Bethesda Premier Cup Tournament 2023

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of the decision-making for brackets came down to individual team performance in last year’s Bethesda tournament- at least explanation given for a top ranked U15 team to be placed in third tier this year.

I also think for example liverpool (u13) their spring performance played a role but moving to 11v11 with a bigger team and field has worsened many teams level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of the decision-making for brackets came down to individual team performance in last year’s Bethesda tournament- at least explanation given for a top ranked U15 team to be placed in third tier this year.

And who would that be (said top ranked u15 team)? Definitely not a local outfit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of the decision-making for brackets came down to individual team performance in last year’s Bethesda tournament- at least explanation given for a top ranked U15 team to be placed in third tier this year.

Highly ranked out of state teams were destroying 3rd, 4th, 5th tier brackets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like players/teams with technical skills have an advantage over the kick & runners

Wait, or is it the opposite? haha

Bad fields are the great equalizer. Hurts skilled teams ar more than lesser teams.
That's why lower league teams in the FA Cup tend to let their fields go to crap when playing top teams.

Yep. My prediction for the U14 boys age group this weekend is that Loudon and Laurel will do well, because of this (physical, running teams). Alexandria will be at a disadvantage (small, skilled team). This is based on seeing these teams over a couple years so this year's versions may be different.

This turned out to be pretty accurate. Loudon was top in their bracket and won the tournament. Laurel finished second in theirs. And Alexandria didn't get a win. I saw most of the teams in this bracket, at least for a little bit. The poster above didn't account for the size of Villareal, who looked to be the biggest and fastest of them all. And they were good. I'm not trying to denigrate the kids. They had a great tournament. The second place teams in each bracket, Coppermine and Laurel, had a dominant player up top and a game-plan to get them the ball. Nothing against those teams, either. They took advantage of their strength. It was especially effective on a short, bumpy, un-level field.

This was my first time at Muldoons and it was as embarrassing as advertised. And the goals. OMG, the goals. They were made up of three lengths of too-thin pipe, so that the crossbar sagged in the middle. Fields 1 and 3 literally backed to a horse farm so that skied balls ended up in a pasture. Watching kids scale the wood fence and go over the electrified wire at the top to retrieve balls was ridiculous. (I assume they disconnect the electrification for tournaments).

[Anonymous]

The U15 boys games were at Laytonia Recreational Park in Gaithersburg. There was a lovely turf field and some sandy, bumpy grass ones. Overall a really good venue with bonus points for having bathrooms and a shaded pavilion. I’ve had kids playing soccer in this area for over a decade and had somehow never heard of this place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like players/teams with technical skills have an advantage over the kick & runners

Wait, or is it the opposite? haha

Bad fields are the great equalizer. Hurts skilled teams ar more than lesser teams.
That's why lower league teams in the FA Cup tend to let their fields go to crap when playing top teams.

Yep. My prediction for the U14 boys age group this weekend is that Loudon and Laurel will do well, because of this (physical, running teams). Alexandria will be at a disadvantage (small, skilled team). This is based on seeing these teams over a couple years so this year's versions may be different.

This turned out to be pretty accurate. Loudon was top in their bracket and won the tournament. Laurel finished second in theirs. And Alexandria didn't get a win. I saw most of the teams in this bracket, at least for a little bit. The poster above didn't account for the size of Villareal, who looked to be the biggest and fastest of them all. And they were good. I'm not trying to denigrate the kids. They had a great tournament. The second place teams in each bracket, Coppermine and Laurel, had a dominant player up top and a game-plan to get them the ball. Nothing against those teams, either. They took advantage of their strength. It was especially effective on a short, bumpy, un-level field.

This was my first time at Muldoons and it was as embarrassing as advertised. And the goals. OMG, the goals. They were made up of three lengths of too-thin pipe, so that the crossbar sagged in the middle. Fields 1 and 3 literally backed to a horse farm so that skied balls ended up in a pasture. Watching kids scale the wood fence and go over the electrified wire at the top to retrieve balls was ridiculous. (I assume they disconnect the electrification for tournaments).

Considering the Laurel Lions 2010's are the current Maryland State Cup Champions and have consistently won EDP1 season after season with one of the best youth coaches in the country, picking them to finish well in any tournament is a safe bet.

kids scaling electric wires??????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the decision-making for brackets came down to individual team performance in last year’s Bethesda tournament- at least explanation given for a top ranked U15 team to be placed in third tier this year.

Highly ranked out of state teams were destroying 3rd, 4th, 5th tier brackets

Huh? In u15 4th bracket, Bethesda beat Arlington in the finals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The U15 boys games were at Laytonia Recreational Park in Gaithersburg. There was a lovely turf field and some sandy, bumpy grass ones. Overall a really good venue with bonus points for having bathrooms and a shaded pavilion. I’ve had kids playing soccer in this area for over a decade and had somehow never heard of this place.

Yeah, it's a great facility...it's a shame they only have one good field.
The grass fields were terrible. We had two games on those where neither team could string passes together becasue of all the bumps. Ugly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like players/teams with technical skills have an advantage over the kick & runners

Wait, or is it the opposite? haha

Bad fields are the great equalizer. Hurts skilled teams ar more than lesser teams.
That's why lower league teams in the FA Cup tend to let their fields go to crap when playing top teams.

