Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to soccer? There are plenty of other forums for people looking for people with dirty mouths, etc.

No kidding. Geez.

Here's one. What is the general consensus on the impact of the age group change for U11 and above? Are there a lot of completely new teams out there where families used the change to find a new club? Are there teams who kept most of the group together and are playing some kids up a year? Fall season should be interesting.

youth soccer rankings says it's impossible to track teams under the old system to the new so they are discarding all rankings before Aug 1st. NCSL and any other league that has pro/rel is probably going to take a long time to get sorted out correctly.

http://youthsoccerrankings.us/

I read a lot of soccer forums and sites and had never seen youthsoccerrankings before you linked to it. It doesn't seem remotely accurate for region 1, at least for the boys' age group I'm most familiar with (2000s/U17 for the coming year). Gotsoccer is flawed, but seems more on target. It is letting teams keep points if they have a sufficient number of returning players.

A lot of people think youthsoccerrankings is more accurate than gotsoccer, maybe your perspective depends on where your team is ranked ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to soccer? There are plenty of other forums for people looking for people with dirty mouths, etc.

No kidding. Geez.

Here's one. What is the general consensus on the impact of the age group change for U11 and above? Are there a lot of completely new teams out there where families used the change to find a new club? Are there teams who kept most of the group together and are playing some kids up a year? Fall season should be interesting.

youth soccer rankings says it's impossible to track teams under the old system to the new so they are discarding all rankings before Aug 1st. NCSL and any other league that has pro/rel is probably going to take a long time to get sorted out correctly.

http://youthsoccerrankings.us/

I read a lot of soccer forums and sites and had never seen youthsoccerrankings before you linked to it. It doesn't seem remotely accurate for region 1, at least for the boys' age group I'm most familiar with (2000s/U17 for the coming year). Gotsoccer is flawed, but seems more on target. It is letting teams keep points if they have a sufficient number of returning players.

A lot of people think youthsoccerrankings is more accurate than gotsoccer, maybe your perspective depends on where your team is ranked ?

Youthsoccerrankings does draw from more data than GotSoccer so I tend to find it to be more accurate than GotSoccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W-L HS also was there in the end

OMG. Do you really believe that? It's becoming standard practice to drop Academy in senior year in HS so the kids can play at least 1 year of HS soccer. I've seen several hundreds people at HS games for otherwise unremarkable games, and then see 50 at club games - even regional championships. Elite club players do it for the fun and excitement and time with their school friends. All the HS coach has to do is watch them play and don't do anything to injure them.

On the DA-v-HS front, the Mendes example is atypical for top players in our experience. Most college coaches want their recruits in DA their junior and senior years so they can get the benefit of the superior training and decrease the risk of injury. It's common for players to leave DA and return to high school if they don't get much DA playing time or don't get recruited, but not for a player at his level.

Either way, agree that his HS played little role in his development. It does happen, but rarely in public schools.

And yet this may be that rare case, because by joining his high-school team Mendes was able to play alongside another truly elite soccer prospect (Maycol Nunez). Each player surely gained something valuable from combining in the attack with an equally talented teammate (in a public school context or not), right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to soccer? There are plenty of other forums for people looking for people with dirty mouths, etc.

No kidding. Geez.

Here's one. What is the general consensus on the impact of the age group change for U11 and above? Are there a lot of completely new teams out there where families used the change to find a new club? Are there teams who kept most of the group together and are playing some kids up a year? Fall season should be interesting.

youth soccer rankings says it's impossible to track teams under the old system to the new so they are discarding all rankings before Aug 1st. NCSL and any other league that has pro/rel is probably going to take a long time to get sorted out correctly.

http://youthsoccerrankings.us/

I read a lot of soccer forums and sites and had never seen youthsoccerrankings before you linked to it. It doesn't seem remotely accurate for region 1, at least for the boys' age group I'm most familiar with (2000s/U17 for the coming year). Gotsoccer is flawed, but seems more on target. It is letting teams keep points if they have a sufficient number of returning players.

A lot of people think youthsoccerrankings is more accurate than gotsoccer, maybe your perspective depends on where your team is ranked ?

My perspective comes from being familiar with many of the listed teams through years of league and tournament play, and puzzlement over the site's ranking methodology.

