Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast
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Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast
Southwest Dominance at ECNL Finals and the East Coast vs. West Coast Development Debate | Ep.99
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Join us as we uncover the secrets behind the dominance of Southwest Conference clubs in the ECNL National and Regional League Championships. We bring you front-row tales of thrilling comebacks and the sheer joy of young players in moments of victory, capped by unforgettable Gatorade showers. Florida's soccer landscape is evolving, but how does it stack up against Southern California's talent hubs? We explore the critical differences in player development environments across the states.
Welcome to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, where every two weeks we take a deep dive into everything ECNL and, at times, everything soccer. We do that with the CEO and President of the ECNL Christian Labors, their Accomplice Vice President, doug Bracken, and Ashley Willis, the ECNL Partnership Activation and Alumni Relations Manager. We have a whole lot to cover on today's podcast with those three, including a recap of all the ECNL National Championships and Regional League National Championships, talking about the emotion of victory and defeat. We will cover the Conference Cup that is going on right now, the Canada Women's Olympic team drone scandal, the search for a US men's World Cup coach and a Bracken's brain buster. That opens the door for us to talk about the US women's and men's Olympic soccer team. That's a whole lot, but I think you'll enjoy this show with Christian, doug and Ashley. And it all starts after this message from ECNL corporate partner Nike.
Speaker 2:Nike is a proud sponsor of ECNL girls. Nothing can stop what we can do together to bring positive change to our communities. You can't stop sport because hashtag. You can't stop our voices. Follow Nike on Instagram, facebook and Twitter.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Breaking the Line. The ECNL podcast segment one ready to roll and, as mentioned, I turn it back over to the president and CEO of the ECNL, christian Labors.
Speaker 3:All right. Well, thank you, dean. Glad to see everybody back after a little hiatus last week when we heard from the great Charlie Stilitano here recorded back at the symposium in Vegas, which was great to hear some of his stories. So the first topic we'll talk about is the ECNL finals. That just concluded boys and girls, ecnl and RL all the data and information from that. Ashley was brave and on site for every day of both finals in the hot, humid conditions of Richmond, virginia. So maybe Ashley set the table and talk to us a little bit about the finals, your perspective of it, watching every level and both genders, and what you thought about the atmosphere, the teams, everything about the you know finals 2024.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't know if it was brave or stupidity on my end going that many games in the in the heat in Richmond, but I will say it was a ton of fun. A lot of good levels across the board between club comp and then down into RL. I thought it was so much fun to watch. We had epic comebacks, we had a couple of blowouts, but nothing really too earth shattering and then it was just overall really really good soccer. I enjoyed it. It was my first time at finals as an employee or just as a fan of soccer in general, so my first experience couldn't have gone better. A few moments that stick out would be the comeback that the 07 U17 boys did surf defending national champions, tying it up dying seconds with the reigning player of the year and then absolutely blow it out of the water in overtime.
Speaker 3:That game was against Las Vegas Heat, I believe, and I think he'd scored the tie with like 15 seconds left in the sixth minute of injury time or extra time. Is that right?
Speaker 4:Surf did. Yeah. Yeah, surf tied it up. They were down 1-0. And it was. I was right behind the goal when it happened and I was like this is going to be so much fun going into overtime. And of course surf kind of turned on a different gear that you do as defending national champions. But that was a very, very good game. That heat team was amazing. That goalkeeper was playing lights out. So heartbreaking for them but so fun with not having a dog in the fight to be able to watch.
Speaker 4:On the girls' side, a lot of really good soccer. I mean they're just fun to watch top to bottom. On the girls' side the little U13s were throwing Gatorade and celebrating like grown Premier League players, which was fun because they're hitting knee slides and everything. It was just a lot of fun. It was in the rain. The girls' finals for NL. I think there was a pair of sisters yeah, they're twins for Beach. They've each won their finals, which is just. I mean, how often does that happen? The one sister won the U 17s for NL and then this other sister won I think it was the U 15s for RL. Um, so keeping it in the family both sisters going home national champion is always fun Outside of just playing. I think Nike kind of being Santa for the NL kids the 16s and 17s and giving away a free pair of boots is. It was fun. It was a lot of fun the facial expressions on the kids when they found out that they were getting boots from Nike.
Speaker 5:that's something that I think will like be etched in my memory for a very long time question for you, christian and ashley do you this goes back to that surf uh las vegas, heat uh game as a coach, because both of you coached a number of games? Do you remember more, your victories or your crushing defeats?
Speaker 4:defeats by a mile. I mean both, but like defeats, like even into college as a player.
Speaker 5:I remember 17 seconds left in a game and losing yeah, so I mean, my biggest one is we lost it at us ys national final. Uh, in a game I thought we played well enough to win, and I I've. That is my overwhelming memory, more than any time we won, which is, I don't know if that's a sad, sad thing, but christian, what do you think there? You know?
Speaker 3:I think there's science about how emotion positively impacts memory. I things that are high emotional moments sort of sear into your brain. So if it's emotionally high on one end or the other, I think it's seared into your brain because I can think of both. I can think of you know, those really tough moments of losses and those really unbelievable highs, and to me they're both Crystal clear because they were so, they were so emotional in in either excitement or sorrow or whatever. But you know that that game you're talking about in the 17s, when you're leading and you and you concede that late, that is soul crushing, yeah, and it's. It's easy because the game's tied, but you almost feel like you lost, and so it's not a surprise to some level that the team that concedes very, very late at the, at the end can't the emotions overwhelm them. And then and it's really hard to get back into sort of that proactive, confident mentality because you feel like it was just taken from you, you know so, so late.
Speaker 5:My, my overwhelming emotion when Ashley was explaining that game was how my heart sank for Las Vegas Heat, honestly more than I thought about San Diego Surf and how excited they were to come back and win. So I don't know I I might need to talk to my therapist about all this.
Speaker 4:I mean it was. It was so late. To like paint the actual picture of how late this time goal was is our videographer was on the heat bench filming them and their reactions, ready to come off the bench, like that's how late this time goal was. So it was, dean, you were calling the game Like it. Like it was. It was very, very fun if you didn't have a dog in the fight.
Speaker 1:But, like my heart sank for those heat kids it was one of the most exciting games I've called in a long, long time, and you knew when last year's player of the year scored it, you knew that, uh, captain mo momentum was on their side and they were gonna get it done. So it was really heartbreak city on the other side for the vegas heat, because they were, as you said, just that many seconds away from winning a national championship and had it just plucked right away from them well and you know, huge, huge credit to the guys to get to that final and to be in that spot.
