly. Not by much and I think if you took top 4 socal teams from each league you would have the #1 league in the country. ECNL coaches are getting more calls to join their team for next year then the other way around. I think we will see some sort of American League (ECNL) vs National League (GDA) next year. Meaning, inter league games. U16 will be very competitive if this happens. Last, Nocal has the best 04 team possession wise. Plus, their ECNL teams are a little better, minus LAFC. Slammers, Blues and Strikers will give you a fight and will some other teams I like. Watch out for Strikers next year.
I think you are agreeing with me on most post except for the the 03 ECNL/GDA teams. Yes GDA is better in the 04 age group but your right.. Socal players are more spread out than the other states. 05 GDA age group has much much stronger teams in Socal. LAFC Slammers and Surf Rules Socal and Mustangs and Thorns rule in Norcal IMO.
And I too am hoping for some sort of inter-league play. That would make perfect sense for all players. Like MLB- you play inter-league games. Hopefully the ego's of Presidents and coaches and step aside and help develop this girls side of soccer because if you haven't noticed, other countries are catching up to us.
Excellent takes. Two leagues to choose from so all should be happy. I say also we play international rules when we go head to head. That would be a good give from ECNL.
Honestly, my solution would involve dropping the bottom out of both platforms and allowing them more flexibility to schedule inter-regional games within their platforms. Let SoCal schedule games against NorCal in the ECNL. Let Southeast schedule games with Texas and Mid-Atlantic in the DA. You'd be able to eliminate most of the worthless games against perennial strugglers. It's those strugglers in both platforms that water them down. I think we should still keep the leagues separate. I think you'd find with cross-platform games you'd get an even more unstable landscape. Some regions might embrace it while others won't. Now the door opens for more operational challenges. For example, in the DA you're basically scheduled at least one game per week over the course of 10 months where the climate allows. How do you fit in cross platform games without altering that schedule, thus changing the schedule for other clubs who may not be able to get a crossover game and be left with an open weekend (which no one wants)? Anyone who's been in an old-school scheduling meeting or conversation knows how frustrating it is when you get the phone call, "Hey we have to move that game because we have another one/we have a tournament." Nightmare. Both in terms of logistics and player development because of inconsistent frequency of matches. Just IMHO. The real solution would be for more parents to put aside their egos and get over the whole "who's the best?" conversation. Embrace both platforms for what they are: different. Find the one that appeals most to your players wants and needs. Reality is you get college soccer from both.
Excellent takes. I agree. I was for the GDA before it was announced. I jumped right in. Then I jumped out and went ECNL and had a lot of ego against GDA. I'm old school. I like good old competition. Sorry for being so competitive. I'm stuck in my house in Laguna and were all on locked down. No one goes out this week. Curve must come down in Socal. Hope is around the corner I believe
I totally agree with your first point, but your solution towards the end was lost on me. How is it that parents are supposed to eliminate the bottom dwellers and allow inter-league play? You currently have two leagues that both think they are best, but are scared to play each other. The one good thing this virus *may* bring us, is to give parents the courage to get off their collective asses and start complaining about all the unnecessary travel. The best way to cut down on travel... allow inter-league play.