A very good '03 match between the Dallas Texans South and Odyssey took place this past weekend. Was a very hard fought contest between two of the areas more competitive teams. The game ended in a tie at 1. My BB plays on the Odyssey team and it's been a while since we'd competed against DTS. Those kids have made great progress and proved to be a formidable opponent and nearly knocked Odyssey off. Each team had multiple opportunities to score. Stingy defensive play on both teams part permiated the entire game. DTS scored on a free kick from about 20 yards out in the first half. The games second socre was a result of a corner kick which was headed nicely into the net about 7 Minutes before the contest ended. I thought the match was riddled with questionable calls or no calls by the pair of officials working the game. Not sure if reffing fatigue had set in but there seemed to be some short fuses and obvious misses (not necessarily favoring either team). There are going to be missed calls as well as those that we watching view through our teams biassed glasses.. However, at least 4 missed OB calls (in front of the bench and near the Ref on the field) where both team coaches came away scratching their heads and the Ref wanted no part of discussing. Would suggest that if the officials are going to ref the very competitive, late afternoon games, they come prepared and focused. Got a sense that these two were on auto pilot and we didn't see their best effort. Also, need to check the attitude in the pkg lot prior.

it should not be just for the "very competitive" games but for all games.

i am actually happy overall with the quality of the refs so far this season. sure they miss calls (or we think they miss calls) during a game.

I was able to watch this game since my BB's game was right after. Good game but when speaking to my BB's coach which is the DTS coach after the game, the Odyssey coach should not have been thrown out, the refs were being way to sensitive.

Anyone catch Solar Gold vs Solar Castro? Caught some of Solar Gold V Odyssey last week and Odyssey seemed to control the game.

protayus wrote:Anyone catch Solar Gold vs Solar Castro? Caught some of Solar Gold V Odyssey last week and Odyssey seemed to control the game.

Yeah I saw that one. On the same vein I thought the refs were way to sensitive during this match. I swaw the AR freak out on some parents for just moaning about a call. They must have been worn down by the teams before. Two old guys. Solar Casto won 4 or 5 to 0

I heard that Odyssey scored with about two minutes left to draw even with Castro.

I had expected more from DSC after seeing them play in the Labor Day Tourney. I think they lost their first 3 and I know FCD switched up teams last week to play their Premier team against them. Not sure how the outcome was though, should have been a good game.

DTS has also been a surprise after losing out in the Labor Day Tourney. Pretty sure they are undefeated with ties against Odyssey and Juventus.

protayus wrote:I had expected more from DSC after seeing them play in the Labor Day Tourney. I think they lost their first 3 and I know FCD switched up teams last week to play their Premier team against them. Not sure how the outcome was though, should have been a good game.

DTS has also been a surprise after losing out in the Labor Day Tourney. Pretty sure they are undefeated with ties against Odyssey and Juventus.

No worries with the win/loss thing. Now if it's the same a year from now you may hear some concern in my post. Game last week btwn DSC and FCD Premier was one of the better games i've watched in a while. Both teams moved the ball extremely well and would have been just as happy if the score were reversed. DSC 3 FCD 1

Ditto on the FCD and DSC game. We were on the other side, but it is not about wins and losses, but watching the kids move the ball, seeing all kids on both teams being subbed out almost equally to ensure all kids develop, and watching your kid smile after the game because he tried his best. The game was very tactical with tons of ball movement (on the ground) and both coaches called out players on their own team who kicked the ball out of bounds defensively without playing it and for just smashing the ball down the field to an unknown teammate (kind of like Romo on Saturday - had to get that one in because we all know the conclusion of those passes). Game well played by these young kids.

Number13 wrote:

yellowboots wrote:

There is a different strategy when it comes to league play and tournaments. In league play, good coaches that want to develop (this is supposedly the objective that most speak about on this forum) move players around into areas they may be new to. There may be an increase in goals against because of this. In tournaments, the players may not move as much so they can be in their strongest position to give the team the best opportunity to win.

I think some of the players are being moved around to positions such as QB or WR or 2B. That or being sick. We've played 4 games, and only one has gone anything like I expected. From what I have seen, all the surprising results and relative apparent changes in team strength have been primarily a function of additions/subtractions rather than tactics or developmental leaps. So if you win/improve its not like "OMG our kids are getting awesome" its more of a "hey #32 isn't on that team anymore" or "#10/#12 was at football" or "I'm glad we added #11/#17" or "where did that kid come from?". Development is a long long long haul.

Shrug. The kids are 8. We may be an anomaly, but we don't have anybody who knows how to play their primary position very well (tactically), so shuffling them up is just more of the same. When they are all there and rested up, they look pretty solid. When crucial people are missing or they just came from a football game or birthday party, they look pretty ragged. I'm sure every situation is different.

Will add that the transition from 7v7 to 9v9 on roughly the same size field has influenced what some teams / players are able to do. Just not as much space and seems to place a premium on ball movement as opposed to one player going solo. My observation. My BB's team has always had a solid 6 or 7. Once subbing started, we saw a significant drop in talent on the field. 9v9 requires us to start some players who wouldn't necessarily start on many teams. Once we go to subbing.. Uhhhh... Not so much... Those teams who have 9,10,11 solid players (DTS is in this bunch) will benefit and be more competitive. We'll see.

SoccerDad12 wrote:

Number13 wrote:

yellowboots wrote:

There is a different strategy when it comes to league play and tournaments. In league play, good coaches that want to develop (this is supposedly the objective that most speak about on this forum) move players around into areas they may be new to. There may be an increase in goals against because of this. In tournaments, the players may not move as much so they can be in their strongest position to give the team the best opportunity to win.

I think some of the players are being moved around to positions such as QB or WR or 2B. That or being sick. We've played 4 games, and only one has gone anything like I expected. From what I have seen, all the surprising results and relative apparent changes in team strength have been primarily a function of additions/subtractions rather than tactics or developmental leaps. So if you win/improve its not like "OMG our kids are getting awesome" its more of a "hey #32 isn't on that team anymore" or "#10/#12 was at football" or "I'm glad we added #11/#17" or "where did that kid come from?". Development is a long long long haul.

Shrug. The kids are 8. We may be an anomaly, but we don't have anybody who knows how to play their primary position very well (tactically), so shuffling them up is just more of the same. When they are all there and rested up, they look pretty solid. When crucial people are missing or they just came from a football game or birthday party, they look pretty ragged. I'm sure every situation is different.

Will add that the transition from 7v7 to 9v9 on roughly the same size field has influenced what some teams / players are able to do. Just not as much space and seems to place a premium on ball movement as opposed to one player going solo. My observation. My BB's team has always had a solid 6 or 7. Once subbing started, we saw a significant drop in talent on the field. 9v9 requires us to start some players who wouldn't necessarily start on many teams. Once we go to subbing.. Uhhhh... Not so much... Those teams who have 9,10,11 solid players (DTS is in this bunch) will benefit and be more competitive. We'll see.

My son's team has seen a lot of improvement over the first 4 weeks. the addition of new talent and the increase in field size/numbers takes some getting used to for them. our bench is much deeper and do not see as much as a fall off as in past seasons.

quality depth improves everybody on the team because everyone has to practice harder to improve so someone does not get better than them.