Speaker 3:So it's a it's a huge accomplishment and and they'll see and feel that everybody who loses, whether you lose in the quarters, semis or in the championship there's a sort of bitter feeling at first but in time you'll look back and recognize what an unbelievable accomplishment it is to get to that point. Because I think when you look at year over year it is so hard to repeat as champions and the teams that have and you can probably count them on one hand, you know no more than two, but probably one hand on teams that have had back-to-back championships. When you can do that, it is an incredible feat because it's not unusual that year over year you will have 90% or 100% difference in who makes it to the championship game and who makes it to the semis, because there's just so much quality and depth out there. So kudos to everybody on site for making it that far, for for the quality that it takes. You know the.
Speaker 3:The other part to this is the, the dominance in both sides and, and generally I think almost at both levels, from the southwest and specifically southern california this year, I mean so. The southern california this year, I mean so. The southern california is the biggest player hotbed in the country in terms of numbers, quality and and maybe we talk about how that impacts this but their performance in terms of getting to the finals and winning finals across many different clubs was was maybe unprecedented this year.
Speaker 5:Dog, you got the data on that yeah, yeah, in the girls specifically, five out of the six champions at the ECNL level were teams from Southern California and at the RL level four out of the five teams that won were Southern California. The boys is more competitive and a little bit more spread out, but you had at the at the ECNL level you had three out of the six were Southern California. None of the RL champions came from Southern California, so the boys RL I guess saved a little bit on that front. But on the girls' side, to say that of the 11 championships that we were playing for in richmond, nine of them were won by teams from southern california. It's a pretty big statement.
Speaker 3:This year three of the finals at the ecno level were contested to southern california teams and let's give these clubs that you know gave that won the championships, some credit and the teams in the finals maybe just go through quickly each age group.
Speaker 5:Yeah, uh, you 13 girls, ecnl surf. Uh San Diego surf beat SoCal blues. You 14 was a slammers beat legends. Uh, you 15 was San Diego surf. Uh beat Casey athletics. You 16 was Penn fusion as the champion over a crossfire academy. Uh to seattle u17 beach, fc beat legends and then at u19, san diego surf beat concord. Obviously that u19 game was was at the playoffs because we finished there. But big hats off to san diego surf. They did win the overall club championship and they had three national champions which is.
Speaker 3:I think if you win three national championships, that's like the most obvious, uh, unannounced.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah totally. And then on the girls, rl, you 13s. It was SoCal blues over solar. You 14 is beach FC over Connecticut FC you 15. It was a beach FC against West side Alliance. And then you 16, greater Toledo FC won over Sting Dallas Black. And then at U17, legends beat Albion. So that was the girls' side, just to put that in a little perspective for those who might not know the geography.
Speaker 3:When you talk about surf, slam legends, beach and blues, you could probably drive from one club to the other club in an hour or an hour and a half and get from any one of those clubs to the other, and some of them might actually be just a few exits down the road. I might be wrong. Some might even train on the same facilities at certain certain days of the week Um, and don't quote me on that but at certain certain days of the week.
Speaker 5:And don't quote me on that but like the the, the proximity of those clubs to each other is really really close. I think what you also particularly see there in the girls side is that the younger age groups they're really were really dominant this year. On the boys side, a bit more spread out, a bit more spread out, uh. And so at the ECL level, you 13 pipeline beat real Colorado. At you 14, lafc SoCal beat the Dallas Texans. At you 15, south Carolina surf beat pipeline Uh. You 16, lafc SoCal uh beat NVA out of Northern Virginia.
Speaker 5:U17, san Diego Surf beat Las Vegas Heat Surf, which we've kind of already talked about. At U19, it was Crossfire Academy beat Florida Craze. And then at the RL level, u13s, it was SF United over Delaware SC. U14, three rivers over GSA. U15 was the Philadelphia Ukrainians over Chicago Inter. U16, kansas Rush over Doral. And at U17, a couple of Midwest teams, slsg over FC Wisconsin. So that was kind of that. And on the boys' side the overall club champion was Crossfire Academy. So congratulations to them. And Surf. I always say this that is the hardest achievement in our league is to be the overall club champion. It takes into consideration your points from what you do in conference play, the playoffs and the finals. So it's an unbelievable accomplishment to be the overall club champion. So congrats to those guys.
Speaker 3:So that's the teaser. That announcement hasn't been made yet but we'll announce probably in the next month here, the top 20. I think we typically announce the top 20 clubs overall. Nobody's going to be surprised by those champions. Kudos to all of them Begs the question if you go back, and maybe this is the most dominant year ever for the southwest conference. I'm guessing that's the case on the girls side. For sure, slammers has, you know, last year's overall club champ, surf, this year's overall club champ and the numbers of teams in the finals. But you know, every year the southwest conference proves its quality on both, both sides, girls and boys. And it begs the question as to why is that conference so consistently dominant? And I think it's probably fair to say that most years the Southwest Conference ranks out as the top competition on both sides. I'll throw this open to both of you why do you think that is?
Speaker 5:both sides. I'll throw this open to both of you. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 5:Geography and weather would be the two things that I think about when you are generally not limited by the weather and as it relates to your training, and not whether or not you can train, but the circumstances under which you're training. So I again, and I'm sure you would agree with this Christian cause, you can talk about how it was when you were in Wisconsin and obviously now you're in San Diego, so you see it soon from two different lenses. But here, like, we train outside in the winter, but it's 25 degrees and the kids aren't necessarily, you know, locked in when they're out there freezing their butts off right. So it's a hard and that's not an excuse, it's just a fact, right that sometimes the weather can be very prohibitive. I think you and I always kind of talked about how you guys spent three or four months inside of a gym training and there's got to be an advantage to being able to train in good weather without a lot of restriction I think weather for sure.
Speaker 3:Climb is a piece of it, although I will say you don't win at that level without doing a good job coaching as well, so we got to make sure that that's really, really clear now.
Speaker 3:you know, I always used to say you're never going to be successful at a high level if you don't have both a sort of raw material or really good talent, plus a really good job of organizing and teaching that talent. Weather is certainly one piece. And yeah, you're right. I mean, if you've never trained consistently in 25 degrees, one of the things you recognize is that you can't do as much teaching in 25 degrees, because if you stop to show points and talk through things, everybody starts to freeze, right, you know. So what? I remember training sessions where you say, hey, we're going to be outdoors and the first thing we've got to do here is keep everybody moving. You know that's a different.
Speaker 4:and, by the way, you know, the more you're training and less standing, the better obviously, but there's a different challenge to that when the cones break I don't know actually if you've actually done that the plastic is frozen and breaks up.
Speaker 3:In colorado it was in florida, yeah, colorado cold, west cold totally I mean come on, totally.
