The ECNL Sales Pitch - Fact or Fiction

[perspective]

But if the name of the game is to get recruited, then is this ECNL team worth it? Do you have a stuttering problem perspective?

Worth it? In what way? A different poster answered your question above. I personally don't know. I don't know the specifics of each individual kid on that team. Do you? They're in CT right? I would assume that a decent % of the parents on that team are fairly educated. They've probably been in the club soccer scene for a number of years. Why would I, or you, or anyone else presume to know what is best for them or if they have made the best decisions available to them?

[Unregistered]

Yes, even soccerplus gets kids to college programs. I'm sure you can see them on their website. The dirty little secret is that colleges recruit players not teams. And that it what has rattled the old guard so much, as a player can get recruited from so called lesser teams. Having watched a lot of ecnl teams, I can tell you the difference between the top teams and the doormats is the roster depth. The no re entry in a half rule really hurts some teams. Starting lineups throughout are typically pretty even. Sorry if this not the answer you are looking for.

Sorry but when your team is 0-14-2 and has a -42 goals against you can't show well when it is that one sided. You can't tell me the Soccer plus U14 and 15 starting line ups are "pretty even" with the teams they are playing. Their U13 team is 0-12-2 with a -33 GD. Their 13, 14,15, 16 and 18's have a grand total of 1 win. The 17's are 2-3. Overall club record is 3-33.

How bout we admit that a true weakness of ECNL is that it is club based and many, many clubs aren't competitive at all age groups and some clubs are hardly competitive at all - Scorps and Soccer Plus come to mind. No grudge against them, they have a great facility, but let's be honest if we are going to talk about it all.

Nothing wrong with that, but let's be real and admit to the truth.

[Unregistered]

When both clubs we accepted into the ECNL the Scorpions had 2 GREAT teams and several regional/national players. Keith left and then so did the wins for Scorpions. The only reason Soccerplus was accepted was Tony D was in charge of the club. Now he is gone and the club has no chance.

NEFC has proven they can compete with the ECNL teams but they will never get a shot in the league. Period!!!

[Unregistered]

When both clubs we accepted into the ECNL the Scorpions had 2 GREAT teams and several regional/national players. Keith left and then so did the wins for Scorpions. The only reason Soccerplus was accepted was Tony D was in charge of the club. Now he is gone and the club has no chance.

NEFC has proven they can compete with the ECNL teams but they will never get a shot in the league. Period!!!

Very true. ECNL sill has to be considered the top league, but it has flaws I hope they move to correct. NPL is still too spread out and Region 1 is watered down more each year.

[Unregistered]

When both clubs we accepted into the ECNL the Scorpions had 2 GREAT teams and several regional/national players. Keith left and then so did the wins for Scorpions. The only reason Soccerplus was accepted was Tony D was in charge of the club. Now he is gone and the club has no chance.

NEFC has proven they can compete with the ECNL teams but they will never get a shot in the league. Period!!!

NEFC should be in ECNL?... Is that your point?

[Unregistered]

OMG. My D is among the better players on one of the top teams in the state--but not with an ECNL club. Maybe we'd better try to move to a certain ECNL club to confirm just how good she really is, because almost all the best players are already there. If she's judged to be good enough, they might make room for her. Yet, somehow, there are top teams in the state at a certain non-ECNL club. But over $100,000 might possibly be at stake, and no non-ECNL path is feasible, even though good D1 commitments are obviously being had via other paths. LOL

Good D1 commits are being had via other paths but MORE good D1 commits are being had thru ECNL. Look at the NEFC u17 elite team. They have basically disappeared. Are they in hiding or have they decided not to play any MA teams this year so they cannot be judged by the outcome.

[Unregistered]

Good D1 commits are being had via other paths but MORE good D1 commits are being had thru ECNL....

Is this controversial? What's your point? The equivalent could also be said about X versus Y versus Z ECNL club. Anyway, what does this have to do with expected outcomes for any particular kid, regardless of the leagues in question?

[Unregistered]

Is this controversial? What's your point? The equivalent could also be said about X versus Y versus Z ECNL club. Anyway, what does this have to do with expected outcomes for any particular kid, regardless of the leagues in question?

This team is at the prime recruiting age but how can they be watched by colleges if they are not playing top teams in the region. They didn't even play in their own clubs tournament last month. What tournaments are in their future? Their club is hurting them by hiding them.

[Unregistered]

This team is at the prime recruiting age but how can they be watched by colleges if they are not playing top teams in the region. They didn't even play in their own clubs tournament last month. What tournaments are in their future? Their club is hurting them by hiding them.

