Zev Taublieb explains how Division I soccer coaches pick between equally talented players: they choose whoever they've seen the most. Playing in high-visibility leagues like ECNL or MLS Next gets you in front of coaches repeatedly, which matters more than raw talent alone.
How do Division I coaches decide between two equally talented players? This is a math formula. It's time under exposure. That is how they will decide. Meaning, whoever they can see the most is who they are going to work. The reason is they want to make sure that you're a good person, that they've seen you play well, have seen you play poorly, seen you maybe get injured, seen you come back from your injury, because you're going to be on their team for 4 years. There's very few pro contracts that ever last 4 years. Most contracts, including myself, was a 1-year, maybe 2-year contract. So they know they're gonna be signing you for 4 years, so they want to really make sure you're the right person. And for that, if you've got 2 kids who are equally good, they'll pick the one they see the most, which is why it's so important to be playing ECNL or MLS Next if you want to play Division 1. Because if you're playing ECNL RL and you're good enough for Division 1 and you see another kid who's also good enough for Division 1 at MLS Next or ECNL, likely they will see those kids more often because of the showcase schedules. If you want a list of the showcase— if you want a list of the showcases that I recommend you go to, comment the word ECNL or comment the word MLS, and I'll send you a list. If you want more help playing college soccer, give me a call. Links in the bio. Because you should know
