The new ECNL Regional Northeast League (ECRL2) has many clubs most people aren't familiar with, including me. It is somewhat interesting to look at the details and see what this league will look like, club by club (for girls' teams).
Some observations:
• The level of the teams varies widely, so there will be many lopsided matches. (It seems unlikely they would be able to split it into higher and lower brackets to have more competitive matches.)
• As expected, the level of competition in the northern group of 10 teams is generally below that of the existing Mass. RL teams (and of many New England DPL, Impact, and NECSL teams).
• The southern group's top 5 teams are more competitive.
• The MA/NH ECRL2 teams appear to be in the bottom half of the northern group of 10 ECRL2 teams, and in the bottom third of the group of 20.
• Quickstrike in NY and Bayside in RI seem to be the two strongest teams of the northern group, by a good margin.
• Manhattan FC and FC Copa seem to be the two strongest teams overall among the 20 teams.
• ECRL2 seems to have included 6 of the 8 Northeast Elite 64 girls clubs (but not Boston Bolts or Coppermine in MD).
• It's interesting that the Scorpions ECRL2 team is listed as based in Auburn (Worcester). They have a couple teams there now and seem to be expanding that geography.
There are surely some mistakes in here, and things that aren't known yet. But changes seem unlikely to change the conclusions one would draw about the leagues or the MA ECRL2 teams.
2007s
National Ranking / Mass. Ranking / Club / Location / Current Team
There is some discussion of the southern group of teams in this "Everyone gets ECRL Badge!" thread:
http://talking-soccer.com/TS4/forum/...79#post4463879
The lists are based on these assumptions. The biggest assumption may be that there might be two groups of 10 teams. MA/NH ECRL2 teams may still play and travel to all 20 of the clubs. So TBD what ECRL2 means for MA/NH teams in terms of travel and competition.
• These lists use 2007 teams as an example.
• The consensus was that the full league of 20 teams seemed too large and too far-flung to make sense, as the travel would be too much for the level of competition. So the lists group them into two groups of 10 - one group of New England, upstate NY, and northern NJ clubs; and the remaining teams in NYC, Long Island, and NJ.
• Teams are roughly listed by driving distance from Auburndale, MA, where the Pike crosses I-95. The first, northern group of ten is 0.5 to 3.5 hours of driving. The second, southern group is 3.5 to 5 hours of driving.
• Clubs with ECNL, ECRL, or GA teams would keep those teams. So the next team after those is listed below (Stars' 5th team, Scorpions' 3rd team, CFC's 3rd team). Other clubs are assumed to move their #1 team to ECRL2 (for example, from Elite 64 or USYS National League).
• For comparison, the rankings of the existing Mass. RL teams are shown.
• The rankings are the national rankings from the Soccer Rankings app. (Where available, Mass. rankings are included for reference.) Soccer Rankings uses actual games played, and includes the effect of tough schedules. It's the same general approach the MIAA uses for Power Rankings. It's a good general indicator. Small differences in rankings don't mean much. But big differences in rankings certainly do indicate the relative strength of teams.
Some observations:
• The level of the teams varies widely, so there will be many lopsided matches. (It seems unlikely they would be able to split it into higher and lower brackets to have more competitive matches.)
• As expected, the level of competition in the northern group of 10 teams is generally below that of the existing Mass. RL teams (and of many New England DPL, Impact, and NECSL teams).
• The southern group's top 5 teams are more competitive.
• The MA/NH ECRL2 teams appear to be in the bottom half of the northern group of 10 ECRL2 teams, and in the bottom third of the group of 20.
• Quickstrike in NY and Bayside in RI seem to be the two strongest teams of the northern group, by a good margin.
• Manhattan FC and FC Copa seem to be the two strongest teams overall among the 20 teams.
• ECRL2 seems to have included 6 of the 8 Northeast Elite 64 girls clubs (but not Boston Bolts or Coppermine in MD).
• It's interesting that the Scorpions ECRL2 team is listed as based in Auburn (Worcester). They have a couple teams there now and seem to be expanding that geography.
