Girls DA in 2017

FCT2016 wrote:Oh yeah! "I need my DD to play up so she is paying against physically quicker and stronger kids!"  Don't need more touches on the ball then? Fools!

WisdomTeeth wrote:

4-3-3 wrote:

rzrFC wrote:You speak the truth ballhead and I have no disagreement with any of your points.  ECNL is a victim of there own success by expanding beyond their original intent.  My argument is that U.S. Club Soccer's success rate with leagues (NPL and ENCL) is light years ahead of anything USSF or USYS has done for young ladies.  As I said in my earlier posts, USSF should support and enhance what IS working...ECNL.  If they are trying to fix something that's broken, maybe they should start with the men's side.  Or, regional leagues.

Your argument that US Club Soccer's leagues are working because the WNT won the world cup is flawed. First off neither morgan brian nor press nor any of the other players named can be legitimately claimed as ecnl products. They all came up through the old system of usys and odp. Brian may have played a few games in ecnl u23 after she was already in college and a long time NT player. Go check where she actually played her club soccer.

Second off, where is the evidence ecnl is producing more talented YNTs than the old system? Several ecnl era YNT  have recently struggled in international competitions whereas the old gals basically dominated all minnows. After the u20s performance at last u20wc, it looked to me ussf started taking more ownership of their scouting and started expanding their call ups to include more non ecnl players. Ecnl still dominates rosters, but ussf realized they needed to also id fantastic players not in ecnl.

Thirdly, if you watched the wwc you saw the gap between us and the rest of the world rapidly closing. We needed an abby moment to get past nigeria and some good calls and a pk miss to put away germany. Yes the ladies destroyed japan in the final, but if you look at the entire picture of the early rounds plus the trends of our YNTs, ussf would be silly to sit on their hands and conclude no improvements are needed. The women don't have the same goals as the men. They're trying to retain their spot as the best in the world.

ECNL hooked up college coaches with aspiring players more efficiently than any prior league. The top ecnl talent is better than any other youth league. As more and more clubs that send kids to NTs get ecnl added, there is no longer any debate about those points. But the idea every ecnl team is strong top to bottom, or is on a different level than all non ecnl, is myth. Myth supported largely by the type of marketing that made you believe morgan brian was an ecnl product.

DA could be a huge win for womens soccer. Even moreso if ussf creates a sensible structure for the levels below to feed the DA with similarly trained players who have also been exposed to standards based, competitive environments. Hopefully that structure allows free movement between the levels as players or clubs progress or regress. The quality in the base and middle tiers will ultimately determine how good the top can become.

Very well said.
For me, it's quite amazing how many posters jumped to the defense of ECNL once the announcement of Girls DA implementation was made. While ECNL may be promoting players to the national stage in other states, that has not been happening to the same degree in NTX.
A quick look at current USWNT rosters from U15 through the full national team (eight squads) shows just eight NTX players. That's on a par with states like Washington and Georgia. Meanwhile California, Colorado, Florida, and New Jersey continue to dominate selection.
While our kids may sometimes win on TEAMS at the national level, they are obviously not impressing the US national staff enough as INDIVIDUALS.  
And yet these ECNL coaches here in NTX will arrogantly talk all day about the quality they are producing. Not a great deal of humility there despite the low production. Imagine if they had a corporate job like the rest of us!
Time for an upgrade. NTX players with USWNT aspirations should be welcoming USSF Girls DA with open arms.

WisdomTeeth wrote:

4-3-3 wrote:

rzrFC wrote:You speak the truth ballhead and I have no disagreement with any of your points.  ECNL is a victim of there own success by expanding beyond their original intent.  My argument is that U.S. Club Soccer's success rate with leagues (NPL and ENCL) is light years ahead of anything USSF or USYS has done for young ladies.  As I said in my earlier posts, USSF should support and enhance what IS working...ECNL.  If they are trying to fix something that's broken, maybe they should start with the men's side.  Or, regional leagues.

Your argument that US Club Soccer's leagues are working because the WNT won the world cup is flawed. First off neither morgan brian nor press nor any of the other players named can be legitimately claimed as ecnl products. They all came up through the old system of usys and odp. Brian may have played a few games in ecnl u23 after she was already in college and a long time NT player. Go check where she actually played her club soccer.

Second off, where is the evidence ecnl is producing more talented YNTs than the old system? Several ecnl era YNT  have recently struggled in international competitions whereas the old gals basically dominated all minnows. After the u20s performance at last u20wc, it looked to me ussf started taking more ownership of their scouting and started expanding their call ups to include more non ecnl players. Ecnl still dominates rosters, but ussf realized they needed to also id fantastic players not in ecnl.

