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**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 12:43 AM

Same reason you play competitive over rec… why do you ask questions for which you know the answer

**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 01:53 AM

Originally posted by Guest View Post

Why do you choose to play in ECNL?

For Timbers families you are near bottom of the table in every age group except 2010 where you are 5th.

UPDX, a bit better. But you are still average around 6th in all age groups. At 07 you sit a very respectable 4th, but still...

No judgement here, just trying to understand. The kids and families give up a lot to travel up and down I5 and then Spokane.

And I don't believe the ECNL schedule works with your high school soccer season.

So why do you do it?

Because the rich parents of the state's Maddies and Connors want their precious spawn to be playing for a "travel team". Thinks it makes them eee-lite.

**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 04:47 AM

Originally posted by Guest View Post

Why do you choose to play in ECNL?

For Timbers families you are near bottom of the table in every age group except 2010 where you are 5th.

UPDX, a bit better. But you are still average around 6th in all age groups. At 07 you sit a very respectable 4th, but still...

No judgement here, just trying to understand. The kids and families give up a lot to travel up and down I5 and then Spokane.

And I don't believe the ECNL schedule works with your high school soccer season.

So why do you do it?

WA teams have been playing ECNL for a long time. ECNL doesn’t start until the 1st year of 11v11. While the whole ECNL concept is pretty new in OR, teams in WA have been grooming their players to play ECNL well before U13. Most WA teams play their teams up a year in 9v9 stage and/or play in a special premier league against other top teams in the pre-ECNL years. Oregon doesn’t have such a league and does not play whole teams a year up.

UPDX has not been very successful but again, this is their first year in ECNL and they have not been prepping their age groups for intensive competition like their WA counterparts. The fact that they’re doing better than WA Timbers in almost every age group is insane. WA Timbers have been playing ECNL for a while and have been playing their 1st teams up since before that. The relative success United PDX is having is surprising but also great for Oregon Soccer as a whole. It’s only up from here for them, though no one cares if you’re not top-3 in ECNL at your age group.

You pursue ECNL because you want your kids to play the best competition locally/regionally and also because you want exposure to college recruiters. College recruiters are not watching OYSA matches at the HS ages. Like really never. But they will watch ECNL matches and attend ECNL showcases because they know their time is well spent and they are seeing the best of the best. And of course, they’re watching the academy matches/MLS Next stuff.

If you don’t want your kids to play the best of the best or get eyes of college coaches on them, then no need to do ECNL. If you’re worried about a little of travel, I can tell you right now, it’s not for you.

Do not be fooled by the ECNL wannabe leagues, like E64. They also promise college exposure but bonafide college programs are not wasting resources at E64. They would much rather go with a sure thing and scout ECNL. E64 showcases and tourneys we have attended in the past were dead ends.

**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 12:49 PM

Intentional or not what the ECNL has done for the Seattle clubs is consolidated the top talent outside of MLSNext in to just a few clubs. This gives those players the best chance to develop in training and games. The goal for all ECNL players should be to play in college at some level. Prior to UPDX going ECNL all clubs were equally rec'ish in OYSA. Oregon should either build a ECNL league of six clubs or (I like this option best) continue to funnel the best players into the only ECNL option UPDX. My opinion is the Oregon talent pool cannot support both the Timbers Academy and a Oregon ECNL league.

I would like to see UPDX require their ECNL players not play high school soccer. This is really hard to ask a player but probably best. These players can play ECNL and then winter OYSA.

Last the Washington ECNL needs to evaluate member clubs and kick out those who can't compete. Spokane would be first on the list

**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 02:38 PM

Name one good boys coach at Washington timbers….

that’s part of the reason why they are so bad.

**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 02:53 PM

Originally posted by Guest View Post

Name one good boys coach at Washington timbers….

that’s part of the reason why they are so bad.

It's a revolving door of coaches there. The good ones don't stay long and take off.
i.e. - SE now at Westside

**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 03:40 PM

Originally posted by Guest View Post

Why do you choose to play in ECNL?

