ECNL Regional path to playing ECNL teams.

[Unregistered]

That is certainly true but the local elite clubs know the competition within the area and if they view the RL league to be inferior within their conference, they will not subject their showcase team to constant inferior competition for the whole year. Imagine playing inferior competition for the whole year and then having to quickly turn on a switch to prove yourself that you are worthy to play in the ECNL national .Imagine a team like NEFc playing their best team in the RL all year. If the RL league is strong, they would consider, if not, then they will put their stronger team some place else.

Disagree. The long game is to get into ECNL. Put all your eggs in that basket by playing full tilt in the regional league, destroy the competition, pray you get in.

GAL is a dead end.

[Unregistered]

Think the point of ECRL is to prove you belong. If your club is dominating ECRL then it moves to ECNL.

Exactly what happened with PDA South.

They dominated NPL last year. Got moved to ECRL this year.

They played in 2 games this season (pre- COVID-19 shutdown) down in Maryland (Bethesda and Maryland United), the ENTIRE club won all the weekend games from 2009-2003 scoring 65 goals and letting in 3.

So, yes, dominant play got them moved up.

[Unregistered]

Exactly what happened with PDA South.

They dominated NPL last year. Got moved to ECRL this year.

They played in 2 games this season (pre- COVID-19 shutdown) down in Maryland (Bethesda and Maryland United), the ENTIRE club won all the weekend games from 2009-2003 scoring 65 goals and letting in 3.

So, yes, dominant play got them moved up.

Can you imagine if a club like Real NJ played in ECRL? They would more than prove themselves by destroying everyone. And then they would do the same in ECNL. But will they ever get the chance?? Nope as they are not in the ECNL biased business model.

[Unregistered]

Think the point of ECRL is to prove you belong. If your club is dominating ECRL then it moves to ECNL.

The entire point of ECRL is to confuse dumb ass parents with something that sounds promising that is a bag of poop.

a) ECNLR is a rebranded variant of NPL league - same B teams from the ECNL/NPL clubs play in the league
b) there is no promotion of demotion from ECNLR to ECNL
c) ECNLR teams dont participate in ECNL showcases
d) top ECNLR teams (from the ECNLR league) have a chance to play against bottom ECNL teams in the open cup
e) ECNLR teams never play in the ECNL Champions League
f) ECNLR players are not selected for ECNL ID events

[Unregistered]

ECNL also had this rule this year with the top performing RL teams being eligible to go to some playoff in a separate bracket and guess what it did NOTHING to help the level of competition in RL league. The RL teams for the most part in the NE are terrible. Nobody wants their kid playing on a second team and for sure nobody wants their kid in a second tier league. It would take a massive culture shift both at the clubs and in the league to make RL a desired choice. Second teams and second leagues are always looked down on and never treated the same as the top.

Lets see, ride the bench in a 20+ person roster in ECNL or start/more playing time in the 2nd tier ECRL for same club or move to a GA or USYS/EDP team and potentially dominate? I guess it's like would you rather sit the bench for Liverpool and play sparingly or start in MLS?

I know a lot of girls that went ECRL over GDA playing for PDA South as well as ECNL at Delco and Bucks. It came down to exposure, ECNL and RL have it and GDA not as much. GA will have even less. I see these clubs staffing college coaches and assistants but the programs taking ECNL girls while colleges with ties to ECNL haven't taken many GDA girls.

Honestly the entire GA is going to be better just needs to stop as it isn't helping anything. GDA died partially because they couldn't get the foot hold to become the top league. It would have costed way to much and they cut it. GA will be on par with top USYS clubs and ECRL for the most part. Sure some teams may be better than some ECNL ones but those clubs aren't consistent enough to push a place (or if you are in NE are in PDAs turf). Im sure some of these NE clubs that are in GA didn't want to go ECRL and even attempt to prove themselves to potentially earn an ECNL bid.

It comes down to this. Many years ago, when men's soccer was where women's soccer is today, there were many leagues with MLS coming out on top and others died out. USL survived because instead of trying to fight MLS for supremacy it relegated itself to being the 2nd league. If GA is smart they will make the move to be the 2nd best and work with ECNL or some how merge the ECRL with GA to form 2-3 divisions to solidify having the best clubs around the country playing the best in each age group. ECNL does need to see that clubs have gone stale with training and standards and in order to keep things fresh need a 2nd tier that will push the others to remain on top of their game.