Thirdly, if you watched the wwc you saw the gap between us and the rest of the world rapidly closing. We needed an abby moment to get past nigeria and some good calls and a pk miss to put away germany. Yes the ladies destroyed japan in the final, but if you look at the entire picture of the early rounds plus the trends of our YNTs, ussf would be silly to sit on their hands and conclude no improvements are needed. The women don't have the same goals as the men. They're trying to retain their spot as the best in the world.

ECNL hooked up college coaches with aspiring players more efficiently than any prior league. The top ecnl talent is better than any other youth league. As more and more clubs that send kids to NTs get ecnl added, there is no longer any debate about those points. But the idea every ecnl team is strong top to bottom, or is on a different level than all non ecnl, is myth. Myth supported largely by the type of marketing that made you believe morgan brian was an ecnl product.

DA could be a huge win for womens soccer. Even moreso if ussf creates a sensible structure for the levels below to feed the DA with similarly trained players who have also been exposed to standards based, competitive environments. Hopefully that structure allows free movement between the levels as players or clubs progress or regress. The quality in the base and middle tiers will ultimately determine how good the top can become.

Very well said.
For me, it's quite amazing how many posters jumped to the defense of ECNL once the announcement of Girls DA implementation was made. While ECNL may be promoting players to the national stage in other states, that has not been happening to the same degree in NTX.
A quick look at current USWNT rosters from U15 through the full national team (eight squads) shows just eight NTX players. That's on a par with states like Washington and Georgia. Meanwhile California, Colorado, Florida, and New Jersey continue to dominate selection.
While our kids may sometimes win on TEAMS at the national level, they are obviously not impressing the US national staff enough as INDIVIDUALS.  
And yet these ECNL coaches here in NTX will arrogantly talk all day about the quality they are producing. Not a great deal of humility there despite the low production. Imagine if they had a corporate job like the rest of us!
Time for an upgrade. NTX players with USWNT aspirations should be welcoming USSF Girls DA with open arms.

sprint wrote:IS the gap really closing on the USWNT?  I heard from a friend that went to the games over the weekend the US players were head and shoulders above everyone else.  Plus, you have so many good young players coming up, the US should be the #1 team in the World for at least the next ten years if nothing changes at all.  Morgan Bryan, Christen Press, Mewis, Pugh, McCaffrey, etc etc.  

The coach of one of the other countries indicated the US could field two separate teams and they would both be top five in the World.  The US is incredibly deep and there is no end in sight.  I don't think DA or ECNL changes on the girls side will have any affect on the USWNT.  

4-3-3 wrote:Make the rounds of soccer forums around the country and this idea that boys DA doesn't work is a consistent theme thrown out by parents of female players. It is wrong IMO. Boys club soccer was just as much a country club sport as the girls side...go look at the top DA sides today. They don't look anything like classic league teams of the past. Some of these MLS teams have straight up ballers! We are now starting to send kids to europe early instead of a handful trying to scratch something together in their late twenties.

People were down on our u17 boys for not getting out of group at last 17WC...but they played far better soccer than Jurgen's teams, and just happened to be in what turned out to be the group of death. They have come a LONG way in last 5 years! Because they did not become the best in the world overnight, DA isn't working?

Womens soccer folk can't have it both ways. We want equal pay as men, but we want to insist girls shouldn't have pro aspirations and should keep their focus solely on using soccer to get money for college.

The type of player the DA should target is playing because of a massive passion for the game...not high school, not their friends, not for a college coach to get them into a better school, but primarily because of their desire to be a world class player. Of course that excludes the vast majority of kids...as it should.

But there are girls out there who if you ask them at 11-years-old, they say they want to be a pro soccer player. Those kids whose day to day immersion in the game lines up with their stated goals deserve to have the same outlook as the boys. My kid isnt one in this bucket, but I know some who are. If their talent and ability can match anything men can do, get those types of players the training and environment that will set them up to be entertainers who can make people want to pay to watch women's soccer.  A good # of those kids won't have wealthy parents. DA should be making it possible for their talent to bubble up where the high cost leagues of the past could not.

Sho'Nuff wrote:I guess I'm the only one excited about it.  2-3 teams covering a two-year agegroup sounds much better than the current ECNL model, even if the coaching is the same.

AtThePitch wrote:Starting fall 2016 for Boys DA.

U12
U13
U14
U15/U16
U17/U18

This is a change from the current structure.

BurnOnYou wrote:Excited?   I am apprehensive.
If it were just about the quality of soccer in N Texas, then sure- great to watch.

But my DD is in the mix.  If DA takes a year or two or more to get it right, I worry that her visibility or development etc may suffer.  ECNL has worked out the kinks.  So stay in ECNL you might say, but I am in the camp that thinks that DA will draw all the first looks, then ECNL.  Prior to this it was just ECNL.  There was no divisiveness or unnecessary competition for which team to join.  Also DA has different substitution rules than ECNL. That also impacts how much those girls who don't start get seen or to play.

So pensive would be the camp I find myself sitting...