There are surely some mistakes in here, and things that aren't known yet. But changes seem unlikely to change the conclusions one would draw about the leagues or the MA ECRL2 teams.
2007s
National Ranking / Mass. Ranking / Club / Location / Current Team
| Current ECRL Teams (2007): | |||||||||
| 179 | 9 | Scorpions RL | |||||||
| 396 | 14 | FC Stars White RL | |||||||
| 537 | 18 | FC Stars Blue RL | |||||||
| Northern ECRL2 Group: | |||||||||
| 962 | 25 | FC Stars Sky Blue | Acton, MA | FC Stars Lancaster | |||||
| 1650 | 45 | Scorpions South SC | Auburn, MA | Metrowest EDP | |||||
| 277 | Bayside FC | East Providence, RI | Elite 64 | ||||||
| 502 | CFC North FC | Rocky Hill, CT | North Regional NL | ||||||
| 1229 | CT Rush Select | North Branford, CT | #1 team | ||||||
| 1062 | CFC Legacy | Stamford, CT | Wave | ||||||
| 549 | Albany Alleycats | Albany, NY | USYS NL | ||||||
| 196 | Quickstrike FC | New Windsor, NY | NL Blue | ||||||
| 552 | Force FC | Monroe & Woodbury, NY | EDP | ||||||
| 1020 | NJ Crush | Pompton Lakes, NJ | National | ||||||
| Southern ECRL2 Group: | |||||||||
| 148 | Manhattan SC | Manhattan, NY | Flash | ||||||
| 337 | New York Surf Soccer Club | Long Island, NY | Elite 64 | ||||||
| 1138 | SUSA Blue | Central Islip, NY | Carolina | ||||||
| 240 | Long Island Slammers | Stonybrook, NY | Smithtown Maroon | ||||||
| Sporting Club Premier | Sparta, NJ | ||||||||
| 132 | FC Copa Academy | Hillsborough, NJ | Elite 64 | ||||||
| 431 | Match Fit Academy Shore | Tinton Falls, NJ | Elite 64 | ||||||
| 783 | PSA Monmouth | Tinton Falls, NJ | Princeton SA Elite 64? | ||||||
| 668 | Next Level SA | Pennington, NJ | Elite | ||||||
| Lehigh Valley United RUSH | Allentown, PA | ||||||||
There is some discussion of the southern group of teams in this "Everyone gets ECRL Badge!" thread:
http://talking-soccer.com/TS4/forum/...79#post4463879
The lists are based on these assumptions. The biggest assumption may be that there might be two groups of 10 teams. MA/NH ECRL2 teams may still play and travel to all 20 of the clubs. So TBD what ECRL2 means for MA/NH teams in terms of travel and competition.
• These lists use 2007 teams as an example.
• The consensus was that the full league of 20 teams seemed too large and too far-flung to make sense, as the travel would be too much for the level of competition. So the lists group them into two groups of 10 - one group of New England, upstate NY, and northern NJ clubs; and the remaining teams in NYC, Long Island, and NJ.
• Teams are roughly listed by driving distance from Auburndale, MA, where the Pike crosses I-95. The first, northern group of ten is 0.5 to 3.5 hours of driving. The second, southern group is 3.5 to 5 hours of driving.
• Clubs with ECNL, ECRL, or GA teams would keep those teams. So the next team after those is listed below (Stars' 5th team, Scorpions' 3rd team, CFC's 3rd team). Other clubs are assumed to move their #1 team to ECRL2 (for example, from Elite 64 or USYS National League).
• For comparison, the rankings of the existing Mass. RL teams are shown.
• The rankings are the national rankings from the Soccer Rankings app. (Where available, Mass. rankings are included for reference.) Soccer Rankings uses actual games played, and includes the effect of tough schedules. It's the same general approach the MIAA uses for Power Rankings. It's a good general indicator. Small differences in rankings don't mean much. But big differences in rankings certainly do indicate the relative strength of teams.
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