Using the group at http://youthsoccerrankings.us/index_2016.html as an example, it appears that the VA Rush team gained the ranking of the number 1 team in Region 1 solely based on the fact that it creamed a lot of teams in what appears to be a mostly weak group in a very weak league (VPL). Their record in VPL places them far ahead of several national league teams (including the U15 McLean team that just won the USYSA national championship (#9 on this list), the Baltimore Celtic Dynasty, FPYC Fury, and the HMMS Eagle FC Titans). They are also ranked far above many excellent pre-academy teams, including PDA and Philadelphia Union.

If you know anything about soccer, you will understand that those results are completely absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W-L HS also was there in the end

OMG. Do you really believe that? It's becoming standard practice to drop Academy in senior year in HS so the kids can play at least 1 year of HS soccer. I've seen several hundreds people at HS games for otherwise unremarkable games, and then see 50 at club games - even regional championships. Elite club players do it for the fun and excitement and time with their school friends. All the HS coach has to do is watch them play and don't do anything to injure them.

On the DA-v-HS front, the Mendes example is atypical for top players in our experience. Most college coaches want their recruits in DA their junior and senior years so they can get the benefit of the superior training and decrease the risk of injury. It's common for players to leave DA and return to high school if they don't get much DA playing time or don't get recruited, but not for a player at his level.

Either way, agree that his HS played little role in his development. It does happen, but rarely in public schools.

And yet this may be that rare case, because by joining his high-school team Mendes was able to play alongside another truly elite soccer prospect (Maycol Nunez). Each player surely gained something valuable from combining in the attack with an equally talented teammate (in a public school context or not), right?

I'm sure the two of them (and the rest of their HS team) had a valuable and enjoyable experience. There is constant pressure and striving that goes along with being a top player on DC United or a high level premier team like the Arlington one Nunez played on. Putting aside the social benefits that come from playing for your HS, it's fun and relaxing to be able to dominate and have room to play around with moves and combinations. I don't think it helps you develop because the level of play is so much lower and slower than on your club or DA team, but it may well make you a happier person.

[Anonymous]

My feeling about this site that I wasn't aware existed until now, is that a knowledgeable parent/kid about the area would know how much to discount league play and how much more "points" to give to the team in it's most recent tournament play. I think this would function not as a tool for in-depth analysis, but as way of getting glimpse into which teams are doing well. I would say to look at this in 5-8 team blocks. Essentially you can say teams within a few points of each other can be considered to be among the same level of competition.

I don't think there is a way of preventing teams from padding their 'points' if they participate in more tournaments than other teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My feeling about this site that I wasn't aware existed until now, is that a knowledgeable parent/kid about the area would know how much to discount league play and how much more "points" to give to the team in it's most recent tournament play. I think this would function not as a tool for in-depth analysis, but as way of getting glimpse into which teams are doing well. I would say to look at this in 5-8 team blocks. Essentially you can say teams within a few points of each other can be considered to be among the same level of competition.

I don't think there is a way of preventing teams from padding their 'points' if they participate in more tournaments than other teams.

I think you could expand the blocks out to ten and it would still hit the ball park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ENPL is ECNL for boys. It's part of the turf war. U.S. Soccer said, "Gee, thanks ECNL, but we're going to do a Development Academy for girls now." So U.S. Club Soccer said, "Oh yeah? Well, we'll do ECNL for boys."

Real soccer development in the US, to where we could actually contend internationally, is being killed by the greed of the soccer community.

They are all a bunch of fuckwads.

Women's soccer is beginning its slow descent. They only were ahead because they started before the other countries. That ship has sailed. The Europeans and S.Americans will eclipse them soon enough since they have a male model to follow.

Who talks like this? Same guy who wrote about f*&%tards a few pages back?! With soccer parents who communicate like this, the sport in America really is doomed.

Actually, I'm female.

That's even more disappointing.

I'm a male and if that's really a female it's kind of attractive to me

You should meet my sister then. Her mouth is even dirtier than mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ENPL is ECNL for boys. It's part of the turf war. U.S. Soccer said, "Gee, thanks ECNL, but we're going to do a Development Academy for girls now." So U.S. Club Soccer said, "Oh yeah? Well, we'll do ECNL for boys."

Real soccer development in the US, to where we could actually contend internationally, is being killed by the greed of the soccer community.

