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A breakdown of where U.S. youth soccer leagues actually rank, arguing ECNL belongs above MLS Next and USL Academy above MLS Next 2. The real question: which club gets your kid recruited to college, not which league sounds fanciest.
A breakdown of where U.S. youth soccer leagues actually rank, arguing ECNL belongs above MLS Next and USL Academy above MLS Next 2. The real question: which club gets your kid recruited to college, not which league sounds fanciest.
Is the entire youth soccer pyramid— let me show you. So I have to confess, I did not make this graphic, someone else did, and I think it's got some errors in it, but it's a very good graphic to show us basically what is true. So first of all, it puts MLS Next above ECNL. You know, I do agree with that. However, I'd probably put like ECNL up above because ECNL is much higher than MLS Next 2. I would put MLS Next 2 down here into this category. But I will admit it's definitely above Elite Academy. Now I would put USL Academy above MLS Next 2 because it's a much higher level. ECNL RL should definitely be at this level here, if maybe not even at this level, because it's still very good. Then these teams here are pretty accurate. UPSL is actually a very high level, probably more in this area. However, it doesn't get that much exposure, which can present a problem. I know a lot of you guys are worried about the pyramid and you're like, should I switch teams? Should I not switch teams? Should I join X team? Especially right now given the time of year it is. If you're not sure what team, you can book a call with my team and I, and we can potentially discuss what the right move is. But the question you really need to say to yourself is this: it doesn't matter what club team you play for if you go to the college of your dreams. So if I say to you, if you end up playing UPSL or RAL your entire life, but you go to your dream school, will you be happy? You'd probably say yes. So the question isn't really what club team, the question is how do you play at the college soccer team? Now that might mean you have to leave your club team. That could be a discussion we have to have. But if you're thinking which club team to go to for the sake of club, you're missing the picture. What club team do you go to to go to your college? And then you can go, oh, you know what? I could actually stay on this club team but go to 3 more camps because I don't want to drive or I can't drive or because it's not realistic or the coach sucks so I'm not gonna play minutes, et cetera. So then you create a plan with the situation you have. If you want more help, give us a call. Link's in the bio. If you comment the word, the initials of your state. For example, IN club. I'll send you every single club in Indiana. We don't have MLS Next 2 yet, we're working on that. So IN club. Make sure it's one word. It only works for Instagram. Otherwise, give me a call. Links in the bio. Bye.
