Michael Brown Winter Classic

Why no talk of the games this week at the Michael Brown Winter Classic? Looks like some great matches!

http://events.gotsport.com/events/results.aspx?EventID=35035&Gender=Girls&Age=10

I think the LFS/ Solar Pulp game will be pretty interesting. I'm assuming this is the '05 Pulp team. There might be some hurt feelings after that one.

Who is DALLAS RUSH VOUTIER?? New team or some other team that jump ship over to Rush. I see they are trying to swing with the BIG boys in Gold division.

Son_ofa_Pitch wrote:Who is DALLAS RUSH VOUTIER??  New team or some other team that jump ship over to Rush.  I see they are trying to swing with the BIG boys in Gold division.

I believe they are the old Dallas Texans Moreno 05 team.

Yeah... I think they will be swinging away! (they are the "Big Boys" LOL

That Voutier team is a good one--my DD has trained with some of those 05 players in the past. Pulp has a good team too that can hang with the big girls. Should be a fun tourney.

Pulp's '05 team getting hammered 7-1 and 6-1 by TX Spirit Clark is not near to hanging, but then again, they did play DT South close to a 3-1 loss.

Maybe, but a good team none the less. I may be wrong but it seems like, at this stage, there are not as many 05 teams as 04 teams and not as many that are close in level forcing 05 teams to play up to get a challenge. Probably will be a bunch more 05 teams forming and others starting to really "gel" and close the gap in the next year.

futbolfreak wrote:Maybe, but a good team none the less.  I may be wrong but it seems like, at this stage, there are not as many 05 teams as 04 teams and not as many that are close in level forcing 05 teams to play up to get a challenge.  Probably will be a bunch more 05 teams forming and others starting to really "gel" and close the gap in the next year.  

In terms of total number of academy teams, the '05's are pretty much in-line with the '01's-'03's at this stage (heading into Spring of U9), with somewhere in the neighborhood of 80-90 total teams playing in academy leagues in NTX. The '04's are a bit of an outlier, with 100+ total academy teams.

As far as the quality/depth at the top of the age group, I don't see that much difference between the '05's and the '01's-'04's. Based on the performance of the top '05's teams when they have played the top '04's, the top '05 teams would rank somewhere in the 10-20 range in the '04 FBR. From my experience starting with the '01's, this is pretty typical placement for the top 2-3 teams in an age group, when ranked against the year ahead of them. The one exception being SRSA '03, who would've been top 7-8 when ranked against the '02's.

What you are seeing as far as the top '05 teams playing up against '04's in order to get good competition, is very typical for the top teams in the academy age groups over the past 4 years. Next year, I wouldn't be surprised to see the top 1 or 2 '05 girls teams end up playing in one of the boys academy leagues for the same competition/development reason, as they won't be allowed to play up in U11 leagues/tournaments at U10 due to NTSSA rules.

Dang, Gophers, I mean........you could write a "History of North Texas Girls Soccer in the New Millennium, it would be a top seller for sure

So I wasn't imagining the greater # of 04 teams.  At least, that is typical of the teams in the area where I live.  We probably have 2 or 3 more 04 club teams than we do 03 and 05 teams and I was wondering if this was just a "pre select" thing although these are all teams that have been around and not likely to disappear.  

As the kids get older, what kinds of numbers do you see?  I was curious if the number of teams get smaller as kids disperse into school soccer teams and other sports that don't have such an early age entry point as soccer.

futbolfreak wrote:Dang, Gophers, I mean........you could write a "History of North Texas Girls Soccer in the New Millennium, it would be a top seller for sure

So I wasn't imagining the greater # of 04 teams.  At least, that is typical of the teams in the area where I live.  We probably have 2 or 3 more 04 club teams than we do 03 and 05 teams and I was wondering if this was just a "pre select" thing although these are all teams that have been around and not likely to disappear.  

As the kids get older, what kinds of numbers do you see?  I was curious if the number of teams get smaller as kids disperse into school soccer teams and other sports that don't have such an early age entry point as soccer.

Here's the current #'s for the 3 select leagues in NTX (Lake Highlands, Plano, and Arlington).



What I don't have, is a historical count for each "soccer year" as a function of age group (i.e. has the number of '00 teams stayed constant as they've gone from U11 to U14, or has there been a dropoff over time).

This snapshot would tend to suggest that the # of select teams per age group remains pretty constant year-year from U11-U13 (and tends to be pretty much in line with the number of academy teams at U9/U10), and then starts to drop off with U14.  This would seem to be logical, as U15 is generally when High School kicks in, and other things start to take priority over club soccer (HS soccer, other HS school sports, other HS school activities like marching band, drill team, cheerleading, etc., boys, jobs, etc., etc., etc.).

With the '01's and '02's, I was tracking ~75-80 teams in FBR at U9/U10, but admittedly, I may not have been as strenuous in seeking out ALL academy leagues in those age groups.  For the '03's and '05's, I'm tracking more in the 85-90 team range in FBR.  For the '04's, it's roughly 100.  So it will be interesting to see if the ~10% spike I see in the # of academy teams with the '04's, carries over to a similar spike in the total # of select teams for the '04's at U11.

To say they can't find any competition and will look to playing Boys isn't true in the 05 group. There is not as much separation in the 05 age group as there is in the 04 & was in the 03 age group. The top 6-7 teams in the 05 Group are very close in talent and the results speak to that. Then again the 05's are the exception because all the Top teams play each other and we have head to head results to compare. Can't really say that for the 03 & 04's.

orbitzone2000 wrote:To say they can't find any competition and will look to playing Boys isn't true in the 05 group. There is not as much separation in the 05 age group as there is in the 04 & was in the 03 age group. The top 6-7 teams in the 05 Group are very close in talent and the results speak to that. Then again the 05's are the exception because all the Top teams play each other and we have head to head results to compare. Can't really say that for the 03 & 04's.

I hear what you are saying, and don't disagree that the top 6-7 teams in the '05 group are all competitive with one another.

However, from the '01's-'04's, at least 1 team in each age group either played in a boys league, or in multiple boys tournaments during their U10 year.  The reasoning for doing so is pretty consistent... playing up against older girls, or playing against boys, puts their girls up against a combination of speed and size that they generally can't get playing against the other teams in their age group.  Provided that the girls can be competitive playing up or playing boys, the coach feels that it is to the girls' developmental advantage to play in that environment.

Whether or not anyone personally agrees with that reasoning, I'd be surprised if the '05's end up behaving any different from the '01's-'04's before them.

There were a couple of interesting outcomes last night.

Discuss...

FC Dallas Premier over DT Scott. Very impressive.

Just saw the other bracket, what happened to Dalglish?

DT Scott vs FC Dallas Premier was recorded incorrectly. DT won 1-0.

Soccer Po Boy wrote:FC Dallas Premier over DT Scott.  Very impressive.

Tournament Website is incorrect.  DT Scott beat FC Dallas Premier.  It will be corrected today.

Is the Dalglish score correct?

I believe so, lost 1-0.

Honestly I don't know how anyone played last night, that was some brutally cold weather. I'm sure it's teaching the kids something by making them play in temperatures that are below freezing, I'm just not sure what it is though.

Don't hold you hats... it was cold last night... not much scoring... 1-0 game could be lopsided as far as ball control or a crummy accidental goal.

Odyssey 04- 2
Sting 04 chacon- 0

Sting Chacon not in this event.

Thegriff wrote:Odyssey 04- 2
Sting 04 chacon- 0

Think you meant Sting Central Cuevas

Exactly thanks