They are all a bunch of fuckwads.

Women's soccer is beginning its slow descent. They only were ahead because they started before the other countries. That ship has sailed. The Europeans and S.Americans will eclipse them soon enough since they have a male model to follow.

Who talks like this? Same guy who wrote about f*&%tards a few pages back?! With soccer parents who communicate like this, the sport in America really is doomed.

Actually, I'm female.

That's even more disappointing.

I'm a male and if that's really a female it's kind of attractive to me

You should meet my sister then. Her mouth is even dirtier than mine.

You're probably a dude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to soccer? There are plenty of other forums for people looking for people with dirty mouths, etc.

No kidding. Geez.

Here's one. What is the general consensus on the impact of the age group change for U11 and above? Are there a lot of completely new teams out there where families used the change to find a new club? Are there teams who kept most of the group together and are playing some kids up a year? Fall season should be interesting.

youth soccer rankings says it's impossible to track teams under the old system to the new so they are discarding all rankings before Aug 1st. NCSL and any other league that has pro/rel is probably going to take a long time to get sorted out correctly.

http://youthsoccerrankings.us/

I read a lot of soccer forums and sites and had never seen youthsoccerrankings before you linked to it. It doesn't seem remotely accurate for region 1, at least for the boys' age group I'm most familiar with (2000s/U17 for the coming year). Gotsoccer is flawed, but seems more on target. It is letting teams keep points if they have a sufficient number of returning players.

A lot of people think youthsoccerrankings is more accurate than gotsoccer, maybe your perspective depends on where your team is ranked ?

My perspective comes from being familiar with many of the listed teams through years of league and tournament play, and puzzlement over the site's ranking methodology.

Using the group at http://youthsoccerrankings.us/index_2016.html as an example, it appears that the VA Rush team gained the ranking of the number 1 team in Region 1 solely based on the fact that it creamed a lot of teams in what appears to be a mostly weak group in a very weak league (VPL). Their record in VPL places them far ahead of several national league teams (including the U15 McLean team that just won the USYSA national championship (#9 on this list), the Baltimore Celtic Dynasty, FPYC Fury, and the HMMS Eagle FC Titans). They are also ranked far above many excellent pre-academy teams, including PDA and Philadelphia Union.

If you know anything about soccer, you will understand that those results are completely absurd.

Or maybe your real motive is you have some financial interest in Gotsoccer, they have their hooks everywhere so I wouldn't be surprised that is why your acting puzzled. A national championship is just another tournament, usys and us club both have their versions, don't tell me a team should be first on some list just because of that. At least this site is reputable enough to say it's not possible to track the teams from the old system to the new. Gotsoccer is a trainwreck right now with the different age groups, but they will never admit that, too much money at stake for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ENPL is ECNL for boys. It's part of the turf war. U.S. Soccer said, "Gee, thanks ECNL, but we're going to do a Development Academy for girls now." So U.S. Club Soccer said, "Oh yeah? Well, we'll do ECNL for boys."

Real soccer development in the US, to where we could actually contend internationally, is being killed by the greed of the soccer community.

They are all a bunch of fuckwads.

Women's soccer is beginning its slow descent. They only were ahead because they started before the other countries. That ship has sailed. The Europeans and S.Americans will eclipse them soon enough since they have a male model to follow.

Who talks like this? Same guy who wrote about f*&%tards a few pages back?! With soccer parents who communicate like this, the sport in America really is doomed.

Actually, I'm female.

I'm game

That's even more disappointing.

I'm a male and if that's really a female it's kind of attractive to me

You should meet my sister then. Her mouth is even dirtier than mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ENPL is ECNL for boys. It's part of the turf war. U.S. Soccer said, "Gee, thanks ECNL, but we're going to do a Development Academy for girls now." So U.S. Club Soccer said, "Oh yeah? Well, we'll do ECNL for boys."

Real soccer development in the US, to where we could actually contend internationally, is being killed by the greed of the soccer community.

They are all a bunch of fuckwads.

Women's soccer is beginning its slow descent. They only were ahead because they started before the other countries. That ship has sailed. The Europeans and S.Americans will eclipse them soon enough since they have a male model to follow.

