Best Academy team of all time??

Ok my son played against the 99 rowdies team and I dont really recall them doing much against the top 10 boys teams. They had some great players but the soccer was obvious and direct and the great players couldn't overwhelm the boys. SRSA has the resume and was a true super team. Bringing in players, strengthening the squad, creating a fight to make and stay on the team. RASE is a very good team and is on pace to do much better than SRSA did against boys. This is largely do to style of play. RASE lacks the resume to be above SRSA (no surfcup no nothing really) but hopefully will start to accumulate that. so 99 rowdies has the best players, srsa has the most complete collection of talent and resume. Rase has the best soccer

When did SRSA play Surf Cup? Anyone have a link?

Lobo_Momma wrote:When did SRSA play Surf Cup? Anyone have a link?

Didn't, played in the Vegas Cup.

That Vegas cup game is in YouTube I believe. Very pretty soccer.

As an academy team, right?

Lobo_Momma wrote:As an academy team, right?

Yes they beat Arsenal the # 1 team in California 6-1 in the finals.

WESLEYCRUSHERS wrote:

orbitzone2000 wrote:Kicks 06 is a great team but I seem to remember them getting Completely Dominated by Sting Diaz a few weeks back.

  
If you remember domination, then you must not have seen the game. Or don't know the definition of dominate.   

A 3-0 win for Sting & very easily could have been 6 or 7-0 the way I saw the game. Kicks 06 is Good but need a lot more Development to be considered in this group. JMO

They should not be in the discussion.

They also were not dominated by Davila. Must have been those royal nation colored glasses you were wearing.

Kicks definitely not in the discussion, and you obviously didn't see the game.  

Who is Davila? I most definitely watched the whole game!! Just agree to disagree if you please.

Maybe one of the older parents can get on and comment. Thinking I heard the Sting 95's were a dominate team in academy.

This is a question that is impossible to answer. Nobody has seen all of these teams play. I saw the 99 Rowdies up close and personal a number times back in the day, and my son's team whipped up on the Rase 04 girls one time before. That's all I've got to go by.

Anyways, the best way I thought of was to find some common ground and compare. How about the first year of select? Seems somewhat fair to me. Of course Rase and Kicks can't be included in this conversation as of yet. And any 06 team has a long way to go until they get to anything that resembles real soccer.

LHGCL 1st year stats:
99 Texans (Rowdies) 19 wins, no losses, no draws. 104 goals for,  8 against.
01 Solar 14 wins, no losses, 5 draws. 56 goals for, 3 against.
SRSA 03 (3 games left in season) 16 wins, no losses, no draws. 97 goals for, 6 against.

Draw your own conclusions.

Yes and unless I am mistaken (player pass rule).....isn't SRSA 03 doing that without their 2 best players from Academy days as they are playing on SRSA 02. If my understanding is correct you would have to believe the GD would even be much greater.

MYF - That's exactly why the question is best Academy team, not best select team. Or else you would certainly have to bring Sting 95 into the conversation and remove all the others.

And you're right, there is no right or wrong answer. Just something else to debate.

Futbollove is right...it's just a fun debate for folks who like this sort of thing. No reason to get worked up over it anymore than Wilt vs Kareem, Brady vs Montana or Tiger vs Jack.

I think the best criteria is the eyeball test...stats don't tell the full story when looking across age groups. For example rowdies 99 u11 select numbers are gaudy, but 99s had only one other top team as a foil (sting 99)....no one else was anywhere close to the top 2.

SRSA03 vacuumed up most the top players into one team, and no other team anywhere close to them while they're putting up equally gaudy u11#s. Rowdies played better comp than Srsa, but you can't throw in SRSA Bates' u11 numbers because there were 3 other teams just a hair behind them in overall ability and talent. And as middleclass mentioned, bates didn't run up huge scores on the weak teams in that 20 team d1 season....I don't think anyone doubts they could've had they chosen to do so.

Watching SRSA 03...even when they were with Katt, I could tell they were special. Best soccer I've seen played by a girls team under u14. They have tons of time and space because they are so much better than all their competition. And while I've seen other teams look as good when playing inferior opponents, SRSA does it against all comers...even socal...that's special.

And I repeat, have to be careful using boys games. My kid played against a lot of boys. ONLY the very top boys are better than the very top girls. Our dds beat so many boys teams, they don't even get a thrill out of doing it anymore...it's nothing special.

Eyeball test tells me SRSA 03 is in a different league than Rase...and that Rase isn't in any different league than the 2 thru 4 academy teams when 01s went through. They're just the rowdies, bates, Grubb or kicks equivalent in 04s, and no one else has consolidated talent yet.

My question for the Rase folk saying their record against boys elevates them in this discussion....Which boys? How many of the the top 3 boys have they played? How did they fare? From the quick checking I did, it looks like solar red boys are the only true top boys team in TBPL 04 this year...the others are spread out in other leagues.

Again I watched Srsa 01 against the TOP texans boys 01 at that time. Not the boys top 10...which is a crap shoot, but the top team from a top boys programs. Soccer is not a major boys sport, and at that age the best boys are not on the north side playing in these suburban academy leagues. Girls soccer gets more of the top girls athletes in the area, so the reality is unless you're playing the very top boys, you're facing more athletic teams playing against other girls.  

Interesting and sick tangent here....FBR was started exactly for this reason. Every year a team (or two) would dominate a stretch of games against their peers early in academy, and once they got closer to select, they'd run off and play boys and claim they were still superior to everyone else cuz look...they're winning against boys!

