Semi-International Cup

Club Deportivo Bacata D.C. (Colombia)
PSC Girls Green 2000 (Canada)
Seleccion De Nuevo Leon (Mexico)

And where did all the other competitive teams from other states go?

D'Feeters Soccer Club ECNL U15 (TX)
Dallas Sting ECNL U15 (TX)
Dallas Texans ECNL U15

Andromeda 00 (TX)
FC Dallas 00G Blue (TX)
Oakwood Soccer Club
Pats GU15 AV/MV Swindle
Solar Chelsea Elite 00 (TX)
Sting 00 Flanagan (TX)
STING CENTRAL '00 (Parker) (TX)
Sting Royal 00 Brown (TX)

Dallas Texans North '00G
lady aztecs fc00 (TX)
Mustangs FC 00 Bussey (TX)
Solar Gold '00 (TX)
Solar Chelsea 00G (TX)

Fever United 00G Penn (TX)

After u14, this tournament goes downhill in terms of high level of competition.

That figures; after being extorted just to get in only to not have any high level competition..shucks. I wonder if  the presence of a lowly D3 team caused those uppity out of towners to stay away - you know, not wanting to have to play down to the competition? You know if they come all this way they only want to play the very best that NTX has to offer to make it worth their while.

After looking at all the age groups I need to amend my statement a bit. It looks like the level of competition is down across all the age groups. Not sure why.

Yep, it looks like Texans only took two years to destroy this tournament.

I see very few tournaments in this country that have more foreign teams. Disney had 15 last year, but that's 15 out of 360 teams. DIGC had 12 out of 88. I only ran accross one tournament in the top 100 that had a higher percentage of foreign teams in the field. It was a lower rated, smaller tournament and had 6 foreign teams.

Locally, no other tournament is even in the conversation when it comes to international girls teams.

Seems to me, it would be better to talk UP the local tournaments. Seems to me, that would be better for ALL of NTX soccer.

I don't want to be construed as carrying water for the Dallas Texans, they certainly don't need my help in that department, but if your club has a better local tournament, with more international flavor, then I'd love to hear about it.

Who cares about the international teams. How about just getting teams from out of state to come. The first year the tournament was billed as ECNL. That was the best tournament with much representation from around the states. Now it seems it just another over priced local tournament. In which I can give a list of those in north Texas.

You would think they could get more than 2 teams (U15) from out of state. I wonder how much this unpredictable NTX weather around this time of year, even first of April, has to do with keeping the out of state teams away? We weren't able to get in it last year, so I don't recall, but were there any weather related issues last year?

Easter may have something to do with it also. Many tournaments are played over some holiday break or weekend. Maybe some coaches, teams/parents don't want to travel this far on this particular week/weekend. Add in the fact that this is "invitational " tournament and would exclude a majority of teams even from out of state then you may be on the right road. There's probably not just one reason (weather included) for the lack of participation from international and out of state teams this year. But I do agree with OLJW in that maybe we should talk up the local tournaments to ensure quality competition instead of bashing it. I can assure you that while it's always fun to play different teams and even cooler to play international competition, the girls just want to play.

I disagree, you play these teams in league twice and in any local tournaments you enter. Then you see them again in international cup, then two or three weeks later your seeing them again in state cup. That's not what the girls want!

How could I forget an obvious reason for this year - the Easter holiday weekend? And since that holiday doesn't fall on the same date every year - it likely wasn't on the same tournament weekend 2 yrs. ago, that may be the primary cause for the across the board drop in out of state teams. Nevertheless, we are happy to be in the dance.

KnK...Actually, I think it is on Easter each year. It was last year at least, and I think that is WHY they set it up, so that it falls on a natural holiday weekend. Of course, snow days have taken the Friday away from NTX schools.

Also, Zizou...I can understand the ecnl teams feeling that the tournament is "beneath" them to some extent, and it may not be attractive to some top teams from out of state, but from what I have seen, the top teams use the pool games to tweak their game and to get their 12-20s plenty of game time... Then they play other top teams in quarters and further. They still get some high end games, and they get to scout local talent...the d1 teams get 1 game against an ecnl, an international or an out of state, 1 game against a "lesser" LH team...and one other team (maybe ecnl, or LH). If they get a draw against a team they should beat, then that should put them in quarters...and a team that is top 8 in tourney. This a "bonus" game against a top team. If they see them in pool play and don't advance, well, host a friendly against a visitor.

The teams at the bottom actually DON'T always get to play top LH teams or ecnl teams. Some get slotted into lower levels at tourneys, so it is a cool experience for them too.

I agree we can bash Texans-and there is plenty NOT to like about them (or anyone else if you want to), but I agree with above that playing that level of competition, close to home for many teams is special.

I know that we were hoping to get to play again. It was a special experience to play world class last year, let alone the #1 team in LH and an out of town group in pool play. Then played a friendly against an English team as well. It was more expensive than some other tourneys, and it cost us a few school days, but mine is getting psyched up to see what she can do this year.

You are right from a certain perspective I suppose, but not from mine...or Any D2/3 team that wants a shot. Or Pulp or Parker or andro trying to show they can perhaps compete at an ECNL level.

With 3 ecnls, 3 internationals and 2 out of town teams, everyone should see at least 1 of them and no more than 1 from your own league.

I am a glass is half full kind of a guy, but I am happier for the experience than frustrated by it. How cool would it be to advance?? And with fewer ecnl teams, it could happen for a lower team.

Sorry to go Hoosiers on you...go SG! Lol

Zizou wrote:I disagree, you play these teams in league twice and in any local tournaments you enter. Then you see them again in international cup, then two or three weeks later your seeing them again in state cup. That's not what the girls want!