Speaker 3:But you know, and to your other point I mean. So texas is another conference that's typically very, very competitive. That has similarities with weather In the Southeast. You have some, you know, big clubs NASA, top Hat, on the boys side, for sure, concord on both sides that have been consistent FKK this year, obviously in the 18th final.
Speaker 3:There is a reality to the climate as far as it impacts the ability to be outside.
Speaker 3:I'll say one thing as well is that you know, having sort of lived through this change as obvious as it may be when you're outdoors a lot more, just in life, I got to think it impacts like the athleticism of kids, because when you're outdoors and you can do things and you're playing around versus being stuck inside, you're just bodies presented with different demands. So I think that's a piece of it. The other side of it is the density of talent. Yeah, and I mean it's Southern California, one of the most densely populated places in the country, and I think when you combine the density of talent, the ability to be outside all the time, combine the density of talent, the ability to be outside all the time, probably a pretty athletic culture, that gives you some pretty big macroeconomic, I guess you would say, or macro variables that are going to help, and then if you put good people working with those players and teams in terms of teaching and organizing, you're going to be tough to beat, and I think that's what we saw this year.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think these big geographic centers around the country where you have a higher concentration of talent to your point and you can get that talent in the same environment, it raises the level.
Speaker 5:And again, that's not to take anything away from coaching or or organizing and how they develop their players and their teams. But you know, when you have that, I think, concentration of talent and that cultivates a level of competition and increasing the level, that makes a huge difference. Ashley could chime in on this too. You know, at times when you have a good player or two good, really good players who are well above other players, it can be hard for those guys to to push on to the next level because they're not being tested every day or they it doesn't force them to be tested because of the way that they, you know, know how they're. Just at a higher level, you know you have. If you have six or eight of those players or ten of those players, types of players on a team, it makes a big difference in the wider the wider the range of talent, the harder it is.
Speaker 3:I have another question actually for ashley, because the immediate response to hey, hey, the Southern California has got some weather and population advantages is you know, so does Florida right To, to a degree very densely populated, similar, I mean probably a lot more humidity in Florida than SoCal. But you know, florida is very, very different soccer market and I, you know I remember when we got the first U S club league in Florida, the Florida club league, and a shout out to them and Lori Troutman and their leadership, cause they've grown that from zero to a lot of players and a really good platform right now. But when that happened we used to always say Florida has so much talent but it's not aggregated into teams and clubs as much. Florida we always kind of looked at as like the wild west and I think if you talk to some of the directors there who are good friends, so you got sean bub at florida elite, humenzi's fkk novi and his brother at florida premier tricia ashley willis ashley willis.
Speaker 3:Ashley willis proudly leading the rl program down there. But I think the sort of the evolution of the club soccer infrastructure in Florida is happening but you know, I mean, you're there, ashley the sense over time has been that Florida has had good teams but not well-organized clubs. If I go back 10, 15 years ago and this is no disrespect to anybody who's been in that Florida club scene but it was just a lot harder to organize for whatever reason, and I think that's slowly starting to change, which again is a credit here to the clubs in Southern California, because these are big, well-organized clubs Again, whether you're talking about surf or slammers or legends or beach or SoCal or Patty Adores or any of these guys, and you could go on and on and on, but they're well organized, they're very deep. What is the Florida market? I mean you can look at it now actually from a player, from a coach. Now you know, having seen some stuff from a league perspective. How do you contrast the Florida market to the Southern California market?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think there's like a couple of big differences. Yeah, we're dense here in Florida, but not like it is in Southern California, like it's dense but it's spread out. It's very strange here. I didn't grow up here so I'm still trying to learn it after a few years of living here. But I think our talent is very spread out from Miami to the panhandle, to Jacksonville, to Orlando to Tampa. It's just vastly spread out compared to Southern California, where you throw a nickel out the window and you hit 17 national team kids in Southern California, where here it's few and far between.
Speaker 4:As far as the organization of clubs, yeah, I think there's a blueprint in Southern California that everyone tries to emulate and it's this works and this is why we need to be similar to this club and we can tweak it within the difference between Slammers and SoCal, blues and Surf. But here it's, people are set in their ways in a lot of ways of like. This is why we've done it this way always. I don't really necessarily want to change. And then you have to get new people in directors, coaches, leadership in general, and then you can start developing.
Speaker 4:You know your entire program differently, but I think in Florida, and then you can start developing your entire program differently, but I think in Florida it's just very this is the way we've always done it and we had success for a couple of years 15 years ago and it should be the same now and that's not the case, and I think you're slowly starting to see this new wave of people come in and start changing the landscape in Florida. But I don't think it's always been that way and I think that's kind of why there's such a vast difference in Florida versus California, which on paper, there really shouldn't be.
Speaker 3:There were two things that always used to be said about Florida.
Speaker 3:One was, and I remember back in the Development Academy boys' days, there was a common refrain of playing a Florida team in Florida was going to be very different than playing a Florida team on the road in terms of the players that were there.
Speaker 3:And then the other thing, and I don't know, I don't know the specifics of this, but I was always told it was a lot easier to just start a new club in Florida than it was in most places, and so there was a little bit of whenever something didn't go the way somebody wanted, it was pretty easy to take your ball, go home, start a new club, and I think that's actually been one of the things that probably and again you should give credit to the Florida Club League for trying to provide an infrastructure to create a club-based system.
Speaker 3:And you go back to some of our other podcasts talking about why we do club-based leagues versus team-based leagues is the ability to manage quality, be efficient in operations and try and provide a more clear pathway within an organization and I'm not talking about ECNL, I'm talking about within a club that does help to consolidate players at smaller variances of talent and I think Florida. For whatever reason it's been a late to the game on that, but I think it's catching up fast. I mean FKK being in the national championship game. That may be the first Florida boys team that was in a final.
Speaker 5:I'm not totally sure on that first florida boys team that was in a final. Um, I mean, I will say I will also say florida premier did have a good playoffs at the boys. They didn't make it to a national final.
Speaker 3:It does seem like, as you look at it, that I think they had a girls team there too as well, or one or two girls teams they're oh sevens at florida premier across the border.
Speaker 5:It does feel like the boys on Florida are a little bit ahead, but to your point, I do think they are starting to get more organized right, which I think has always been the knock.
Speaker 4:What's always interesting in Florida in general. You don't see, I don't know if I can think of one club including my own off the top of my head that is talented on both the boys and the girls side. You look at surf it's dominant, both boys and girls. There's FC Dallas boys and girls. There's solar boys and girls. There's Real Colorado boys and girls. But you look at any club in Florida, it's either a very good girls program or a very good boys program. There's not any that can probably argue top to bottom on both girls and boys.
