A college-soccer recruiting advisor compares MLS Next 2, ECNL RL, and RL2, explaining that ECNL RL has the most visibility now but MLS Next 2 will likely dominate. He tells the story of a talented player trapped under an abusive ECNL coach who also directs the club, forcing the family to choose between exposure and a healthier environment.
Can you please compare MLS Next 2 with ECNL RL and RL2? As of right now, the most visibility would still come from ECNL RL because it's been around longer and coaches know it, and they do have showcases and playoffs. But my feeling is MLS Next 2 will take over. However, this does not mean you just jump ship because there's a new name and a new club, right? You don't go name chasing, you go coach chasing. Find a coach you like. To tell you a brief story, we have a player right now who's really good. We started with him in 8th grade. He just made one of the best ECNL teams in the country, but the coach is a prick, like an absolute prick. Unfortunately, the coach is also a director, so there's nobody to report to. He calls the kids like the B-word when they get injured. He's very abusive, but he does have a winning team and he is producing a lot of ability. So the family are debating, do we leave clubs and go play for a lesser team, or do we put up with this mean coach to keep going? Now, if you ask me, the college soccer guy, my job is to help you play college soccer. So I can tell that family that if you go play for a lower-level team within ECNL, then you're probably fine because he's a good player. But if you go play for like NPL, which is kind of what they're debating, you will get less opportunities. So is it worth putting up with that misery emotionally? I would say no, it's not. Like, you should leave. But I went through a million bad youth coaches. That's just part of the job. You want to play college soccer. Nobody said it was going to be easy and happy and la-la land. You might have to put up with that prick of a coach so you can go to the right school. So it depends what— how committed you are. I was cleaning out my garage and look, that's me when I was getting interviewed at Sac Republic. If you want more help playing college soccer, give me— give us a call. Link is in the bio.