Yep. My prediction for the U14 boys age group this weekend is that Loudon and Laurel will do well, because of this (physical, running teams). Alexandria will be at a disadvantage (small, skilled team). This is based on seeing these teams over a couple years so this year's versions may be different.

This turned out to be pretty accurate. Loudon was top in their bracket and won the tournament. Laurel finished second in theirs. And Alexandria didn't get a win. I saw most of the teams in this bracket, at least for a little bit. The poster above didn't account for the size of Villareal, who looked to be the biggest and fastest of them all. And they were good. I'm not trying to denigrate the kids. They had a great tournament. The second place teams in each bracket, Coppermine and Laurel, had a dominant player up top and a game-plan to get them the ball. Nothing against those teams, either. They took advantage of their strength. It was especially effective on a short, bumpy, un-level field.

This was my first time at Muldoons and it was as embarrassing as advertised. And the goals. OMG, the goals. They were made up of three lengths of too-thin pipe, so that the crossbar sagged in the middle. Fields 1 and 3 literally backed to a horse farm so that skied balls ended up in a pasture. Watching kids scale the wood fence and go over the electrified wire at the top to retrieve balls was ridiculous. (I assume they disconnect the electrification for tournaments).

Considering the Laurel Lions 2010's are the current Maryland State Cup Champions and have consistently won EDP1 season after season with one of the best youth coaches in the country, picking them to finish well in any tournament is a safe bet.

kids scaling electric wires??????

There was one wire at the top of a wood fence. Not scaling electric wires.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like players/teams with technical skills have an advantage over the kick & runners

Wait, or is it the opposite? haha

Bad fields are the great equalizer. Hurts skilled teams ar more than lesser teams.
That's why lower league teams in the FA Cup tend to let their fields go to crap when playing top teams.

Yep. My prediction for the U14 boys age group this weekend is that Loudon and Laurel will do well, because of this (physical, running teams). Alexandria will be at a disadvantage (small, skilled team). This is based on seeing these teams over a couple years so this year's versions may be different.

This turned out to be pretty accurate. Loudon was top in their bracket and won the tournament. Laurel finished second in theirs. And Alexandria didn't get a win. I saw most of the teams in this bracket, at least for a little bit. The poster above didn't account for the size of Villareal, who looked to be the biggest and fastest of them all. And they were good. I'm not trying to denigrate the kids. They had a great tournament. The second place teams in each bracket, Coppermine and Laurel, had a dominant player up top and a game-plan to get them the ball. Nothing against those teams, either. They took advantage of their strength. It was especially effective on a short, bumpy, un-level field.

This was my first time at Muldoons and it was as embarrassing as advertised. And the goals. OMG, the goals. They were made up of three lengths of too-thin pipe, so that the crossbar sagged in the middle. Fields 1 and 3 literally backed to a horse farm so that skied balls ended up in a pasture. Watching kids scale the wood fence and go over the electrified wire at the top to retrieve balls was ridiculous. (I assume they disconnect the electrification for tournaments).

Considering the Laurel Lions 2010's are the current Maryland State Cup Champions and have consistently won EDP1 season after season with one of the best youth coaches in the country, picking them to finish well in any tournament is a safe bet.

kids scaling electric wires??????

I appreciate the enthusiasm here. You should be proud of your team and your coach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the decision-making for brackets came down to individual team performance in last year’s Bethesda tournament- at least an explanation given for a top-ranked U15 team to be placed in the third tier this year.

Highly ranked out of state teams were destroying 3rd, 4th, 5th tier brackets

Huh? In u15 4th bracket, Bethesda beat Arlington in the finals.

That 4th bracket was Arlington's 3rd U15 team (not Academy, not Red, but White) that nearly beat Bethesda's 2nd team (Blue) in the finals but lost in overtime. They are ranked in the GotSport 1000s (if you trust rankings) and played competitively against teams ranked in the top 100 US, and it looked like half their kids were less than 100 lbs.

[Anonymous]

For the boys age groups that I was following u10-u14 or so it looked like SYC and Alexandria teams dominated. BSC not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The U13 lineup is pretty legit... at least through the top four brackets. Blame your Coach for not requesting to drop down a bracket.

Then ECNL is not all it's cracked up to be.
If two ECNL teams are in the 4th Bracket of a local tournament.

This

As a ref officiating ‘high’ levels of MLS next, ECNL and adults I can tell you 90% of families are getting conned.

They’re not elite. Not even by a stretch. What actually IS elite is the salaries you’re paying these so called coaches and directors. Like I read in a different post, the real travesty is OFF the field.

#non-profit 🤣

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the boys age groups that I was following u10-u14 or so it looked like SYC and Alexandria teams dominated. BSC not so much.

Bsc u10 and u11 made it to the finals. U13 and u14 did not have their top team in the tournament. Their 2nd team played in the top 1-2 brackets. (Not a bsc parent, just looking at the facts.)

[Anonymous]

What about BSC u12?