Horrible parking and horrible refs. Literally tied one game and lost another bec the ref was at the other end of the field and did not count goals calling offsides. Veo and anyone in a proper position could see there was no offsides. Also allowed too much fouling that went uncalled. It was unbearably hot—not on them but Spectator area was brutal in the sun.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maryland United U11 ECNL Girls team sandbagged in the 2nd division and stomped all over everyone. But lots of top competitions across the board it seemed.

We played at OBGC Park on nice grass fields. Refs were hit or miss. Confirmed heading was allowed in U11???!!! But played breakout lines for offsides???

Water breaks caused delays in for the afternoon games.

U11 is 9v9 right? Not ECNL yet. Hard to call a team of 10 year olds sandbaggers in a preseason tournament where the team has no record yet.

I don’t know about the Maryland United girls, but the OBGC team U9 boys team put themselves in the worst division. They won their games 11-1, 11-2, 8-0, and 7-0. Definitely looks like sandbagging to me, even with 8 and 9 year olds.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter…

Anonymous wrote:Awful awful refs. My ULittles game had multiple drop balls because the ref just stood in the middle of the field because he wouldn't or couldn't move. He also only faced one way, which meant lots of missed off-sides calls, no calls on blatant fouls, ignored headers and handballs, the list goes on...

Yep hard to get people to ref. I would never do it. Too many crazy parents and coaches.

Awful awful refs. My ULittles game had multiple drop balls because the ref just stood in the middle of the field because he wouldn't or couldn't move. He also only faced one way, which meant lots of missed off-sides calls, no calls on blatant fouls, ignored headers and handballs, the list goes on...

Anonymous wrote:Maryland United U11 ECNL Girls team sandbagged in the 2nd division and stomped all over everyone. But lots of top competitions across the board it seemed.

We played at OBGC Park on nice grass fields. Refs were hit or miss. Confirmed heading was allowed in U11???!!! But played breakout lines for offsides???

Water breaks caused delays in for the afternoon games.

U11 is 9v9 right? Not ECNL yet. Hard to call a team of 10 year olds sandbaggers in a preseason tournament where the team has no record yet.

Maryland United U11 ECNL Girls team sandbagged in the 2nd division and stomped all over everyone. But lots of top competitions across the board it seemed.

We played at OBGC Park on nice grass fields. Refs were hit or miss. Confirmed heading was allowed in U11???!!! But played breakout lines for offsides???

Water breaks caused delays in for the afternoon games.

Agree with pretty much all of these comments.

- Water breaks were good. Clock kept running so didn’t impact delays.

- This was the worst I’ve seen in terms of delays. Not sure what drove it this year.

- Were there any ECNL or GA teams in 2nd brackets? In our brackets (2009 & 2010 girls) they were all top brackets (at least for ECNL, not sure on all GA teams). 2010 FCV even played up a year.

- The shady bleacher thing was completely unreasonable. Teams need to complain.

- No tents at Covenant is also tough. Spend $50 on a package of foam exercise flooring or something, and put some at each field for the tents to go over the bench without damaging the turf. We had shaded folding benches, but most teams didn’t.

- Agree on refs being below average, but I’ve come to expect that at tournaments, and assume it’s just that they need so many, and some refs probably don’t want to drive that far. There are always a few ancient ones that I genuinely worry about in the heat.

- Still, the above being true, they need to figure out how to get better ones for top flight games.

We had water breaks for all 3 games. Refs are hit and miss but they did their best. Overall I thought decently run. Also as always, some sandbagging teams in lower brackets than they should have been. All ECNL and GA teams should be in highest brackets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So hot. Frustrated that tournament officials wouldn’t let us sit in shady bleachers behind the benches. Instead, we baked in the sun on the opposite side. C’mon OBGC, you can make an exception on these hot days. Thankful for the water breaks though.

Lol, water breaks are BS.

They didn’t have time in the schedule for water breaks because the games were too packed and were all delayed. It costs more money to put 2 games vs 3 games in a time window, because you have more fields to rent, etc. But definitely not ideal for the kids. The games also started with very little to no field warm-up time for the same reason.

We start house soccer with OBGC this week.
First game on Sat but we don’t have any game times yet. How is it less than a week but we don’t have that info?

Fields and goals too small for u12, games too closely spaced leading to delays, some bad refs. Good teams and good competition but it’s really hard when you are playing on 7v7 sized fields. It’s a different game.

Anonymous wrote:So hot. Frustrated that tournament officials wouldn’t let us sit in shady bleachers behind the benches. Instead, we baked in the sun on the opposite side. C’mon OBGC, you can make an exception on these hot days. Thankful for the water breaks though.

Lol, water breaks are BS.

So hot. Frustrated that tournament officials wouldn’t let us sit in shady bleachers behind the benches. Instead, we baked in the sun on the opposite side. C’mon OBGC, you can make an exception on these hot days. Thankful for the water breaks though.

It’s still going. Heading there now for final game

How did it go at OBGC Cup this weekend (other than oppressive heat and ^%& parking at Covenant?)

My kid's U12 match did get a ref who insisted that heading was not allowed at that age group.