ECRL vs GA

[Unregistered]

You bring up the most important point regarding women’s soccer today and that is advancement. That is on US Soccer. They are traumatized by women’s soccer and are scared to make changes with younger players. I watched the last few exhibition matches and this group needs a major over haul. The bulk of this group peaked at the last World Cup and that should have ended their run. To have players with hundreds of USWNT appearances is just wrong! Individually these players are not performing as high level players. Go watch those playing in Europe now or those who came back to the NWSL because they were not performing at a high level in Europe. The upcoming Olympics should have been the younger, up and coming rising players in this country instead of 35 year olds or players who have already played in 3 Olympics. It was okay on the men’s side to send a young team for qualifiers but not women? US Soccer needs to get younger players involved internationally.

Likely because they know we are producing crap for players. There is no interest in the playing population (leagues, clubs, players, parents) to do anything but try to win. When that is your one and only goal, you ignore the big picture and only worry about individuality.

[Unregistered]

Likely because they know we are producing crap for players. There is no interest in the playing population (leagues, clubs, players, parents) to do anything but try to win. When that is your one and only goal, you ignore the big picture and only worry about individuality.

So true because all parents see and look for is the winning team. So it is win at all cost to keep the checks coming in. Soccer development be damned - it’s a vicious cycle. And sadly I don’t see anyway out.

[Unregistered]

The best hope was the GDA. But what a bitter disappointment. What they said and what they did could not have been more different. It needed to go in the direction of funded academies and it was the exact opposite. More expensive, more travel, more exclusionary. ***?

And it also crapped on school ball in both execution and tone which - while it is terrible soccer - it is the only soccer available at low cost to many players who could never have the time, money and support needed for the country club elite leagues. If nothing else, at least US soccer could support it to grow a fan base.

That entire disgrace just confirmed elite girls youth soccer is a just a money seeking business and always will be just that. Is what it is.

[Unregistered]

The best hope was the GDA. But what a bitter disappointment. What they said and what they did could not have been more different. It needed to go in the direction of funded academies and it was the exact opposite. More expensive, more travel, more exclusionary. ***?

And it also crapped on school ball in both execution and tone which - while it is terrible soccer - it is the only soccer available at low cost to many players who could never have the time, money and support needed for the country club elite leagues. If nothing else, at least US soccer could support it to grow a fan base.

That entire disgrace just confirmed elite girls youth soccer is a just a money seeking business and always will be just that. Is what it is.

So absolutely 100% true, sadly.

[Unregistered]

The boys side has fully funded academies. That is significantly different from the girls side.

If funded academies is the litmus test then it is a poor one. Funded academies don't mean crap if they national stage and pro-league is still garbage. Best players on the men's national team played/trained in Europe at some point.

Heaven forbid when these clubs realize they could rake in even more money by offering online private schools with training sessions.

Basic costs

20x students online @ $2kea = $40k
1x "teacher" = $65k ish

That's about $5250 per kid. Charge 2-3x that and even if 1/3rd are partial scholarship (above minimal cost) and you are looking at $100-$200k per 20 kids to cover things like a facility, which can be found relatively cheap like say a sports complex looking for day time cash flow. I'm sure if PDA started a school they would be flooded.

[Unregistered]

Interesting. Can you list the clubs in the Northeast who have left GA and gone into ECNLR?

None, because NE and NA fight tooth and nail to allow anyone in while just about every other division has and ECNL has even created new ECRL divisions across the country. All while NE and NA sit in the dark ages because of FSA and PDA monopolies.

[Unregistered]

If funded academies is the litmus test then it is a poor one. Funded academies don't mean crap if they national stage and pro-league is still garbage. Best players on the men's national team played/trained in Europe at some point.

Heaven forbid when these clubs realize they could rake in even more money by offering online private schools with training sessions.

Basic costs

20x students online @ $2kea = $40k
1x "teacher" = $65k ish

That's about $5250 per kid. Charge 2-3x that and even if 1/3rd are partial scholarship (above minimal cost) and you are looking at $100-$200k per 20 kids to cover things like a facility, which can be found relatively cheap like say a sports complex looking for day time cash flow. I'm sure if PDA started a school they would be flooded.

Funded academies only make sense if every once in a while the club who is fronting the costs can sell the player for profit. There is no reason to have a funded academy for a girls program that competes in a league where the average salary is $45k. Heck there has BARELY been a reason to have funded MLS academies since they struggle to sell players but at least once every few years some club has a Davies or Adams they can profit from.

[Unregistered]

So absolutely 100% true, sadly.

Good thing the sport is so much fun or the crap realization that all the marketing is just so much BS would drive everyone away. In spite of all the garbage, the players have a blast with this sport.

[Unregistered]

The best hope was the GDA. But what a bitter disappointment. What they said and what they did could not have been more different. It needed to go in the direction of funded academies and it was the exact opposite. More expensive, more travel, more exclusionary. ***?

And it also crapped on school ball in both execution and tone which - while it is terrible soccer - it is the only soccer available at low cost to many players who could never have the time, money and support needed for the country club elite leagues. If nothing else, at least US soccer could support it to grow a fan base.

That entire disgrace just confirmed elite girls youth soccer is a just a money seeking business and always will be just that. Is what it is.