For Timbers families you are near bottom of the table in every age group except 2010 where you are 5th.

UPDX, a bit better. But you are still average around 6th in all age groups. At 07 you sit a very respectable 4th, but still...

No judgement here, just trying to understand. The kids and families give up a lot to travel up and down I5 and then Spokane.

And I don't believe the ECNL schedule works with your high school soccer season.

So why do you do it?

Why come here and start asking a question with an agenda on how you want to answer.

UPDX is in their first year and has seen some of the difficulties with older ages as they compete in HS soccer + ECNL. Lets see if the second half of the season is better than the first. Likewise, let's give them more than half a season to declare them a failure in ECNL.

My kid chose to play with them because he wanted to play against the likes of Crossfire and Seattle United after many years of playing against the same teams with the same players year in and year out. UPDX offered a new and different experience for him and he made the decision to move over to UPDX. Really was that simple.

**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 03:44 PM

Originally posted by Guest View Post

Intentional or not what the ECNL has done for the Seattle clubs is consolidated the top talent outside of MLSNext in to just a few clubs. This gives those players the best chance to develop in training and games. The goal for all ECNL players should be to play in college at some level. Prior to UPDX going ECNL all clubs were equally rec'ish in OYSA. Oregon should either build a ECNL league of six clubs or (I like this option best) continue to funnel the best players into the only ECNL option UPDX. My opinion is the Oregon talent pool cannot support both the Timbers Academy and a Oregon ECNL league.

I would like to see UPDX require their ECNL players not play high school soccer. This is really hard to ask a player but probably best. These players can play ECNL and then winter OYSA.

Last the Washington ECNL needs to evaluate member clubs and kick out those who can't compete. Spokane would be first on the list

agree with some here. But Oregon does not have the talent to support 6 ECNL clubs at any age. 3 max (UPDX, W Timbers and XXX?) would work best. There is not enough talent to support the Timbers academy at any age group above U15 as they start to import at U17.

Oregon is very unathletic in general (white)

**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 03:50 PM

So basically Oregon (and S.W. Washington) boys are enduring the travel for access to ECNL Tournaments (for college recruiting) and better league competition?

Is that accurate?

**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 03:52 PM

Originally posted by Guest View Post

So basically Oregon (and S.W. Washington) boys are enduring the travel for access to ECNL Tournaments (for college recruiting) and better league competition?

Is that accurate?

Also more fun. How many times you gonna play Eastside Timbers, Albion and Saints?

**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 04:07 PM

Originally posted by Guest View Post

So basically Oregon (and S.W. Washington) boys are enduring the travel for access to ECNL Tournaments (for college recruiting) and better league competition?

Is that accurate?

Yes, that is the entire sales pitch in a nut shell. And I mean sales pitch in the most literal terms possible.

If UPDX has success, expect other club(s) to follow, that’s the nature of these businesses. If they fail, well good on them for trying.

Its not all roses and puff though, there are some serious issues facing UPDX.

- It’s easy to recruit when you are winning. When you are mid table or worse at every age group, not so much. Agree it will take a couple more years for this to shake out but if they stay where they are this year, ugh.

- Footy can’t coach every team. And beyond him, none of the coaches are really any different than other club coaches in town. And how long does Footy stay?

- They don’t own their own fields. Like em or not, if WUFC / OPFC get their own this will be an advantage.

- Their younger ECNL age groups aren’t any good. There’s a reason they all wanted to play at OPFC and Saints and WSM, they wanted to be on winning teams. UPDX probably won’t lose many, if any, players to TA at this age so maybe they get better by subtraction from other clubs.

**Guest** · 01-01-2023, 04:53 PM

Originally posted by Guest View Post

It's a revolving door of coaches there. The good ones don't stay long and take off.
i.e. - SE now at Westside

SE essentially got a director-track position at Westside, and the club will be his when cony decides to retire. Plus how often do you get to become your dad's boss?