That should be interesting:

Friday, Jul. 15
12:00 PM U.S. Development Academy Playoffs (Final)
On ESPN3 (the website).

FC DALLAS is in. Also check that for detail:
http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Development-Academy/2011/07/Pateadores-Wins-Group-1-at-2011-Development-Academy-Finals-Week.aspx

Its also on live National TV on ESPN U

It was almost a Dallas Texans v FC Dallas final.

What a great showing by North Texas teams! It is amazing that a team that can only play kickball :lol:made it to the semi=finals and would have been in the finals but lost out due to tie breaker.???

That's, "Kick Ball", with flair, to you.

Interesting that FC Dallas is playing Pateadores. Pateadores is the team that had to forfeit a bunch of games because they were playing college players on their team. However, the Federation negated all of the forfeited games by calculating their wildcard status without the forfeited games in the equation.

What does "Pateadores" translate into English?

PG-Boy wrote:What does "Pateadores" translate into English?

Kickers

My reference to kick ball and the Texans U18 was sarcasm...I am very happy they did so well in the playoffs and this year overall. We hear so much about "The Beautiful Game" that at times some people forget that the final objective is to win. I am talking about U18 soccer here not U11.

Coaches make decisions on style based on their players and the skills they have.

If it was only a skills competition then maybe we could have judges with score cards? I know lets play keep-a-way for 90minutes and who ever possesses the ball the longest wins!!

So true NTSkeptic. I can't stand watching teams mainly play long balls over the top to fast forwards. Either it worked or it didn't but you have to watch it over and over.

However, if I had some big fast forwards that can win the 50 ball and dribble with break away speed, then I would play that game as well. The main thing is that the long ball can't stretch out you team so you're not ready for the counterattack. But you have to have the forwards that can win the battle in the attacking 3rd.

The biggest problem with playing long ball is that the backs tend to get smarter, stronger, and faster every year so that after a while it's really hard for a forward to have the advantages that they sometimes have through U-16. We really need to teach our kids how to adapt to different styles of play.

1. "Let's spread the field. Show some patience. Look for the opportunity". - No problem.
2. "Let's play more direct and look for quick counters". No problem
3. "High pressure defending". Check
4. "Low pressure". Check

Every game you just have to adapt to you and your opponents strengths and weaknesses. We don't need a single tyle of play. We need to be able to adjust to what we are seeing on the field.

PG-Boy wrote:What does "Pateadores" translate into English?

Cheaters


They also knocked Andromeda U/18 out of playoffs.

Andromeda finished tied for last wild card spot. Pats won there last game against Arsenal and moved into second place.
It moved Real Salt Lake into the wild card race and knocked Andromeda out.1st and second place in divisions automatically qualify.

Pateadores 2 vs FC Dallas 1

NTskeptic wrote:My reference to kick ball and the Texans U18 was sarcasm...I am very happy they did so well in the playoffs and this year overall. We hear so much about "The Beautiful Game" that at times some people forget that the final objective is to win. I am talking about U18 soccer here not U11.

Coaches make decisions on style based on their players and the skills they have.

If it was only a skills competition then maybe we could have judges with score cards? I know lets play keep-a-way for 90minutes and who ever possesses the ball the longest wins!!

The objective is to win when they pay you for that win

NTskeptic wrote:My reference to kick ball and the Texans U18 was sarcasm...I am very happy they did so well in the playoffs and this year overall. We hear so much about "The Beautiful Game" that at times some people forget that the final objective is to win. I am talking about U18 soccer here not U11.

Coaches make decisions on style based on their players and the skills they have.

If it was only a skills competition then maybe we could have judges with score cards? I know lets play keep-a-way for 90minutes and who ever possesses the ball the longest wins!!