Speaker 3:That is just like that club dominates everyone here well, I think florida premiere would probably raise their hand and argue with you on this year, but I think you're not allowed to support now, um, I would say florida premiere, yeah, but they even I mean their still.
Speaker 4:I mean they either are very good at the younger ones or very good at the older. It's changing a little bit, but even then they kind of I mean in the Tampa area, yeah, I'd give it to them, but I don't know if across the state they have every age group Kind of like I'm comparing directly to a surf, yeah, yeah, yeah, well, and then you see Florida is very tumultuous soccer landscape right now in all sorts of ways.
Speaker 3:So you add these sort of evolutions of clubs and I think Tampa is an interesting market. You know there's a really big rivalry between Florida Premier and Tampa Bay United. We hope that that rivalry stays very friendly. You have these club evolutions going on, similar in Orlando and Jacksonville and Southern Florida, which is even more sort of chaotic, and you also have a variety of different league pathways. So it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of years with Florida, because I think if you, if you go back 10 years, it was a very different landscape in Florida than maybe most of the rest of the country. Now it's consolidating more and more and more and you're starting to see more of this happen. So anyway, that's sort of a long tangent of going from the Southwest.
Speaker 5:No, I was going to say when are we going to break down Cincinnati soccer scene for the people Christian, or the Milwaukee Wisconsin soccer scene?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we've got a much smaller audience for those markets.
Speaker 5:Bring your pillow and your blanket.
Speaker 3:All right. So, hey, congrats to everybody on the finals Unbelievable year. We'll be wrapping up the year. It's obviously over now from a competition perspective. Last event of the year 2024 Conference Cup. So we'll give you a little preview on that and talk about what the Conference Cup is and why we do it, and maybe open some questions about the future and that program.
Speaker 1:Great segue, Christian, as we'll do just that after this message from an ECNL corporate partner.
Speaker 2:Soccercom is proud to partner with the ECNL to support the continued development of soccer in the US at the highest levels. We've been delivering quality soccer equipment and apparel to players, fans and coaches since 1984. Living and breathing the beautiful game ourselves. Our goal at Soccercom is to inspire you to play better, cheer louder and have more fun. Visit Soccercom today to check out our unmatched selection of gear, expert advice and stories of greatness at every level of the game.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. Once again, here's Christian Labors.
Speaker 3:All right, so we're talking now about 2024 Conference Cup Really cool. Last year was the first year of the Conference Cup, so a brief overview Last year was about 90 players boys, 90 players girls, different age groups, but some of the best in the country brought together, put on to geographically oriented teams for some mini game competition down at Chula Vista at the former Olympic Training Center unbelievable setting Southern California again. Last year we had a videography crew that followed the boys program around, because the boys program was a little older on site than the girls and that documentary, about 15, 20 minutes or so, was released last night. So today's we're recording this on July 26 on YouTube, really following the journey of a couple of kids specifically within the conference cup, but kind of trying to show what it's like to play within the ECNL. Really really cool documentary. So if you get a chance, go go watch it and you get a little inside, look at what it what these kids are doing. But the conference cup is our program to try and provide some additional opportunity for and reward for top level players to play in a unique environment, best on best with players they normally don't play with across multiple clubs, to some degree across multiple age groups because there's usually a mix of two age groups within the conference cup and occasionally maybe a younger player than that, but in an environment that is not really offered in most soccer programming was really cool last year and you can, like I said you can see that in the documentary. We're doing it on both boys and girls. Boys conference cup kicks off on Monday the 29th and the girls, I believe, is the following Monday, the 29th and the girls, I believe, is the following Monday, the 5th of August. So we'll have that again and really cool opportunity.
Speaker 3:We still are trying to figure out exactly what the best way to reward these top level players and teams is. It's a growing conversation within the league. I think, about what can the ECNL offer, either on an individual basis for top talent, on a club basis for the very top clubs who are consistently competing at the top levels. Conference Cup was our evolution from the national training camp which was at Nike for 10 years. It was great last year. I think it's going to be a great experience this year.
Speaker 3:And then, what the future is for that program, specifically how we structure it, I think that's still up for debate. We're committed to continuing to add value, opportunities, experiences for top level players, and we talk a lot about the 99% and the 1% and there's a lot of things that are the same, but there are differences in terms of what is a 1% need or merit versus a 99. And that's true no matter where you sort of look at that level, whether it's ECNL or soccer landscape more broadly. I don't know, doug, what are your thoughts on Conference Cup and that sort of player ID, top level player experience?
Speaker 5:The national training camp. When we did it it was at Nike, and then the one year we did it in Portland, away from Nike, but we integrated with Perry St Germain and man City's women's teams. They came over and had a training camp. Which unbelievable experience. It was really kind of a special event like unbelievable. We had the best players from our league there at the older age groups, which is exactly, you know, the representation of the best of the best in our league. And then it kind of just ran its course and I, you know I mean I'll put it back on you and your opinion on what you think it is I think what happened is, you know, the youth national team calendar just got more busy and so these top players were called more frequently into these national camps and so it kind of pushed our national training camp down the priority list, maybe for our top top players, and so, you know, we felt like it was just time to to change to something different and make it more competitive and maybe have representation from different regions of the country and then play each other and have a winner. So I mean, I think it's a really cool concept.
Speaker 5:I think what happens is, on the girl's side is the calendar is just, it's busy, it's packed and we have people playing so many different high school seasons and then their club season and it's just the you can. At what point do the players just sit, rest and rejuvenate themselves? On the boy's side, I would say totally different. And the need for it in and how great it is for our boys' side is it's a great, great event. And you can see that. You talk to Jason Cutney, our commissioner, and he talks and raves about how great it is and we get a chance again to get our best of the best together and play in a competitive format. So I like the format. I think in theory it's a great way to do it. I like the format. I think in theory it's a great way to do it. The reality is is maybe on the girl's side there's just not.
Speaker 2:You know is it time?
Speaker 5:to evolve because it's there's just so much that you're trying to put in to a year, it just becomes a little bit harder. You know, I don't know what your thoughts are about it, you know. I know you're asking me my thoughts, but I think that's kind of that's why we kind of evolved to this format, to try to make it something different, a little bit more special. Put some you know regions against each other for some bragging rights, still recognizing the very best players in our league.
Speaker 3:If you zoom out on the whole player ID space, it has changed a lot. When we first did the national training camp, nothing like that was out. And, by the way, the cost of that camp everything but transportation is covered, right. So the intent is that the players come there and beyond the flight to get into the airport. Every other landed costs, food, accommodation, ground transport, staff, equipment, facilities, all that stuff is covered. But when we did that first at Nike, nobody was really doing that To your point. There weren't as many national team age groups or camps. 10 years.