Who talks like this? Same guy who wrote about f*&%tards a few pages back?! With soccer parents who communicate like this, the sport in America really is doomed.

Actually, I'm female.

That's even more disappointing.

I'm a male and if that's really a female it's kind of attractive to me

You should meet my sister then. Her mouth is even dirtier than mine.

You're probably a dude.

At least his sister isn't....

[Anonymous]

What about soccerincollege rankings for the older groups

[Anonymous]

No one cares about older age groups! It's all about U11 and below!!!! Once all these kids reach 13 they are doing other things because they aren't making an A team at an older age

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we get back to soccer? There are plenty of other forums for people looking for people with dirty mouths, etc.

No kidding. Geez.

Here's one. What is the general consensus on the impact of the age group change for U11 and above? Are there a lot of completely new teams out there where families used the change to find a new club? Are there teams who kept most of the group together and are playing some kids up a year? Fall season should be interesting.

youth soccer rankings says it's impossible to track teams under the old system to the new so they are discarding all rankings before Aug 1st. NCSL and any other league that has pro/rel is probably going to take a long time to get sorted out correctly.

http://youthsoccerrankings.us/

I read a lot of soccer forums and sites and had never seen youthsoccerrankings before you linked to it. It doesn't seem remotely accurate for region 1, at least for the boys' age group I'm most familiar with (2000s/U17 for the coming year). Gotsoccer is flawed, but seems more on target. It is letting teams keep points if they have a sufficient number of returning players.

A lot of people think youthsoccerrankings is more accurate than gotsoccer, maybe your perspective depends on where your team is ranked ?

My perspective comes from being familiar with many of the listed teams through years of league and tournament play, and puzzlement over the site's ranking methodology.

Using the group at http://youthsoccerrankings.us/index_2016.html as an example, it appears that the VA Rush team gained the ranking of the number 1 team in Region 1 solely based on the fact that it creamed a lot of teams in what appears to be a mostly weak group in a very weak league (VPL). Their record in VPL places them far ahead of several national league teams (including the U15 McLean team that just won the USYSA national championship (#9 on this list), the Baltimore Celtic Dynasty, FPYC Fury, and the HMMS Eagle FC Titans). They are also ranked far above many excellent pre-academy teams, including PDA and Philadelphia Union.

If you know anything about soccer, you will understand that those results are completely absurd.

Or maybe your real motive is you have some financial interest in Gotsoccer, they have their hooks everywhere so I wouldn't be surprised that is why your acting puzzled. A national championship is just another tournament, usys and us club both have their versions, don't tell me a team should be first on some list just because of that. At least this site is reputable enough to say it's not possible to track the teams from the old system to the new. Gotsoccer is a trainwreck right now with the different age groups, but they will never admit that, too much money at stake for them.

You, sir or ma'am, seem more than a little paranoid (not to mention unduly invested in youthsoccerrankings.com). My "real motive" is to share my thoughts on youth soccer in our area, since I have a lot of experience and knowledge on the issue, and a keen interest. With respect to Gotsoccer, as I said in my original post, I think it is flawed in many ways. Awarding teams extra points for participating in Gotsoccer-sponsored tournaments seems like a form of corruption to me, and I have seen first hand many teams that spend too much time going to tournaments, some of them quite weak, in a quest for Gotsoccer points. This takes away from time that should be spent on giving kids good training, and results in unnecessary outlays of parents' money. I wouldn't argue with someone who felt that Gotsoccer is evil. It also doesn't include results from DA or pre-academy leagues, and has incomplete or missing results from other leagues and tournaments.

I am also not claiming that the USYSA national championships are a great barometer of a team's relative quality, because in general the teams that compete in that league are second tier below DA and ECNL. But you cannot do well in that league without being a very strong team, and it's absolutely absurd that a team could be ranked above you just based on its performance in some hyper local league that looks like it may have some teams that are a step above rec. For a ranking system to work, it simply has to have some weighting for league or tournament strength incorporated into its formulas.

All that being said, I am guessing that you have never been an age group coordinator for a big tournament? I have, and it's not easy to sort teams by ability at the younger ages. Gotsoccer is definitely a helpful starting point for that, though you still have to do a lot of additional due diligence to figure out which teams really do have the better record. The site you defend, at least in the age groups I'm most familiar with, would not be much of a help at all.