03 Classic League D1

Javaguy wrote:JuengoBonito, the Jump from D2 to D1 is so much bigger than a lot of teams realize.  The game moves faster.  The players are faster and generally bigger. I wish them and the new Texans luck this year.  It is probably the hardest because of all the DA talent that is added to top teams.

Yes and no. IMO, the biggest difference between the divisions and leagues, D3 vs D2 v D1 vs Academy, is the quantity of skilled players at all the positions. An academy team will have 11 solid players and depth, were a top D1 team may have a weakness here or there. When you have 11 solid skilled players, it gets much easier to move the ball around quickly. This is why teams like Solar Deleon are much stronger now. Or a team like FCD West, add a couple strong kids in the right positions and it makes a huge difference. And as team chemistry improves, they should get stronger assuming you have a good coach that can make it happen. FCD Premier has it easy because they get the addition of academy kids, or developmental players, or whatever you want to call them, by default.

The rain will stay away and the matches will go on this weekend...!

All this talk of Colleyville, I'm going to give them the edge this weekend over the Texans, 2 to 1.

Neither the Texans Connell nor Solar Sawyer can find the back of the net, and both have 7 GA thus far. I may have to call this one a draw.

FCD Central over FCD Borgarello, by at least 2.

Match of the week, FC Premier vs. Solar Deleon is a tough one to call. Could easily be the second draw of the week, but I like the small club so I'll go with FCP since no money is on the line.

FCD Premier over Che by at least 2.

Javaguy wrote:
FC Premier 2  Solar (De Leon) 2 - Yes, this is a cheap way out, but I figure De Leon's strong Defense will balance well against FCP's Strong Offense will equal 2 goals. The possible sway will be in FCP"s average Defense against De Leon's Average offense.  I believe that is where the game will be decided.

This one is probably the game of the week for me.  These 2 are top of table right now and if you are measuring based on goals for and goals against they both seem to have strong offense and defense as they both lead the league (tied) with 10 goals for and both with few goals against, DeLeon 2 and FCP 3.  Frontier league tells the same story.  DeLeon with a 9 goal dif. and FCP with an 8 goal dif.

Should be a great game this weekend if they get to play.

The FCD game will be fun as well.  My BB used to play for Che and Che gets pretty pumped up to play FCD Premier.

Longview's late to the party, but it ain't a party until it's a Longview party.

Feeling froggy today, so going to go for it on some picks.

Colleyville Evolution   1-0  Texans Taleb
CE offers proof of life, Texans go back to the drawing board.

Texans West   1-3   Solar Sawyer
Sawyer rights the ship after a tough start to the season, shows they're here to compete.

FCD Central   1-2   FCD Borgarello
Lots of love for Waters in predictions so far -- I'll take a flier on Borg finding a way.

FC Premier  3-2   Solar DeLeon
I expect some goals, but think Opoku's boys find that little extra to get the W.

FCD Premier   3-1   FCD Che West
FCDP shows they are still top dog at FCD, with former Academy teammates knowing how to slow down Che's front line.

Best of luck to all, hope we get decent officials, and no injuries.

Looks like FCDP woke up and took it out on FCD West and beat them up

FC Premier v solar Deleon ended up in a tie

Evolution got their W. Looks like Texans will will be the bottom

Anybody have an info on the FCD Premier v. Che game? That’s a huge blow out of a score.

Very physical game between FCP and Solar DeLeon. FCP scored in first half on what looked like a player that came from an offside position back into the play in front of the goal. Solar scored in second half on a PK. Keeper came out and took out forwards legs on a break away. FCP keeper kept them in the game with some amazing saves against some laser beam shots from Solar. Ended up landing hard on his arm on one of the saves and thought he was going to need medical. Great game fought hard by both teams.

Quick turnaround for midweek games.  Here is Longview's view (edited from previous submission):

FCD West   3-1   Colleyville Evolution
The Plano Silver win hits the rear view mirror - CE, welcome back to D1.First win for CE over the weekend was great, but have a feeling Che West is going to be looking for someone to take their weekend result out on.  

FC Premier   2-1   FCD Borgarello
The Borg boys keep it close on the scoreboard, but FCP dominates play.

Solar DeLeon   3-0   FCD Central
DeLeon keeps rolling while Central comes back to the pack.

FCD Premier   1 4-0   Texans West
Should be a bigger margin but West likes to slug it out and FCDP has been up and down.FCDP comes back to earth from this weekend, but still a strong victory.

Texans Taleb   0-2   Solar Sawyer
Sawyer shows they are better than the current standings indicate and get their first second win of the yearin a row.

Good luck to all!