Speaker 3:This is probably where the landscape is the most fragmented, because we've talked about in the past that from a competition level, the best players are within ecnl. On the boy side. You look at ecnl and mls and that's where it is. And but if you look at all the different quote-unquote player id opportunities out there, we used to do them, used to call them pdp as well, where we did them conference-based, yeah, and we found that over time that the return on that from a player experience or player impact was hard to justify to do something one time a year, which is what we did in each conference.
Speaker 3:But you know you have players that go and do ID quote unquote under a variety of different sanctioning bodies, whether it's you know, you have your US youth futsal stuff. You have talent ID run by various different leagues. You have talent ID run by US soccer, you have ODP run by US youth, you have ID2 run by you know US club, and it's sort of just that space and saying that what we believe is that there's a value to providing unique experiences for high level players in a different type of environment. Right, mixed teams, mixed age groups, maybe competition or training formats, something like that, how to do that in a way that is not crowding the calendar, whether that is individual based or or it leans a little more towards club. Those are the things that we're constantly talking about and we're having conversations a conversation with Doug Landefeld about it yesterday, but we're having conversations all the time and I think it's going to be a growing conversation about the role of a league in that sort of spot versus the role of a sanctioning body or a role of the federation.
Speaker 5:The prevalence of college ID camps has also exploded in the last three to five years, and that's just another thing where these top kids are going and doing something that is kind of idea-ish, right, yeah, no, and listen I'll back up.
Speaker 3:You know little first principles thinking here, but generally the best kids play the most soccer. And you know, before somebody starts banging the drum on specialization and we have can sort of debunk a lot of popular arguments on that if we really wanted to get into that in the future. And obviously there's a need for a rest time and a recovery time and the the, the length or frequency of that would vary by age. But generally the best kids play the most soccer.
Speaker 3:Having a variety of different ways and places to play soccer is not a bad thing and you know I've been using the phrase recently that soccer at any level is good for soccer. So we look at this and saying hey, for these kids who want more and who can be uniquely challenged or uniquely exposed to certain new challenges, this is a really good thing. The question is just what is it? What is the best way to do that? And you know, as we said, we've evolved from the national training camp to now the conference cup. You know my gut is that that'll continue to evolve in that programming because there's value to the programming. But it is hard to pinpoint exactly what the best way to do, and that is. But actually we both said actually we want your opinion, so now we need to stop talking I agree.
Speaker 4:I think the the best play players do play the most soccer. I absolutely agree with that and I think it's important to know that, like, just because you're invited to these things, these these training centers, these id clinics, all of these different things around the country, doesn't mean you have to go to every single one. So parents are often banging the drum of burnout. The kids who are going to our conference cup not every single one was just in Richmond, not every single one was just in Seattle, like some kids have been off since May. So going to something end of June, beginning of August or end of July, beginning of August is going to be okay for them, where people just have to have honest conversations of what they want out of soccer, what their hopes, dreams, aspirations are and what, how those align with what they are capable physically of doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you're making a point that it's very individualized, which you know is obvious, but it's a great point to make that. And this is again there know is obvious, but it's a great point to make that. And this is again. There are people who want to impose standards, and I put my quotes in the air. You know that generally apply to everybody, but if you look at soccer development, it is ultimately individual, nonlinear, right, and so managing the load and the calendar shouldn't be a team thing. I mean, even if you talk about periodization, you talk about individual periodization within the team, right, it should be an individual thing about what does this player need? What is the load and the fatigue on this player versus the opportunity? We always have to be focused on the individual impact and not make generalities and default to standards and dead periods that are universal for everybody, because a universal period is appropriate for nobody individually right.
Speaker 4:It's important for us as a league to give kids all the opportunities in the world to prove themselves, to play as much as possible, to play with the best kids in the country. But an opportunity doesn't mean you have to take it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 3:Years back and again you go back. We've learned so much, but if you go back to the creation of the boys, DA 2007, one of the principles you know underlying that and somebody I'm sure will argue, but I think there'd be plenty of people that would also agree was that, oh, these, these top players, need to be in a top environment and a tough environment. And every day is iron sharpens iron. I hate that phrase. I've said that on multiple podcasts. I'll continue to say that.
Speaker 3:A lot of us bought into that and there is some truth to you know, you need a daily competitive environment, but at the same time, the corollary to that was like playing in a less competitive environment was adverse to your development. You know it was negative for your potential to take your foot off the gas and be in a place where maybe you could take. You weren't going to get punished for every mistake. You know, as a, as a, as a player, as a team, and you know I would say I've I've reversed my opinion on that 180 degrees, especially with respect to youth, which is yes more often than not. Do you want a competitive environment that's challenging and where there is huge demands?
Speaker 5:Where iron sharpens iron.
Speaker 3:Yeah, where they're reasonably stretch goals. I guess we'll call them stretch goals. Yes, you do. But is it bad to have moments and places where you take a step back and where maybe the consequences aren't as high or the challenges aren't as high and there's a little bit of relief? Relief, no, actually I think those are. It's really important to have those moments actually, especially with respect to youth, because if everything is iron sharpens iron, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, 10 years in a row, you're going to have a lot of kids that you know they just they're not going to have fun, you know.
Speaker 3:So I think that that's another piece in this is, people play soccer and have different experiences because they want different experiences. So we, we try and figure all of that out here when we're, when we're saying okay, what do we do in this player ID space? What do we do to provide unique opportunities and experiences, recognizing that the, the, the existence of a variety of different programs, is not a bad thing, you know, as long as each one is offering, you know, a positive outcome, obviously. But it's a tough, it's an interesting space. I'm sure we'd have a ton of opinions here of people who have gone into any one of these programs and have good experiences or bad experiences or whatever. But it goes back to your point, ashley. It's very individual.
Speaker 1:A great conversation about the conference Cup and all its merits. We're going to take a break and come back and talk about the Canadian women's soccer team drone scandal. Can you believe it? We'll talk about it after this message from yet another ECNL corporate partner.
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Speaker 3:We are right in the middle of the Canadian drone scandal. We don't know what's going on there. We're not going to cast aspersions on anybody. Everybody likes to jump to conspiracy theories and criticize and attack everybody. But it is interesting because if you're at the playoffs and any field goes into PKs, if your club is about to play the team that's in PKs the game before you, somebody from your staff is sprinting over to that field to write down where every PK is going and who, the number, who's shooting. We have a video exchange so that there's film of all the games and all of that is pretty kosher and accepted. I don't know where the line is between watching existing PKs and flying unmanned aircraft over blacked out fences. What do you guys think about this Canadian scandal? And again, this is pure conjecture.
