Team camps have started and the R3PL season will be kicking off in two weeks. I was talking to some of the other parents at region camp and it seems like our out of state competitors have gotten a lot stronger. Triangle had a merger to bring in more talent, Sunrise has their pick of south florida because they are the only game in town with a regional schedule and SCU had such a good turnout that they were able to cut ODP players. It seems we have the opposite problem. NASA got booted from the national league and both them and NSA lost key players to ECNL teams. GSAW and CFCE are way out of their league and SSA needed to cut their whole bench and add players from central, which doesn't seem to have happened. Are any of our teams going to mount a serious threat or are all of them just going to be fighting over who finishes last?

Where are all the top teams playing

Good move by AC since U16 participation was watered down this year due to the other leagues.

SCU will battle it out with LA Fire for SPL, not to say our teams won't compete, but replacing players will take adjustments and maybe it's unrealistic to shoot for 1st. with SCU/Sunrise/Triangle all challenging in R3PLE, it will be a big challenge to requalify for SPL in '13. when you think of SCU, Sunrise, LA Fire, Triangle, FC Alliance, Brentwood......most of those teams don't have to compete with other clubs in their city for players (except for Triangle with CASL), so our teams are at a disadvantage unfortunately, and not hard to see why NASA lost a national league spot to teams like FC Alliance and LA Fire

I think the top four will be Triangle, both SCU teams, and Sunrise unless NASA is able to pull the team together very quickly and shake off what was a very mediocre year for them. There is plenty of talent on the roster and it could happen.

NSA will be solid but not great. They just don't have the region/national pool caliber players that the other top teams do.

I think that SSA will have a lot of ties. They play a deep defense and the whole team gets back to play defense. This will keep scores low but clearing the ball to a lone striker is not going to win games against better defenses and none of these teams are going to give them space for the center mids to keep the ball at their feet. It's tough to play a high intensity schedule with very little substitution and a bench full of players the coach has to hide.

I agree with the OP, GSAW and CFCE are way out of their league as shown by their regionals and Disney performances. It's going to be a hard year unless they get a lot better.

I definitely see NASA and NSA finishing above Huntsville and TSC Hurricane's B team. My guess is they finish anywhere from #3-6 competing with Texas FC and Challenge. Challenge did beat NASA at Regionals recently. SCU and LA might be a little out of reach, but NASA/NSA will still compete IMO.

NASA/NSA should finish above Challenge also.

The league is going to be SCU and LA fire at the top with everyone else fighting to stay out of the cellar. You never know which challenge team is going to show up. When they can they bring a couple stars from the ECNL A flight squad that take the team to a much higher level of play. TSC does not have a full roster and will probably play the same games. Huntsville will be a mystery until we know how many BUSA players they picked up but I don't think any number of the BUSA girls will take this decent (but not great) squad to stellar. If TSC does not travel with ECNL ringers, switch them and Texas FC. I could be wrong but i just don't think Norcross will be the same without TR. I will be surprised if they finish high enough in R3PLE to get invited back to this league next year.

Predictions

1-2 SCU and LA fire
3-5 NASA, TSC, Challenge
6-8 Norcross, Huntsville, Texas FC

SCU plays LA Fire on the first weekend. that game could determine the league winner if you're correct. plus NASA and Norcross play each other in their first game, so that's another big one. these teams have to come out firing in August because it could make all the difference in their final finish

1. Louisiana Fire
2. SCU
3. NASA
4. Texas FC
5. Challenge
6. Norcross
7. TSC
8. Huntsville

so a couple slight disagreements. I do think #1 and #2 will be very tight, could probably reverse those 2, hard pick for me. 1st weekend could decide 1st place, and who knows who will start faster. then a gap to 3rd, so I agree with you there.

I suspect NSA may struggle to score goals despite a good defense, so that's why I have them a few spots lower than NASA, but I could be wrong. Texas FC won R3PLW last year, well ahead of TSC...plus, TSC isn't even the OK State Champ in a watered-down state, so I think they'll be a letdown unless they bring ECNL players. Challenge over NSA purely on the possibility of using ECNL players, but I'm not convinced.....actually I wouldn't be surprised to see teams #3-6 finish in any different order. But, I don't think Huntsville will be competitive with the better teams. Any of FC Alliance, Brentwood, or Murfreesboro would have qualified for SPL over Huntsville, if not for TN high school season.

No kidding the talent will be spread thin.

I heard SCU was going to be in NL this year? obviously not the case. always a big assumption when FCA, Sting, La. Fire finished higher in regionals/SPL. makes you realize NASA probably wasn't even considered

Regionals is usually the best indicator for who makes NL. The region three teams in the league this year are all semifinalists. SCU had a weak showing at regionals this year. Had they advanced out of group play they probably would have made it.

another problem was they didn't do SPL, so FC Alliance and LA Fire were ahead of SCU in the pecking order in both Regionals and Premier League, which are the 2 main criteria, so I'd say NL made the right decision