Ant_Knee wrote:Anybody have an info on the FCD Premier v. Che game?  That’s a huge blow out of a score.

Very physical game between FCP and Solar DeLeon.  FCP scored in first half on what looked like a player that came from an offside position back into the play in front of the goal.  Solar scored in second half on a PK. Keeper came out and took out forwards legs on a break away.  FCP keeper kept them in the game with some amazing saves against some laser beam shots from Solar.  Ended up landing hard on his arm on one of the saves and thought he was going to need medical.  Great game fought hard by both teams.

Rumor has it that Che lost on purpose, who knows if there is truth to that or not, but would not be surprised given it's almost becoming an FCD league, and FCD Premier with all their academy kids should be wiping everyone out. Doesn't look good when they don't. Based on watching both teams play, I don't see such a lopsided win, and so start the conspiracy theories.

The FC Premier vs Solar Deleon game was not great the first half, but improved. Deleon has some big and very fast and skilled players. The first goal the FCP kid was in an offside position, but a defender played the ball back to him, which makes him onside again. A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent, who
deliberately plays the ball (except from a deliberate save), is not considered to have gained an advantage. Deleon followed with some great shots with some great saves by FCP goalie. But I also saw FCP miss some they usually put away. That humidity was brutal and it showed.

that's an interesting theory but find it hard to believe.  The Che players were not playing soft or weak and the FCD P keeper made a great save at 2-0 to keep Che off the score sheet in early first half.  Believing FCD told a team to throw a game so another FCD team could win a game and possibly "look" better is right up there with saying the Moon landing took place in a movie set in Los Angeles, pretty far fetched.  

Frankly, I don't think anyone but the kids on the teams and the parents care much about who wins and loses these games, there is no big public following as far I can tell.  If Premiere finishes in dead last, I doubt FCD cares.  When it comes to FCD, I get the feeling anything below the Academy is an afterthought.  

Che just had an off day and the goals came early and often for Premiere, that is all there was to it.  If they played tommorow, maybe its different. Che beat FCDP in a preseason tournament without the addition of the DA players to CHE.  So far, everyone is still looking up at FCPremiere.

I tend to agree with you, except for the part about some of these things being hard to believe. If you've been around competitive soccer around these parts long enough, you'd see some things that would not make you doubt anything being possible. And the big clubs have tried it all, and gotten away with most. It's all about winning and perception to most clubs around here, nothing to do with development. Put a good team and coach together and work, not something you see often is it. Much easier to combine teams, give the team to the biggest ego, pick the ones you want, and go win. If that doesn't work, here's a couple academy players. And if that doesn't work, we'll change it up again soon.

A couple of surprising results last night - Colleyville Evo comes up big to get the win over Che West, and Borgarello drawing FC Premier.

I didn’t see the CE game - looks like they are figuring things out.  Che going in the wrong direction and maybe looking like the only one of the FL4 that is vulnerable at current.

I watched some of the FC Premier game after being done with the early games and although I’d give them the boxing decision on what i saw, it was a fairly back-and-forth match.  Gotta think it was a point the Borg boys weren’t expecting to get (just like Sawyer against FCD Premier).  Those may be very valuable points at season’s end.

Looking forward to the Texans/Sawyer match tonight to see if Sawyer can move all the way up to 4th(!), or if Texans come join the mid table pack.

FC Premier took a hit by loosing their keeper to a injury. He had an amazing game against Solar Deleon. Even playing 1/4 of the game injured. Even if wasn’t for him solar would had score 3-4 goals he made some ESPN highlight saves. FC Premier will be facing some difficulties without their star keeper.

Simple case of FCP getting in their own way last night, nothing to do with the keeper. Refs. did not help much but that's FCPs fault for letting it come down to that. They had a couple point blank shots that should've gone in. It happens, they seem to go into funks at times and certainly don't look pretty when they do. They came out of it last year and finished strong, time will tell if that happens again this year.

I don’t think soccer27 meant the game on Tuesday was decided by the starting GK being out, I think he meant the majority of the season will show if they can overcome his absence. Gone are the days of U6-U11 where you can stick any kid in the net and be fine. The Deleon-FCP game was a prime example of that. If FCP can start finding the back of the net early and often, they should be fine.

My predictions for tomorrow: rainouts.  Bummer the Taleb/Sawyer match got cancelled last night.

It's that time to start predicting this weekend's results (that will probably be rained out).

FCD Central   2-0  Texans Taleb
Waters adds to the Texans' misery.  Wonder if we will see some roster changes soon (e.g., some Craft ECNL players being used) if both Texans teams remain in danger of relegation.

