An Actual Soccer Discussion

Hoping to start a thread for folks to discuss their impressions of each league they are participating in. There has been a lot of bad mouthing of this league or that, relevance or not, who’s right/ wrong. In hopes of avoiding that, what have been your impressions so far of LH/JDL/ECNL/DA? Would be nice if you actually have seen a game being played as a prerequisite to your comment.

LH has been a pleasant surprise for me. Aside from a couple lopsided results, the league is largely competitive. It appears that 4-5 teams will fight for supremacy here. It’s a given that losing Kicks and DTS affected overall quality, but there are times when good quality soccer is played. Would love to see the top 4 of LH in a tourney with JDL and ECNL (part of that wish is that DTS has a conflict and can’t participte that weekend). Would be an interesting case study.

ColtMcVince wrote:Hoping to start a thread for folks to discuss their impressions of each league they are participating in. There has been a lot of bad mouthing of this league or that, relevance or not, who’s right/ wrong.  In hopes of avoiding that, what have been your impressions so far of LH/JDL/ECNL/DA?  Would be nice if you actually have seen a game being played as a prerequisite to your comment.  

LH has been a pleasant surprise for me.  Aside from a couple lopsided results, the league is largely competitive.  It appears that 4-5 teams will fight for supremacy here. It’s a given that losing Kicks and DTS affected overall quality,  but there are times when good quality soccer is played.  Would love to see the top 4 of LH in a tourney with JDL and ECNL (part of that wish is that DTS has a conflict and can’t participte that weekend).   Would be an interesting case study.  

Another way to put it would be losing DTS and Kicks allowed there to be more congruency in the Div. rather than a fight for third. Or maybe 4th. Lots of DA teams and top ECNL teams playing in the International Cup so hopefully there isn't a DA div. might see some good games.

Overall my impression is that LH is watered down due to JDL, ECNL, DA options. The top talent is either playing in those leagues in their age group or pushing up a year to play in those leagues. Every now and then you'll find a nice competitive match in LH with good soccer on display, but nothing like it was in the past.

And it will probably never be again like it was in the past.

KeeperCommander wrote:And it will probably never be again like it was in the past.

Indeed...

That’s why I mentioned the tournament. I wonder if across the board those leagues are any different. My guess is that Sting, FCD DA, Feet and DTS ECNL are all top quality here in the area. The rest of them, including JDL may be just as “watered down”.

It would be an interesting case study especially since there is a ton of results that support parity throughout. For instance there are teams in JDL that are LH DIII and DII. There are aslo teams in JDL that have lost to LH teams in tournaments etc. There are DDs that simply choose ECNL over DA even though they are top talent. My point is no one league has the best of the best talent of that age group. Kiddos are spread around for their own reasons or because only certain clubs offer DA, JDL etc.

Bodhisattva wrote:It would be an interesting case study especially since there is a ton of results that support parity throughout. For instance there are teams in JDL that are LH DIII and DII. There are aslo teams in JDL that have lost to LH teams in tournaments etc. There are DDs that simply choose ECNL over DA even though they are top talent. My point is no one league has the best of the best talent of that age group. Kiddos are spread around for their own reasons or because only certain clubs offer DA, JDL etc.

Are you referring exclusively to the 05 age group here Bodhisattva or in more general terms?

BigErn wrote:

Bodhisattva wrote:It would be an interesting case study especially since there is a ton of results that support parity throughout. For instance there are teams in JDL that are LH DIII and DII. There are aslo teams in JDL that have lost to LH teams in tournaments etc. There are DDs that simply choose ECNL over DA even though they are top talent. My point is no one league has the best of the best talent of that age group. Kiddos are spread around for their own reasons or because only certain clubs offer DA, JDL etc.

Are you referring exclusively to the 05 age group here Bodhisattva or in more general terms?

06s & 05s