Well, to be fair on the HS issue, those who were so hung up on it aren't the ones that the NT is looking for. They didn't "crap" on it, but they were instead up front that a player more concerned with playing with their friends vs. getting to the next level isn't what would solve the declining level of talent. So, let them play HS, that's fine. That's not a player they would want. Everyone knows there are dozens of other options, so they encouraged those types of players to pursue them. What's wrong with that.

Other than the cost (i.e. funded academies vs. what the girls had), the DA model was the right model. The biggest issue is they were never able to break into the barrier that ECNL had, at least not in time. ECNL billed itself as the better option for college. Right or wrong, that's how it was pitched and it worked. Better to market to a few thousand families than to a few dozen.

The league was just as exclusionary as ECNL (in some cases, even less so). The travel was the same, the costs were the same. Some of your points are invalidated, some have merit.

[Unregistered]

Well, to be fair on the HS issue, those who were so hung up on it aren't the ones that the NT is looking for. They didn't "crap" on it, but they were instead up front that a player more concerned with playing with their friends vs. getting to the next level isn't what would solve the declining level of talent. So, let them play HS, that's fine. That's not a player they would want. Everyone knows there are dozens of other options, so they encouraged those types of players to pursue them. What's wrong with that.

Other than the cost (i.e. funded academies vs. what the girls had), the DA model was the right model. The biggest issue is they were never able to break into the barrier that ECNL had, at least not in time. ECNL billed itself as the better option for college. Right or wrong, that's how it was pitched and it worked. Better to market to a few thousand families than to a few dozen.

The league was just as exclusionary as ECNL (in some cases, even less so). The travel was the same, the costs were the same. Some of your points are invalidated, some have merit.

Do not try to defend the GDA fiasco. that exposed everything.

[Unregistered]

You bring up the most important point regarding women’s soccer today and that is advancement. That is on US Soccer. They are traumatized by women’s soccer and are scared to make changes with younger players. I watched the last few exhibition matches and this group needs a major over haul. The bulk of this group peaked at the last World Cup and that should have ended their run. To have players with hundreds of USWNT appearances is just wrong! Individually these players are not performing as high level players. Go watch those playing in Europe now or those who came back to the NWSL because they were not performing at a high level in Europe. The upcoming Olympics should have been the younger, up and coming rising players in this country instead of 35 year olds or players who have already played in 3 Olympics. It was okay on the men’s side to send a young team for qualifiers but not women? US Soccer needs to get younger players involved internationally.

Think back to how most of these players were brought up playing. They played on boys teams or several ages up as a lot didn't have access to girls teams at their age level. US Soccer has pushed for more players at the youth level while the greed of clubs has kept players that excel at or 1 age group up to keep winning teams together. It has been a long time coming with the eventual downfall of the WNT. Anyone who has watched the youth world cups knows the YNTs have done very poorly with few making it out of the group stage. Other countries have been tossing money at their women's programs and modeled after their mens programs which is why nations like Argentina, Italy, Spain, Brazil are all up and coming while the US shrinks and shrinks. Sure, they win now, but the margin is growing less and less.

[Unregistered]

It would probably make more sense to you if you had a kid in college or if you had any experience with STEM classes. The conflicts between sports and labs alone make coaches hesitant to recruit STEM kids to their teams.

You are so silly. Who needs kids when you’ve experienced it yourself. That’s why there is in season and out of season scheduling and priority scheduling and planning for athletes, plus other support programs and networks. Hey, some kids even decide to do winter and summer classes to get ahead of the curve with higher demanding classes. The bottom line is there are plenty of options.

I think what you are referring to are D3 athletes who in the ladder part of their collegiate athletic careers and dealing with a more stringent major driven workloads, tend to quit their athletic teams to focus on preparing for the real world. In D3 there is no incentive to continue both and that’s completely acceptable and ok.

[Unregistered]

Do not try to defend the GDA fiasco. that exposed everything.

Show me what was wrong in what I said?

I personally enjoyed our time there. We played better teams than where we were (NPL), have no ECNL option, and exposure was better once we were in. I enjoyed the professionalism brought to the games and the oversight.

Not allowed to voice that opinion?

[Unregistered]

Show me what was wrong in what I said?

I personally enjoyed our time there. We played better teams than where we were (NPL), have no ECNL option, and exposure was better once we were in. I enjoyed the professionalism brought to the games and the oversight.

Not allowed to voice that opinion?

Voice whatever opinion you want. The GDA is gone..poof.... and accomplished none of its so called objectives that it blabbed on about.

[Unregistered]

There is nothing to explain the inadequacy of US Soccer when it comes to the women’s side. As proven by the launching of the GDA they are arrogant people who think they are smarter than everyone else. They do not want to listen to anyone else and think they are a monopoly for girls soccer. ECNL,”chopped them at their knees” and yet they go on as if they know what they are doing. This USWNT process is a fiasco with the culmination being this summer’s Olympics. Of the 18 players chosen at least 12 of these players have peaked and wouldn’t see any playing time in the European leagues. You can’t name or don’t know the names of a starting 11 of young players that can compete and beat those existing players now with the USWNT. They exist but US Soccer is inept when it comes to recognizing young talent. They want those players that have been there for 300 matches to promote women’s soccer instead of the young promising players. Any young player invited to camp knows it’s a show regardless how they perform. After this Olympics if US Soccer continues on this path then you will know how ill equipped they are to promote women’s soccer in this country.