Is there another team from the Ponte Vedre club in another age group that is anywhere near as good as the U-18s? That's probably why they weren't invited to ECNL. They only invite clubs (not individual teams) that are consistently strong and have the resources and infrastructure to sustain a strong program. One-off teams aren't invited.
CASL's U-18s demonstrate that at that age, clubs deal with the same issues all over the place. Some kids decide that they want to go to UNC and that they won't play soccer there. Some decide that they've already committed to a college and want to take a 'break'. (I personally couldn't imagine committing to playing college soccer and then preparing for it by NOT playing the most soccer I could against the best teams I could find.) Some kids get misguided by others that they should be able to do what they want when they want in their final year. CASL is in a position to tell those kids to go somewhere else. Most clubs are not.
I was told by a CASL staff member that they had 40+ girls in 3 combined older age groups tell them that their HS teams were poorly coached and unchallenging, and asked if the club would train them etc. in the Spring. I believe they are in a position to do that, as are other clubs.