Speaker 5:I mean what are you doing? What?
Speaker 3:are you?
Speaker 5:doing? Flying a drone Amen Over an opponent's training session. What are you doing? It's the you know patriots filming, secretly, filming other people's practices. It's what are you doing? I think at that level, the margins are really fine and having some knowledge about something from a scouting perspective whether it be set play organization, which could be happening at that training session while that drone is over there, or some tactical adjustment that they're making to try to account for whatever, in this case, Canada is doing yeah, go.
Speaker 3:Let me ask this question Tell us, take away the drone ethics. Does it really make a difference? Yeah, I mean, are you saying you can't find the PK shooters of these players? These players are national team players. They take PKs for their clubs. Like you, you're gonna find out how they take pks.
Speaker 5:You don't need a drone to see how they take pks yeah, it makes a difference, because I just we just stated listen at the youth level.
Speaker 3:See, this is where I'm a little I'm saying you're gonna find the pk information without a drone I hear you, but is it the pk ish, is it?
Speaker 5:Or is it like they're working on their set play, organization and movement or whatever? At that level the margins are small and the difference between winning, losing, tying can be thin, can be a set play, how you defend it, how you execute it. And so to have some advanced information on a team that you've gathered kind of unfairly and very secretively, it's BS.
Speaker 4:I mean, I'm with Doug, what are we doing? But also, at the same time, it's not like it's football, like American football, where you're running different plays and you need to see how defensively you're going to organize like soccer is a very fluid game. But from a defensive, like tactical standpoint of defending set pieces, I can understand it if, like, you're doing something unique that day, like I think that's the only reason you're flying a drone is you want to see how defensively they're setting up or offensively you're setting up, and I saw the best tweet about it because they got scored on off of a set piece and they're like you flew drones and you still got beat off of that and it was like the best tweet I've seen about all of this yes, gene yeah, it's cheating, it's flat out cheating.
Speaker 1:There's livelihoods on the line and it all flows downhill and it's unacceptable in any form. I don't care. Penalty kicks, whatever, it's unacceptable in any form. I don't care. Penalty kicks, whatever it's unacceptable in any form. That's my take, oh to be clear.
Speaker 3:I'm not arguing that I'm arguing about is the juice worth the squeeze? You know somebody's cheating to do this Like, are you getting you know violating? Let's just say you know all the norms and ethics and whatever Is the information you're getting worth the risk you're taking?
Speaker 5:And I would argue I hear what you're saying. Let me ask you. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this you are the manager of manchester united nice, an american manager of manchester united. There you go you are the manager of manchester united so, so I'm let me just let's bring it back.
Speaker 3:I'm ted lasso, I believe let's bring it home.
Speaker 5:You are the manager of fc cincinnati.
Speaker 3:No, no, no man and I and I come on come on.
Speaker 5:Why are you? Why are you? Why are you?
Speaker 3:because if we're gonna shoot, if we're gonna shoot for the stars, we're gonna shoot high. Well then, we wouldn't be talking about man united.
Speaker 5:I promise you that, so not right now. Okay, so you are the manager of Real Madrid, oh, okay.
Speaker 3:I don't even speak Spanish.
Speaker 5:And you are getting ready for El Clasico and I am a staff member of Barcelona and I am flying a drone over your training sessions. You cool with that?
Speaker 3:See, I'm going to do counter Intel Because you lose to barcelona, you could get fired because I'm gonna have some sort of round to air radar to know that the drone is there and then I'm going to do counter set pieces, which is fake set pieces, fake formation. See where this going like now I'm messing with.
Speaker 5:Okay, now this tells me you might someday be the manager of Real Madrid with this kind of genius thinking that you've done.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that. And you know what? If any of you guys speak Spanish, you could be my translator, and then your career could end up being like Mourinho. And now we bring it all back circled.
Speaker 5:Wow, that's a smack on Mourinho.
Speaker 3:Well, mourinho, started as a translator no question about it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I agree with Dean 100%. This is cheating. It is cheating, it's cheating. It can't be okay with cheating. Does it matter how much, it matters how much of an advantage you gain or don't gain by inflating or deflating the footballs?
Speaker 3:I just wonder how many youth clubs have a drone in their budget.
Speaker 5:Probably yeah, there's somebody out there.
Speaker 3:Every time we're at an event I'm going to start looking around the fields here in Southern California. There's all these really good clubs out here. I'm going to start looking for drones everywhere now, yeah.
Speaker 4:Do you know how quick we call each other at an event if we see a drone over the?
Speaker 2:field.
Speaker 5:There's one at playoffs and it was in the middle of the field like 30 yards up. We're like here's what I'll say about youth soccer scouting. I believe that I gotta worry. I gotta worry about what my team is doing. We got a bunch of youth players. It's hard enough trying to get them on the same page. I'm not even worried about what you're doing, so I think that's different. I think at the pro level, but you, but people will disagree with me on that. I don't think scouting plays as big of a role at the youth level.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely, I agree with that. Now we'll find out what happens here. How big is this scandal?
Speaker 5:Well, I mean, the coach of Canada got thrown out of the Olympics. Well, I get that the head coach.
Speaker 4:Well, didn't the guy who got caught? Isn't he supposedly getting jail?
Speaker 3:time. This is where I don't think there's any laws being broken. This is where we need to shut this convo down, say we do not know, pure conjecture. I'm sure there will be some really, really good investigative journalism on DroneGate.
Speaker 5:We do have to talk five minutes about the US men's national team managerial search. We do, don't you think we have to talk about it a little bit, those five minutes?
Speaker 3:Here's what I'd say about this. First thing was soon as the change was made and let's stay away from the change and just talk about the future. It's an open seat. My first comment is, of course it's like everybody on Twitter, because of course X knows everything was go get Jurgen Klopp klopp right and say why wouldn't you take a moonshot for jürgen klopp? And one of the one of the debates was well, he wants a break from soccer from six months and my argument to that is like hey, man, it's the national team. What do they have in six months? Like two camps. If he wants a break from six months and doesn't want to start coaching again until 2025, I'd say cool, it's Jurgen Klopp.
Speaker 5:His style as a Liverpool fan. He probably I would say I would go at his word. He said he will likely not manage again ever.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I guess what I'm raising is the question between a national team and a club team. Is the question between a national team and a club team? A club team where you have them every single day, you can have a huge impact in style of play, player development and growth. You can be a lot more detailed and a national team where you're having players come in for a week or two at a time, a couple of camps a year I don't think it's anywhere near the same job in theory, even the profile of the manager. I think you can have a different type of manager that could be successful at a national team that may not be as successful at a club level.