[Unregistered]

If NEFC, Oakwood, etc all sent their 1st team to ECRL, that would be a pretty great proving ground for them to get to ECNL.

But the NEFC teams are already dominate over number of ECNL national teams. When teams like that put their first team in the RL then i will be a believer. But right now most of the RL is for the second or third tier teams of ECNL national clubs like PDA and World Class. It would be laughable to watch those teams play NEFC, when many ECNL first tier teams lose to them. But I guess we will see. Anything is possible. I will watch for the stronger clubs around conference, if they put their showcase teams in the RL I am sold.-Otherwise it will be just another 2nd tier league within the ECNL that enables some clubs with critical mass (PDA) to have a second team in the top division.

[Unregistered]

Yes Beach and Legends. They are two former DA teams that are big time clubs. Put their best teams into ECNLR knowing they will move up to ECNL.

They put their 2nd teams RL. Their top teams are in the GAL

[Unregistered]

After what Fauci just said, no one will be moving up to ecnl for a while.

They put their 2nd teams RL. Their top teams are in the GAL

[Unregistered]

Lets see, ride the bench in a 20+ person roster in ECNL or start/more playing time in the 2nd tier ECRL for same club or move to a GA or USYS/EDP team and potentially dominate? I guess it's like would you rather sit the bench for Liverpool and play sparingly or start in MLS?

I know a lot of girls that went ECRL over GDA playing for PDA South as well as ECNL at Delco and Bucks. It came down to exposure, ECNL and RL have it and GDA not as much. GA will have even less. I see these clubs staffing college coaches and assistants but the programs taking ECNL girls while colleges with ties to ECNL haven't taken many GDA girls.

Honestly the entire GA is going to be better just needs to stop as it isn't helping anything. GDA died partially because they couldn't get the foot hold to become the top league. It would have costed way to much and they cut it. GA will be on par with top USYS clubs and ECRL for the most part. Sure some teams may be better than some ECNL ones but those clubs aren't consistent enough to push a place (or if you are in NE are in PDAs turf). Im sure some of these NE clubs that are in GA didn't want to go ECRL and even attempt to prove themselves to potentially earn an ECNL bid.

It comes down to this. Many years ago, when men's soccer was where women's soccer is today, there were many leagues with MLS coming out on top and others died out. USL survived because instead of trying to fight MLS for supremacy it relegated itself to being the 2nd league. If GA is smart they will make the move to be the 2nd best and work with ECNL or some how merge the ECRL with GA to form 2-3 divisions to solidify having the best clubs around the country playing the best in each age group. ECNL does need to see that clubs have gone stale with training and standards and in order to keep things fresh need a 2nd tier that will push the others to remain on top of their game.

Very well thought out response and I agree with your conclusion. If there was anything to learn from the disaster of GDA is to try to dominate but rather accept that ECNL will be the premier and that RL & GA should be able to compete not as 2-3 divisions but directly with each other. Since RL will never compete directly with ECNL Premier how about working out how these 2 other leagues can play against each level as an organized cross league tournaments as. College showcase or at college showcases in general. This idea of having RL playing college showcases at only ECNL event doesn’t change the fact that they are separate from the premier teams. It would benefit both RL & GA to work together.

[Unregistered]

If the goal is to get into ECNL, sending their 2nd team to ECRL will not cut it. They will need to win their ECRL divisions in order to move up to ECNL the next year. As bad as some ECRL teams are, for the most part they are better than other clubs' second teams, and there are some that are competitive with many clubs' first teams.

There is no moving up. No pro/rel. Win your league and play in the showcase event at ECNL nationals against the bottom feeders of the real ECNL.

[Unregistered]

True. Absolutely no benefit.

There is no moving up. No pro/rel. Win your league and play in the showcase event at ECNL nationals against the bottom feeders of the real ECNL.