They would play very few games against their peer comp...and even if those were competitive games when they did, they always remained solidly at the top of any rankings because rankings at the time had quite a bit more subjective inputs regarding strength of schedule. FBR was started as an alternative to those rankings...which is why you can't get ranked in FBR unless you play games against your peers...We know everyone THINKS you're the best, but you still gotta show and prove the gap hasn't closed.

Judging by u11 season, SRSA03 and Texans99?...gap never closed.

SRSA01 split up after u11...too many horses on one team.

Rase04 legacy won't be comparable until we see what they do against their peers by the end of their u11 season.

futbollove wrote:MYF - That's exactly why the question is best Academy team, not best select team. Or else you would certainly have to bring  Sting 95 into the conversation and remove all the others.

And you're right, there is no right or wrong answer.  Just something else to debate.

Understood. I was just thinking the best comparison would be how each team did just one year out of academy.

But only one has played in a major tournament and won.

turftoe9 wrote:But only one has played in a major tournament and won.

I don't know if 8v8 is worth counting.   

Another factor for SRSA is they were playing and beating the other top 5 04 teams in their U10 year before select.

When was the last time RASE played LFS, Texas Spirit North, DT Scott? It's been 1.5 years since RASE has played DT South.

While SRSA played top boys teams they also faced off against the other top girls teams going into select. RASE has not. That has to DQ them from being compared anywhere near a team we have factual results vs. their peers (SRSA 03) going into select... we just don't have that with RASE.

4DaLuvofTheGM wrote:

turftoe9 wrote:But only one has played in a major tournament and won.

I don't know if 8v8 is worth counting.   

Sorry it was 11v11

turftoe9 wrote:

4DaLuvofTheGM wrote:

turftoe9 wrote:But only one has played in a major tournament and won.

I don't know if 8v8 is worth counting.   

Sorry it was 11v11

You should check out the tourney before posting!!!

There a big difference between SRSA '03 and RASE '04.

1) RASE '04 has NOT consolidated best talent to one team as SRSA '03 has done.

2) RASE '04 has been playing in older division ('03) since 2011, not sure when SRSA '03 started and if they continue to play up a year until older group went select. Though the term trophy hunting can be used to prove dominance over other teams, RASE '04 has chosen not to play in their own age group.

3) RASE '04 and SRSA '03 both played current and still #1 boys teams in their perspective age groups. RASE '04 played #1 '04 boys team twice, losing 5-0 & 4-1. SRSA '03 lost to #1 '03 boys team 10-0.  About equals out, 2 for 1.

4) RASE '04 and SRSA '03 both played in Plano Labor Day Boys Silver Division.  Both teams make it to title game but only one team walked away with the Championship - RASE '04.  Keep in mind, no other girls teams has accomplished this in the 33 years existence of the tournament.

5) Did I mention RASE '04 has not consolidated all top players to one team, but yet are having similar success as SRSA '03.  Hmm, makes you wonder what if they did??

6) RASE '04 has beaten 4 of the 10 top '04 boys teams at some point and once beat a #2 ranked FBR team 11-0 and to insinuate that RASE '04 has run off to play boys because of a few game winning streaks.. PREPOSTEROUS!! RASE '04 has been falsely accused... Off with your head!!

Eyeball test, SRSA '03 is a better team and Im sure no one is questioning that.  I do agree, "Rase04 legacy won't be comparable until we see what they do against their peers by the end of their u11 season."

"We know everyone THINKS you're the best, but you still gotta show and prove the gap hasn't closed."  -- On who's behalf, the soccer community?

RASE '04 has not set both feet on the National stage yet.  Only time will tell.

Guess you didn't see the game they lost to the boys. They totally out played them but the boys hit some shots well out side the 30 high in the corner. Well played they won the game but our girls out played them.

The other thing is SRSA challenged all of the the top 02 teams to a scrimmage which the top 2 teams choose not to do. We beat 3 of the top 5 02 girls teams going into select. I also so know some parents from Rase and told them that we would scrimmage t them and they have turned it down.

Shelby427 wrote:Another factor for SRSA is they were playing and beating the other top 5 04 teams in their U10 year before select.

When was the last time RASE played LFS, Texas Spirit North, DT Scott? It's been 1.5 years since RASE has played DT South.

While SRSA played top boys teams they also faced off against the other top girls teams going into select. RASE has not. That has to DQ them from being compared anywhere near a team we have factual results vs. their peers (SRSA 03) going into select... we just don't have that with RASE.

Does RASE have to play 04 age group even in Select? In any case, I'm sure y'all know where they will play in every tournament not hard to find out. Nothing to stop DTS jumping into that same division Shelby!

Master Bates wrote:

Shelby427 wrote:Another factor for SRSA is they were playing and beating the other top 5 04 teams in their U10 year before select.

When was the last time RASE played LFS, Texas Spirit North, DT Scott? It's been 1.5 years since RASE has played DT South.

While SRSA played top boys teams they also faced off against the other top girls teams going into select. RASE has not. That has to DQ them from being compared anywhere near a team we have factual results vs. their peers (SRSA 03) going into select... we just don't have that with RASE.

Does RASE have to play 04 age group even in Select? In any case, I'm sure y'all know where they will play in every tournament not hard to find out. Nothing to stop DTS jumping into that same division Shelby!

No one is talking about DTS or LFS or Texas Spirit. This is about people who believe RASE, mostly their and other LP parents, is the "Best All Time" academy team, a lofty claim for sure. One that is absurd given they have not played the other top teams in over a year much less touched national stage. And no, other top teams are not out looking for RASE... its more RASE is looking to not play them whatever the reason.

Listen to these people, SRSA simply recruited best team by "consolidating top talent"... WTH do you think RASE has been trying to do? Oh no wait, RASE is best all time because they have best coach, program, and parents ever.

Lucky for SRSA girls they were not born in 04 age group right...???