What Is Better? MLS NEXT 2 or ECNL RL

What is better, MLS Next 2 or ECNL RL? So the first thing I want you to know is MLS Next 2 has a lot of potential, and the reason for that is as of now they're going to be going to FEST and FLEX. Now it's still unclear if they're going to be going to FEST and FLEX. It's unclear whether or not they'll be going to MLS Next FEST in which they play against MLS teams, which would be a game changer, but it is clear that they're probably going to go to those events, which means the college coaches will show up to MLS NEXT events and then maybe when they otherwise not have seen you, say if you're playing NAL, which is what MLS NEXT 2 used to be, they just wouldn't have seen you. Now they'll walk over to your field maybe and go, I was watching this MLS NEXT game, but there's an MLS NEXT 2 player who's really good. And for, you know, political circumstances or timing or injury, they're playing for this team. So I'm going to walk over there and get them. Remember, every single coach wants the diamond in the rough. Yes, everybody knows who the most talented player is. It's not that hard to find the most talented. What's hard to find is the diamond in the rough, the player that nobody knows But turns out would be an excellent college soccer player. And that was me. You know, I'm 5'6", very short. Nobody believed in me and my abilities. I went to 30 ID camps. I wrote 5,000 emails. And my father was an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. So it took that much for one Division I coach, only one, to go, "Hey, we like you." And then I played Division I. I became an All-American, and then I played pro soccer. So he found me. I was the diamond in the rough, but I had to do a lot to get in front of his face so he could learn I was the diamond in the rough. So MLS Next 2 has a lot of potential. Now, Easton RL is established. So the good news with Easton RL is there are showcases and there are playoffs, and therefore college coaches go to them. Typically speaking, these days Division 3 and Division 2s go to these, not really any Division 1 schools for boys. For girls, it's a little different. There's a little bit more Easton RL Division 1 schools that go to Easton RL games, but on the boys' side, it's very rare. And if you do have a playoff or showcase, it'll be the local schools. It's very rare that if you're, for example, the showcase in Tennessee, that a school out of New York or a school out of California is gonna come to those showcases. It does happen, but it's rare. MLS NEXT 2, on the other hand, think about it like a food court. The bigger food court is gonna be at the FEST event where there's gonna be many teams. So if MLS NEXT FEST, MLS NEXT 2 teams are going to MLS NEXT FEST, all of a sudden, a coach could go to that food court and there's a lot more options, hence why they do that. Now here's the other reason MLS NEXT 2 to me is the better fit. Is if you play ECNL RL, your bar is ECNL. Like if you do good at ECNL RL, which I'd like you to be there by 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th grade. So by junior year you're playing ECNL. If that happens, you can still totally play college soccer. But on the other hand, if you're playing MLS Next 2 and you jump to MLS Next, ECNL is here. MLS Next 2 is— MLS Next rather is here. So all of a sudden you've got a better chance to play college soccer because you're in an environment, you're on a ladder that will enable you to go to a higher level, that is MLS Next. So your chance of playing at a higher level of college soccer becomes more likely. Now, I don't know if you heard this story, but there was a recent player who played against Newcastle United, okay? And he was playing in a Europa League game in the Premier League, and he just signed with Ohio State. So what that means is you're not just competing to play Division I with other American kids, you're competing with players that literally are shaking hands with players at the Premier League level and players that are going on to have careers that are unfathomable at the highest level. So the reason I bring that up is to say if you're playing MLS Next Tour Easton RL and you wanna play D1, you're not just competing with your MLS Next and Easton L kids, you're competing with professional-esque soccer players and you may not be that level. Hence why I think for either level, you need to focus on Division III, which is getting a lot better because the kids who otherwise would've gone Division I that are not making it anymore are playing at Division III. The academics are better, there's more scholarship money because academics is where the money is. And Division II schools are really competitive. Many kids are transferring from Division II to Division I later in life. And for you, if you only email Division I schools because that's all you want to play, then your, your chance of playing college soccer just goes down tremendously. Where if you're open-minded to emailing, you don't have to spend any money, you don't have to go on any camp, but if you're willing to email, it's not that difficult. And I have this technology that basically allows me to send one email to every single coach individually. It will enter the coach's name, it will say something genuine, it will send it off. So because of this, there's no reason, in my opinion, for you not to send emails to those schools, 'cause with our technology that I have, it's really not that hard to send emails to some backup schools. All of that now is to say, when you're choosing between MLSX2 and Easton RL, it's really about the coach. If you really love your coach at Easton RL, you should stay. Same with MLSX2. If you love the coach, it's the place to be, because that's really who's gonna help you along this journey. Now, don't depend on your coach to do the recruiting process for you. They're not gonna send all the emails, they're not gonna fix your video, They're not gonna go over individual clips. They're not gonna tell you which camps to go to. They have a job to do. Their job is to coach you to play club soccer and keep you within their club. That's their number one job. That's how they get paid. My job is not that. My job is to tell you to leave if you should leave. My job is to make sure that you find the right coach. That is my job at the end of the day. So that's why I have a different agenda than they do. Now, if you had to pick, gun to my head, MLS Next or ECNL, MLS Next 2 or ECNL, I would tell you to pick MLS Next 2. Assuming there's a clear path to MLS NEXT. If there is no clear path, like they kind of say to you, yeah, we're part of the same organization, but you're never going to get up to this level, then I would pick a different MLS NEXT 2 team or a different Easton IL RL team that has a clear path to the next level. You need to be in that next level because even with all the emails and everything else that I do for you, if you're playing at a higher club level, what I do for you works 10 times better. You would get more money, we get more offers, So what I do is, I think, cool, but you still need to play at the highest club level you possibly can. What I'd like you to do is comment which club level you're playing at with your GPA, and then hopefully I can take a look at it with you and say, hey, this is what division I think you should aim for, and hopefully we can help you that way. Otherwise, if you want more help playing college soccer, you can give us a call, give me a call. In the description below, you'll see a link for that. Okay, talk to you soon.