[Unregistered]

Lets see, ride the bench in a 20+ person roster in ECNL or start/more playing time in the 2nd tier ECRL for same club or move to a GA or USYS/EDP team and potentially dominate? I guess it's like would you rather sit the bench for Liverpool and play sparingly or start in MLS?

I know a lot of girls that went ECRL over GDA playing for PDA South as well as ECNL at Delco and Bucks. It came down to exposure, ECNL and RL have it and GDA not as much. GA will have even less. I see these clubs staffing college coaches and assistants but the programs taking ECNL girls while colleges with ties to ECNL haven't taken many GDA girls.

Honestly the entire GA is going to be better just needs to stop as it isn't helping anything. GDA died partially because they couldn't get the foot hold to become the top league. It would have costed way to much and they cut it. GA will be on par with top USYS clubs and ECRL for the most part. Sure some teams may be better than some ECNL ones but those clubs aren't consistent enough to push a place (or if you are in NE are in PDAs turf). Im sure some of these NE clubs that are in GA didn't want to go ECRL and even attempt to prove themselves to potentially earn an ECNL bid.

It comes down to this. Many years ago, when men's soccer was where women's soccer is today, there were many leagues with MLS coming out on top and others died out. USL survived because instead of trying to fight MLS for supremacy it relegated itself to being the 2nd league. If GA is smart they will make the move to be the 2nd best and work with ECNL or some how merge the ECRL with GA to form 2-3 divisions to solidify having the best clubs around the country playing the best in each age group. ECNL does need to see that clubs have gone stale with training and standards and in order to keep things fresh need a 2nd tier that will push the others to remain on top of their game.

I'd imagine that Liverpool subs also get very very good training. So, carrying on with that thought, if you are at a club where the ECRL team is getting excellent training (PDA?) that might be better than being on the top team at another club. However, the point for many people is how much and what kind of exposure they'll get to college coaches. That's the tough question that needs to be answered.

[Unregistered]

Exactly what happened with PDA South.

They dominated NPL last year. Got moved to ECRL this year.

They played in 2 games this season (pre- COVID-19 shutdown) down in Maryland (Bethesda and Maryland United), the ENTIRE club won all the weekend games from 2009-2003 scoring 65 goals and letting in 3.

So, yes, dominant play got them moved up.

Except you leave out the fact Maryland United and Bethesda put their 3rd teams in ECNL-RL as do many others.

[Unregistered]

Lets see, ride the bench in a 20+ person roster in ECNL or start/more playing time in the 2nd tier ECRL for same club or move to a GA or USYS/EDP team and potentially dominate? I guess it's like would you rather sit the bench for Liverpool and play sparingly or start in MLS?

I know a lot of girls that went ECRL over GDA playing for PDA South as well as ECNL at Delco and Bucks. It came down to exposure, ECNL and RL have it and GDA not as much. GA will have even less. I see these clubs staffing college coaches and assistants but the programs taking ECNL girls while colleges with ties to ECNL haven't taken many GDA girls.

Honestly the entire GA is going to be better just needs to stop as it isn't helping anything. GDA died partially because they couldn't get the foot hold to become the top league. It would have costed way to much and they cut it. GA will be on par with top USYS clubs and ECRL for the most part. Sure some teams may be better than some ECNL ones but those clubs aren't consistent enough to push a place (or if you are in NE are in PDAs turf). Im sure some of these NE clubs that are in GA didn't want to go ECRL and even attempt to prove themselves to potentially earn an ECNL bid.

It comes down to this. Many years ago, when men's soccer was where women's soccer is today, there were many leagues with MLS coming out on top and others died out. USL survived because instead of trying to fight MLS for supremacy it relegated itself to being the 2nd league. If GA is smart they will make the move to be the 2nd best and work with ECNL or some how merge the ECRL with GA to form 2-3 divisions to solidify having the best clubs around the country playing the best in each age group. ECNL does need to see that clubs have gone stale with training and standards and in order to keep things fresh need a 2nd tier that will push the others to remain on top of their game.

GDA offered the same exact exposure to colleges as ECNL I stopped reading after you said RL offered more.

[Unregistered]

ECRL is a very poor league. PDA south loses frequently to EDP teams, which means ECRL is basically a rec league.