West Coast B07ECNL combining with an MLS Next B07

[Crazysoccerscene]

This seems a little far-fetched, but I am posting my question because stranger things have happened in club soccer.

The word on the street is there is an 07 MLS Next team [I doubt it is the entire MLS Next Team] that is bringing their MLS Next team, their EA team, and their Flight 1 team to merge with West Coast's B07 ECNL, ECRL, and Flight 1 team. Is anyone else hearing the same thing?

 

[Jamisfoes]

Westcoast's ECNL standing across different age groups is pretty laughable so I am not surprised they need to do that.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

Westcoast's ECNL standing across different age groups is pretty laughable so I am not surprised they need to do that.

They appear to have some years that aren't particularly strong (2008), but others that hold their own (2006).

05/04B - 50th in state
2006B - 19th in state
2007B - 50th in state
2008B - 175th in state
2009B - 78th in state
2010B - 71st in state

It looks like 2008 needs more of a shot in the arm than the 2007 team might. Almost any MLS Next combination would likely bump these up a bit, though. It's also clear that right now, the girls program is much stronger than the boys program (34th in state vs 77th in state).

 

[focomoso]

I have no inside info on this and considered not saying anything, but I have a wild guess at what could be happening based on the rumor mill. One of the Las Vegas 07 MLS Next teams has a large number of SoCal players on it that have been traveling together to LV for home games. If that situation were to change, they'd be looking for a new club. It's one of only two clubs that have U16 MLS Next, but don't have U17 which is the only way I could see this making sense.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

If you look at both of those 2007 LV MLS Next teams, West Coast's current ECNL team would be expected to beat them pretty handily already. (52+ compared to a 51 and a 48). Trading a long commute for an arguably better team doesn't seem too outlandish, even if it does go from MLS Next to ECNL. And if it really is a merger where the top players on both squads displace a few of the existing, it stands to reason the resulting team would be even stronger. MLS Next may have more upside (both theoretical and actual), but not necessarily from the teams being discussed.

 

[Jamisfoes]

They appear to have some years that aren't particularly strong (2008), but others that hold their own (2006).

05/04B - 50th in state
2006B - 19th in state
2007B - 50th in state
2008B - 175th in state
2009B - 78th in state
2010B - 71st in state

It looks like 2008 needs more of a shot in the arm than the 2007 team might. Almost any MLS Next combination would likely bump these up a bit, though. It's also clear that right now, the girls program is much stronger than the boys program (34th in state vs 77th in state).

How could people say ECNL league is a higher level league than EA when an ECNL team is 70th in the state and lower than a lot of EA teams.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

How could people say ECNL league is a higher level league than EA when an ECNL team is 70th in the state and lower than a lot of EA teams.

I imagine this was a rhetorical question, but if it wasn't.... ECNL has some weaker teams, but the average team is significantly higher than the average EA team, and the strongest ECNL teams are significantly better than the strongest EA teams. And just quickly flipping through, I can also find EA teams that are 350th in state.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

Here are the averages of all major leagues, both nationally & california-specific. Mark calculated these back in February.

National (Boys):
National (Girls):
California (Boys):
California (Girls):

 

[Jamisfoes]

I imagine this was a rhetorical question, but if it wasn't.... ECNL has some weaker teams, but the average team is significantly higher than the average EA team, and the strongest ECNL teams are significantly better than the strongest EA teams. And just quickly flipping through, I can also find EA teams that are 350th in state.

I think ECNL needs to kick Westcoast off the league and replace it with another stronger EA club. They are bad across age groups. Pats too.

 

[Carlsbad7]

I think ECNL needs to kick Westcoast off the league and replace it with another stronger EA club. They are bad across age groups. Pats too.

This is the problem with ECNL in Socal. They have a limited number of super teams + the rest. The step down from top teams to "the rest" is very dramatic. Not sure if bringing in EA teams would change anything.

 

[Jamisfoes]

The thing I don't like about Westcoast is their don't even have flight 1 teams in the younger ages (below 12). How are they building an ECNL team at age 13 if their younger program is already weak? Same thing can be said about Pats to an extent.

 

[Code]

This is the problem with ECNL in Socal. They have a limited number of super teams + the rest. The step down from top teams to "the rest" is very dramatic. Not sure if bringing in EA teams would change anything.

You say the same thing on every thread on this forum, but the results and standings never support what you claim. Maybe you can point out what the difference is you are seeing is between the results and scenarios in any of the 07 Standings? the difference

 

[Code]

Or if you are more familiar with the Girls 07 teams

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

This is the problem with ECNL in Socal. They have a limited number of super teams + the rest. The step down from top teams to "the rest" is very dramatic. Not sure if bringing in EA teams would change anything.

Where have I heard this before...

You say the same thing on every thread on this forum, but the results and standings never support what you claim.

Ah, that's right. I remember now.

 

[Carlsbad7]

You say the same thing on every thread on this forum, but the results and standings never support what you claim. Maybe you can point out what the difference is you are seeing is between the results and scenarios in any of the 07 Standings? View attachment 16286View attachment 16287the difference

Dont get all bent out of shape.

What I was saying is that with ECNL in Socal (boys and girls) you have a couple of clubs that always tend to dominate. Those clubs make it hard to add new clubs because the new ones will likely get blown out for several seasons while they're finding their place in a higher level of play league. This is why I said I dont think adding EA teams to Socal ECNL leagues would make that much of a difference. The same clubs would continue to win like they always have.

I do agree adding boys EA teams to socal ECNL would make ECNL roughly the same size league as Next.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

The thing I don't like about Westcoast is their don't even have flight 1 teams in the younger ages (below 12). How are they building an ECNL team at age 13 if their younger program is already weak? Same thing can be said about Pats to an extent.

No idea about Westcoast specifically, and it may very well have many of the issues described here already. But it's a pretty common model for the top MLS clubs nationally to not focus at all on the youngers, if they have teams at all. They start recruiting to build teams for the first time at U12/U13. An argument can certainly be made that it would be better if they started younger, but it's not the only solution.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

This particular data point came up when Mark first added the club ratings a year or so back, and for a time only required 5 teams for a club to be rated. All of the top clubs nationally turned out to be MLS clubs that only had teams in 06/07/08/09/10, and had no younger teams at all. The ranking algorithm needed to be tweaked for clubs that had more/all years represented to not be knocked down too far (now years that are unrepresented get a "30" averaged in).