Actually the underlying objective of the Development Academy is player development. Not winning. So from that point of view the "Texans" long ball game does not really fall into the USSF directive so to speak. While your statement about coaches adapting to the players and skills they possess is true of some coaches and systems. Others have systems and force the players to fit their system. Like yelling at defenders for possessing and passing the ball when the coaching directive is to kick the ball down the field as far as possible. So yes when we are talking pro ball, we should be talking winning, when we are talking youth player development, winning should be secondary.

One other thing. There is a huge difference between possessing the ball and playing keep away and possessing the ball to set up a well constructed offensive attack. Not the same thing.

And I know you were being facetious but I actually think you WOULD see more player development if you did have several judges in the stands during a match and actually rated a club, a coach and a teams success by grading their creativity on the ball, playing as a unit and utilizing sound fundamental soccer judgment as well as other aspects over which team can score the most points. You could even develop a system that merged both aspects, not just winning. IMHO.

So the object is not to win unless you get paid....??? So all those nervous moments by parents and coaches at games and the long faces by players when they are bested are really misplaced? I'm not buying it. Teach the game, practice your technique, get fit, and play to win. Winning and losing does matter! Effort matters, sportsmanship matters, loyalty matters, and winning matters, that is sports and that is what makes it such a great teacher.

I still disagree that all the Texans do is play the ball over the top. I probably saw 4 of their games this year and that is not what I saw.

On the other side of the coin Solar seems to believe that they should be able to pass the ball into the net. In the final third they just don't seem to get it done. Fun to watch and they beat almost every team between the 18 and 18 however they gave up too many goals this past year and they didn't score enough. A team with the speed and skill I saw should have stretched the field but it almost appears that if their players play a pass over 15 yards KS goes nuts.

FCD plays a possession style 80% of the time however they will cross the ball from outside the 18 and even a long diagonal ball. But they really don't count. Pros don't count.

Andromeda seems to have to rebuild each year since the National Champ team graduated. LM and his coaches obviously pulled some strings with players that came to them from several teams where they were not starters on DA teams or starters on CL teams. They played a lot of counter attacks and from their record they seemed to have over achieved.

I am sure no one has read this far so I will stop....

NTskeptic wrote:So the object is not to win unless you get paid....??? So all those nervous moments by parents and coaches at games and the long faces by players when they are bested are really misplaced? I'm not buying it. Teach the game, practice your technique, get fit, and play to win. Winning and losing does matter! Effort matters, sportsmanship matters, loyalty matters, and winning matters, that is sports and that is what makes it such a great teacher.

I still disagree that all the Texans do is play the ball over the top. I probably saw 4 of their games this year and that is not what I saw.

On the other side of the coin Solar seems to believe that they should be able to pass the ball into the net. In the final third they just don't seem to get it done. Fun to watch and they beat almost every team between the 18 and 18 however they gave up too many goals this past year and they didn't score enough. A team with the speed and skill I saw should have stretched the field but it almost appears that if their players play a pass over 15 yards KS goes nuts.

FCD plays a possession style 80% of the time however they will cross the ball from outside the 18 and even a long diagonal ball. But they really don't count. Pros don't count.

Andromeda seems to have to rebuild each year since the National Champ team graduated. LM and his coaches obviously pulled some strings with players that came to them from several teams where they were not starters on DA teams or starters on CL teams. They played a lot of counter attacks and from their record they seemed to have over achieved.

I am sure no one has read this far so I will stop....

Sounds like you have it all figured out. Crazy how each club has its own style of play and how they are all quite different from one another. But in the long run you need to learn to long pass sometimes and hold the ball sometimes. I think if the clubs can all take a little from one another they will all be much more well rounded soccer teams and make more diverse soccer players. But I am sure most of the coaches are old school and extreme in how they think and stuck in their ways unfortunately. That's why what might be best is to expose your player to different clubs and different coaches.

I have nothing figured out, just a lot of opinions based on very little experience but a great interest in the game. I do agree with your comment that it is good to be exposed to different coaches. Back in the day when ODP was king the players had that opportunity.