How many teams have finished player searches?

OK, here we are four days to signing and I am still seeing teams looking for players. I think this speaks to the turmoil and turnover for this ECNL year. We are now seeing teams implode. So, how are you all doing at this late date? I will send out a post Monday evening to see where we all land. Hopefully, everyone will have filled their spots and are ready to move forward.

InaB wrote:OK, here we are four days to signing and I am still seeing teams looking for players. I think this speaks to the turmoil and turnover for this ECNL year. We are now seeing teams implode. So, how are you all doing at this late date? I will send out a post Monday evening to see where we all land. Hopefully, everyone will have filled their spots and are ready to move forward.

Unfortunately, I think this is part of every summer signings.  I think most are thinking the ECNL is the cause of most of the movement. But every age group has movements which started moving from Academy to U-11 and etc.  Even next summer you'll see the big movement as teams stabilize going into the U-15 season.  At that time DD's will be trying to get on top teams as they start their showcases for college.

The real question I'm looking for is:  
- How strong are the returning Div. I teams?
- How will the Div. II teams compete/compare to the returning Div. I teams?
- How will Liverpool (Solar) influence the division? Did they lose to many starters?
- How many starter and what positions did Div. I teams lose?
- How many players did Div. I teams pickup from Div II/III.  
- Who will have the dominating strikers and well as defense?

All good questions Its Me. I think all divisions are going to be interesting this year.

futbollove wrote:KnK- so what do you think happens when the "lower" division team leaps up a spot into a new division? What about 5 of these teams? Or 15? That division is now 'watered-down'.
Take any sport in the world, remove 70-80% of the truly best players in that league. Is the level of play still the same? Sure there are still some talented players remaining, but it's just not the same. Anyone remember the NFL strike circa 1987? There was stillm football being played, and there was some talent on the field, just not as good.

Not sure why you're using a 70-80% number to make your case. If 80 players is a good approx. number, then it's approx. 16% of an approx. 480 players in total currently in LH. I'm guessing the talent pool is probably strong enough to absorb that without greatly diminishing the level of overall play. Certainly the very top won't be as good as before, but weren't they already a cut above the rest anyway? The impact will be evident more on a team by team basis in my opinion.

That leads me to my next point. If I understand you correctly, you are saying that lower teams moving up has the affect of watering down the division that they moved into. Your assumption is that those teams moving up are necessarily inferior. That's where I would disagree and use my earlier post as a basis to support that.