The Walls are Coming Down

[Guest]

My kid plays on a GA team. The biggest problem isn't coaching. Coaching and development within the club are great. It's why we're still there.

The biggest problem is the lack of quality competition. This fall we played seven GA league games. One opponent (maybe two if I'm being generous) played real soccer. The rest were great athletes playing tough, physical kickball. Honestly, most belong in the Top Flight of EDP, not GA let alone ECNL.

And you want to open it up? Bring in even more low quality play? Are you really that delusional you think there are that many top talents? I promise you, there aren't.

Very spot on analysis….why make a weak league even weaker?

[Guest]

Be serious, if it is not a monopoly it is an oligopoly on the girls side with ECNL and GAL. The entire promo for ECNL clubs is "we have ECNL, you have to play for us." Same with GAL to a lesser extent. Like the OP said, it is a matter of time. Both leagues will have to open up for this one reason, they do not act in the best interest of the game or the players.

Be serious no one "has" to do anything. All players have options. The leagues are entitled to control who they want in their leagues. The clubs are entitled to decide who makes their teams or not. You make it sound like it's a civil rights issue. Nor is putting everything under one umbrella going to solve what ails US Soccer

[Guest]

Very spot on analysis….why make a weak league even weaker?

Not the op but if a league isn't cutting it they either have improve or clubs and their families will leave. Yes its how capitalism works. Should money and capitalism be involved in youth sports? Ideally no but that isn't how American society operates. All youth sports are now monetized in the US to some extent now.

[Guest]

This is hilarious. If USSF with all it's firepower couldn't unseat ECNL with GDA what makes you think it's going to happen now? Parents and clubs aren't held at gunpoint to chose a certain league or club. They have options, many in fact. But when you offer a superior product - even it it's only perceived - people will chose what they think is the better product. It's not a monopoly but consumer choice. If GAL clubs and the league had better coaching and competition then more would chose that - but they don't

listen to yourself. GDA wanted more qualifications on coaches. Professional standards. ECNL baulked at that so they could continue to operate with whomever they chose. ECNL is where it is because it has the ability to make its own rules, many of which do create an environment where the sort of behaviors that are now being flagged can continue. it is shocking to me that very few reporters have made any attempt to follow the RIley trail to Albertson. Male DoCs and coaches abuse the power they have over girls in Youth soccer and get away with it. The player leaves and the narrative is they were not good enough, or could not stand the competition etc. Very often not the case. I have seen coaches across all the leagues that verbally abuse players to a level that is unacceptable. They are all still working and have parents that enable them because they think it is necessary to help their kid achieve.

[Guest]

This is not about bad or good, competition or otherwise. This is about a bigger issue that is the abuse of players. Read the articles it is a very hot topic right NOW being heavily looked into it. Many pro players have come forward and there is a ton of negative attention. C. Press filed a lawsuit and has complaints dating back 7 years. And they cite the involvement of these coaches with youth ECNL teams.
Are you not realizing that big name coaches getting fired daily? You really think this won't trickle down? It is in the WSJ, Post, Reuters, NYT and all over social media. There is a TON of attention to this right now - never been to this extent. ECNL is very aware, involved and definitely being looked at as are all the big clubs nationwide. You are completely out of reality to think otherwise. It is just like the college scandals - everyone thought nothing would happen - until they were convicted and went to jail.

trickle down is the way they want you to look at it and is completely wrong. It STARTS in the youth ranks and bubbles up. The pro stuff is the tip of the iceberg. How are College coaches like Anson Dorrance, Eddie Radwanski etc sleeping at night?

[Guest]

My kid plays on a GA team. The biggest problem isn't coaching. Coaching and development within the club are great. It's why we're still there.

The biggest problem is the lack of quality competition. This fall we played seven GA league games. One opponent (maybe two if I'm being generous) played real soccer. The rest were great athletes playing tough, physical kickball. Honestly, most belong in the Top Flight of EDP, not GA let alone ECNL.

And you want to open it up? Bring in even more low quality play? Are you really that delusional you think there are that many top talents? I promise you, there aren't.

open it up can be done while increasing the quality, but no one has any incentive to acknowledge that because you would DECREASE the number of paying customers. Talent is rare. ECNL,GDA, GAL, ODP etc keep trying to sell you on the opposite. The way to do it would be to make the bar HIGHER and not specific to any alphabet. OPEN competition with standards for entry based on talent.

[Guest]

open it up can be done while increasing the quality, but no one has any incentive to acknowledge that because you would DECREASE the number of paying customers. Talent is rare. ECNL,GDA, GAL, ODP etc keep trying to sell you on the opposite. The way to do it would be to make the bar HIGHER and not specific to any alphabet. OPEN competition with standards for entry based on talent.

Open it up? What does that mean? Anyone can tryout for ECNL, that’s not a problem. It’s parents who can’t handle being told there daughter is not good enough. That is a big issue. Yes, agree talent is rare with the lack of depth of talent a real problem. The bar is higher at the better ranked ECNL clubs/teams. I have watched GA, EDP, ECRL matches and the level of play is low. The talent and speed of play drops significantly that is why the best players in these other leagues make the jump to ECNL. What exactly do you want opened up and who does it benefit? The top 10% or the bottom 40%.

[Guest]

trickle down is the way they want you to look at it and is completely wrong. It STARTS in the youth ranks and bubbles up. The pro stuff is the tip of the iceberg. How are College coaches like Anson Dorrance, Eddie Radwanski etc sleeping at night?