Speaker 5:What do you think? Yeah, no, I agree with that. What's the profile of the person? I think the first thing people would ask is American coach versus foreign coach.
Speaker 3:I'm going to go back to Dane because, dane, you were the press officer in 94 for US soccer, when Bora Milutinovich was the coach, automatically qualified to the World Cup 2026, we're automatically qualifying for the World Cup. You had insider access to that camp as well to that team at multiple camps, tournaments. What's your thought?
Speaker 1:It was an amazing experience for me because I was right out of college and one day Franz Beckenbauer was walking around and he was a guy they considered very, very deeply to be the national team coach. I don't think I'm breaking any news right now by saying that. And you know he's a massive name, like some of the names that you're talking about, and Klopp and some of the other ones. And then, next thing, you know Bora, who it wasn't like. He was a small name. He, you know he took Mexico really far in the 86 World Cup and, you know, had had a name and then he had the ability to speak multiple languages. But I think his personality fit the occasion.
Speaker 1:It was the first time the World Cup was ever here. He was a guy that was going to be able to interact with the media and interact with the players in the right way. Sometimes they didn't know exactly where they stood, but I think that was good because he kept it down under the wire on who was going to make the final team. So, to me, somebody like Bora and I know it's a different team, but somebody that fits that mold which means that, you know, kind of gets me leaning to an international name, but maybe not one that is as strict or rigid as some of the other names you say, and not to say that they're strict and rigid, but they do have certain reputations.
Speaker 1:I don't know who that guy is, but being in that spot and then seeing how it worked out for Bora man, if they could rinse and repeat that in some way and let him sprinkle that magic dust and, you know, have us beat Colombia and get through and play Brazil. That magic dust. And you know, have us beat Columbia and and get through and play Brazil. And you know, we should have beat Brazil. We were up a man. That's kind of where, where I'm leading, does that make any sense at all? I?
Speaker 5:would say yes, bringing in a foreign manager who has never interacted with the American culture or the players in America? I don't. I'm not sure I'm on that on that train.
Speaker 3:Well, let's divide Doug, though, because what's the fundamental job of the national team head coach is to coach the national team to win. So I think it gets messed up when you start saying, well, now we're going to bring in this guy and he's going to implement this change across the American soccer system, and there's going to be the USA way, which, by the way, is like the Belgian way cross out Belgium and put USA. And then it's the French way and cross out France and put USA, or whatever it is, when that typically happens let's call this what it is which is somebody brought in to work with one pool of players for a defined period of time to win a certain number of games, and I think, if you look at it just from that, it's probably a very different decision matrix than if we're saying, hey, this person is going to be in charge of US soccer. From a technical perspective, does that make sense?
Speaker 5:It seems like the US has deeply wanted to, had a deep desire in their last several hires, to do exactly what you said they're not doing, which is change the culture of the national team and have an American way of playing. I don't know that. I would say that they've brought in people. I mean, I'm sure they want to win, but they've tried. They wanted to implement some style, way of playing, sometimes to our detriment, right?
Speaker 3:Don't you think? I mean? Well, look at it this way. Look at Spain, right, spain, one of the most successful men's or women's right, that are the national teams now. And you have in Spain, you have Barcelona and their style, which, by the way, is changing now that Pep is further and further in the rear view mirror. But that style of Barcelona 10 years ago is not Barcelona now. You have Real Madrid, which is very, very different. You have Atletico Madrid, which is very, very different.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then if you were to pick the next sort of traditional power place is the boss country and the boss clubs, which solve the problems very differently. So if you look within Spain, I think you'd have a hard time arguing there's a Spanish way. You would say Barcelona has a way, madrid has a way, atletico has a way. They make it work when all those players come together and to the degree there is a quote, unquote Spanish way, you might argue that the Spain that won the Euros in the World Cup eight years ago was really a Barcelona way, with a few Madrid players Heavily, heavily pep, heavily pep influence Right and then coach the team, right, right.
Speaker 3:So let's take that same sort of perspective here and you say, okay, well, you've got whatever number 30 MLS clubs. You've got whatever number 30 MLS clubs. You've got all the players playing all over the world in different European leagues or South American leagues. If you put a USA way, who's doing the USA way on a daily basis? Because, to your previous example, fc Cincinnati is not. They're doing the FC Cincinnati way, correct, you know. And when Elisich is at Milan, they're doing the FC Cincinnati way, correct, you know. And when Elisich is at Milan, he's not doing the USA way, he's doing the Milan way.
Speaker 5:I do think there is something to the idea that a coach that understands the culture. I think when we've been most successful and Dean, you were close to it when we've been most successful or had most successful results in these major tournaments, it was we identified as a certain American way. You know, you think about, you know, was it 2002 when we made it to the quarterfinals and should have beaten Germany. We were the better team on the day. I wouldn't say we're better than Germany. There was a real mentality and kind of grit to that team.
Speaker 3:Within that group of players.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that I think kind of defines what you would say is the American kind of drive and all that. So I don't know, I just think someone who has no connection to the US whatsoever and no experience in it, I'm just not sure about that. I think these teams that do really well at the international level obviously have great players first and foremost, but they're coached by people from their countries. They are Argentina right now, brazil in their heyday, spain, I mean Spain's not hiring a foreign coach.
Speaker 3:No, I think, listen, I understand that argument. I guess I would just zoom out again and say it's about picking 20 players or whatever the roster is, having very clear guidelines, for this is what they believe and this is how they are going to play that group of 20. And part of that is probably, you know, determined by selection. Part of that is then determined by discipline of decision making and and sort of what's allowed and not. I just don't know that it has to go beyond that. What's allowed and not. I just don't know that it has to go beyond that. You know it doesn't have to go into a bigger. Hey, this is a whole ecosystem changing higher because, by the way, we've been through that man, we've seen that in spades, whether it's coaching, education or national teams or whatever, every five years it's a new philosophy, you know separate that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know I'd separate that, yeah, now we got Project 2026, right, yeah, see how that goes.
Speaker 1:We've covered a lot of topics and yet we still have Doug Bracken's Bracken Brain Buster. We'll bring you that after one more message from an ECNL corporate partner. The ECNL is pleased to announce Quick Goal as the official goal provider and partner for ECNL Girls and ECNL Boys, a new partnership created to support the growth and development of the country's top players, clubs and coaches At all national events, including national playoffs and national finals. The Quick Goal Coaches Corner will provide hospitality and social space for ECNL girls, ecnl boys and collegiate coaches. Quick Goal will also be the presenting sponsor of the national championship-winning ECNL girls and ECNL boys coaches of the year and the ECNL girls and ECNL boys goals of the year. Quick Goal looks forward to helping the ECNL continue to elevate the standards of youth soccer and provide more opportunities to players on and off the field in the coming years. Back to wrap up this edition of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. And, as always, we end with Doug Bracken's Bracken Brain Buster. Take it away, doug, here we go.