Why not? Iron sharpens iron. Go look at surf u14s game history...they play the same top teams in socal over and over....legends, blues, arsenal, slammers...they play eachother so much its probably not a big deal anymore if one loses.

Do a search and there is a long list of past issues with how this tournament has been run...it was predicted the issues would have a cost in the long run. Don't care to litigate the past because I hope this tournament can reverse course and become a true national power tourney in our own backyard.  But not one single FCD or Solar ECNL team in any age group? That says to me Texans need some major changes....namely:

-decide if this is supposed to be a spring texans fall festival or if you're really trying to build a national tournament. If the latter, invite and accept the best of the best...every year, at every age.

-vet the international teams. Canadian teams that were provincial champions were competitive...too many of the other international teams were not. Go get the best japanese, french or german teams to draw other top u.s. teams and to reduce the disparity between local and international quality.

-figure out what why FCD and Solar ECNL aren't coming...and fix it!

-get texans people out of TD roles and let denver run it...the bracketing has to at least have the appearance of being equitable. There shouldn't be age groups with 4 Texans teams if this is truly a national caliber tournament (unless those 4 teams are the best of the best).

Hard to believe but I actually agree with you on this one. Wish all of the top teams came together at least once a year to settle it on the field.

tl;dr

Short answer: ECNL requiring teams to travel more killed this tournament. That requirement hasn't done other bigger tournaments/showcases (Surf/Disney/etc) any favors either.

My guess is the only people (besides HN) that really care about this drop off are the non-ECNL teams....

ECNL San Diego, played in the middle of April. It seems San Diego has better weather in April.

Zizou wrote:ECNL San Diego, played in the middle of April. It seems San Diego has better weather in April.

Socal rarely sends teams to ecnl texas, so good idea to ditch your local showcase and spend money to make sure ntx travels to socal showcase. Brilliant! Maybe we will start seeing a lot more NTX pac 12 commits.

ECNL has a lot to say about where teams play. Plus look at the teams going to San Diego compared to Dallas. Sorry! International Cup had its opportunity to be that ECNL showcase for Dallas , but decided to go a different direction. We see how that worked out! Plus I do believe playing on a religious holiday weekend does not help.

Zizou wrote:ECNL has a lot to say about where teams play. Plus look at the teams going to San Diego compared to Dallas. Sorry! International Cup had its opportunity to be that ECNL showcase for Dallas , but decided to go a different direction. We see how that worked out! Plus I do believe playing on a religious holiday weekend does not help.

Are you suggesting ECNL forces NTX to play socal showcase but doesn't force socal to come to Texas? Doubtful.

And DIGC didn't need to be the ECNL showcase for Dallas...plenty ECNL showcases on the books already. Would be great if they build it into a Dallas equivalent to Jefferson Cup, Surf, Players or Disney. Hope they can turn it around.

The first couple of years it was played, our team really enjoyed the DIGC. The international teams were really interesting, but we never faced one that really provided any level of competition, but the girls loved playing those teams just to see the different styles.  We felt it was a well run competition, the organizers were available and communicative, at least in the beginning.

From the start, there were complaints about the "home cooking" in the bracketing.  I don't know that it was any worse than other tournaments sponsored by a club, but it could be irritating.  

Probably the biggest issue (at least back then) came from conflicts with the high school soccer playoffs.

I think they got a significant black eye the year that they allowed some teams to play with age inappropriate players due to short rosters, but didn't make it generally known to all teams that there was such an option.  Of course to add insult to injury, one team played with an ineligible player that was outside of even the expanded birth dates and ended up disqualified.

There was some great competition at the event, and the weather could be pleasant, so it's a shame if it's falling on hard times.  We could certainly use a high level tournament here to draw teams from beyond the neighboring states.

No, would have stayed a top level tournament if had stayed an ECNL showcase. Chose to become the Texans soccer club tournament and found out the hard way no one is going to that. The teams invited to the tournament are questionable at best. Teams in Texas travel to play tournaments that have a diverse competition from around the country. Good luck!

It was never an ECNL event.

I believe it was an ECNL junior event (for the younger teams) or whatever that was/is called but not an event like the ones we have now for ECNL teams.

ballhead wrote:The first couple of years it was played, our team really enjoyed the DIGC. The international teams were really interesting, but we never faced one that really provided any level of competition, but the girls loved playing those teams just to see the different styles.  We felt it was a well run competition, the organizers were available and communicative, at least in the beginning.

From the start, there were complaints about the "home cooking" in the bracketing.  I don't know that it was any worse than other tournaments sponsored by a club, but it could be irritating.  

Probably the biggest issue (at least back then) came from conflicts with the high school soccer playoffs.

I think they got a significant black eye the year that they allowed some teams to play with age inappropriate players due to short rosters, but didn't make it generally known to all teams that there was such an option.  Of course to add insult to injury, one team played with an ineligible player that was outside of even the expanded birth dates and ended up disqualified.

There was some great competition at the event, and the weather could be pleasant, so it's a shame if it's falling on hard times.  We could certainly use a high level tournament here to draw teams from beyond the neighboring states.

Agreed, it really has been a great venue... The past 2 years has definitely suffered home-bracket-cooking. Despite the advantageous bracketing in the '00 group, the organizers efforts has been in vain.

DTX, I beleive, is seeing the effects of that history. I think last year in the '00 group, the tournament name was changed to Solar Kicked Butt Cup (Everyone's butt except the texans Bc they never played each other). Barring a last minute entry by the Solar ECNL team, it looks like someone has a chance to win this year. It's still good spring event and helpful in evaluating guest players.

By the way, has anyone ever used the $10,000 grand prize (towards sending a 20 player roster) to use at the YourApeeIn event?

Good Luck to those in the DIGC this week!

The international competition isn't the only thing that has dropped off dramatically with this tournament...

College Coaches Attending DIGC