They are playing in the NY NPL league? Currently in 8th place out of 12 teams but have only let in 2 goals. Why NY? Better teams or just less MA exposure? Couldnt be for better competition because they couldn't even beat teams in their own backyard in MA.

[Unregistered]

When both clubs we accepted into the ECNL the Scorpions had 2 GREAT teams and several regional/national players. Keith left and then so did the wins for Scorpions. The only reason Soccerplus was accepted was Tony D was in charge of the club. Now he is gone and the club has no chance.

NEFC has proven they can compete with the ECNL teams but they will never get a shot in the league. Period!!!

Fair enough, however there are other clubs that have a much better claim than this 5 year old club. Yardley and Braddock come to mind...

[Unregistered]

This team is at the prime recruiting age but how can they be watched by colleges if they are not playing top teams in the region. They didn't even play in their own clubs tournament last month. What tournaments are in their future? Their club is hurting them by hiding them.

If you are talking about NEFC GU17 they were in Las Vegas the weekend of their own tournament playing league games. Not even a NEFC parent, but check out the facts before you bash.

[Unregistered]

What are the benefits of playing in three separate leagues like the NEFC 17s are doing this year? I don't think I've seen a team do that before

[Unregistered]

Braddock Road and YMS are both very good clubs. I could see Braddock Road taking Va. Rush's stop if they drop out but the Northeast region is set at 12 teams and doubt any movement in this area for a few years to come.

[Unregistered]

Sorry but when your team is 0-14-2 and has a -42 goals against you can't show well when it is that one sided. You can't tell me the Soccer plus U14 and 15 starting line ups are "pretty even" with the teams they are playing. Their U13 team is 0-12-2 with a -33 GD. Their 13, 14,15, 16 and 18's have a grand total of 1 win. The 17's are 2-3. Overall club record is 3-33.

How bout we admit that a true weakness of ECNL is that it is club based and many, many clubs aren't competitive at all age groups and some clubs are hardly competitive at all - Scorps and Soccer Plus come to mind. No grudge against them, they have a great facility, but let's be honest if we are going to talk about it all.

Nothing wrong with that, but let's be real and admit to the truth.

But would they ever take away spots from existing clubs? DAP has from time to time aka Beachside "merging" with SouthCentral (which was essentially a takeover). I agree that for ECNL to truly be elite some clubs should be weeded out from time to time, but will it ever happen?

Clearly the ECNL badge has a sufficient enough draw, even for weak teams like S+. It's the only reason I can think of for them to keep full rosters. My daughter would not want to play on a team like that - she's too competitive.

[Unregistered]

NEFC should be in ECNL?... Is that your point?

The only people who actually want NEFC in the ECNL are the ECNL people. Since NEFC has factually become the regional presence that they have become the ECNL actually NEEDS NEFC to be in their league if they want to have any shot at others continuing to believing their marketing hype that they sit at the top of the youth soccer world. The ECNL's problem is NEFC has clearly figured out that to date THEY haven't needed the ECNL to become a strong regional presence and are not likely to just alter their course because a spot opens up. If you have been following them at all you would know that they are actually betting that the NPL is going to end up being the top of they youth soccer pyramid.

Whether a club publishes their commitment lists or not is really a philosophical issue that not every club agrees with so there are very few conclusions that can be drawn from one club's commitment list, let alone judging an entire league. A big issue that the ECNL crowd never seems to grasp is the non-ECNL clubs, NEFC being a prime example, just don't subscribe to the same belief system when it comes down to recruiting that they do and so their parents don't value a trip to San Diego in the same way that an ECNL parent does. The non-ECNL clubs like NEFC simply approach recruiting in a more targeted way and so their parents just don't believe that sort of trip is necessary in order for their player to end up where they want to go. None of the approaches to recruiting are actually wrong because they all do work.

When you boil all of the rhetoric down there really is no difference between where an ECNL player and non-ECNL player ends up in college because functionally recruiting all comes down to the level of the player's talent. If a club team's roster is comprised of all low level D1 and D3 players pointing to a list of commitments that shows those players going to low level D1 and D3 soccer programs doesn't say anything at all about the quality of the league the team plays in because truthfully those exact sorts of results are being produced by all of the leagues at this point. Those that think that the other leagues are not producing the exact same results simply don't understand the levels of talent in those other leagues. None of the leagues have cornered the talent market and the truth is the talent is pretty evenly dispersed at this point.