Speaker 5:In honor of the Olympics starting, and we did this kind of for the Euros, so we'll do this for the Olympics. The question today, Bracken's Brain Buster, is what sport or event are you most looking forward to in the Olympics? What will capture your interest the most in watching? Dean gets mad when I say first, but he hasn't gone first in a few times now. Hold on.
Speaker 3:Let me answer it. Dean's like well my wife is going to be in the Olympics.
Speaker 5:My wife loves rhythmic gymnastics, so I also hey man, I'm just going to flat out brag.
Speaker 1:I'm headed to Paris, my whole family's headed to Paris. My wife's been there for a month, so everything about the Olympics is it's good to be a lanky man, Holy cow Sure is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really is. My boys will say the same thing, and the only thing I'll say about my wife is thank you for letting us come along for the ride and ride her coattails. Look, not because Not because it's a soccer podcast, but you know, I was lucky enough to be the press officer for the 92 Olympic team and I think it's been a shame that the team is on the men's side, not been there in so long. I thought they looked great against France until, in fact, when it went off the crossbar. When it went off the crossbar, I said they're going to give up a goal right now, and they did, and then they kind of melted. So I don't know if they can come back or not, but I'm going to men's soccer and I'm going to women's soccer, including the semi-finals for women's soccer.
Speaker 1:So that's number one. And then I, you know, I would say, just because my boys are big nba fans, you know, seeing the men's and women's basketball teams. But look, we're doing it all. Man, I'm definitely going to break now. We're doing tennis, we're doing golf, we're doing equestrian, we're doing fencing, we're doing table tennis, we're doing beach volleyball. We got tickets to all that stuff.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's gonna be off the chains I, you just came back from europe like two days ago. Now you're going on another vacation.
Speaker 5:I am petitioning for dean linkey to adopt me as one of his family members, so that I can too partake in the fun link.
Speaker 3:He's got a nice ring to doug linky that.
Speaker 5:So Dean, as always, has not given us a definitive answer, but that's all right. The soccer, soccer, soccer, all right. I agree with you. The men I thought looked really good. They got two games, two winnable games. They can get out of the group if they, if they, play that well, ashley Willis, what do you?
Speaker 4:got Not equestrian, like dean just mentioned as well. Um, swimming and gymnastics always okay outside of soccer it's always swimming and gymnastics and a little bit of water polo.
Speaker 5:I always get into it you know, I need to articulate these questions better because I said the one event okay okay that was 37 sports lesson dean just mentioned I just said what I'm going to. I definitively said soccer right off the bat, okay, all right. So dean, soccer, ashley swimming, okay, great, swimming is cruel and unusual punishment, by the way, and those, the people that swim, like the 1500 meter, whatever that is ledecky is just going to be out of frame the entire Olympics.
Speaker 4:That's how much she's going to kill everyone and it's amazing.
Speaker 5:One of the things I think that's craziest about swimming is you go to practice and you swim five hours in a row per day to be a 50 meter sprint swimmer. I just I don't get that. It's wild to me. All right, Christian, it's Bracken Brain Buster, so if I want to have some comments, I just take that opportunity. Christian, what do you think?
Speaker 3:You're going to have some comments because I'm going to start by saying, to directly answer your question, I'm going to say gymnastics because I think what those athletes do is unbelievable All right?
Speaker 5:My answer is track and field. I just love track and field, specifically the running events. I'm not sure about shot put and high jump and all that stuff.
Speaker 3:But do you get any advantage with a drone scouting track and field?
Speaker 5:I don't think so. I think it's just mono.
Speaker 3:Hey, man, he ran fast again today, okay.
Speaker 5:That's right. So I'm going to go track and field, which I think happens the second part of the Olympicslympics, right, swimming's first, swimming gymnastics first, then the track and field at the end.
Speaker 3:So I'll have to wait, but I will say the best part of all the olympics is the medal count. I do like watching the medal count.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we just take everybody's ass, just annihilate everybody here's a question.
Speaker 3:Here's a question because, yeah, I always have the overall medal count and I'm like no, no, no, no, it's a gold medal count that's right.
Speaker 5:What do you think?
Speaker 3:about. That. Is your overall count or gold medal count?
Speaker 1:gold medal.
Speaker 5:Gold medal gold and we just annihilate everybody in the in this summer olympics and it makes me feel proud to be an american it's interesting, doug, that you knew kind of how, like, soccer starts early and the track comes later.
Speaker 1:After our team got eliminated, that 92 team was a really good team. They should have gotten out of that group. It was all under 23. There was no wild cards and you know, we had Lawless and Jones and Frito, we were loaded, and Lothar Bent, steve Snow, we didn't make it. Anyway, when it was done they said you can either stay or go home and I said I'll stay and they assigned me to track and field and my job was to be the runner for the track and field sideline reporter, who happened to be a guy who passed away recently, named Orenthal James Simpson.
Speaker 3:Wow, wow, that's opening a can of worms right there. Wow, I believe we have, and, ashley, you might give us a stats? We have ECNL alumni a lot playing with the American women who look really, really good.
Speaker 2:And then we have.
Speaker 3:I believe five or six other countries represented by UCN alum on the girl's side, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the captain of the of the men's Olympic team is a a player from an ECN club.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he's not an ECN alum, but he came from one of our clubs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, who's that club Is that? Was it Alabama FC.
Speaker 4:Alabama FC. And then we have four countries, 20 players on the girls' side.
Speaker 3:So kudos to all those players. We should recognize them. And the men's captain didn't play in the ECNL, but a kudos to Alabama FC. I'm sure that they're proud of him and the path he went on and you know we're cheering for all those guys. And hopefully the women can come back with a gold medal here and again. They look really good in moments If the women perform like that and they look very free, very sort of confident and dynamic. If they perform and you know the standard for them is tough because it's always gold medal or bust but if they, if they can do that and if the men get out of their group and make some noise, you're going to have a changing narrative about everything in American soccer here. That'd be nice. It'd be nice for us to see the American soccer teams do well in the Olympics from a while on the men's side that they've been there, but that would be really cool. And, as we said, soccer anywhere is good for soccer everywhere.
Speaker 1:Indeed, speaking of good, if not great, another great show of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, featuring Christian Lavers, Doug Bracken and Ashley Willis. My name's Dean Linke. We'll see you in two weeks for another edition of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. Thank you for listening to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. Thank you for listening to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast and remember, if you have a question that you want answered on Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, email us at info at the ECNLcom.