With the conclusion of the latest Elite Clubs National League season, the direction on the competitive side of girls’ youth soccer is becoming much clearer.

The major clubs across the country have made their intentions known, and while there may be some legal impediment to exclusivity without being under the U.S. Soccer banner, it isn’t stopping directors from scheduling according to their priorities, and legal wrangling or public bullying won’t change that in the least.

Accordingly, our work with player rankings becomes a bit more focused in terms of who and where we survey in trying to determine the top players each of our 16 regions and nationally, in six girls’ age groups. While there isn’t quite the level of unanimity or exclusivity we currently see on the boys’ side with the USSF Academy, the number of teams and players outside the ECNL orbit is dwindling. Of course we will continue to look everywhere, including ODP and U.S. Soccer Training centers for reports of standout players, the situation is what it is.

At TopDrawerSoccer.com our first and primary resource when it comes to making regional and national player rankings, is the coaching community. They have the major impact on how we assimilate the many recommendations we get about ordering the top talent in American youth soccer.
Moving into the resumption of the fall competitive season, we’ll keep up with our monthly surveys, focusing more on the Academy for boys and the Elite

Clubs National League for Girls, along with continuing to look at U.S. Soccer's own player evaluation efforts as seen in national team camp rosters and inclusion and performances to and at U.S. Soccer Training Centers.

Our recent trip to the ECNL Nationals in Denver, and subsequent discussion with coaches at various levels, has led to some changes in our lists. You can see the updated 2012 Girls list here.

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