Colleyville Evolution   1-2   Solar Sawyer
CE on a roll, but Sawyer says not so fast.  Sawyer feeling good and show that they will be a serious factor in the league this year.

FCD Premier   2-1   FC Premier
I'm going to predict a very intense, very up-tempo, very physical, somewhat chippy slugfest.  If FCD maintains focus on the soccer and not on the extracurriculars, they look to have just a few more weapons where goals can come from.  Let me go on record as saying that every time I bet against Opoku's boys I usually end up looking silly, so there's that.  A very slight lean to FCD that could easily go the other way.  May end up getting decided by who got a better night of sleep and a decent breakfast.

FCD Borgarello  1-0   Texans West
They drew 0-0 at PLD tournament in group play, so looking for another close game.  Borgarello already leading the league in draws, could be another one here, but I'll give them the lean and say they find a goal and then hang on.  This is the kind of game Texans West really needs to win if they plan to get out of the relegation conversation, so we'll see.

Solar DeLeon   1-0   FCD Che West
Expecting a lot of action between the boxes but not many clear cut chances.  DeLeon scores on a set piece and relies on the league's best Goals-Against record to extend Che West's downturn in form.

As always, hoping for no thunder/rain, injuries, or bad officiating for everyone involved.

No one cares!!!!! All this specualtion is BS. Stop acting like this is some semi pro league. Just enjoy watching you kids plays and start looking at colleges. All you are doing is stroking all these lame coach's egos.

I repeat....no one cares.

No, no.....keep posting.

RR, was wondering if you had joined the new board.  Always great to see your passionate stances on the forum.  Not going to argue with you.  Best wishes to you and yours, and I hope my or others' harmless commentary about a youth soccer league that our kids play in doesn't cause you too much trouble going forward.  I just don't click on the posts I don't want to read - works pretty well.

Right on Longview! Keep posting. We enjoy the commentary...

Riqueme is back !! Thought he had left the soccer scene. Always fun to read his hatred towards certain coaches.
Keep powering Longview. As long as you keep predicting our team to win.

Looks like it’s a two horse race to the end for the DC bid between FCD Premier and Solar Deleon. FCD Premier should get an automatic bid by FCD. Who can put in more goals in the final games.

FCD Che vs Solar Deleon game was a good game. Solar Deleon showed why they have the least GA only allowing only 1 goal. An ugly incident occurred when one of FCD Che DA players lost his cool after fouling the Solar player. He purposely stepped on the opposing players back while he was on the green. He did received a straight red.

Quick turnaround this week with the rainout makeups.  As we creep up on the midway point, strength of schedule starting to even out, giving a better view of apples to apples performance.

Texans Taleb   1-1  FCD Che West
Going out on a limb here.  Chalk would say this is the game where Che West gets out of their funk and the Texans' misery continues, but thought I'd be a contrarian and say a midweek game and all that comes with it ends up resulting in a sister kisser.

FCD Borgarello   0-3   FCD Premier
Borgarello does what they do and keep it from getting out of hand, but the result is never in doubt as FCD Premier continue their ascent.

Solar Sawyer   1-4   FC Premier
Contrary to the Texans/Che West match, predicting that Sawyer runs into a buzzsaw that isn't happy about this past Saturday.  More a matter of FCP motivation than a statement on Sawyer ability - Sawyer will rebound.

Solar DeLeon  4-0   Texans West
DeLeon is like butter (i.e., on a roll), and this is going to be a tough one for the Texans West boys.  Can see DeLeon owning possession, scoring early, and Texans shoulders dropping before halftime.

FCD Central   1-1   Colleyville Evolution
CE on the ascent, and Waters boys cruising along. Going to say honors even, but a win for either would be an important extra 2 points.  One of those games at the end of the season where those extra 2 points might be important.

As always, hoping for no thunder/rain, injuries, or bad officiating for everyone involved.

Longview, I think you read my mind on your predictions. The only one I believe may be off is I would give the nod to Che. I think the big X factor for all the games is that it is a weekday/school night. It always seems strange how the boys react from lack of sleep, homework loads and playing under the lights.

For anyone scratching their head on how the standings are listed after tonight, here are the CL tiebreakers:

1. Goal Diff (max 4 per game)
2. Goals Scored
3. Board Decision

Hence, FCDP in 2nd - they lose 4 goals from the Che match.

Editorial comment - this is a weird set of tiebreakers.  No head to head anywhere? And no limit on goals scored? i.e., FCDP loses the goals in the first tiebreaker, but gets them back for the second tiebreaker. Weird.

Re my last post, I guess that applies to Che West as well.  They gain 4 from the FCDP game and lose one from tonight, meaning they are 3 up on Borgarello for tiebreak purposes.