There is no money to be made. Most lawsuits that are brought up are done because there is a chance of a big settlement and a win. The moment these guys are backed by a bigger organization, or themselves land on a pile of cash the lawsuits will show up.

Dorrance is safe because he already settled 10 years ago. They settled, and named a stadium for him.

[Guest]

open it up can be done while increasing the quality, but no one has any incentive to acknowledge that because you would DECREASE the number of paying customers. Talent is rare. ECNL,GDA, GAL, ODP etc keep trying to sell you on the opposite. The way to do it would be to make the bar HIGHER and not specific to any alphabet. OPEN competition with standards for entry based on talent.

Talent is rare but "opening it up" won't change that fact. All it does is dilute the teams and competition. That definitely doesn't help improve the top players, and coaches and clubs can only do so much with the bottom players. You can't make an average athlete and not much of a work ethic into a good player. A degree of athleticism and a strong work ethic are needed. Face it, not many in the youth system have that. And you want to add more of them?

[Guest]

listen to yourself. GDA wanted more qualifications on coaches. Professional standards. ECNL baulked at that so they could continue to operate with whomever they chose. ECNL is where it is because it has the ability to make its own rules, many of which do create an environment where the sort of behaviors that are now being flagged can continue. it is shocking to me that very few reporters have made any attempt to follow the RIley trail to Albertson. Male DoCs and coaches abuse the power they have over girls in Youth soccer and get away with it. The player leaves and the narrative is they were not good enough, or could not stand the competition etc. Very often not the case. I have seen coaches across all the leagues that verbally abuse players to a level that is unacceptable. They are all still working and have parents that enable them because they think it is necessary to help their kid achieve.

BDA and GDA wanted more professional coaches but it turned out finding them wasn't so easy. Even BDA with its multi year head stater over GDA had loads of coaches that didn't have the licensing they were supposed to. Coaching youth teams does not pay well. It pays even less at the younger ages, but that is where teaching strong fundamentals is so essential. Without hate foundation by the time kids reach the highest leagues years of teaching opportunities are lost. You know how Iceland got so good? ALL of their coaches including the littlest tykes, have a minimum of UEFA B licensing if not also A. The youngest players learn properly from the start. Now in a country of 350K that's a lot easier to execute. We can't do that here.

Most of our youngest learn from well meaning parent volunteers or really low level coaches. It's the only way to keep costs lower. Start raising Ulittle prices a lot and more kids won't ever even try the sport let alone continue with it.

[Guest]

My kid played at DA and i think only one coach actually met the licensing criteria. Everyone else had to be on track to get their licenses but its also really expensive, which brought about its own issues as coaches needed more money and more time to get them.

[Guest]

My kid plays on a GA team. The biggest problem isn't coaching. Coaching and development within the club are great. It's why we're still there.

The biggest problem is the lack of quality competition. This fall we played seven GA league games. One opponent (maybe two if I'm being generous) played real soccer. The rest were great athletes playing tough, physical kickball. Honestly, most belong in the Top Flight of EDP, not GA let alone ECNL.

And you want to open it up? Bring in even more low quality play? Are you really that delusional you think there are that many top talents? I promise you, there aren't.

Honestly, you will see a lot of tough, physical kickball at the college level, so getting the experience of playing against that kind of team (or even playing on that kind of team) isn't as pointless as you might think.

IMHO, when you see a GA/ECNL team playing kickball like that, it's not because that is a style taught by the coach/club. Rather, it is because the team they are playing against is superior and the team gets pressured by their opponent to play faster than they are able...so the players just end up kicking the ball. I base this on watching my kid's team play; when they are clearly the better team, they play beautiful soccer. When they are up against a better team, they play terrible soccer. No high level club coach would seriously just teach their team to play kickball.

[Guest]

My kid played at DA and i think only one coach actually met the licensing criteria. Everyone else had to be on track to get their licenses but its also really expensive, which brought about its own issues as coaches needed more money and more time to get them.

YEs getting higher level licenses is expensive and time consuming. A lot of coaches have other jobs because coaching itself doesn't pay enough, so getting time off those jobs can be problematic. A coach needs to string together a lot of jobs to make a living, or be a hustler who runs a lot of camps and other trainings to supplement.

Of course licensure isn't a guarantee of anything - plenty of high level coaches aren't good but that's more because of coaching style/personality than knowledge of the game. However it does show that - knowledge of the game, coaching methods etc along with a commitment to the job. I was one of those "well meaning parent volunteers" mentioned above and got my D license, but that was it. At some point I knew my limits and handed my kids over to those who could teach way more than I could. The time commitment was also crazy with also trying to raise a family. Lots of coaches are young and single or divorced.

There's no way to pay coaches more, make it more of a true profession like it is in the rest of the world, without either jacking up fees (already way too high) or club owners taking in less $$$$. ha ha ha ha good luck with that

[Guest]

Have no idea what the poster means about some walls coming down. US Soccer “huffed and puffed” and nothing fell except there own walls. The only way the ECNL walls come down is if/when something better comes along. The Rutgers/PDA connection has worked out very well this season. How many NJ girls do you know make it to the College Cup. Very good ECNL & Rutgers.

[Guest]

Have no idea what the poster means about some walls coming down. US Soccer “huffed and puffed” and nothing fell except there own walls. The only way the ECNL walls come down is if/when something better comes along. The Rutgers/PDA connection has worked out very well this season. How many NJ girls do you know make it to the College Cup. Very good ECNL & Rutgers.

I don't think many girls in our state aspire to attend Rutgers - good for these girls but not sure this is what they dreamed of - unless their sister, father, etc went there.